CLOUD LEADER: One CIO's All-In Cloud Innovation Strategy

Editor's Note A Bold Innovation Strategy Lots of CIOs pay lip service to their company's cloud "transformation," but Jaime Vogel has taken Australian Finance Group all-in as the company expands into new markets and competes with digitally native fintech startups. Vogel and his team have migrated more than 80 applications, as well as AFG's IT infrastructure, to the cloud. Why? To redeploy huge chunks of IT spending that had gone to system support tasks to customer-facing, revenue-generating innovation projects. That migration enabled AFG to shut down its two data centers in May 2016, saving the company about US$385,000 a year in operational costs and bringing a modern feature set, along with new APIs that improve integration and automation. But the total benefit is much greater, because the cloud transition has freed up money for Vogel to hire developers and shift some of his people to more-productive work. Says Vogel: "We needed to ensure that whatever we're spending on IT was giving us the best bang for our buck." —Rob Preston, editorial director, Oracle Content Central  More Cloud News 10 Don't-Miss Cloud Sessions at Oracle OpenWorld A recent study of three major Oracle user groups revealed that business leaders want more education about cloud adoption. What better way to learn than at Oracle OpenWorld, with more than 800 cloud-related sessions to help navigate migration challenges? Here, Alyssa Johnson, president-elect of the Oracle Applications Users Group, lists her can't-miss cloud sessions at the conference, taking place September 18 through September 22 in San Francisco. How Dow Chemical Connects with Customers Worldwide Dow Chemical brought Oracle Marketing Cloud capabilities in on the commercial side of its business to drive marketing execution and close the vacuum between marketing and sales. This helps the company find new growth, says Dow director Hubertus Devroye, who says the company is now using the system to experiment with social listening initiatives. Learn more about how Dow reaches customers. Two Key Steps in Cloud Integration Strategy In the cloud era, the pressure is on IT to integrate systems even faster to seize new business opportunities. IT must help "build the computing architecture required to increase the agility of the lines of business and keep them responsive to developments in the market," says Vikas Anand, senior director for Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle Integration Cloud Service. Here are the two necessary steps in a new approach to integration. Profitability Analytics: Reach for the Cloud Cloud Innovator Grupo Aeromexico Uses Analytics to Expand Its Network and Double Profits Grupo Aeromexico has structured its business to deliver premium services to business-class travelers. Even so, "since moving to the cloud, we've been able to maintain the lowest cost structure among all competing full-service airlines in the Americas," says CFO Ricardo Sanchez-Baker. With operating profit up more than 46 percent since 2014, Grupo Aeromexico points to cloud analytics as the linchpin in its success. Learn about the airline's soaring business.