Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 01 | Page 42

FEATURE It is great to have cloud deployable products but what happens if you ever decide not to and you want to pull back is an indication that there is no turning back now for this ERP vendor. In addition to these business benefits, the economic case for cloud computing is compelling. Reducing and in some cases eliminating the initial capital investment in software, hardware, and supporting infrastructure is widely seen as reducing the total cost of ownership for customers. Indeed, one estimate reported that cloudbased ERP solutions can costs 50% less than on premises ERP solutions over a typical life-cycle. Beyond the TCO, many Epicor ERP customers deploying in the cloud report faster time to value through rapid deployment of the application, and appreciate the predictable, regular monthly subscription pricing—typically expensed rather than capitalized as is the generally accepted practice for on premises deployments. Despite the growing popularity of cloud deployment models in the last decade, the right deployment model for any given customer still requires thought and consideration. Many of Epicor customers have chosen to deploy Epicor ERP in multi-tenant SaaS model, many others in single-tenant SaaS 42 INTELLIGENTCIO model. Yet there are customers who have compelling business or technical reasons to opt for an on premises deployment model. Indeed, because Epicor ERP is the exact same solution deployed at a customer’s site as it is in the cloud, it provides absolute freedom of choice when it comes to the deployment model. Epicor’s best advice to customers considering deploying in the cloud or on premises is to not surrender to a single option vendor. Epicor ERP allows customers to easily migrate between cloud deployed systems and on premises licensed deployments with no impact on end-user efficiency. Indeed, most customers are entirely unaware of the physical location of their application and data, before or after a move to or from the cloud. The important lesson here for customers who are making a decision between cloud and on premises is that the best answer is both. Future proof your decisions by ensuring that as your needs change, you are able to easily migrate to the cloud, and perhaps back again. Finally, it is worth mentioning that with Epicor ERP deployed under a single or multi- www.intelligentcio.com