There’s a Power Struggle Brewing in Businesses Reaching for the Cloud

There's a battle brewing between business users and IT departments nationwide and it involves cloud computing. According to a new report from AIIM, Content in the Cloud - Making the Right Decision, business managers in search of quick and easy access to applications are out of sync with IT departments as cost-savings, flexibility, and ease of deployment are given priority over regulation and control.

"Conflicting opinions between IT, business, and records managers are unavoidable when it comes to making strategic plans for cloud migration," said AIIM President John Mancini, who adds that 50 percent of business managers view software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud as "default options" for any new application. Only 19 percent of IT managers agree.

According to the AIIM report, the power struggle can be boiled down to the simple fact that business managers wanting apps and apps stores have high expectations for ease and deployment speed, while IT and records managers want to exert some degree of governance and security.

Microsoft Dynamics customers - many of which are already using or considering the vendor's evolving portfolio of cloud-based business software options - from core ERP and CRM to Office 365 to mobile apps, peripheral data services, and ISV solutions - could face similar pushback from their own IT departments. "It's definitely a power struggle," says Chris Gherardini, president of Turnkey Technologies, Inc., in St. Louis. "Many times the executive branch wants to loosen IT's control. They want cloud-based solutions so that IT doesn't have to run their lives anymore."

Despite these differences, AIIM says "the move to ...