Why Consider Moving To CRM Cloud?

What is CRM Cloud Computing?

In a nutshell, cloud computing is applications and programs that are hosted on the Internet. Rather than purchasing software and downloading it onto your hard drive, cloud computing allows you to access the same programs via the Internet.

You may well already be using cloud-based applications without being aware of it. Facebook, for instance, is cloud-based, as is your online banking in all likelihood. If you run a small business, in all probability, you’ll be using cloud computing for several aspects of your business operations, such as communications or workflow management.

CRM Cloud computing, in recent years, has become increasingly prevalent, and now it has become the norm. So, why are so many small businesses moving to cloud-based computing solutions?

Well, there are many benefits, and we have taken the time to list 10 of the best ones below.

1. Offers You Flexibility – Cloud computing offers your small business a great deal of flexibility in terms of scaling its operations. For instance, there may be a particular time of the year when you require more bandwidth, but only for a limited period. Using a cloud-based application allows you to scale up or scale down, either briefly or for more extended periods. Buying the same app and installing it to your hard-drive, means that you are stuck with the level you purchased and would buy something else if your requirements change. The level of flexibility that cloud computing offers can give your business a significant competitive advantage.
2. Can Help You Recover From Disaster – For most businesses, their data is a critical asset, and losing it would be disastrous. Securing data, traditionally, has been intensive in terms of cost and expertise. However, cloud computing makes having a robust backup and data recovery system easier and more affordable. You can now secure your data without the high up-front costs and using the skills of 3rd party specialists.
3. Provides Automatic Software Updates – With cloud computing, you don’t have any servers to maintain, or software updates to install and test. All of this back-end activity is done remotely, so there is no time and effort wasted by you having to do this yourself. These savings let you concentrate on the things you are good at, like running your business.
4. Is Free of Major Capital Expenditure – Changing your software or applications used to involve a significant capital expenditure on hardware upgrades to run larger, faster, and more complex applications. In addition to the purchase cost, the management and maintenance of such systems would also incur considerable expenses. The cloud will eliminate these, allowing your business the functionality without the cost.
5. Increases Your Ability to Collaborate – Cloud-based applications allow your teams to access data and documents from anywhere at any time. This access increases not only the ability to collaborate but also reduces the cost of that collaboration. Workflow or file-sharing applications, amongst a host of others that are cloud-based, allow your people to have full and real-time visibility of their collaborative efforts.
6. Allows You to Work From Anywhere – As briefly mentioned previously, using cloud-based applications allows your teams to work from anywhere they can access the Internet. Also, they are freed from being bound to an office or even a desk, as many business applications can be accessed by mobile phones or tablets.  What does this give you? The opportunity to improve the work-life balance for your teams while still maintaining productivity. Working from home or telecommuting, even one day per week can prove to be a massive incentive to employees. Up to 42% of those surveyed by one study stated they would accept a pay cut of around 6% in return for the perk of telecommuting.
7. Gives You More Document Control – The higher the number of people you have working on the same document, the greater need you will have for ensuring that you have firm control of that document. Traditionally, people would work offline on their part of a report and send copies to a central administrator who would collate and edit changes into a primary document. The greater the number of ‘donor’ documents, the higher the risk of something being corrupted, skipped over, or deleted in the process. Today, even small companies are doing some elements of their business internationally across several different geographical regions and time zones. Switching to cloud computing allows this file and data sharing to happen much easier, quicker, and safer, only one version that everyone can work on regardless of where and when they work.
8. Provides Greater Security – One misplaced laptop computer, or lost data stick, can cost your business much more than the price of replacement. If the data on either of those devices is critical to your business, it could cost you a lot more. If it falls into the wrong hands (competitors, customers, etc.), then the cost could be much more than merely financial. Using cloud-based applications will mean that you no longer have to have everything held on physical hardware that is prone to damage, loss, or theft. You’ll be able to access your data from any device and leave it secured when you are done using it.
9. Will Increase Your Business Competitiveness – Switching to cloud computing is a quick and simple step to increasing your business’s competitiveness. It allows you to continuously harness the latest technology and make changes to your business operations quickly. Utilizing pay-as-you-go cloud services will mean that you have all the capabilities of a much larger company, but without the headaches that go with developing, maintaining, and updating your applications.
10. Is Friendly to the Environment – While this might not necessarily increase your bottom line, it will go some way to improve your corporate social responsibility. Cloud computing can minimize the amount of travel that business people and their teams have to make, therefore reducing the size of the carbon footprint your business leaves. Just one or two meetings per month conducted through a cloud-based application may cut back considerably on-road or air travel.

Even just a couple of the benefits of cloud computing listed above may be enough to convince you to make the switch for your business. Managing to harness all, ten of them, and you may be wondering why you are still reading this and not switching to cloud computing TODAY.  Our experts will be pleased to advise you on the CRM  cloud solutions.

Roman Kucak, Partner