3 Ways To Leverage Cloud Services to Gain a Competitive Advantage

“It’s become the phrase du jour,” says Ben Pring, former Vice President of Research at Gartner, of the term cloud computing. “The problem is that everyone seems to have a different definition.”

So let’s start out with the simple question: What is cloud computing? According to Oxford Dictionaries, it’s the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer. Now, instead of using a personal computer to run an application, individuals can do this from anywhere in the world.

Recently, while reading a blog post focused on uncovering the real value of the cloud, I was considering how can you leverage the cloud beyond expected savings? When a company implements the cloud, there are three anticipated benefits:

1. the physical savings
2. management of infrastructure
3. and the scalability of computer resources as your company’s needs change.

These three well-known advantages are the driving force behind the rapid adoption of cloud services.

I ask you this: why stop with these obvious benefits? How can you further leverage the cloud to give your business a crucial competitive edge? The cloud can be as valuable as you make it. Below are three additional advantages of cloud services and how it can guarantee your business value beyond savings.

1. Cloud services allow you to focus on your core value differentiator.

As your company gets more and more competitive under global pressure, there is value in narrowing your organization’s focus specifically on your own business model and the differentiation your company provides. Cloud services not only aid in consolidating your focus, they offload extraneous effort not in keeping in line with your business goals. In essence, cloud services provide the capabilities needed to run your business and to focus on key revenue-generating activities.

2. Look for a cloud service provider that will allow you to turn your standard business processes and the ubiquity of the cloud solution into a differentiator for your business.

Cloud services enable accountability, compliance and transparency across your company. Furthermore, the cloud can reduce risk since it allows interworking across the organization and enhanced engagement through mobility. It is not just about scale; It’s also about ease of access and connectivity of function.

3. Evaluate if the provider leverages the resources a cloud service offers to give you additional product value.

Increasingly, companies are realizing the success of a program lies in the ability to integrate with and capture supplier management performance. You can expand your supplier network outreach into new markets by capitalizing on the accessibility and networking capabilities of the cloud.

Cloud services offer unique opportunities for insight and can deliver value beyond the flexibility they provide on the surface. By leveraging this additional value, you can focus on reshaping your organization’s initiatives and continually driving success.

Looking for a cloud service that can boost your organization’s value and give your company a competitive edge? JAGGAER goes beyond automation to enable more strategic engagement and optimization across disparate and siloed organizations within the company through advanced, integrated tools in the source-to-settle process. With JAGGAER solutions, you are able to expand into new markets through access to a broader and deeper supplier network only possible in cloud deployment.