Once upon a time, believe it or not, digital technology was a new thing. And it’s safe to say, those companies who adopted the latest business technology were catapulted ahead of their competition, tenfold. However, as business technology became more affordable, universal and market-available, the functionalities became similar regardless of the brand, making the advantages less apparent. To compete with this, software companies had to differentiate product features, price and availability whilst still creating market-leading solutions.

The Cloud

And then, along came … cloud computing. Once again the business market was presented with a new service and competitors scrambled to provide a differentiating solution. One thing the cloud has done is to allow small to medium enterprises (SME’s) with access to software that was previously affordable only for larger companies.  It has removed the need for large initial investments in hardware and has eased the staffing costs within the IT department. Now that SME’s can afford excellent, market-leading software, companies who take the next left onto Cloud Street will have a competitive advantage in the market.

Cloud – Internal operations

Companies are now able to automate processes that before were not possible, such as AP automation or real-time inventory tracking. Calculations that provide reports and data for decision making, forecasting, and analysis, can now be accessed in real-time and improve accuracy. Running reports against data that was previously filed away in an Excel document and saved on a local hard drive becomes much easier to run and therefore, more accessible for everyone within your firm.

Cloud – External facing services

With portals readily available, not only can suppliers and partner services be improved, enhanced and automated, but customer portals can also provide a better customer experience such as, improving customer service and providing self-service, as well as, presenting up-selling opportunities with suggestions for additional online products and revenue streams. For example, mobile shopping gives you great insight into your customer database and it also allows your customers to access your products and services in additional ways.

So, put simply, yes, choosing your business technology really matters and choosing the right cloud platform is significant for your company’s growth. Companies who use it for their accounting and business software can focus more on their business and driving growth rather than focusing on the technology which enables it. These firms can provide better service to the customer base, suppliers, and partners, and they can most definitely increase employee satisfaction by removing mundane tasks and unnecessary inefficiencies from internal operations.

With Holded, you can access your business at any time, place and on any device, because your business is everywhere and so are we.