It’s that time of year again! Finance teams are putting the finishing touches on next year’s corporate budgets and teams are likely looking back on 2016 to see what to change or improve in the year ahead.
Here at Vena, we’re making our annual predictions in finance and corporate performance management for 2017. We pulled the predictions after countless conversations with customers, partners, industry analysts and more. Buckle your seatbelts, I’m sure 2017 will be a wild ride!

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While cloud may have formally entered the enterprise in 2006, it’s now a reality for nearly every company. The Cloud Era got its start with Software as a service (SaaS) offerings that paved the way for innovations in CRM and email deployments, to create new opportunities for the likes of Salesforce and Microsoft Office 365. Still in its “early stages,” cloud now encompasses legacy applications, backups, disaster recovery, security/audit log management and so much more. 2017 will be full of continued maturation and will give way to a whole new generation of cloud-native applications.

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(c)iStock.com/fazon1

The cloud has transformed the way we do business today, improving infrastructure scalability and cost models for everything from software to data storage to disaster recovery. As with any IT solution, however, cloud computing isn’t without its risks.

In 2012, the International Working Group on Cloud Computing Resiliency (IWGCR) claimed that cloud downtime had cost £45 million over five years. Although a new five-year report on cloud outage costs hasn’t yet been released, we do know that application downtime is costing enterprises across the globe an estimated $16 million (approximately £12.9 million) annually.

So how can businesses reap the benefits of the cloud while minimising the risk of downtime? The solution is having the right support. The following steps are key starting points for mitigating cloud risk:

Assess cybersecurity

Symantec reported that, in 2015, there was a new zero-day vulnerability discovered every week. Not surprisingly, spear-phishing campaigns targeting employees increased 55%, and ransomware increased 35%.

Technology is constantly evolving to thwart these attacks, but security software cannot be treated as a set-it-and-forget-it solution. It must be complemented with monitoring, patch management and routine maintenance.

The challenge is that nearly half of businesses admit that there is a talent shortage in security. ESG research indicated that 46% of organisations say that, in 2016, they have a “problematic shortage” of cybersecurity skills, while a surprising third (33%) admitted their biggest deficiency was in cloud security specialists. Based on these figures, incident detection and responses to cloud-based cyber threats would undoubtedly be a problem for those organisations, as they have inadequate staff available to manage any cybersecurity risks that may arise.

This is a major problem, as malware infections are commonly the result of inadequate patching, carelessness, misconfiguration, human error or negligence. These errors can have costly ramifications if malware infiltrates the network and corrupts backup data.

As such, businesses might require a managed firewall service that can keep their network secure while freeing up their staff to focus on day-to-day responsibilities. Different organisations will require different levels of support, but one advantage of a cloud-based firewall service is that it is scalable and can be changed to meet ever-increasing demand and usage, both now and into the future.

Regardless of whether cybersecurity is managed in-house or outsourced, it should feature advanced security capabilities such as intrusion detection and prevention, and a safe tunnel for remote employee access. It is imperative that these features integrate with one another to allow for timely incident response or prevention. If data is breached or a system goes down, time is of the essence.

Make a data backup and recovery plan

If an organisation’s facility is impacted, it must have a plan for how to access its data. Businesses using disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) have the advantage of being able to access their backups from anywhere, even if their primary facility has been affected. As capacity grows, they have the potential to leverage various cloud models – private, community and public cloud – depending on the use case. When recovery is necessary, stored data can be restored to either virtual or physical machines.

What many cloud providers tend to de-emphasise, however, is that while the environment might be available, bandwidth limitations can extend recovery times, especially when recovering a large amount of data and applications. For this reason, many businesses are complementing cloud backups with an on-site storage appliance, which allows data to be recovered within hours or even minutes.

If the business’s facility is impacted, recovering the data stored on the appliance would require either accessing an alternate backup stored at an off-site location or waiting until the business regains access to the facility, assuming it’s still intact.

With the right support, however, a hybrid approach to disaster recovery reduces the overall risk of downtime. Some DRaaS providers, but not all, can assist with recovering the data and applications stored on the appliance through the cloud. Others will provide the appliance but leave maintenance up to the client. The key is to know upfront what level of support the vendor can provide and plan accordingly.

Ensure ongoing monitoring

Even if a business has invested in top-of-the-line cybersecurity solutions and backed up data to multiple targets, the organisation still risks downtime if the entire environment isn’t properly monitored. To assess whether or not a business has the resources required for adequate oversight of the environment, it should consider the following questions:

• Is there any period of time when the environment is unmonitored (e.g. during shift changes or holidays)?
• Do any on-site IT personnel lack the skills required to manage software settings, remediate failures, and so on?
• When considering past downtime events or security threats, were the systems always brought online or the threats mitigated within the required time frame?

The greater the number of yes responses, the greater the risk of downtime. Some businesses might indeed have the resources required for ongoing monitoring. For those that don’t, it is worth considering outsourcing cybersecurity monitoring and DRaaS. Vendors offering these services should provide service level agreements (SLAs), 24/7/365 support and the services of qualified engineers.

Cloud computing offers the potential for greater business agility, but unless a business has the right support, it is all but guaranteed to experience downtime. 

Read more: Top 10 disasters reaffirm need for cloud business continuity strategy

(c)iStock.com/fazon1

The cloud has transformed the way we do business today, improving infrastructure scalability and cost models for everything from software to data storage to disaster recovery. As with any IT solution, however, cloud computing isn’t without its risks.

In 2012, the International Working Group on Cloud Computing Resiliency (IWGCR) claimed that cloud downtime had cost £45 million over five years. Although a new five-year report on cloud outage costs hasn’t yet been released, we do know that application downtime is costing enterprises across the globe an estimated $16 million (approximately £12.9 million) annually.

So how can businesses reap the benefits of the cloud while minimising the risk of downtime? The solution is having the right support. The following steps are key starting points for mitigating cloud risk:

Assess cybersecurity

Symantec reported that, in 2015, there was a new zero-day vulnerability discovered every week. Not surprisingly, spear-phishing campaigns targeting employees increased 55%, and ransomware increased 35%.

Technology is constantly evolving to thwart these attacks, but security software cannot be treated as a set-it-and-forget-it solution. It must be complemented with monitoring, patch management and routine maintenance.

The challenge is that nearly half of businesses admit that there is a talent shortage in security. ESG research indicated that 46% of organisations say that, in 2016, they have a “problematic shortage” of cybersecurity skills, while a surprising third (33%) admitted their biggest deficiency was in cloud security specialists. Based on these figures, incident detection and responses to cloud-based cyber threats would undoubtedly be a problem for those organisations, as they have inadequate staff available to manage any cybersecurity risks that may arise.

This is a major problem, as malware infections are commonly the result of inadequate patching, carelessness, misconfiguration, human error or negligence. These errors can have costly ramifications if malware infiltrates the network and corrupts backup data.

As such, businesses might require a managed firewall service that can keep their network secure while freeing up their staff to focus on day-to-day responsibilities. Different organisations will require different levels of support, but one advantage of a cloud-based firewall service is that it is scalable and can be changed to meet ever-increasing demand and usage, both now and into the future.

Regardless of whether cybersecurity is managed in-house or outsourced, it should feature advanced security capabilities such as intrusion detection and prevention, and a safe tunnel for remote employee access. It is imperative that these features integrate with one another to allow for timely incident response or prevention. If data is breached or a system goes down, time is of the essence.

Make a data backup and recovery plan

If an organisation’s facility is impacted, it must have a plan for how to access its data. Businesses using disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) have the advantage of being able to access their backups from anywhere, even if their primary facility has been affected. As capacity grows, they have the potential to leverage various cloud models – private, community and public cloud – depending on the use case. When recovery is necessary, stored data can be restored to either virtual or physical machines.

What many cloud providers tend to de-emphasise, however, is that while the environment might be available, bandwidth limitations can extend recovery times, especially when recovering a large amount of data and applications. For this reason, many businesses are complementing cloud backups with an on-site storage appliance, which allows data to be recovered within hours or even minutes.

If the business’s facility is impacted, recovering the data stored on the appliance would require either accessing an alternate backup stored at an off-site location or waiting until the business regains access to the facility, assuming it’s still intact.

With the right support, however, a hybrid approach to disaster recovery reduces the overall risk of downtime. Some DRaaS providers, but not all, can assist with recovering the data and applications stored on the appliance through the cloud. Others will provide the appliance but leave maintenance up to the client. The key is to know upfront what level of support the vendor can provide and plan accordingly.

Ensure ongoing monitoring

Even if a business has invested in top-of-the-line cybersecurity solutions and backed up data to multiple targets, the organisation still risks downtime if the entire environment isn’t properly monitored. To assess whether or not a business has the resources required for adequate oversight of the environment, it should consider the following questions:

• Is there any period of time when the environment is unmonitored (e.g. during shift changes or holidays)?
• Do any on-site IT personnel lack the skills required to manage software settings, remediate failures, and so on?
• When considering past downtime events or security threats, were the systems always brought online or the threats mitigated within the required time frame?

The greater the number of yes responses, the greater the risk of downtime. Some businesses might indeed have the resources required for ongoing monitoring. For those that don’t, it is worth considering outsourcing cybersecurity monitoring and DRaaS. Vendors offering these services should provide service level agreements (SLAs), 24/7/365 support and the services of qualified engineers.

Cloud computing offers the potential for greater business agility, but unless a business has the right support, it is all but guaranteed to experience downtime. 

Read more: Top 10 disasters reaffirm need for cloud business continuity strategy

(c)iStock.com/Thampapon

• Gartner estimates the CPQ application suites market was $570M in 2015, attaining 20% year-on-year growth between 2014 and 2015.
• Cloud-based CPQ revenue was $157M in 2015, attaining 46% year-over-year.
• Gartner predicts CPQ will continue to be one of the hottest enterprise apps for the foreseeable future, predicting a 20% annual growth rate through 2020 with the majority being from cloud-based solutions. Legacy on-premise vendors including SAP’s Variant Configurator (VC) are going to face increasingly strong headwinds in the market as a result.
• SaaS and Cloud solutions are driving the majority of CPQ market growth today, fueling greater innovation in the market.
• The CPQ market continues to grow as companies replace legacy on-premise CPQ apps and outdated ERP quoting and ordering apps with cloud-based CPQ solutions.

These and many other insights are from the recently published Gartner Market Guide for Configure, Price and Quote Application Suites (PDF, client access required) by Mark David Lewis and Guneet Bharaj on October 27 of this year. CPQ selling strategies are part of the broader Quote-To-Cash (QTC) business process that encompasses, quotes, contracts, order management and billing.

CPQ market leaders also are offering solutions that support the creation of quotes and capturing of orders across multiple channels of customer interaction (such as direct sales, contact center, resellers and self-service). Cloud- and SaaS-based CPQ systems scale faster across multiple channels and often have higher adoption rates than their legacy on-premise counterparts due to more intuitive app designs and better integration with Cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Sales Force Automation (SFA) and incentives systems.

What makes the Market Guide so noteworthy is that it is the first research piece on CPQ published by a major analyst firm in several years

What makes the Market Guide so noteworthy is that it is the first research piece on CPQ published by a major analyst firm in several years.

Key takeaways from the study include the following:

• Microsoft Azure and the Salesforce platform are benefiting the most from the intense competition in the CPQ market today. Microsoft Azure is emerging as the enterprise leader from a platform perspective, evidenced by the points made in my previous post, Seven Ways Microsoft Redefined Azure For The Enterprise And Emerged A Leader. Being able to scale globally and provide greater control over security and openly address Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) concerns of enterprises are a few of the many factors driving Azure’s adoption.  Salesforce has gone in a different direction in the CPQ market, choosing to acquire SteelBrick earlier this year. Salesforce in effect became a competitor with its partners in the CPQ market by doing this. According to Gartner, SteelBrick is a good solution for high-tech assemble to order (ATO) and software companies.  Last month Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff was interviewed at the Intel Capital Global Summit, and the video is available here.  At 11 min., 20 seconds, he says that “Steelbrick is not for all customers, so Apttus still has a tremendous opportunity.” Earlier this year Apttus announced their entire QTC suite is now available on Microsoft Dynamics, showing just how critical it is for CPQ engineering teams to move fast from a platform strategy perspective to keep their companies growing.

• Omnichannel and digital commerce is a high-growth area of CPQ as companies seek to improve buying experiences across all customer-facing channels. For many companies, their omnichannel selling strategies and initiatives are proliferating, driven by how quickly customers are changing the channels they buy through. Leading CPQ and QTC suites are now offering digital commerce and omnichannel apps integrated into their main app platforms. They are having initial success in B2B selling scenarios where self-service configuration is needed.  Gartner mentions Apttus, Oracle CPQ Cloud, and SAP as having the most robust digital commerce offerings today.

• CPQ vendors are attempting to reinvent themselves by innovating faster and more broadly than before. Relying on machine learning to recommend the optimal incentives, pricing, and terms to close more deals and increase up-sell and cross-sell revenues through guided selling apps is a fascinating area of innovation today. Apttus’ Intelligent Quote-to-Cash Agent Max, Salesforce’s Einstein and others exemplify this area of development. Rapid advances and improvements in visualization, 3D modeling and Configuration Lifecycle Management (CLM) from Configit also illustrate how quickly innovation is changing the landscape. Gartner also mentions intelligent negotiation guidance, mobile configuration support, estimated compensation, verticalization, and deeper integration with back-end fulfillment systems as being additional areas where innovation is redefining the competitive landscape.

• Improving promotion, incentive and rebate performance across a multitier selling network based on machine learning algorithms is redefining the QTC competitive landscape. Eighteen CPQ vendors are profiled in the market guide, many of them selling into industries that rely on complex multitier distribution, selling and support networks for the majority of their revenue. It’s clear many are moving in the direction of using machine learning to improve the effectiveness of promotions, incentives, and rebates across all selling channels. Being able to provide the best possible incentive to a distributor, dealer or 3rd party sales person defines which manufacturer wins the deal. Look to see more emphasis in this area in 2017 as CPQ vendors work to provide companies with the chance to steer more deals their way in channels they don’t directly control.

• The CPQ landscape will continue to consolidate as the race for new customers accelerates, driven by the need companies have for improving QTC performance. Gartner mentions how there have been major acquisitions over the last four years including Big Machines being acquired by Oracle, Salesforce acquiring SteelBrick, Configure One acquired by AutoDesk, and Cameleon Software was acquired by Pros. There are many other CPQ vendors privately for sale right now, with all of them looking to find an acquirer or company to merge with who can best complement their core technologies. Look to see the pace of acquisitions accelerate in the next year.
• I’m looking to see which CPQ vendors further distance themselves from competitors with modern and intuitive user experience design (UX). CPQ, while a necessary foundation piece for B2B use cases is evolving into the broader Quote-to-Cash umbrella. To attain its full market potential, I believe that CPQ vendors must excel at UX across all products and app experiences. I am looking forward to seeing which vendors will invest in modern and intuitive UX to drive this change in the market and deliver great experiences to customers as a result.
• From the enosiX blog, Key Takeaways From Gartner’s Market Guide For Configure, Price and Quote (CPQ) Application Suites, 2016

It wasn’t that long ago when the first smartphone came out, and we saw the pace of connected devices and associated mobile applications accelerate beyond what anyone could have imagined. Shortly after that, something incredible happened, we reached the point where there were more connected devices than people on the planet. Since then, we’ve used this to measure the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT). Research predicts there will be as many as 50 to 100, and possibly even 200 billion connected devices by 2020. Some businesses are already set up for IoT, like operators of large networks of devices such as self-service kiosks and vending machines. These devices are communicating information back to the enterprise and for those that aren’t, installing the proper hardware and software to do so is more cost efficient today than ever before. Any business that is going to scale is going to look for opportunities to automate its processes. We’ve seen history repeat itself from the Industrial Revolution to the automotive industry and more recently with Netflix automating the distribution of those little red envelopes. Netflix transformed their operations through the success of their streamlined mail business, becoming the premier provider of streamed digital media into the home. Anything that has successfully scaled has used automation effectively. Furthermore, we are seeing traditional retail and brick-and-mortar stores look for ways to combat increasing wages, and costs to maintain a physical environment. For many, that is through the implementation of kiosks and vending technology. We see this in hospitality with self-service ordering. Businesses are finding ways to automate through technology while improving the customer experience. An operator needs a central place to monitor and manage their business—one-time, real-time. The Perfect Storm The reality of increasing wages and rising costs of real estate, combined with the decreasing cost of sensors, computation, and storage has created the perfect storm for our next technology revolution. As a result, automation through the implementation of IoT is becoming more desirable and achievable. When taking a closer look at the specific drivers of these trends, it’s clear that the economics of IoT are very compelling. It is much less expense now to automate than before due to the decreasing costs of micro-electronics (examples: microcontrollers and sensors). The cost of data processing and computation is also reducing at a pace that we’ve never seen before. Additionally, the ability to now process and persist data in the cloud has helped alleviate concerns about rapid growth, through the dynamic, on-demand, scaling nature of cloud infrastructure. These technology drivers are a few of the many signs that IoT can help solve real business problems. Economic headwinds and more affordable technology have created the perfect storm for IoT to transform traditional physical environments through automation. Automation is just the tip of the IoT iceberg Once you’ve automated your operations, the next step is having the right set of management tools for your business. If you are operating a vast network of devices, having the ability to

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«There is a huge interest in Kubernetes. People are now starting to use Kubernetes and implement it,» stated Sebastian Scheele, co-founder of Loodse, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at DevOps at 19th Cloud Expo, held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.

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Businesses have always had to transform to find better and more efficient ways to deliver value faster to their users, customers or consumers. The motivating factors are shorter lead times, automated and streamlined value flow, as well as reduction of overall costs and bound capital, requiring enterprises to transition to a continuous innovation and optimization model.

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