Small and medium enterprise (SME) Cloud adoption study statistics show that Cloud usage is on the rise.
How many businesses are actually using the Cloud or at least considering it? Businesses have clearly acknowledged the existence of Cloud computing, and it would be difficult to find an organisation where someone isn’t using buzzwords like “software as a service”.
A recent Microsoft-sponsored study on SME Cloud adoption, conducted by Edge Strategies, surveyed employees at 3,258 companies from all over the world. The results revealed that 74 per cent of those employees expected to use at least one Cloud service (either paid or free) within three years, and 39 per cent expect to pay for services.
The largest area of Cloud usage used by respondents was accounting and payroll (20 per cent), with CRM at 14 per cent. Businesses that have embraced the practice of utilising Cloud software solutions will enjoy many benefits, such as minimal set-up costs, built in security and back-up provision, and only paying for what they use. However, the biggest benefit has to be that using Cloud solutions allows them to do what they do best - serve their customers.
It’s a sure thing that what your business does best probably does not include maintaining servers and building disaster recovery plans. Removing this burden means both financial and personnel resources that would have been dedicated to hardware purchase and maintenance can be reallocated to activities that add value and support company goals.
Opportunities present themselves in all sorts of different guises within our industry. The ability to commoditise IT services like mobile packhouse solutions, agronomy or mobile data capture lend themselves particularly well to this type of technology. Traditionally, rolling out new systems has been all about getting an IT department to commission and build servers, source mobile devices and embark on engaging with a partner to build something that, ultimately, ends up being a unique solution for the customer. The Cloud allows this to be alleviated by just buying a service that comes from the internet. Mobile applications can be installed onto consumer devices like iPhones or Blackberries by simply downloading the application from app stores.
This allows organisations to bypass a slew of cost and support issues and just pay for services they require as and when they need them.
Many of the larger accounting, ERP, warehouse and supply chain management solution providers have a strategy in place to offer solutions via the Cloud in the near future, if they are not doing so already. This means that the Enterprise class solutions, previously only affordable to larger organisations, will soon be accessible by all.
The Cloud business model and technology is now sound and is something that could have a real impact on our industry. -
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