Operational silos are often preventing organizations from realizing the promise of improved business performance and highlighted the need for a broad set of integrated cloud applications, according to Oracle's Cloud for Business Managers: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly report.

The report found that the majority of businesses around the world have not yet adequately integrated their cloud applications across their business functions. Due to this, many have reported operational inefficiencies and challenges around innovation.

Key Findings:

The Impact of Poor Cloud Integration on Business Productivity

More than half (54 percent) of businesses stated that their department has experienced staff downtime over the past six months due to cloud application integration problems, with departments not even using cloud applications among those affected.

A further 54 percent said project deadlines had been missed in the past six months due to similar problems around the lack of application integration.

Application Siloes Challenge Innovation

The majority (83 percent) of businesses have been prevented from getting the best out of their departmental cloud applications, with one in four blaming poor integration with other applications.

Importantly, 75 percent said their ability to innovate using cloud applications has also been hindered, with one in two (53 percent) citing a lack of integration.

Being unable to integrate the cloud application with other software owned by the company (36 percent) was highlighted as a particular issue, followed by being unable to customize the cloud application to meet company specific needs (33 percent).

Promise of Cloud Failing to Materialize Due to Business Process Siloes

Over three quarters (76 percent) of businesses stated that their motivation behind deploying cloud applications was to get quick access to software, while 47 percent did it to get access to more appropriate software for their department. This contrasts dramatically with the reality of their experience and highlights the importance of getting business processes and applications out of organizational siloes.

Businesses Aiming for Better Application Integration

The good news is that the majority of businesses have recognized the need to better integrate business functions and applications. The vast majority (81 percent) of companies stated that it is important that cloud applications are fully integrated with each other and with other software in the organization.

While 50 percent claim to have integrated cloud apps where they are able to access cloud data in other departments directly from within their departmental business application, one in two departments are still unable to do this.

About the Survey

Oracle partnered with market research firm Dynamic Markets to survey 1,355 executives from companies across the world with revenues of $65 million or more. Respondents were selected from a wide range of business functions including R&D, Sales/Commerce/E-commerce, Marketing, CRM, Finance and HR.