Is The Future Of Your Business Up In The Cloud?

 Mapping Growth With ERP

If you've picked up a scientific article in the past decade, you've heard the word: Cloud. Heck, if you're alive and you haven't been living under a rock for the past six years, you probably use the cloud every day - think: Social Media, Google Searches, Online Shopping, Downloading Music, Bank Transactions, and the list could just go on.

"Great", you might say, "the cloud is everywhere - but how does it relate to my company...what point are you getting at?"

Well, I'll tell you my point in a quick moment. But first, let's look at some of the leading enterprises of today's society. You've probably heard of three little names sometime recently - Google, Apple & Amazon. You might say they're a big deal. Those are three of the most successful and iconic companies today. Now, I'll get to the point: What do these companies all have in common with each-other? One magical word: Cloud.

Now, when I say 'cloud', you might find it sounds like a nebulous (ha! get it?) concept. But let's dive a little deeper and talk business reality. According to a recent article by Forbes:

Out of “1,800 people evenly split between IT, Line-of-Business and DevOps from enterprises worldwide”, 52% of them had already upgraded to the cloud within their company with an estimate of another 25% joining their ranks in the next two years!

WHAT IS CLOUD ERP?

ERP is the abbreviated term for 'Enterprise Resource Planning software'. And the best way to define it is, for the sake of comparison, a heart transplant surgery for the body of your business. Let's imagine your heart wasn't beating fast enough to support the proper blood-flow your body needs to thrive at its best capacity. When you get an ERP, a team of specialists come in and install a new heart that pumps and pumps, and just doesn't stop pumping.

Imagine interconnecting all departments and operations within your business into a single system with the multi-functional capacity of streamlining your daily processes. The best part is that everything goes up in the cloud, so all you need to run your company is always backed up onto a high security platform which you can access from anywhere / at any time. It's the kind of modern, robust system that keeps growing companies afloat under the strain of unexpected changes.

Now that you get the idea, let's fast-forward back to where we were.

Moving your business into the cloud usually starts with an ERP to streamline the back-office processes of your company, which in turn facilitates things for your finance team. Think: No more spreadsheets; no more "where did I put that file seven months ago, let me spend six hours retracing my steps"; and no unnecessary delays due to manual processes. Everything is automated, streamlined, and customizable.