At this week’s Amazon Web Services Summit in San Francisco, the one concept that most everyone is walking away with is the fundamental paradigm shift resulting from the severe disruption of cloud computing, and more specifically AWS, has brought to the industry. SiliconANGLE’s John Furrier welcomed George Steele and James S. Kocsi to theCUBE to discuss how their roles as leaders for Capgemini’s North American SAP Initiatives and Deal Management team have been affected by the increased acceptance of the cloud by the enterprise.

Leading off the conversation Furrier asked simply, “What gets people on the cloud?” Even though there has been a growing interest and previously tepid embracing of the technology, not everyone has been convinced. Some enterprise customers require a little more hand-holding, as they witness new capabilities and learn of the strides made with regard to security and governance.

Watch the interview in its entirety here:

Kocsi, speaking specifically to the capability side, stated enterprise customers typically warm to the cloud when they actually see that a tailored solution can drive their business to be not only faster, but also more agile. “Large deploys used to take months. Now we have quicker product launches.”

“We can take our OnePath solution and do a demonstration that includes our customers specific needs,” stated Steele. And if the company signs off on that version after the demonstration, Capgemini can take and implement that copy within minutes. Only a few years ago, this speed of deployment was unheard of and often required several weeks or even months to complete.

A company like Capgemini can also put minds at ease on the security and governance issues when you note that only five days ago, they were named a 2014 Most Ethical Company by the Ethisphere Institute. They have now received this honor two years running.

Incorporating AWS’s ala carte model as its own

 .

Capgemini has embraced the AWS ala carte model and incorporated it into their own product line to increase the speed to value for their customers. This has been, it appears, a masterful pivot from their original business value chain that involved management of on prem infrastructures and applications. “We can take the AWS element,” stated Steele, “and bundle it right in to the suite development we worked on previously. We are taking the complexity out of SAP implementation and running it long term.”

Echoing that sentiment Kocsi said, “Not only are we adding the SAP development piece, we are doing app management, infrastructure management, etc.” Capgemini recognizes their clients will still require an end-to-end solution and they are able to manage that for them.

As Capgemini made the transition they recognized 2010 was a niche year. However 2013 and this year have been far better than expected. For fiscal year 2013, Capgemini saw a near 1 percent organic growth and reported revenues of 10.1 BN Euros (Approx. $14 BN). According to Steele, he believes the trend toward cloud computing from where we currently stand is just the tip of the iceberg.

Capgemini’s flagship product, OnePath, was borne of IP developed for one of their clients in 2009. OnePath is a bundled solution with an SAP license. Marketed with monthly payment options, a client’s initial cash outlay is significantly decreased making adoption an option for companies with limited cash flow.

With an adapt or die mentality, Capgemini, a company with a 46 year history, was able to recognize the upcoming upheaval in the industry that was to be cloud computing and they sought to maintain their relevance in the industry.

Be sure to direct your browser to http://live.siliconangle.tv/ to watch live event coverage and join in on the conversation at https://www.crowdchat.net/AWSSummit.

photo credit: BrockleyTim via photopin cc