If you’ve done any research on the cloud before landing on this article, you’ve come across the benefits of cloud computing. Here are the top six: cost, scalability, security, ease of implementation, ease of updating, and interoperability. Every article spins them a little differently, but here I’d like to focus on how those benefits add up to make an impact in your organization. So, here it is:
Greater Flexibility + Improved Operations = Better Outcomes & Opportunities
GREATER FLEXIBILITY
To achieve greater workplace flexibility, your team members need the ability to work outside of the office and standard office hours. For some, it is the nature of their work (sales and field service technicians, for example) and therefore a necessity to do their job well. For most others, flexibility is a job perk they place significant value on because it enables them to better manage their work-life balance.
When work can accommodate life’s schedule, not the other way around, employees can show up better for everyone involved. From an HR perspective, this benefit can result in a rise in engagement and satisfaction, which benefits operations in the form of better productivity because employees stay longer, work smarter and harder. Here are a few stats to drive the impact of this benefit home:
- “Those who work remotely at least once per month are 24% more likely to be happy and productive in their roles than those who can’t or don’t work remotely.” OWL Labs
- “Companies that allow remote work experience 25% less employee turnover than companies that do not allow remote work. 69% of millennials will trade other work benefits for flexible workspace options.” OWL Labs
- “Work-life balance (73%) was ranked more important than salary (70%) when evaluating a job prospect.” FlexJobs
The cloud enables you to offer this flexibility by providing secure access to your work environment from any location. And, the easier it is to connect and access applications and data the more your team members will actually take advantage of this benefit. Plus, you can maximize their time spent “on the clock” if logging in is quick and easy. Time spent working, rather than time spent accessing the work is much better for your bottom line.
IMPROVED OPERATIONS
While improved operations will be a result of greater flexibility, the impact doesn’t end there. The cloud empowers improvement in operational efficiency and productivity in many ways. Without going into all the details (get those here), the IT knowledge and infrastructure of cloud service providers can give your team access to computing power, tools and analytics that make collaboration and communication better than ever before.
With the most up to date software and equipment, interruptions are fewer, tools are better, and connection time is faster. This allows your team to more efficiently serve your customers, innovate, design, solve problems, research, and much more, all in the name of your organization.
BETTER OPPORTUNITY
In the end, if you calculated the total impact of all cloud computing benefits, you’d see greater outcomes and increased opportunities. The right, happy people in the right environment, powered by the right tools is the perfect framework for achieving your growth goals.
So whether you are aiming to improve your customer service, empower better collaboration among your partners, better optimize your IT infrastructure management, or anything in between – the cloud can equip your team to do so more efficiently.