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think: act special on cloud economy

Think: act - Special Volume Two 2011

Everyone is talking about the cloud. The latest issue of our think: act SPECIAL magazine reveals the business models behind it.
The cloud economy uses the technology of Web 2.0, social networks and cloud computing to map social and commercial activities in a logical way. Cloud computing means providing IT services in which private and corporate customers can flexibly pay for what they actually use instead of a flat rate. In this system, the data to be processed resides with a third-party provider somewhere in the data center, and the user accesses it through a website.
Buzzword or the next big thing?
There are several reasons to believe that the cloud economy represents a totally new form of value creation – the next step after the digital economy. The numbers are impressive. Here are a few examples:

• 680 million users are registered on Facebook
• Video-sharing website YouTube receives about 92 billion clicks each month
• By 2013, companies will spend USD 2.6 billion on Web 2.0 applications

In the pages
In our think: act SPECIAL, we have compiled the most important facts about the cloud economy and charted the universe of terms, networks and platforms. We also examine what strategies companies can now pursue with the help of the cloud. For example, Roland Berger Partner Björn Bloching explains how companies can leverage web-based customer data.

In addition, we look at how companies can use the cloud for their market research, innovation activities and marketing.
Title, table of contents and editorial can already be downloaded. The complete issue can be ordered.

http://www.rolandberger.com/expertise/publications/2011-07-27-rbsc-pub-think_act_special_on_cloud_economy.html

Next generation IT providers – The European way

In this study we analyze the factors required for success on the European IT market and compare the "corporate DNA" of European and non-European IT providers.

A key finding is that the success experienced by European companies has stemmed above all from a distinctively European way of running a business.
The study concludes that, to ensure continued growth, the European IT providers should build on these specifically European core strengths.

But there are also lessons to be learned from non-European competitors, and the study identifies their strengths.

Roland_Berger_Next_generation_IT_providers20101025

Does IT add value? – The unsolved riddle

What value IT adds is hard to measure, show and communicate. But there are some practical examples and a structured approach CIOs can use to solve this riddle at least to some extent, Alexander Brenner of Roland Berger believes.
How much value IT adds has always been a hot topic. Despite the financial and economic crisis, businesses still focus on how they perform and add value when it comes to communicating externally, even more than on reducing costs. Even so, fewer than half of all businesses are aware how much value IT adds and are pushing the issue internally.
This is partly because a business's specialist departments conventionally focus only on costs, but also because it is very hard to measure, establish and convey precisely how much value IT adds. It may be a core function, but it often does not get the attention it really deserves.
IT demonstrably has a direct effect on how a business performs as a whole, not just in terms of costs, but also in terms of sales. It has even been shown that investing in IT saves on process costs and can offer a much better return than simply saving.
IT can influence a business's value in three different ways:
Efficient IT: Optimizing infrastructure and streamlining the project portfolio reduces operational IT costs, selective outsourcing reduces tied-up capital.
Better management of demand for IT services by company departments: Acts on infrastructure (by optimizing SLAs, for example) and projects. However, improving demand management to add value can only be done in partnership with the departments themselves.
Effects on a company's core business: Using IT optimally cuts process costs in specialist departments, reduces tied-up capital and/or increases revenue.
http://www.rolandberger.com/news/2010-09-20-rbsc-news-CIO_expert_column_Does_IT_add_value.html