- Robert Czarniewski
Critical aplication in cloud
The future of business solution
Digital transformation has led to organization’s management – whether it is both in an SME, a corporation and local and national government body – is done through different type of business applications. Such a conception gives range of opportunities to increase efficiency and reducing operating cost at the same time. Uninterrupted functioning and the performance of the IT environment for further system development – identified as critical – is therefore extremely important.
Inhibiting factors
Business applications are today among the critical systems in terms of business continuity and importance to the company growth. In order to exploit their potential organizations have to be aware of their needs and processes, as well as the factors that restrain their development. This applies equally to staff shortages – in particular IT staff and the capacity and efficiency of the IT resources held.
According to participants in a survey conducted by Polcom and Intel for the report “IT investments towards the development of Polish companies in 2021- 2022: Cloud and new technologies” there are more similar factors. 65 percent of the responders point to outdated systems and technologies, among other things. As a result of many years of neglect in the IT area, which negatively affects the day-to-day operation of many processes, this may be a major challenge in implementing digital transformation. It can also have an impact on the issue of ensuring continuity of business systems and applications – as highlighted by 45 percent of the respondent – and decentralisation as pointed by 28 percent.
Process improvement
Before companies and other market participants had to ultimately build their own IT environment for business applications or use already existing, but not always efficient, infrastructure. In on-demand model it is done on a service basis. This is important because most managers and corporate executives are familiar with the idea of reducing IT costs. However, the evolution towards a digital business means that departments, such as IT and finance, need to move beyond simple cutting costs. As a consequence, the focus should be on optimising the business value of IT.
So it is safe to say that today, effective cost optimisation should involve a constant search for technologies that add business value such as cloud computing.
Value of such solution was recognised by respondents of a Polcom and Intel survey, who indicated that cloud computing allows them to improve the operation and cost efficiency of many processes. These areas included the outsourcing, for example ERP and HR, which was pointed out by 43 percent of respondents. Next, responders mentioned office application (42 percent positive answers) and CRM (36 percent). It should also be noted that 7 percent of responders believe that cloud computing will be, or already is, a major driver of IT change.
The future of every company
Cloud in the context of business application therefore appears to be a future for both big companies and SMEs.
And although migration of various systems to the cloud requires a lot of preparation, it is a process that brings many benefits. The most important is the ability to focus on core business and an access to new, innovative technologies (e.g. the SAP system) without having to invest in own IT infrastructure or take care of the hardware and software platform.
Moreover services and solutions available in the cloud provide instant scalability, which allows a large number of request or more than expected users to be supported, without the need to purchase additional IT equipment. In turn, by changing the funding model from CAPEX to OPEX, companies in various sectors that have already decided to move to the cloud can optimize spending on IT infrastructure.