Much has been written about the cloud and its impact on how business is conducted today. But is the cloud really that significant? In a word, yes!

The cloud is the great equalizer. The cloud offers everyone (businesses and individual consumers) the ability to obtain products and services from literally anywhere, anytime in the world on a device of their choosing. That is the power of the cloud. A consistent experience that is always available and appears to the consumer as something that is indistinguishable — large or small companies, local or global, morning or middle of the night, simple to extremely complex — it’s all there, all the time. But…

The cloud is only a method by which we all obtain our experience. The experience is, and has always been, controlled and delivered by the business  utilizing a combination of exceptional people and exceptional solutions. This is a critical point. The best cloud in the world won’t transform a bad experience into a good one. The cloud does not know if your information is accurate or not. It is up to you to embrace your clients and prospects and give them an experience that will have them coming back time and again.

So how are you using your Business Management Systems?

IT and Systems Managers surveyed told CIO Magazine that their core Business Management System modules were used chiefly for accounting and financial applications (96%); project management and resource scheduling (78%); CRM/ Marketing and proposals (64%); and HR management and payroll functions (55%).

When asked in which areas of their business the systems worked best, respondents overwhelmingly cited the financial side of the house (70%). But what is really disturbing is that the majority of firms said that they are only using a small percentage of the capabilities of their system. This is a waste of money, and makes it harder to implement automation and processes that enable the firm to grow quickly. Business systems now have the capability to not only hold and retrieve information but to slice and dice the information on the spot to enable immediate decision making.

In an age where all business technology applications should provide some competitive advantage, 76% of IT chiefs said operational efficiency was the goal of their organisation’s business management systems, followed by support of global business (12%); growth (5%) and IT cost reduction (4%). Just 4% of IT leaders said their business management system offered their companies competitive differentiation or advantage.

The future

To be competitive at all (forget competitive advantage), businesses are going to have to begin utilizing their business management systems — that ultimate repository of almost all corporate data — in a much more integrated, intelligent, dynamic and client-centric fashion. What does that mean for tomorrow’s business:

Decision making needs to happen at the time of accessing the information —not three meetings later!

• Access to information needs to be anywhere and anytime, utilizing the tools that people understand and prefer, and with the device they want to use.
• All of the information must remain accurate, up-to-date and easy to find.
• Security, platform, bandwidth, e-commerce, and other technical issues are as important today as ever.
• Your internal systems must also interface and interact with an external and ever expanding ‘social’ world.
• All of this must be seamless, simple, always on and presenting your brand in the most professional manner possible.

Where does all the corporate information reside? The vast majority is found within your internal financial and project management systems. Few businesses these days have business management systems that integrate all of their data and processes, and manage the entire project lifecycle in one system. Never, in the history of automated accounting solutions, has this played a more important role for every company regardless of their size.

Because the cost of computing is so low, it is expected that your systems will provide all of the information they need. How can small businesses compete with global giants? Enter the cloud.