In my previous article, I discussed the risks and rewards of various cloud models. For those of you who are just beginning your exploration into cloud, this article will help explain some of the tangible ROI benefits.

The adoption of cloud-based software is growing in all industries, and the benefits are clear—cost savings and improved infrastructure management. More and more organizations today are shifting their core ERP systems to the cloud. This increased adoption clearly indicates that the cloud has moved into the mainstream.

With today’s increased technology integrations, and an upsurge in mobile, analytics, big data, and social collaboration, it makes sense that companies are looking to further strengthen their ERP investments by migrating to the cloud.

Here’s why.

  • Cost and Convenience :One of the primary advantages the cloud offers is ease of implementation, and reduced infrastructure and maintenance costs. Cloud-based solutions can eliminate hardware and server investments, thereby reducing costs associated with software updates, data storage and management. Workers are more remote than ever these days, whether in the office, at home, or on the road, and as such, they require on-demand information access from anywhere, anytime. Cloud ERP empowers users to access the data they need, when they need it, to improve employee productivity and increase customer service. Consider how much better you can service your customers when your sales reps in the field have access to the same data as they would if they were in the office and in a secure manner.
  • Manageability: Clouds inherently have built-in manageability capabilities already available, thereby reducing the traditional computing management workload. This enables companies to instead focus on managing their applications and processes.
  • Security: Cloud-based systems are built from the start with security at its foundation. You gain the benefit of the many security experts that helped build the cloud as opposed to having to be the security expert managing your on-premise systems.
  • Service Structure: Today’s technology landscape changes by the day and keeping up with this pace is challenging for businesses. Many companies are already seeing the benefits of cloud-based applications such as email, video-conferencing and telecommunications, so the transition to ERP cloud adoption should be a worthy and beneficial endeavor. The cloud service itself is what worries about running the day-to-day operations and keeping the technology continuously updated, rather than the end-user.

ERP software is the foundation on which organizational business processes run. It enables companies to be more efficient and profitable, and encompasses myriad important business functions—financials, supply chain, sales processes, customer service, inventory, distribution, and more—so it’s no wonder companies of all types are realizing why moving the enterprise to the cloud can help better manage these facets.