OK, so I get the whole cloud thing and am a believer that cloud is a sound and viable option. It allows us to focus on our core business, provides 24/7 access even using mobile devices. I agree with all of these things as benefits and reasons why one would consider the cloud. What I don't get is how organizations can look to the cloud without thinking about the impact it will have in the workplace. In particular, the people, processes and governance related to the information and content placed in the cloud.

When the cloud is chosen and the dive is to move information, content and data to the cloud, part of the strategy needs to include consideration on how this impacts the workforce. What type of training is required from a user, management and systems perspective? What happens to the processes related to this department. Let's use expense reporting as the example. Traditional process might be to complete a spreadsheet, attach receipts and send it to home office. In some cases the organization may have been forward thinking and moved to where images of the receipts attached to the email containing the spreadsheet is accepted. In the cloud, you complete all of the information online, upload images and you are done, but the reality is that people need to be trained, processes have changed and new governance must be put in place to make it work well.

How are you managing the cloud? Have you put new processes, governance and change management initiative to work? If so, what did you do? If not, how is it working for you?

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