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Much is said about the cloud and its potential to disrupt and transform businesses like never before. But beyond the buzzwords and grand statements, how does this actually work in practice?
In a nutshell, cloud computing takes the data and computing power that businesses need to operate away from their own servers, and into servers all over the world, connected via the Internet. From an overall business perspective, the headline benefits of cloud computing are many, including:
- Cost savings: no need for costly on-premise infrastructure, or for the costs of maintaining it
- Compliance: expert solution partners can help ensure data protection and other regulations are met
- Insights: with data more easily accessible and transferable, the potential for analytics to find information within that data is significantly increased
- Client satisfaction: the cloud can support more agile ways of working, helping businesses better respond to changing and increasing customer demands
This blog goes beyond those high-level positives and takes a detailed look at how cloud computing can revolutionize five individual business departments:
Management
The leadership of a company takes the responsibility for making the right decisions for the future of the business, but also the right decisions for the future of the workforce. To do this, they need control over the decision-making process, the ability to organize and plan ahead, and the ability to communicate with the workforce and show leadership.
Cloud computing can help senior management improve all three:
- Using cloud-based analytics tools to find insights within business data, ensuring that the right decisions are made more of the time
- Combining data with enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, and running all software, operating systems and data storage in the cloud, so that strategies can more easily take the needs of the whole business into account
- Leveraging cloud-based communication and collaboration tools (e.g. Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams) to connect disparate workforces better than ever before, across corporate news, informal socialization, and company cultural activity
Finance and Human Resources
In the modern business landscape, finance and HR departments must make sure that the employee and business dealings of the company remain efficient and compliant. The cloud can support these efforts in a number of different areas:
- Recruiting: better analysis of candidate resumes, and any attributes through interview testing, with processing of the data helping to find the best person for the job.
- Onboarding: the ability to connect training and new starter information to workers all over the world through the cloud can deliver major efficiencies for global businesses
- Performance management: employee metric data can be collected and analyzed, either on a regular basis or even in real-time, helping employers gain a true understanding of employees’ capabilities over time
- Payroll: cloud-based payroll systems allow for integration of payroll data and processing for employees in different countries, with different tax requirements and who are paid in different currencies
Marketing and Sales
Nowadays, marketing is a customer-facing department almost as much as sales has historically been. The two departments are closely intertwined, as marketing helps drum up customer interest and sales converts them into purchasers, with the demarcation line between the two of them increasingly blurred.
Cloud technology has enabled unrivaled integration for digital marketing and sales. However customers connect with a business from a variety of touchpoints - physical, web, mobile app, email, social media and more - the data generated can be used to form detailed profiles of each individual prospect. Marketing and sales teams can then understand the way to reach out to a customer that will give them the best chance of getting them to complete a purchase; this saves them time, increases their success, and boosts the business’s ultimate bottom line.
Purchasing and Procurement
Generally speaking, businesses can’t sell if they don’t buy first. This could be products, services or technology that they source from elsewhere to resell; raw materials that are then used to create products for sale; or general resources and equipment required for the business’s day-to-day operations. All of this can be streamlined through the cloud:
- Spending control: by running their purchasing and invoicing through cloud-based platforms, employees can better analyze their spending and ensure that any budget limits aren’t being breached
- Cost transparency: with access to detailed data of who is spending what on which items and when businesses can get a real-time picture of how procurement is affecting their bottom line
- Easier compliance: cloud platforms can bring together all procurement data and process it into detailed reports that can demonstrate compliance and fiscal responsibility as required
Research and Development
R&D is key for businesses to respond to the fast-moving business landscape of the future. This is the department that, in many businesses, will be relying on technology the most. Because of this, it’s critical that they can access the latest innovations and functionality, and the cloud is a vital part of delivering this.
- Data storage: R&D departments have to deal with huge amounts of data in many formats; the cloud can help them access and deploy any data they need, quickly
- Data security: the data used for R&D can be highly sensitive, such as intellectual property, and the cloud can ensure that this data is secured in robust cloud servers that are well-protected from cyber-threats
- Technological innovation: the likes of AI, analytics and machine learning can all be deployed through the cloud, helping businesses keep up with the latest tech at a cost that isn’t prohibitive
In summary
Ultimately, while cloud computing helps all of these departments in turn, cloud platforms can also play an important role in bringing them together and enabling truly integrated business. Through the cloud, organizations can take a more holistic approach, even if they operate globally with employees and teams distributed all over the world. At a time of great change in the business world, this level of integration could be essential in helping businesses move forward and grow.
Thousands of businesses just like yours have already embraced fully integrated global payroll through CloudPay. If you’d like to join them, take a closer look at our solution here.
