How Can You Use Cloud Technology for Your Small Business?

Many big companies have adopted the idea of data and analytics because it ensures positive results. According to a study done by IDG, 78% of the companies have shown faith in the collection of data and its intense analysis, and they think this can change the ways of doing business.

But when it comes to small businesses, it gets more about the related economics that is the deployment of money in a more productive way. As a survey sponsored by SAP suggests, small businesses have shown their inclination towards the cloud, but most of them are still in their initial phase and are going to take a little more time to accept cloud, completely. This survey also suggests that 40% of the small businesses think about reduction of the cost, it means the cloud hosted services come into the picture in a very substantial way. Then what all factors support cloud in the scenario of small businesses. Let’s see and analyze.

Setting A Concrete Goal

If we particularly consider a small business, there are various aspects that come into the picture to make a small business total success. Communication, collaboration, and competition are some of the main factors that play an important role towards long-lasting business results. To make this picture clearer, it is necessary to decide concrete goals in the scenario of your small business.

If we look at the factor of communication, we get to know that there are various parameters that decide the overall success. For example, there are customer acquisition, retention and customer experience that depend on the ways communication is happening among the employees or with the customers. Being part of a small business, the very necessary part is that one should only pay for the services that one has to use, in other terms deployment of money in a more productive way. So, as a business owner, a clear idea of the available resources is essential to zero in the right cloud-hosted services.

For example, if you are looking for a solid customer base, making a steady customer connection is unavoidable and that requires customer communication with a strategy. Once such ideas are clear to the business owner then the picking a suitable cloud-based service becomes a lot easier that is eventually going to help a small scale business. Cloud-based communication comes with a lot many possibilities for a better customer connection. According to this SAP survey, 80% of the small business owners have said that the cloud-based technological deployment was much easier to them than their expectation.

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Essential Cloud-Based Software

The case of deploying the budget is the same for both small business or a startup. Because the budget decides where the business is going. But in the phase of growth, one adds the products and services with the passage, and in this phase, customers and employees add up as well. This growth phase asks for an organized structure of work, and this includes various platforms when work is processed with the least possibility of failure.

In this way, the ideas of cloud-based software become an essential part of the small business. Because they are affordable and work like wonders in terms of using the available resources, efficiently.

This article from CIO.com suggests that cloud-based software is gradually changing the current business scenario by making it much easier for the user to go for them. This article vouches about the e-commerce software that is a lot different from a shopping cart plugin. Because it has various pricing plans that accommodate the budget in a much effective way.

Apart from this, the addition of online channels is also very essential because it helps in growing the sales. This software is also integrated with the social media channels that further help to tap those customers as well who are much active on social media. And in contemporary times it is not advisable to leave out the customers on social media. This article from Forbes.com has a lot to talk about the customer active on social media, and it suggests they are potential assets towards better business. Social media helps in making a connection with the customer which is not just about business but a long-lasting connection of delivering services with trust.

In addition to this, there is various cloud-based software that has changed the communication trends today. Now, the business communication scenario is more inclined towards becoming about unified. Unified communication has given a seamless orientation to the business communication and it has further made this platform flawless and uninterrupted. Cloud-based solutions such as predictive dialer, call center software and other call center solutions make a firm customer support system. A small business should be more careful in supporting the initial pool of customers who start believing in the services and that requires being present of every communication channel to support the customers.

Cloud-Based Collaboration Tools

Cloud has also introduced various collaboration tools in which several people can work together on a single platform towards achieving the same goal. And it has become a lot easier and result-driven with the help of the cloud. Cloud-based collaboration tools save the files that can be accessed by anyone after permission, from anywhere. So, a master document can be worked upon by anyone from anywhere. Google drive is just a widely known example of a collaboration tool that allows the user to upload, edit and comment on a single document. This does add value to an ongoing work. And this has only been possible with the help of cloud-based collaboration tools. In the scenario of a small-scale business, collaboration comes out an unavoidable benefit because it helps the employees to work remotely from anywhere.

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Big Goals of Small Business

Eventually, it’s the profit that a business garners, matters, but in the case of small business, it becomes necessary to form a relationship with the customers as well. And in that scenario, the cloud-based tools and services have a lot to offer today. Because they are flexible, secure, customizable and customer-centric. What else a small business can ask for while picking a suitable business solution.

This article is written by Vipul Srivastav. He is an Editor at Call Center Hosting. Cloud-based innovations have always fascinated him. For the same reason, he loves to explore and share his understanding and ideas related to cloud. He writes about contemporary subjects as well. Follow him: Twitter | LinkedIn.