Integration, alignment key after cloud 'arms race' | ZDNet
Summary
The dust has yet to settle after IT vendors such as SAP, IBM and Oracle embarked on a buying spree late last year for cloud companies that were meant to boost their capabilities in that space. Giving an update following the SuccessFactors acquisition, Graham McColough, vice president for cloud at SAP Southeast Asia, revealed the focus for the company has been on technology integration and manpower organization. The two companies have worked to quickly combine their cloud development teams into one global unit so new products and enhancements can be released on a monthly basis--which is "dramatically faster" than in the past, McColough told ZDNet Asia. One example of this is the appointment of SuccessFactors CEO and founder Lars Dalgaard to head up SAPs cloud business, as well as being on the global management board, he added. Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, added these vendors will have to consider how their new cloud buys provide incremental improvements to their broader set of services and how these will increase value and benefits to customers.
