Do you want an organizational change that results in cost reduction, improved operational efficiency, better satisfies customers’ needs, opens up new market opportunities, and creates new revenue sources? That change is cloud innovation.
A study cited by Forbes forecasted that 83% of the business workloads will be in the cloud by 2020. According to an Forbes, the best formula for cloud innovation has already arrived and is adding value to organizations. It has become the go-to platform for driving enterprise transformation. The top innovators are using the cloud to transform customer experiences, forge new business models, and even diversify into new industries.
Here are the components of the best formula for cloud innovation:
Unlock the future of intelligent applications with our cutting-edge Generative AI integration services!
Best Formula for Cloud Innovation
The Subscription Model
Even in traditional industries, a large number of businesses have switched to the model in which the product is now a subscription. Among a few products offered as subscriptions include movies, musical instruments, iPhones, razor blades, home repair, and even cars. The new model has allowed businesses to keep old customers while attracting new ones. In this model, however, the vendor becomes responsible for customer engagement, retention, and issue resolution.
These disruptive business models are powered by cloud software applications that handle services, ordering, delivery, and pricing. Numerous businesses are starting out this way, benefiting from both service innovation and operational efficiency of the cloud.
The Self-Service Model
The modern customer is powerful than ever and likes to be in control of things. The millennial generation, in particular, increasingly prefers to serve themselves and find things online. These might include product searches, checking ratings and reviews, placing orders, checking order status, or requesting product returns that don’t suit them.
Businesses that desperately want to grow love this model as it eliminates the real-time burden from customer interaction, thereby reducing the costs to serve clients. This creates a win-win situation for buyers and sellers.
Business functions such as customer service and sales are using cloud apps that include sophisticated customer management functions. These functions can often be extended into self-service models such as multi-tenant customer portals and self-monitoring ticketing systems that even the smallest businesses can deploy and feel like Amazon.
Individually Serve Millions
Cloud innovation allows you to deliver personalized services on a massive scale. The contemporary era values mass customization. To succeed, you must possess the ability to offer personalization and flexibility of custom products and services, and that too at high volumes. Until now, there has always been a trade-off between offering customer service and serving millions. You could either sell standardized products or services on a large scale or provide a customized service to a handful of clients.
Cloud innovation has enabled businesses to simultaneously achieve both. Online shopping sites use visitors’ browsing histories, website navigation, and purchase histories to capture their buying behavior, which is then used to provide personalized site experiences. AI-powered applications use the data to display relevant content, product suggestions, etc. and program webpages to talk to individual shoppers and address their queries in a personalized way.
Remote Access and Delivery
With cloud technology, all your scattered business branches can come together to serve customers anywhere in the world. Even if you have a single office located in a particular location, it should be able to serve customers in various geographies with the help of cloud innovation.
SERVICE DISABLED VETERAN OWNED SMALL BUSINESS (SDVOSB)
In other words, cloud innovation allows you to build multiple bilingual teams, deploy talent remotely, develop a part-time workforce, and stay closer to your customer. Various cloud-based communication tools make this happen. They help bridge distances through video conferencing, online chatting and meetings, screen-sharing, collaboration tools, and so on.
Shared presentations, project plans, calendars, and spreadsheets that are accessible from any device allow teams to collaborate remotely and enhance productivity.
Be Credible, Regardless of Your Size
Serving on the cloud means your target audience doesn’t know how big you really are. Through clever use of software, you can appear sophisticated and big. Have a broad range of services and be highly responsive to customer pain points and you’ll soon find yourself automating business processes for clients. This way, you should not only be able to expand your customer base but also attract big clients that want regular services.
A clear example of this is seen in the e-commerce industry. A startup backed by the cloud can list a large assortment of items, reach out to customers, manage inventory, addressing customer queries, handle order fulfillment, and enable returns just as a large e-commerce giant can. In fact, small cloud-based businesses can generate the levels of customer engagement and provide customer service that even large traditional businesses can’t deliver.
Also, being small doesn’t mean you can’t work with other large business systems. Your cloud-based accounting and invoicing applications can integrate with other order fulfillment software and payment gateways such as PayPal. This allows for remote order processing and payments in any currency.
Reaching out Prospects
Cloud innovation has made it remarkably easy to connect and engage with your target audience. Cloud solutions have opened up a myriad number of ways to reach your target audience including website, chat, email, phone, social media, and more. Your customers are spending a lot of time online. You just need to be there to find them.
Small Disadvantaged Business
Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB) provides access to specialized skills and capabilities contributing to improved competitiveness and efficiency.
Cloud-based applications for sales and marketing, customer support, and other functions are designed to enable interactions across different channels. They help businesses find and communicate with customers of various demographics and locations by preserving the history, context, and continuity across all of them.
Further blogs within this Generate Significant Business Value with Cloud Computing category.