Sky’s the limit for TechnologyOne software rebuild

Announcing the complete re-engineering of the company’s software ‘from the ground up’, TechnologyOne chairman, Adrian Di Marco, said today the new cloud computing strategy would help its customers “migrate to realise major operating and capital expenditure savings.”

According to Di Marco, the new cloud strategy will mean a radical restructure of TechnologyOne’s business. “TechnologyOne already delivers its Connected Intelligence (Ci) solutions in the cloud, but to take advantage of all the benefits of cloud technology, we are completely restructuring our business model and re-engineering our software from the ground up.”

Di Marco said the new Cloud Computing Suite (C2) will be built, hosted and delivered in the cloud, which he claimed was a “markedly different approach from other vendors, which are building cloud strategies around existing architecture.”

The first of TechnologyOne’s new C2 cloud services will be delivered in 2011, following an internal pilot, and Di Marco said the new offering will make it one of the only Australian-owned software providers to embrace cloud technology wholeheartedly.

“The Australian industry has been very cautious and we also had a wait and see approach until quite recently,” he said, adding that “the only way to deliver the compelling benefits customers expect, such as substantially reduced staffing and hardware costs, is to rebuild our software on the cloud for the Cloud.

“Our Ci series will continue to enjoy strong sales for the next couple of years, but we will also be providing our customers with a clear transition path so they can migrate into the cloud when they choose. The beauty of cloud computing is that it fundamentally changes the way we look at software, and how we build, host and deliver it.”

Di Marco said TechnologyOne still recognised there were concerns about security from customers, and to alleviate these concerns, the company planned to have data centres located both in Australia and offshore.

“There is actually a lot of misinformation and scare mongering around the risk and security issues in our opinion. There is also resistance to cloud computing by IT departments because of a wide ranging list of perceived issues.

“But as a CEO, if you show me I can streamline my business, substantially reduce my operating and capital expenditure and the security issues can be effectively managed then I would move into the cloud today.

“It is our responsibility to our customers to remain agile and embrace new and better ways of doing business.”

Di Marco also said that it was vitally important for company to continue to “lead and innovate, to ensure we continue to attract and retain the country’s best developers,” and he boasts that the  TechnologyOne cloud computing offering will “redefine the customer experience and ensure we can continue to deliver a compelling, secure service to the seven markets we service.”