Issue 4 2021

Streamlining Cloud Financial Operations Strategic Blue is a cost-cutting, financial operations, and cloud procurement specialist, which has helped companies reduce, control, and optimise costs. An integral part of the supply chain that every company should be taking advantage of, Strategic Blue has cleverly positioned itself in a way that is unique to the industry. Strategic Blue is a financial services organisation, specialists who help companies buy cloud on terms to suit their needs. It specialises exclusively in cloud procurement, cost management and optimisation. In an ever more technology-reliant world, the cloud has become necessary to the ways that companies do business. Strategic Blue makes sure that organisations can optimise their long-term cloud costs and accelerate their innovations. Not only does Strategic Blue remove cloud procurement barriers, but it also works with its clients to develop their sophistication, governance, and assurance processes. With Strategic Blue’s help, its customers improve and streamline their cloud financial operations, or “FinOps”. The specialists empower cloud customers to buy in the way they want, understand exactly what it is they have bought, and continuously optimise their cloud costs, saving money. Strategic Blue’s goal for the future is to optimise supply chains in the global cloud computing market to create value for all participants. Strategic Blue holds itself and its team to six core values that dictate the way they approach all aspects of their work. These are: • To be transparent and fair • Regard major achievements as team efforts • Apply intellect in all they do • Show and expect to be shown kindness and respect • Be willing to learn constantly • Focus on successful outcomes for all parties When you work with Strategic Blue, these six values are readily apparent. The company works hard to explain, in an open way, its business model to its customers and clients. The team explains exactly how they make their money, and how they will provide a win-win-win situation. Strategic Blue has found that its customers love this openness, as it proves the company has an honesty that can be relied on. As what Strategic Blue does can be quite complex, the constant willingness to explain and present to its clients is viewed as extremely helpful. All of this wraps up into the company’s desire to create successful outcomes for all parties, which is key to good business. These core values have remained resolutely in place since the company’s inception in 2010, even while the way that Strategic Blue achieves its goals has developed and become more sophisticated over time. Because cloud use has become such an integral form of technology, Strategic Blue’s customers can be found in all manner of industries, ranging from small start-ups to large corporations. Strategic Blue has worked with businesses in the public, healthcare, education, FinTech, EdTech and HealthTech sectors, and it uses multiple modern means to set up these partnerships. As Strategic Blue forms such close partnerships with its customers, those customers become champions of the brand. One of the most successful ways Strategic Blue acquires new customers is via referral from their current customers. In addition to this, the cloud experts employ social media strategies. They share their educational podcast, use their LinkedIn presence and their content creation to support education in the market, and arm businesses with tools to succeed in order to ultimately attract new clients. Strategic Blue also works with vendors to get in touch with new customers, such as through its work with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which often introduces it to clients who need its services. Until 30th July 2021, Strategic Blue is also offering free financial operations reviews to a limited number of businesses. These reviews analyse cloud usage data and give a score based on how well optimised it is. They give cost-saving recommendations and show exactly how much you could save, and the even greater savings available if you partner with Strategic Blue. Strategic Blue gives their clients advantages and cost-saving solutions that competitors in any given market may be missing out on. Clients benefit from additional discounts that they wouldn’t get had they gone directly to cloud vendors. Strategic Blue works as a third party that elevates purchases and services for all involved. The team are experts in the necessary integration between the technical and financial needs of business. Its Financial Solution Architects (FinSAs) have technical engineering backgrounds. It gives them a dual expertise in finance and technology that allows the FinSAs to give an elevated level of service and guidance, as they have a much deeper understanding. The way that Strategic Blue positions itself is useful to its clients. The cloud experts take financial risk in order to provide its customers with better pricing than available direct from cloud vendors. They feel it is a unique approach that no one else in the cloud reseller industry has taken advantage of. As well as this, they have a service wrap to their tooling, rather than being self-service. It means that, although the company doesn’t have competitors directly competing across the same scope, in the individual areas that another does offer similar solutions, they are never quite the same and can’t match the extent of Strategic Blue’s offerings. Overall, Strategic Blue’s customers get a great, ongoing service. It is one way for them to make sure they are getting the best prices on the market for their cloud, and the ongoing partnership allows them to make the most of their purchases, while continually getting greater savings. The team at Strategic Blue has to be a unique one, in order to compete on the scale that they do. The employees work extremely hard to provide outstanding service. As a result, the company has grown significantly, even throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last six months, there have been 10 new employees join Strategic Blue, who have all made fantastic contributions to the company. They’ve joined the marketing, customer success, development, sales, finance, and pricing departments. When hiring new employees, it is a high priority to ensure that they look for individuals able to work well both independently and as part of a team. Feb21501