The concept behind cloud computing or software-as-a-service (SaaS) is simple: it reduces cost and lets you run computer applications over the Internet, without having to buy, install or manage your own servers. You can run company business applications with nothing more than a browser and an Internet connection. You can connect anytime to input, manage, communicate and report results through any device: mobile device, laptop and your corporate server. It a cost-efficient, pay-as-you, buy only what you need “pizza by the slice” approach to acquiring complex business services. No wonder cloud computing has taken off so quickly and become a preferred platform for so many business applications.
In the context of sustainable business applications, demand for transparency in sustainable business practices becomes a rapidly growing global mandate by corporate shareholders and stakeholders. The perplexing question for many corporations and organizations hasn’t been “Why?” They understand the potential long-term benefits derived from environmental, social, and economic diversity and multicultural workforce and workplace diversity initiatives. They’re making corporate social responsibility a core business strategy. No, the perplexing questions have been “How do we start?” and “Where do we start?” and “How do we pay for it?” The problem (until now) of course, has been the approach. Typical traditional consulting approaches have been either too limited in scope to do much good or have meant legions of pricey consultants and months if not longer to implement some effective means for measuring and reporting results. Cloud computing, on the other hand, is turning conventional software delivery and sustainable business practices management and reporting on its head in a number of ways:
- Fast deployment: You can be up and running sustainable business applications, on a local or global scale, within a few hours with existing personnel, rather than the six to 12 months it would take to have a consulting team brought on board.
- Cost savings: You pay as you go with subscription-based pricing, often on an annual basis, unlike conventional systems where you have to make a major up-front CapEx investment in licenses, hardware, software, and additional IT staffing. Users are benefiting from better cash flow and far greater IT flexibility.
- Ease of access at anytime, and from anywhere: Typically, applications are “always on,” making it easy to grow your business and support remote workers and locations, or support a highly mobile sales or service team, because people can access the cloud any time, day or night, from any browser, desktop or mobile device around the globe, 24×7.
- Customizable performance: Sustainable business applications can be modified to meet performance and branding needs, distributed whenever and wherever you need them, and adjustable to meet the specific business requirements.
- Low overhead: Upgrades, maintenance and system administration are managed by the host. New versions or application upgrades are typically automatic.
- High availability: Applications designed from the ground up maximum network performance delivering reliable application availability.
- Security: For many companies, the level of security and availability, disaster recovery and back-up provided by a software-as-a-service provider far exceeds that which they can provide themselves.
- Energy savings: By eliminating the need for on-premise hardware, cloud computing reduces overall server room electric consumption as well.
Cloud computing, when operating on a SaaS platform like the one dmStrategists uses to deliver business practices management and reporting software solutions, lets you focus on your business rather than on the software. With a SaaS-based sustainable management and reporting solution, you don’t have to use valuable IT resources to keep your sustainable business applications on life support. You can quickly deploy them as a key element of your business strategy and accelerate results. And you can take your applications anywhere you conduct business, locally or globally, without outgrowing your cloud computing resources.
