New SoftwareOne Research Reveals Cloud Leaders Perform Better in the Cloud

As organizations progress from cloud beginner to cloud leader, costs fall while revenue rises.

SoftwareOne Holding AG, a leading global software and cloud solutions provider, today unveiled the findings of its new cloud report. The report details companies’ financial gains by migrating to the cloud and progressing from a cloud beginner to a cloud leader. The report addresses the most common challenges of cloud adoption and advancement against the current macroeconomic backdrop.

The study surveyed 300 IT leaders at mid-market enterprises—companies that have less than $1 billion in annual revenue and fewer than 7,000 employees—across North America on their cloud adoption journeys and the drivers behind digital transformation initiatives. The research found that 95% of the companies surveyed started their cloud adoption journeys in the past five years, with most starting in the last two to four years. The survey found that mid-market enterprises are now prioritizing accelerated cloud transformation because of the positive performance gains it drives.

As organizations advance in their cloud journeys, cloud investment costs fall while revenue and cost efficiencies rise. Organizations just starting out in cloud migration—cloud beginners—invest 1.3% of their revenue in the cloud, while those well-advanced—cloud leaders—invest 1.1%. And while beginners report a 19% decrease in overall business costs, savings grow to 25% as they become cloud leaders.

“Mid-market enterprises recognize that embracing the cloud is a growing imperative. However, the idea of migration alone is not enough,” said Dan Ortman, Global Practice Lead of FinOps, at SoftwareOne. “We’re seeing cloud leaders drive impressive revenue growth and cost savings. They reap many other strategic and operational benefits with more strategic cloud investment. This report delivers a blueprint for mid-market enterprises to maximize their own cloud investments as cloud adoption and advancement continues.”

In addition to cost savings, revenue growth follows a similar upward trajectory upon advancement from cloud beginner to leader. One-quarter of cloud beginners enjoy an increase in revenue with cloud adoption, with that percentage leaping to 48% as these companies morph into cloud leaders. Beyond revenue, cloud leaders benefit from the heightened ability to scale their businesses, increased resilience, agility, market competitiveness, improved decision-making, customer retention, and reputation.

“The key to maximizing cloud ROI is understanding the business case workload by workload,” said Craig Thomson, Senior Vice President of Cloud and Application Services at SoftwareOne. “No cloud journey is ever the same, but starting with a clear understanding and applying the best practices unveiled in this report can help companies dictate how to handle migration and ongoing investments strategically, as well as unleash their full cloud potential.”

Check out SoftwareOne's cloud report here.

About SoftwareOne

SoftwareOne is a leading global software and cloud solutions provider that is redefining how organizations build, buy and manage everything in the cloud. By helping clients to migrate and modernize their workloads and applications – and in parallel, to navigate and optimize the resulting software and cloud changes – SoftwareOne unlocks the value of technology. The company’s 8,900 employees are driven to deliver a portfolio of 7,500 software brands with sales and delivery capabilities in 90 countries. Headquartered in Switzerland, SoftwareOne is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the ticker symbol SWON. Visit us at www.softwareone.com.