Selection criteria
The survey results illustrated that when choosing a service provider, three criteria play an important role, namely the service costs involved, the deep-seated IT knowledge of the IT partner and their cultural fit. Flexibility also turned out to be a key factor. Almost 90% of respondents consider flexibility as important or very important when purchasing cloud services. Flexibility in this instance refers to customers having a wide selection of choice, from the location where data is stored, to management and financial models.
Predictable costs
Even when companies choose a public cloud platform, cost is a crucial consideration. A total of 95% of participants believe it’s somewhat or very important that these costs are predictable, compared to 85% last year. This increase portrays that these companies are not necessarily interested in the total price of the services, but are alternatively looking for a transparent provider.
Specialists are preferred
Most companies are not looking for a one-stop shop when seeking a cloud provider. 70% prefer out-tasking to outsourcing, this being 6% increase compared to last year. Furthermore, these results demonstrate that quality comes before cost.
Arrange an exit beforehand
The importance of arranging an exit strategy was clearly visible, with only 4% of participants not having an opinion on this matter. More than half (52%) thought that coming to an agreement about a potential service contract termination is highly important. The respondents were also asked what they consider the most important component when defining an exit strategy. 37% highlighted the need to have full cooperation from their former service provider during the switch. 31% indicated the importance of having no downtime during the exit.
The right fit
Sander Dekker, Business Unit Director of Proact Unit West, says: “Choosing the right cloud provider isn’t easy. How do you determine whether a service provider has an approach and a culture that truly suits your business? That is why it is not surprising that customers usually base their initial decision on costs. It is, however, a lost opportunity, because you need a lot more information than that to build a successful partnership.
“The survey has shown that a third of customers need up to six months to get used to the new service provider. That is one of the reasons Proact has developed our Business Cloud Alignment methodology, using the starting point: think before you act. We use this method to help customers determine how to best distribute the varying IT specialisms, after which they can find a specific service provider for each of these areas.
