BY
HERNS A. HERMIDA
CLOUD COMPUTING has emerged as the 'great equalizer' in business, and is rapidly changing the way many companies operate.
With cloud computing, companies are
now able to launch easy-to-use enterprise applications faster for their
employees, resulting in a far more productive workplace.
Local companies are now adopting cloud-based, capex-free
business solutions that enable them to be more flexible, cost efficient
and globally competitive. It is a paradigm shift where money usually
spent on maintaining expensive, in-house or on-premise hosted
applications, turn into savings, sans the need to invest heavily on
hardware, software licenses, or IT personnel dedicated to maintaining
these systems.
With the cloud, companies are now able to quickly implement easy-to-use
enterprise applications for internal use, resulting in a far more
productive workplace because of employees’ ability to work anywhere on
any device, and helping the company focus on its core business and
generate revenue earlier than otherwise projected.
The Budget Equalizer
With minimal investment on equipment and licenses, taking operations to
the cloud is perhaps the most ideal way to do business today. It’s truly
a game changer like no other.
In the past, only large corporations with the resources and capital to
invest in IT, were able to streamline internal processes and manage
operations through costly IT systems such as ERP (enterprise resource
planning), CRM (customer relationship management), and database
management. Small and medium enterprises or SMEs, on the other hand, had
to make do with what their limited IT budgets can provide, to stay
competitive in the market.
Not anymore. More SMEs are now getting the same capabilities as their
larger, more established counterparts, thanks to the cloud. Today, we
see numerous business applications available in the cloud including ERP,
CRM, financial systems, unified communications, and proprietary
applications.
Amid all value-added features that enterprise cloud apps offer however,
it is the “capex-free” come-on that has proven to be the driving force
behind the growing migration to the cloud. Because these business tools
are paid on a per account, per year (or month) basis, companies are able
to manage their funds better and take their products and services to
market faster -- while enjoying the benefits of cloud computing for
their day-to-day operations.
The Productivity Equalizer
Consider this. A global leader in consumer cosmetic products, now uses
its own social app that rides on its cloud computing infrastructure, to
enable its sales consultants to connect with clients, and each other,
and receive company and product updates in real time, anytime, anywhere.
Productivity is enhanced by the accessibility of cloud-based
applications. As long as there is Internet in the area, work gets done.
Remote and traveling personnel can easily access and edit files and
systems in real time from wherever they are located. Cloud applications
not only cut companies’ software costs by more than half, but increases
productivity through real-time collaboration amongst multiple users.
Cloud-based business applications range from workforce management and
sales distribution to customer relationship management and even
customized applications, all of which aim to improve workplace
productivity, and help organizations achieve business success.
Projects involving hardware installations such as servers, are also
ramped up faster in a cloud environment. Resources are easily scaled up
or down depending on usage while changes are easily made without the
need to buy additional hardware.
A very simple way that a company can get one foot in the cloud is by
enhancing their office email experience with a secure web-based service,
instead of using a terminal-based email client. This way, work email
can be accessed practically anywhere, thus improving response times and
overall productivity.
The Security Equalizer
In a recent article, a leading Spanish bank did an initial pilot test
for 7,000 of its employees to use cloud-based email and productivity
applications. Finding no significant issues, the rest of the bank’s
110,000 workforce now trust the Cloud even for sensitive financial data.
With any computing solution, whether cloud-based or not, security is
always an important issue. And security is one of the reasons why many
corporations are still hesitant to take on a cloud computing mindset.
The best cloud providers are those that implement multiple layers of
security to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of
such critical information. ISO 27001:2005 Information Security
Management Systems is the global standard certification that ensures
this. By being ISO 27001 certified, cloud providers assure customers of
world-class security measures for their cloud services, giving them
peace of mind for their business.
However, though cloud security lies much on the ability of service
providers to ensure physical and network security as well as the
resiliency of its data center environment, it also rests on the ability
of customers to safeguard respective log-in credentials which most
corporate IT platforms use to limit end-user access to sensitive data.
The Effectiveness Equalizer
Large companies stand to gain from the cloud’s shared resources as it
allows them to have more flexible operations and healthier bottom lines.
Though if large companies in established industries can make noteworthy
strides under the cloud, there’s no reason why SMEs will not be able to
enjoy the same progress with the same inexpensive, secure and
productivity-enhancing infrastructure.
One of the Philippines’ leading low-cost airlines felt the need to
migrate to a cloud-based email platform from their existing legacy email
system to enhance accessibility, security, and overall employee
productivity. As cloud email services are highly scalable, the company
was able to manage the number of users and online storage allocation as
it requires, and pay only for what is used. Such flexibility can only be
experienced with cloud services.
That was just for email.
A leading transport and logistics company in the country currently uses
the cloud for various facets of their business such as account
management, marketing automation, database management, pipeline
management, and business analytics and reporting. It is a great
testament to how the cloud can be an essential component of any
business, even those with existing ERPs.
The Philippine economy is poised to hugely benefit from local
enterprises’ continuing adoption of cloud solutions, especially once the
technology reaches its tipping point in our developing nation.
Herns A. Hermida is the Vice President for Consulting Services - Business Solutions Group of IP-Converge.
By Barb Darrow
