Three Essential Elements for Effective Enterprise Cloud Connectivity

Many companies are interested in taking advantage of cloud technology capabilities but are still hesitant due to uncertainty about how to best utilize cloud technologies in their environment. In today’s competitive landscape, failing to embrace cloud connectivity will prevent companies from taking advantage of innovation, improved collaboration, and increased cost savings. Cloud solutions offer companies an increased level of connectivity and collaboration across the enterprise often helping to remove silos within an organization. These advantages require not only the power of the cloud, but a new, streamlined way of thinking about data access across the organization. If companies hope to integrate effective enterprisewide cloud capabilities, they must carefully consider three important factors as they begin their journey:

1. Understand the problems your organization plans to solve. When companies look to implement internal cloud solutions, many often neglect to determine precisely why they’ve chosen to undergo this migration. Businesses frequently embrace cloud capabilities because they wish to remain ahead of the competition, but those that fail to strategize and create a preliminary game plan may lose sight of the end goal. For some companies, transitioning to the cloud means reducing spend, while others seek innovative ways to collaborate with both employees and customers. By outlining and understanding what they hope to achieve, organizations can successfully integrate cloud technologies without hindering growth.

2. Embrace mobile connectivity to engage employees on and off-site. Because cloud technology allows information to reside within off-site data centers, staff members are able to access customer records from anywhere. With this in mind, companies now have the ability to employ a mobile, connected workforce that has constant access to all necessary information both inside and outside the organization’s four walls. Many have begun to equip their staff with mobile devices that offer cloud connectivity, thereby enabling employees to carry a 360-degree view of the customer and the business with them at all times—capabilities that are paramount in this era of easy information and competitive advantage.

3. Clarify your company’s security requirements to establish loyalty and trust. In most instances, companies hesitate to embrace cloud connectivity because they fear that the technology’s public nature may be prone to security breaches. However, because this data lies in the hands of experts and their cloud provider of choice, such solutions actually offer increased protection, for controlling access holds more power than the physical location of the data. By choosing a trustworthy service provider, organizations can outline security requirements and then carry this relationship down the funnel to the B2C level. Cloud connectivity also allows companies to streamline internal processes, thereby limiting the room for error and data breaches. Though the cloud may seem “out there” for some, companies must truly begin to consider such technologies if they wish to remain competitive within their industry. Cloud solutions enable better collaboration both inside and outside the organization, enabling staff members to improve their internal communication skills and translate these new capabilities to support stronger customer relations. By migrating operations to the cloud, businesses have the power to boost engagement and service experiences for all parties involved.