Cloud computing has been available to businesses for many years, and described in many different ways, however the same principle has always applied; to rent the services of software managed and operated from somebody else’s computer.
For many businesses however the term ‘cloud computing’ conjures up a mist of confusion and uncertainty with more questions than answers, often leaving the IT their business depends upon in a stale position. In this article I will endeavour to outline some of the benefits to business; whether large or small, of moving applications to the cloud.
Cost Saving So let’s hit the big one first. The potential to save money on the purchase of an application as well as the underlying hardware and ongoing vendor support can be very appealing but businesses not only need to consider the initial purchase but also the longer term costs. Most IT will last 3-5 years before you have to change it, so consider the 3 and 5 year costs of maintaining that application. Now take the same view of deploying a cloud based application to your business to achieve the same outcome. It’s perfectly plausible that moving an application to the cloud will in the longer run cost more than buying it outright. It also possible it will be cheaper. The answer will depend very much on the peripheral cost benefits. Cost saving is very subjective and should be considered on a case by case basis.
Anytime Anywhere Access Whether you’re a sole trader working from the office during the day and at home all night, or a larger business with sales and support guys spending most of their time on the road; there are great advantages to being able to access your business applications and data at any time. We live in a world of instant access to social media posts from family and friends. Similarly, business is expected to be able to respond in a similar fashion. If a customer makes an enquiry and does not receive a timely response, negative perceptions can quickly form. In short, with cloud applications you have access to your data whenever and wherever you need it and you’ll probably find ‘there’s an app for that’.
Ease of Collaboration Being able to update customer records stored in a central location by a dispersed workforce increases your ability to collaborate, improves the performance of teams and leads to increased customer satisfaction. If an employee can update a record directly in your Customer Relationship Management [CRM] application when leaving site, it means they don’t have to make copious notes and then have to decipher them when returning to the office. Collaboration gains can also mean that colleagues around the country can make use of shared systems to engage with each other, whether that’s through a video conference, instant messaging conversation or screen share.
Reduce Risk Risk is something rarely calculated when taking in to account the availability of your IT systems. That is until systems go down and the Finance Director is counting lost productivity in the thousands by the hour. Inevitably, any application used within a business is operated from a single computer. This could be one PC that’s running the Accounts software or a server running your ERP system. Whilst the server may have redundancy built in to its hardware, this still leave the business with a single point of failure. Depending on your requirements, cloud based applications will in most cases be built and delivered from a multi-tenant platform. This means that many businesses are using the same solution as you, all at the same time. Underpinning that platform will be redundancy beyond the affordability of most businesses, so that in the event of one piece of the platform having a problem normal service is not interrupted. The other risk to consider is that of security. Whether your primary concern is more around the physical security of your office servers or you are worried someone might want to access your data, one thing you can be certain of; as with the redundancy element of cloud computing, security levels are also significantly higher than your business could afford to deploy.
Greater Integration Adopting cloud based applications creates multiple opportunities for seamless integration between systems. You might want to have online event registrations automatically synchronise with email marketing tools. You may benefit from your online accounts software pulling feeds from your bank accounts and automatically updating customer records. All of these seamless integrations automate business processes you are already performing but without you having to spend the time doing them. Having access to these open integrations means you can turn your business from being flat and one dimensional when it comes to moving data around, to being dynamic and responsive.
So we’ve looked at the benefits of using cloud computing for your day-to-day business activities, and we’ve highlighted some of the issues that need to be considered before moving. Let’s take your internet connection for a starter. If you’re using a cloud based application, you need a reliable internet connection.
In short, cloud computing does not guarantee cost saving, endless possibilities and double digit profit growth. However, taking each application case by case, reviewed and managed in the correct way significant benefits can be attained by moving your business applications and processes to the cloud.
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Email: jasonp@igptechnology.com