Working remotely on a laptop used to promise a different kind of freedom. You’re somewhere outside of the office— preferably a beach. The weather’s warm and you’re feeling simultaneously relaxed and productive. As you check in on your business from your cloud software in a comfortably remote location, you revel in the fact that you’re not “chained” to your desktop back at the office.
You remember the office, right?
The dichotomy between beach and cubicle used to represent the difference between cloud business management software and desktop solutions. Cloud software felt like a luxury, though perhaps lacking the “workhorse” qualities of your tried-and-true desktop solution. That time is over.
Two things have happened to give businesses (and business leaders) the opportunity to see cloud software in a new light. Firstly, the cloud has advanced in functionality, usability, and security. As desktop solutions maintained the status quo and respectably powered traditional office settings, cloud services drove innovation in the places where it matters most. Secondly, the Great Pandemic changed traditional office structures overnight.
There is no doubt that, in the coming year, we will want to continue work as normal. However, the ways we manage operations and communicate with customers, vendors, and partners will shift permanently. And the picture of the lone employee wearing palm tree shorts on the beach and working on a laptop is outdated, too. Instead, the cloud will uphold traditional business operations while transforming them into modern, agile solutions.
Amidst what will be a confusing time, one thing is clear: the small businesses that adopt cloud based business management software solutions will edge out their competition.
A Familiar Model Made New
Software in the cloud has already become the gold standard for big businesses that face sharp competition and more pressure to innovate. Often, smaller businesses have the perceived luxury of getting comfortable with how they do things and prefer not to make changes. What worked simply worked. But our current situation has forced us all to re-examine the ways we do things.
Writing in InfoWorld, David Linthicum notes that “Business seems to change around pain. In the past weeks companies that had already migrated to public cloud had a strategic advantage over those still operating mostly in traditional data centers.”
Here’s what modern cloud based business management software has to offer, and why it suits both our present and future small business landscape.
Know What’s Happening (Right Now)
When do you need access to documents, files, and links? Hopefully, the answer is either always or right now. One of the biggest benefits of cloud software is centralized document storage. While it used to be a convenient perk to help with internal organization, it has now become a necessity.
Whether you have employees who are in the field, working from home, or connecting from separate offices, you’ll need to keep everything in one place. As traditional office structures give way to increased remote configurations (home offices, etc.), all employees will benefit from a central location to access data.
And “knowing what’s happening” doesn’t stop at accessibility. It’s also about reporting— the ability to see that 360° view of your company. Ask yourself if you’ve ever really had that ability. Most companies operate in multiple software systems, and moving to the cloud gives you an opportunity to either integrate or consolidate those systems.
Why It Matters Now: The information you use to make decisions is more important than ever. So much about our economic climate, and our collective future, is uncertain. It doesn’t benefit you, then, to have crucial data locked away in desktop systems and wait weeks to interpret it. If waiting was the standard, it will soon become a central factor for failure.
More Employee Mobility
The beauty of most cloud management solutions is that they are available anywhere, on any device. Whether the software comes in a mobile app or is simply just browser-friendly, the mobility alone will be worth the change.
In a recent Washington Post article, Jena McGregor discusses the physical changes that are likely coming to offices in the near future. Among those changes, she writes, “office workers could see…the spacing of desks to maintain distance, ‘every other’ seat arrangements.” That may work for some offices, but it will undoubtedly involve a great deal of reconfiguring. Giving workers not just the flexibility to be at home, but to work from more separated spaces in the office can be more easily facilitated with phones, tablets, and laptops.
Why It Matters Now: All employers must develop a plan for sending employees back to work, whether it’s phased, all at once, or new remote opportunities that become available. Desktop software prohibits mobility, but working with software in the cloud can help you develop a more flexible plan and schedule.
More Efficient Communication
The reporting and centralized storage, discussed above, work well for understanding team performance. But cloud software can do so much more than that. Used smartly, it’s a fully accessible communication hub, a task tracking system, a shift scheduler and shared calendar, and an internal discussion interface. There are many cloud tools with these features; it will be up to you whether you choose to integrate, consolidate, or just try some out.
Why It Matters Now: Every traditional form of office communication has come to a halt, and you now have an opportunity to re-evaluate how you work with others, both internally and externally. In this post-pandemic world, are you still going to send faxes? Will you rely on emailing desktop spreadsheets for organization? Your competitors won’t, and they’ll be faster and smarter for it.
Evaluating Cloud Solutions
Choosing the right cloud-based business management software doesn’t happen overnight. However, we are currently hurtling toward the future of office work in a very changed environment. The choices you make today can have long-lasting effects on how competitive and resilient your business will be. That’s why you owe it to yourself to dig in, do some research, and figure out what your needs will be as we come out of this crisis. Only then will you find the right solutions to match.
