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June 23, 2011

The ROI Of Cloud Apps
by Liz Herbert and Jon Erickson
for Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals
2011 Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Forrester, Forrester Wave, RoleView, Technographics, TechRankings, and Total Economic
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For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals
EXECUTI VE SUMMARY
Cloud applications continue to gain momentum in enterprise applications as buyers are attracted
to fast deployment speeds, low upfront costs, and ongoing exibility to scale up or down as needs
change. But as rms spend more and more of their closely guarded IT dollars on cloud applications,
sourcing executives must scrutinize the long-term value of these investments. Todays cloud
investments represent millions of dollars of annual IT spend for some larger consumers of cloud. is
report analyzes the longer-term, ve-year cost of ownership and value for cloud applications across
four categories: customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP),
collaboration (including email), and IT service management.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Buyers Like Cloud Apps Low Upfront Costs
But Question Longer-Term Value
Four Factors Determine The ROI Of Cloud
Applications
Key Benets: Cloud Applications Drive Faster
Time-To-Value
Key Costs: Cloud Applications Require More
Focus On Vendor Management
Risk Analysis: As Cloud Market Evolves, Buyers
Should Expect Consolidation And Shakeout
Business Value Of Speed And Flexibility Varies
By Type Of Application
Cloud Means Faster Ability To Change
Technology, Flexibility To Quickly Scale
RECOMMENDATIONS
Smart Contract Negotiation Strategy Can
Increase The Value Of Cloud Apps
Supplemental Material
NOTES & RESOURCES
Forrester interviewed client references from
the following vendors: Appian, Ariba, Epicor,
Microsoft, Mimecast, Netsuite, and Ultimate
Software in industries ranging from healthcare
to electronics to manufacturing. We used this
information to create an ROI model based on
our TEI analysis framework.
Related Research Documents
Evaluating Application Fit With Cloud
May 5, 2011
Packaged Apps In The Cloud: Cost Of Ownership
Models Evolve Toward The Transparency Of SaaS
July 23, 2010
June 23, 2011
The ROI Of Cloud Apps
A Total Economic Impact Analysis Uncovers Long-Term Value In Cloud Apps
by Liz Herbert and Jon Erickson
with Duncan Jones and Rory Stanton
2
3
9
10
9
7
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BUYERS LIKE CLOUD APPS LOW UPFRONT COSTS BUT QUESTION LONGERTERM
VALUE
Cloud applications, also known as soware-as-a-service (SaaS), are taking the soware market
by storm.
1
Cloud giant salesforce.com boasts nearly 100,000 companies in its CRM-centric client
base; SaaS keeps growing at rapid pace across sectors like ERP (NetSuite, Workday, and Business
ByDesign), IT service management (CA, BMC, HP, and Service-now.com), and email (Google,
Microso Oce 365, and IBM Lotus Live).
Buyers gravitate to these solutions because of their low upfront costs and fast speed of deployment.
Many SaaS solutions also oer a more user friendly UI than their on-premises competitors due to
their more recent introduction or the providers ability to rapidly update the UI through automatic,
seamless upgrades. For example, salesforce.com has evolved its original eBay-like look-and-feel to
todays more modern Facebook-like design. Our recent budgets survey shows that 51% of rms plan
to increase spending on soware-as-a-service, while only 9% plan to decrease spend (see Figure
1). But, despite such bullish growth and near-term spikes in spend on SaaS, the subscription model
raises questions about its longer-term nancial impact.
Figure 1 SaaS Spend To Increase In The Next Twelve Months
Source: Forrester Research, Inc. 59277
How do you expect your rms/organizations total SaaS spending to change over the next 12 months?
Base: 305 North American and European IT services decision-makers from enterprises with
1,000 employees or more
Source: Forrsights Services Survey, Q3 2010
Decrease more than 10%
1%
Decrease 5% to 10%
8%
Stay about the same
39%
Increase 5% to 10%
40%
Increase more than 10%
11%
Dont know
1%
Software-as-a-service (SaaS)
2011, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited June 23, 2011
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FOUR FACTORS DETERMINE THE ROI OF CLOUD APPLICATIONS
Cloud is certainly fashionable at the moment among business leaders, but few understand its full
implications. Sourcing executives should therefore cut through the fog of misinformation and
objectively evaluate the nancial impact on business when considering the adoption or avoidance
of cloud applications. How? Companies can use a simplied version of Forresters Total Economic
Impact (TEI) model to systematically consider:
1. Benets. How will your company benet from cloud applications?
2. Costs. How will your company pay, both in hard costs and resources, for cloud applications?
3. Risks. How do uncertainties change the total impact of cloud applications on your business?
4. Flexibility. How does this investment create future options for your organization?
is report looks at four representative scenarios in categories where Forrester sees high demand
for cloud applications: CRM, ERP, collaboration, and IT service management. For each scenario, we
analyzed the total economic impact (TEI) of an organization moving from an existing on-premises
application to a cloud-based alternative.
Key Benets: Cloud Applications Drive Faster Time-To-Value
Organizations that are implementing cloud applications can expect several benets, mostly around
deployment speed, subscription pricing models that align with usage, accessibility, and usability.
e scale, timing, and duration of these benets can be estimated by considering one or more key
metrics and the value to the organization of improving those metrics over time (see Figure 2).
Ongoing benets include:
Faster deployment speed. Cloud applications appeal to business buyers because cloud enables
them to roll out solutions much more quickly than with on-premises; many SaaS deployments
take only days or weeks. Why so fast? Cloud solutions are ready to go users need only a login
and an Internet connection to get going; there is no need to procure hardware or do testing. Also,
implementation is usually quicker, with a lighter, more iterative approach to conguration versus
the heavy upfront customization that oen characterizes on-premises deployment. is faster
speed also applies to ongoing enhancements. An avid user of cloud applications told us: e
end users dont want to wait, they want to get the thing done. [We use cloud to] deliver tailored
solutions with great appeal to the end user. e pace of the stu we deliver is so much quicker.
Reduced support needs. Cloud applications clients oen can reduce or eliminate IT support;
the SaaS provider typically includes a help desk in the subscription, and technical support needs
are lower since the provider does all the patching and bug xing. Additionally, many cloud-based
2011, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited June 23, 2011
The ROI Of Cloud Apps
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applications were built for business and have simpler, more self-service-oriented user interfaces.
For example, many companies have reduced internal IT sta by moving email to the cloud, since
their subscription payment covers all necessary support, infrastructure and archiving costs.
2
Simpler, more frequent upgrades. Cloud applications oer seamless, automatic upgrades,
typically two to four times per year. is means that users get access to the latest features and
functionality faster than in an on-premises deployment where upgrade cycles oen take three to
10 years. e more frequent, more incremental upgrades also mean that rms typically have no
consulting costs or change management issues during upgrades. One cloud application client we
spoke with who uses NetSuite told us that he would have had to use consultants to upgrade the
on-premises code whenever there was an upgrade. With SaaS, our upgrades happen seamlessly.
ere are eciencies that we get because we always have the best version of the soware.
Better utilization. Pay-as-you-go applications typically yield better adoption for three reasons:
1) rms pay for what they need, eliminating the shelfware problem typical of on-premises deals,
so SaaS providers have a nancial incentive to encourage deployment and promote use; 2) cloud
applications are typically geared toward more of a business audience, meaning they are easier-
to-use and built to have a familiar (think Facebook-like) look-and-feel; 3) cloud vendors oen
deliver proactive health check reports that provide statistics about usage, making it easier for
companies to identify employees who may need more training or incentive to use the apps.
Figure 2 Key Benets Of Cloud Applications
Source: Forrester Research, Inc. 59277
Dimension Software-as-a-service helps by . . .
Reduced cost of adoption
Quicker adoption
On-premises cost
avoidance
Reducing the licensing, training, and support costs of adding additional users.
Decreasing the time to ramp up new users, maximizing their productivity from
using the application.
Improved adoption Enabling more users to use the application.
- Lllmlnatlng malntenance costs.
- Peduclng full-tlme help desk and server support, and transferring sta to higher
value, proactive roles.
Improved exibility Reducing spend on excess capacity.
Key Costs: Cloud Applications Require More Focus On Vendor Management
Cloud applications reduce or even eliminate the high upfront costs for hardware and licenses that
rms spend for on-premises projects. ey typically reduce customization costs in favor of lighter-
weight, point-and-click conguration and more pre-built best practices in the applications. Instead
they require ongoing subscription costs to rent the soware and oen greater costs for multivendor
orchestration and ongoing vendor management. Organizations implementing cloud applications can
expect (see Figure 3):
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Ongoing subscription costs. e primary cost associated with cloud applications is the ongoing
rental fee for using the application, oen per user per month or usage-based. Typical usage
metrics include storage (i.e., number of documents) or throughput (i.e., number of transactions
processed). e rent versus own model for cloud means lower upfront costs, but for some
deployments these costs will cross over, ultimately becoming more expensive than a license-
plus-maintenance alternative.
Vendor management. Cloud applications require more focus on contracting, SLAs, and
performance management. Contracts can be anywhere from month-to-month to ve years
long; rms must focus more on contract renewals and negotiations than in on-premises cycles.
Some technology solutions are emerging to help with vendor management of cloud vendors,
including performance management solutions like HP Cloud Assure and Gomez. However,
these technology solutions come with a price tag as well.
Cloud orchestration costs. Many cloud solutions focus on a specic module, such as recruiting
or goals management for employees. e cloud landscape does not oer very many full suite
solutions. is means that rms oen face a fragmented, multiple application landscape as they
move more and more technology to the cloud. In a recent survey, we found that 26% of cloud
subscribers plan to increase the number of cloud vendors they work with over the next year
(see Figure 4).
3
is multivendor environment means additional costs for areas like integration,
provisioning, end user support, upgrade management, testing, and workow.
Figure 3 Key Costs Of Cloud Apps
Source: Forrester Research, Inc. 59277
Upfront costs
Recurring/annual costs
- |mplementatlon
- Slngle slgn-on conguratlon
- Thlrd-party process consultlng
- Thlrd-party content development
- Competency development
- Lxternal content (competencles)
- Subscrlptlon
- Change management
- Testlng and certlcatlon
- Lnd user support and admlnlstratlon
- |ntegratlon
- Tralnlng
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Figure 4 SaaS Suppliers Are Multiplying
Source: Forrester Research, Inc. 59277
Stay the same
37%
Decrease number of suppliers
4%
Increase number of suppliers
26%
Not sure
10%
Not using a third party
for this work
22%
Source: Forrsights Services Survey, Q3 2010
Base: 1,007 North American and European IT services decision-makers from enterprises
with 1,000 employees or more
(percentages may not total 100 because of rounding)
How do you expect your number of SaaS suppliers to change in the next 12 months?
Risk Analysis: As Cloud Market Evolves, Buyers Should Expect Consolidation And Shakeout
No change or avoidance of change is without risk. Factoring this uncertainty into the analysis
converts an optimistic, and potentially unachievable, plan into one with higher accuracy. Initial
estimates can be rened by factoring in two key risks:
Vendor viability as the market shakes out. e advent of cloud platforms, such as Azure and
Force.com, has lowered the barrier to entry for solutions. Many cloud startups can get going
with a small team of coders with little or no startup costs or venture capital. As a result,
cloud applications proliferate but some may have a short life span, either because of failure
or acquisition. While acquisition can sometimes be a benet that adds stability and investment,
it can also be a risk that leads to changes in contracts, changes in pricing, or even a shutdown
of the acquired technology (as happened with Googles acquisition of Plannr). Overall, vendor
viability risks are high as this early market moves at such a fast pace.
Vendor lock-in. Cloud applications are usually easy to get started. But in the longer term some
rms nd it can be dicult and expensive to switch vendors. In some cases, users become
hooked on user-friendly cloud applications. Business users may strongly resist switching
from an application they like. Also, most vendor switches will require data migration and
implementation costs to move to a new solution (whether cloud, hosted, or on-premises).
2011, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited June 23, 2011
The ROI Of Cloud Apps
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BUSINESS VALUE OF SPEED AND FLEXIBILITY VARIES BY TYPE OF APPLICATION
To arrive at a quantitative assessment of the economic implications of cloud applications, Forrester
evaluated the key drivers of benets, costs, and risks for an organization moving from on-premises
to the cloud. We provide examples of the ROI calculation for three soware categories: 1) business
productivity apps including email; 2) CRM; and 3) ERP, including human resource management.
Beyond considerations common to most types of SaaS, rms must consider application-specic
issues as well, including:
Impact of soware usability. Solutions with large, uid user populations will reap huge
benets from an easier-to-use, intuitive design. For example, CRM products have a high churn
end user population of sales teams. In these cases, usability is a signicant factor that can
materially reduce training time and cost and increase end user adoption, and thereby improve
ROI (see Figure 5, see Figure 6, and see Figure 7). Other applications, like IT applications or
nance applications will usually be less aected by UI design, since they are used by a smaller
population that will likely undergo application and process-specic training upon hire.
Breadth of application footprint. e amount of application functionality will determine
hardware and IT sta that can be retired or redeployed (costs saved). If the cloud solution
replaces a large on-premises application (such as an HR suite like Ultimate Soware or a full
ERP like NetSuite or Business ByDesign), organizations will save IT resource and support costs.
But if the cloud application is more of an add-on or replaces only a portion of a larger enterprise
application, the reduction in hardware, support, and IT sta will be small.
Value of upgrades. Seamless, automatic upgrades matter more for some cloud application
categories than others. New, rapidly evolving categories will benet signicantly from frequent
feature/function enhancements, as will those like security and compliance that need frequent
content updates. Conversely, rms might be less inclined to care about new functionality in
mature, stable spaces such as accounting.
2011, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited June 23, 2011
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Figure 5 Model: Total Economic Impact Analysis Summary CRM
Source: Forrester Research, Inc. 59277
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Total
Present
value
Total benet $925,104 $1,015,713 $1,087,261 $1,170,779 $5,045,258 $3,766,700
Total cost $777,555 $793,106 $808,968 $825,148 $4,128,478 $3,143,096
Net cash ow $147,548 $222,606 $278,292 $345,632 $916,780 $623,604
Cumulative cash ow $70,250 $292,856 $571,148 $916,780
NPV
ROI
Payback
$846,402
$923,701
-$77,299
-$77,299
$623,604
20%
Between 12
and 24
months
Figure 6 Model: Total Economic Impact Analysis Summary ERP
Source: Forrester Research, Inc. 59277
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Total
Present
value
Total benet
Total cost
Net cash ow
Cumulative cash ow
NPV
ROI
Payback
$11,242,226
$10,448,209
$794,017
$8,375,573
$7,920,401
$455,172
$2,038,992
$2,011,192
$27,801
-$291,405
$2,252,645
$2,051,416
$201,230
-$90,176
$2,449,698
$2,092,444
$357,254
$267,078
$2,661,231
$2,134,293
$526,939
$794,017
6%
More than
2 years
$1,839,659
$2,158,865
-$319,206
-$319,206
$455,172
Figure 7 Model: Total Economic Impact Analysis Summary Business Productivity Applications
Source: Forrester Research, Inc. 59277
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Total
Present
value
Total benet
Total cost
Net cash ow
Cumulative cash ow
NPV
ROI
Payback
$5,359,504
$4,128,478
$1,231,026
$4,004,053
$3,143,096
$860,957
$986,696
$777,555
$209,141
$192,228
$1,078,537
$793,106
$285,431
$477,659
$1,151,342
$808,968
$342,373
$820,032
$1,236,142
$825,148
$410,994
$1,231,026
$906,787
$923,701
-$16,914
-$16,914
$860,957
27%
Between 12
and 24
months
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CLOUD MEANS FASTER ABILITY TO CHANGE TECHNOLOGY, FLEXIBILITY TO QUICKLY
SCALE
In addition to the tactical benets described previously, moving to cloud allows organizations to
more quickly make changes to their technology, including the ability to quickly scale up or down.
is exibility that is created has a business value to the organization. Cloud application owners can:
Rapidly scale investment up or down as needs change. Cloud applications allow rms to
quickly scale out, into new groups or regions; this is oen referred to as elasticity. ey also
allow rms to scale down some cloud applications such as RightNow Technologies and
Business ByDesign provide the quarterly or annual option to reduce unused seats (of course
with the caveat that the per-seat price may increase with lower volume). Cloud applications also
should ensure that there is always latent capacity available; rms no longer need to plan when to
add infrastructure.
Enable business users to take a more active role in technology. Some of clouds biggest
advocates are business users. ey feel empowered by cloud technologies that support point-
and-click customization, meaning that business users can make modications to the UI,
workow, or reports, without having to rely on IT.
4
ese business users see cloud technologies
as more exible because they can enact changes in real-time in line with business demands.
R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S
SMART CONTRACT NEGOTIATION STRATEGY CAN INCREASE THE VALUE OF CLOUD APPS
Sourcing executives can help their organizations get even more value out of cloud purchases by:
Determining the right deal length. Sourcing executives should consider planned usage as
well as the evolving vendor landscape to determine the right deal length. If they are making
a signicant bet on the application, they should favor longer deals. They also may like to
lock-in a low rate through a longer (three to ve year) deal in a maturing market like CRM. If
they are in fast-growth mode or have other signicant variability, sourcing executives should
opt for shorter deals that give them room to change course. Similarly, in markets that are still
quickly evolving, sourcing executives should sign shorter deals; new options and acquisitions
mean that they will want to consider alternative options more frequently.
Opting for the best-value license category. Cloud applications now oer more advanced
pricing. Some vendors oer multiple tiers of applications (that vary by functionality or
performance and disaster recovery commitments) and multiple licensing options, such as
enterprisewide license options that eliminate explicit user-based pricing. With price tags
getting into the millions annually for more complex cloud deployments, sourcing executives
should help their rms navigate the licensing options to gure out which will create the best
deal overall. They also need to consolidate contracts and put an end to one-o contracting
by business, which prevents organizations from getting volume discounts.
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Minimizing hidden costs. Cloud contracts often restrict storage, API calls, mobile device
access, or sandbox test environments. Sourcing executives should try to understand their
planned usage (as best as possible) and negotiate for these to be included. Similarly, some
cloud vendors charge extra for third-party SaaS escrow or for disaster recovery; sourcing
executives should determine their needs based on tolerance for risk and sensitivity of data.
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
Methodology
Forrester Research uses a dened methodology for analyzing and evaluating the costs, benets, and
risks of a proposed solution. is methodology, termed Total Economic Impact (TEI), provides
a holistic view of the decision by including an analysis of costs, benets, exibility, and risk. By
including an assessment of risk, TEI provides a realistic view of expected outcomes, rather than one
shaded by early optimism and enthusiasm.
5
Unlike a cost- or technology-based analysis, TEI does not rely on industry averages or factors that
are applied to all organizations, but is a methodology for evaluating projects. e TEI methodology
forces the determination and quantication of relevant metrics in light of an organizations current
state and future goals. Firms can use the TEI model as a proactive and predictive tool
ENDNOTES
1
Forrester recently analyzed more than 120 soware product markets to determine SaaS current and
potential impact. While we found that SaaS will minimally aect many markets, it will create many changes
in sourcing decisions for some key markets. SaaS as a disruptive technology occurs in soware products
that represent about 25% of total global soware market, especially in customer relationship management,
human resource management, IT management, and security soware. Moreover, SaaS is becoming a
sustaining technology for many incumbent vendors, as SaaS products complement licensed soware
products either by serving niches where licensed products have not been adopted or by addressing
unmet needs. Overall, SaaS will more than double from 7% of soware spend in 2010 to 16% in 2013. See
the January 26, 2011, How SaaS Will Change Technology Sourcing Strategy report.
2
Email isnt cheap, and its only getting worse for most companies as business and technical factors combine
to drive costs higher and higher. Employees are demanding larger inboxes as sending larger les becomes
more commonplace. Regulation and litigation drive investments in archiving and eDiscovery platforms.
Increasing use of mobile devices to access email also drives investments to manage access. Cloud-based
providers have practically untouchable economies of skill and scale that translate into attractive pricing for
companies spending far more than theyd like on email today. See the March 22, 2011, Market Overview:
Cloud-Based Email Vendors report.
3
Forresters Forrsights Services Survey, Q3 2010, was elded to 1,007 IT executives and technology decision-
makers located in Canada, France, Germany, the UK, and the US from enterprise companies with 1,000 or
more employees. is survey is part of Forresters Forrsights for Business Technology and was elded from
August 2010 to September 2010.
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4
Source: Josh Berno and Ted Schadler, Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers,
Transform Your Business, Harvard Business Review Press, 2010 (http://www.forrester.com/empowered).
5
For an in-depth discussion of TEI and the individual elements within the methodology, please see the
August 4, 2008, e Total Economic Impact Methodology: A Foundation For Sound Technology
Investments report.
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