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NucleusResearch.com Phone: +1 617.720.2000 Nucleus Research Inc. 100 State Street Boston, MA 02109 T H E B O T T O M L I N E Nucleus has analyzed the experiences of many cloud customers over the years and found that cloud-based financial applications enable customers to achieve rapid payback and high return on investment over time. For companies trying to build the business case for such an application, following a 3-step process and a few simple guidelines will ensure a financial business case that is credible, achievable, and can serve as a roadmap for maximizing ROI throughout the application lifecycle. T H E B E N E F I T S O F C L O U D - B A S E D F I N A N C I A L A P P L I C A T I O N S This Research Note is designed as a guide to help companies building a business case for cloud-based financial management applications identify and prioritize benefits, quantify those benefits credibly, and develop a business case not just to justify the investment but to serve as a roadmap for a successful deployment. In analyzing the ROI cloud-based financial applications, Nucleus found customers achieved both direct and indirect benefits including: increased productivity, increased visibility, reduced or avoided IT costs, improved inventory management, accelerated financial processes, and reduced audit costs. In general, Nucleus has found that cloud-based applications deliver greater returns than on-premise ones (Nucleus Research m108 - Cloud delivers 1.7 times more ROI, September 2012) because of a number of factors including: Lower initial and ongoing costs Faster, more predictable time to deployment Greater flexibility to support changing needs of the business or new technologies The ability to deliver greater benefit over time without the cost and disruption traditionally associated with upgrades The ability to access the application anywhere at any time from multiple types of devices RESEARCH NOTE THE ROI OF CLOUD-BASED FINANCIAL APPLICATIONS Document O8 January 2014

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