Cloud computing can be considered one of the biggest revolutions that the internet has brought to companies. Process agility and flexibility, environment scalability and cost reduction are the main reasons that make this technology attractive to organizations.
What Is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing, or cloud computing, consists of keeping files, applications and other data on a network. It is possible to access them from any device with internet access since they are stored on external servers, not on your computer, cell phone, or tablet.
As it evolves, this technology has been widely used in companies, allowing data analysis, keeping information safe, optimizing resources and processes, having more productivity on a day-to-day basis and improving customer relationships.
In the traditional storage model, it was necessary to invest in powerful servers that could handle everything the company needed to store. The problem is that, in this model, the organization had high costs: it was necessary to buy the license to use the software and have physical space for the servers. Computers were still subject to lose and damage, which put business data at risk.
On the other hand, infrastructure costs are reduced in the cloud, the company saves on physical space, and data is safe. If the machines are damaged, the information is secure and stored remotely. Thus, the organization does not need to create, operate and maintain an infrastructure all on its own. As resources are shared, costs drop considerably.
Seven Main Advantages Of Cloud Computing For Companies
For companies, the advantages that cloud computing has brought are immense. Just take a look at the not-too-distant past and think about what your daily work would be like without using the cloud.
- Imagine if you had to download all the documents you access during the day;
- Imagine if, whenever you discovered a new tool, you had to download and install it on your computer. And if you liked it, you had to install it on other company computers for other employees to use;
- Imagine if you didn’t have real-time access to your results and goal status to track your business’s marketing strategy ;
- Imagine if your computer crashed and all the files needed to continue the previous day’s work were on that machine.
It would be hard to work like that, right?
Considering these situations, it is easy to see how cloud computing offers a series of advantages for companies, regardless of the segment in which they operate and the size of the business.
But let’s understand these benefits in more detail. Below, we bring five advantages that companies can have when using cloud computing. Check out!
Efficiency In The Marketing And Sales Operation
Alignment between the marketing and sales teams is essential for a company to have an efficient and seamless operation. To keep the two areas speaking the same language, there must be intense interaction between them. In this way, tools in the cloud make this relationship much more accessible.
This is because, within the cloud, company employees can check how the other area is operating, identify points for improvement and act quickly to help the company deliver the desired results. Another point is that the cloud allows marketing and sales teams to track Leads ‘ behavior and interactions together, centralizing all this information on one platform.
In this way, the Marketing team can track the profile and behavior of contacts who became customers and use this information to generate content insights about their personas and pain. The sales team can follow all of the Lead’s interactions on the company’s website to understand what he needs and make a more personalized sales approach.
In addition to the use of cloud computing, there are several other actions that the company can take to have more integration between marketing and sales.
Productivity Gain
A company that does not have cloud solutions is self-harming. It no longer makes sense to stop working with the possibility of accessing any document on any device. With cloud solutions, employees can work on different devices without affecting productivity. There is no longer that lost file on an external HD. Just access it from any computer, cell phone or another device.
The same goes for software hosted in the cloud, which can be used by anyone in the company and not just on the computer on which they are installed, for example. This makes remote working a lot easier. Still, on productivity, an essential point that the cloud brought was easier to carry out collaborative work. Employees can not only access documents at any time and from any device, but they can also share them with other people on the team, facilitating teamwork.
More Predictability
Cloud data analytics lets you customize forecasts, reducing analysis time and delivering a more effective solution in less time.
Any company can use this personalized data analysis feature for increasingly efficient employee performance monitoring. Just view a history of actions and act before problems escalate. Having a better forecast in data analysis can help your business be healthier, avoiding losses that could become serious for the company.
In addition, a real-time analysis dashboard can show if any indicators are much lower than expected. This allows teams to take short-term actions to reverse the situation and not end the month, quarter or year below the stipulated target.
Information Integration
The cloud allows the integration of information of enormous proportions, such as the administration of public resources of a government, facilitating the budget administration of large amounts and making the process more transparent.
In companies, the resource becomes one of the options for monitoring the budget and monitoring resources at different levels, from execution to long-term planning, involving information from all areas of the company, including branches.
Improved Customer Service
According to a survey conducted by the consultancy KPMG, 37% of the executives interviewed who use cloud computing responded that having systems in the cloud helps deepen their relationship with customers.
The architecture provides tools that allow collaboration, integration, and employee response to clients in real-time. Thus, companies are more available to their customers, becoming more present in their daily lives and, consequently, being more remembered.
This interaction is also cross-platform: it can happen via smartphone, tablets or computer, allowing the customer to be the decision-maker of the structure they want to use, wherever they are.
Another positive effect has more possibilities to approach potential customers. At the same time, the cloud also allows more people to become these potential customers. After all, its elasticity is shaped as the organization grows, as computing resources are provided on-demand, with payment proportional to usage.
Measurement Of Results
Anyone who works with marketing knows the importance of providing results for managers and directors. With processes and applications in the cloud, it is possible to follow campaigns on Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn, for example, in real-time, monitoring the level of engagement, materials that are performing best, category, content segmentation, etc.
The cloud makes it possible to fail fast and fix even quicker. It also makes it possible to test new ideas without significant investments. In this way, it becomes more practical to prove ROI (return on investment) and find out if actions are aligned with the primary strategy and obtain valuable insights.
Ecological Responsibility
Consumers, companies and governments are more concerned about human activity on the environment. In this way, ecological responsibility also becomes more critical in companies of different sizes and segments.
By optimizing processes, identifying better transport and logistics alternatives, and reducing production time and service execution.
For example, the cloud helps to identify services to be provided geographically close, allowing for a single displacement. Remote access to information can also enable employees to reduce the need to travel to perform specific tasks, among other alternatives.
The cloud makes it possible to reconcile more sustainable logistics and management options without additional costs for companies, which can benefit from optimizations by reducing operational expenses related to transport and other factors.
Also Read: Cloud Storage, Everything You Need To Know