Oracle has revealed results of The Talent and Tech Driving America’s Fastest Growing Companies survey.
Oracle surveyed leaders of the 5000 fastest growing companies in America, known as the Inc. 5000. It found that 89 percent of leaders describe themselves as either extremely confident or very confident about their prospects for the future.
That confidence reflected in other aspects of the survey. For example, 91 percent of leaders said they plan to expand their workforce.
Further, 61 percent said they are ready to offer new products, 65 percent move into new markets and 32 percent do more business internationally in the coming year.
In order to support their expansion, the majority of the Inc. 5000 has adopted cloud technology. Nearly 60 percent cite scalability and flexibility for growth as primary drivers of cloud adoption. At the same time, 22 percent see the primary benefit as increased internal communication and collaboration.
Recently, market research firm Gartner had said, through 2020, an increasing percentage of annual IT spending will be directly or indirectly impacted by a cloud shift. Backing that view, latest IDC forecast showed that public cloud spending will achieve 21.5 percent CAGR during 2015-2020 to reach $203.4 billion.
When it comes to finance, the Oracle survey found just 36 percent have their finances in the cloud. Only 29 percent have put their e-commerce functions into cloud solutions, compared to over half who have migrated sales and human resources to the cloud.
At the same time, 44 percent said they struggle to achieve integration across cloud products. Of the 41 percent who ranked investing in technology a top-three priority for 2017, only 23 percent cited maintaining a competitive edge as a reason to make the investment.
That also indicates that companies lack the strategic direction to differentiate and avoid stagnation.
“Rapidly growing small and medium businesses have had the advantage of building on the cloud from day one,” said Reggie Bradford, senior vice president, Startup Ecosystem and Accelerator, Oracle.
“But their fast growth, paired with the array of cloud solutions from different vendors, presents some challenges. To avoid stagnation, SMBs need a cloud vendor that guides them in addressing product integration issues, selecting the best fit – for budget and business purpose – and truly understanding future cloud opportunities.”
