In today's world it's important that companies be nimble and flexible. Things change too quick to be stuck with a rigid infrastructure, processes or mindset.
This is where cloud, in particular SAAS, really come into play. In my opinion cloud for cost savings is short sighted, not that there can't be cost savings, but that should not be the reason to go cloud. It's really about being faster and more flexible.
Imagine two companies, one with on premise infrastructure and one cloud based. Both want to merge with another company and add 1000 "new" employees to their email system because of it. The on-premise company needs to upgrade it's email servers, storage, add backup licenses and add the new users. Let's assume they are all outlook users and don't need training since it's the same interface. Still adding servers and storage (and possible network ports) can take a month and cost $50,000. If disaster recovery is important (and it should be) you may need to double that.
Now the cloud based company simply process a change order (or whatever paperwork is required to add 1000 new users and add's their accounts. This can literally be done in a week. Technically hours, but there is usually some level of financial approval required for an additional monthly cost like that.
The other way cloud makes you more flexible is the fact that upgrades can happen with no real IT work needed. Now IT needs to spend time on testing the new features, figuring out use cases and then training the user community on the best way to leverage them, but they should do that for on-premise features too.
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