There is a familiar ring to this. It often takes a crisis to drive technology adoption. Cloud services adoption is no different. COVID-19-related queries for technology upgrades are on the rise.
Despite the growing rhetoric around digital transformation, cloud services adoption has lagged. C-suite executives are big on vision. However, when it comes to putting money where their mouths are, the general approach has often been, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
It took a massive cybersecurity breach at Sony Pictures in 2014 to trigger a corporate scramble to implement network security strategies, which had been put on the back burner.
Things were different then.
The objective, at that time, was to identify the vulnerabilities and mitigate them to prevent a future hack. There was no expectation of incorporating new technologies as a crisis was unraveling.
This time around, the situation is dire.
COVID-19 has been declared a pandemic. The danger to human life is clear and present.
Technology adoption has to happen in real-time. Companies that balked at the idea of their employees working from home are scrambling to put in place technologies and services to do just that — enable teleworking.
As someone who has pitched the virtues of cloud-based collaboration services for nearly a decade, I have to say this.
I told you so.
The case for cloud services adoption has never been more compelling. The arguments could come right out of a UCaaS pitchbook created nearly ten years ago.
In case you are still wondering, here are a few high-level benefits of implementing a cloud-based collaboration solution. The points shown below are not new. However, under the current circumstances, they are certainly worth repeating.
Convenience – Relocate Employees
Cloud-based communication services are location and device-independent and can happen anytime, anywhere on any device of your choice. Companies that have implemented cloud-based voice and collaboration services would find themselves able to quickly move employees between offices or teleworking locations to ensure business continuity.
Flexibility – Scale Up
Cloud services offer flexibility. The number of users can be scaled up or down based on the needs of the business. Premise-based systems are mostly capital purchases and come with hard costs. While scaling up may be an option, scaling down is rarely an option for premise systems.
Manageability – Ease of Operations
Not having to deal with multiple vendors during times of crises such as COVID-19 can be a boon to IT Managers. Cloud services often come with the ability to run multiple services — voice, data, and video — over a single network, which may result in operational cost savings.
Business Continuity
Cloud services are often delivered from geographically redundant infrastructure to ensure business continuity for the customer. Disaster recovery policies ensure that short-term outages at one location do not impact services to customers.
Predictability
Since cloud services are typically priced on a per-person basis, the operational cost of the service is predictable. Having to add hardware and software to expand a premise-based system will come with additional capital costs that cannot be removed when the crisis is over.
Free Up Resources
Not having to worry about your system and its technical limitations can be big relief while dealing with a crisis situation. The currency of the technology infrastructure is solely the responsibility of the provider, which helps customers free up capital — both human and financial.
Security
Cloud services come with inherent security features implemented by the service provider. Security controls, such as DDoS, come at a cost and are often ignored by smaller businesses that run premise-based systems.
Stay in Control
Many service providers offer varying levels of shared responsibility in managing cloud-based services. Customers who are concerned about losing control of their in-house systems can review options and pick a model that fits their environment.
Leverage Economies of Scale
Integrating applications such as Contact Centre, CRM, and others into an existing UCaaS environment can be cost-effective and speedier if offered by the cloud service provider. In a cloud-based system, moving office-based contact centre agents to a teleworking environment may come down to just a matter of increasing the number of appropriate licenses.
At the end of the day, business continuity is what it is all about.
Governments and businesses have the responsibility to serve their communities. When pandemics such as COVID-19 throw a spanner in their works, they have to get creative and rely on technology solutions that minimize service disruptions.
Cloud-based services offer the flexibility, scalability, and manageability required during such trying times.
But, should it take a pandemic to drive cloud service adoption?
