You already know the financial benefits of reducing your hardware by moving to the cloud and the resultant savings in IT and maintenance. You are, no doubt, also aware of the augmented benefits of the bring your own device (BYOD) movement as well as the time you save on updates and automated backups that a move to the cloud will facilitate, but did you know that moving your business to the cloud will actually improve productivity? The flexibility the cloud provides and the ability to access your online databases from anywhere at any time enables your team to be effective and increase productivity.
Cloud computing can increase productivity
Cloud solutions allow your department to be more flexible and collaborative and make available all the very latest data so quotes and forecasts are more accurate. One of the biggest contributors to productivity is the 35-40% increase in productivity that large companies like British Telecom, Best Buy and Dow Chemicals have experienced when allowing employees to work remotely.
While initial fears were that employees who worked remotely would sleep until twelve and then spend the rest of the day on Facebook prove to be unfounded, working remotely cuts down on interruptions and travel time while increasing employee satisfaction and retention rates. Another big save is a huge reduction on sick days. Studies estimate that up to 63% of sick days are taken to deal with issues at home. When employees work remotely, they have time to deal with issues and don’t need to ‘fake’ a sick day.
Cloud computing increases worker satisfaction
Working remotely makes such a difference to employee satisfaction that 36% said they would pick working remotely over a pay raise and the same percentage said they would even take a 10% cut in pay for the telecommuting that the cloud makes possible.
Distractions in the work place are another factor inhibiting productivity and these are estimated to cost the US economy $600 billion a year. Cloud computing allows employees to work remotely which cuts down on office distractions and can increase productivity. AT&T estimates it gets an additional five hours of work a week from employees who work from home.
Other benefits to cloud computing
Not only does cloud computing increase productivity, it has the added benefit of saving you money too as real estate costs fall by an average of $10,000 per employee, travel and transportation costs fall and utility and janitorial costs are reduced.
A reduction of hardware and commuting that small to medium businesses enjoy when they move to the cloud also has a very positive impact on the environment.
Businesses surveyed found that cloud computing can increase productivity by 40% and flexibility by 47%.
SMBs slow to adopt cloud-based productivity suites
While many small to medium businesses (SMBs) are migrating to cloud computing for data storage and file sharing, only 14% of those surveyed in a recent Spiceworks study had moved to using cloud-based productivity suites while another 22% were considering adoption of these services. From the study: “This reluctance to implement policy indicates that employees and businesses want so badly to see the productivity benefits of file sharing that they might loosen their standard around security, access control and data management. Overall, the findings show that productivity is a powerful lure. Cloud apps are in demand that reduce burdens on internal IT management while simultaneously enabling access to data and applications wherever and whenever users want.”
Those progressive SMBs that switch to the cloud get all the advantages that leveling the playing field brings. As more people begin to see the advantages of cloud computing and as security measures improve, the move to the cloud gains traction. “The ability to collaborate in the cloud is becoming a key driver of competitive advantage,” says Bruce Rogers, Chief Insights Officer of Forbes Media. “Leading companies are doing more to foster cloud-based collaboration—not only internally, but also with an ever-wider swath of external groups including customers, suppliers, partners, and even regulators.” The benefits of cloud-based collaboration, Rogers continues, include “greater efficiency, organizational dexterity, and innovation,” to name only a few.
