Why the cloud is key to digital transformation

Why the cloud is key
to digital transformation

By Dan Vanrenen | June 2021

Cloud computing has been one of the most universally useful technologies to have emerged during the 21st century.

For those that don’t know, cloud computing is defined as the on-demand availability of computer system resources (usually data storage and additional computing power). It generally refers to the concept of using someone else’s computer, and for most of this comes in the form of servers that are found in data centers.

Why might this benefit an organization? With the cloud comes significantly enhanced operational flexibility
– a key characteristic required for any successful customer experience-centric digital transformation strategy.

KPMG highlights the general importance of embracing flexibility to remain relevant in the digital era as follows:

“It can mean a fundamental shift in how organizations function
when agility is truly embraced. The entire operating model of
organizations potentially changes. In our view this ranges from
structure and governance, to capabilities and processes, technology,
sourcing, people and culture, and performance management.
All these domains are optimized for customer focus, speed and flexibility,
while increasing transparency, predictability and control, and while
lowering costs through efficiency.”

KPMG, Agile Transformation: 2019 Survey on Agility

“It can mean a fundamental shift in how organizations function when agility is truly embraced. The entire operating model of organizations potentially changes. In our view this ranges from structure and governance, to capabilities and processes, technology, sourcing, people and culture, and performance management.
All these domains are optimized for customer focus, speed and flexibility, while increasing transparency, predictability and control, and while lowering costs through efficiency.”

KPMG, Agile Transformation: 2019 Survey on Agility

Be it the ability to scale up customer service capacity or overcome obstacles presented by the coronavirus pandemic, flexibility and agility are qualities that are more crucial to organizations today than perhaps ever before.

Improving scalability with the cloud

Let us first consider the opportunity to scale.

Fast-growing companies with expanding customer bases need to find solutions that allow them to continually adapt to meet ever heightening demands.

With the cloud, a large step towards achieving this can be taken by simply paying your remote server provider for extra capacity, which also saves on having to purchase expensive hardware and/or grow a physical office space.

Beyond cost savings, there are a plethora of other benefits that the cloud offers. Here are just a few listed in our white paper, Digitally transformed customer experience: The technology and the human

• Faster implementation

• Enhanced security
• Boosted employee productivity
• Scope for integration of extra channels and services
• Flexibility to work remotely

Improving scalability with the cloud

Let us first consider the opportunity to scale.

Fast-growing companies with expanding customer bases need to find solutions that allow them to continually adapt to meet ever heightening demands.

• Faster implementation

• Enhanced security
• Boosted employee productivity
• Scope for integration of extra channels and services
• Flexibility to work remotely

The cloud and COVID-19

Let’s dive into the latter point on this list.

Remote working has never been more prevalent as a result of the pandemic, with an acute uptick in home working having been widely observed during the course of 2020:

Deloitte, for example, has gathered data from Switzerland which shows a doubling in the number of people remote working during the pandemic.

This increase will have a significant impact on businesses,
and we will probably see many moving to more flexible workplace
models. The current crisis is serving as a large-scale remote working
experiment, demonstrating what works and what does not.”

Deloitte

This increase will have a significant impact on businesses, and we will probably see many moving to more flexible workplace models. The current crisis is serving as a large-scale remote working experiment, demonstrating what works and what does not.”

Deloitte

Cloud solutions are key to overseeing the transition to home working seamlessly.

From a logistical perspective, migration to cloud-hosted systems and processes will reduce the amount of physical hardware that needs to be shifted from an office to a home setup.

In most cases, employees will be able to access the programs and systems they need through a single device, while customers benefit from the multitude of options that cloud-based omnichannel contact centers provide.

A customer service agent working from home can serve customers via webchat, email, text/WhatsApp, and video and voice calls, all hosted on cloud.

• The global cloud computing market is expected to grow from $371 billion in 2020 to $832 billion by 2025
• By 2022, some 90% of companies will be using cloud services
• 56% of technology executives consider cloud migration as ‘an absolute necessity’ due to COVID-19

Whether you are looking to scale or adapt to a new world of remote working, the cloud is the key to enabling your organization to operate flexibly. It should, therefore, form the bedrock of any digital transformation strategy.