The COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak is the cloud's chance to shine

It’s time to work from home

Cancelling big events has been good step towards the control of Covid-19, but what’s even better is that cloud computing can be used by businesses to continue their duties from home. You don’t need to travel anywhere when you can see everything you need via the internet.

This is what Google chose to do with Cloud Next 20. Instead of a grand convention, it’s now a “free, global, digital-first, multi-day event”. This will include streamed keynotes where you won’t have to get dressed and you won’t lose your seat if you get a cup of coffee. You can also see the breakout sessions, talk to the experts and check out all the new products and services without leaving your house. 

It probably couldn’t have been set up in such a short time, but this would have also been a perfect opportunity to use virtual and augmented reality technologies. Imagine popping a headset on and your living room turns into one of Google’s breakout sessions. This isn’t fantasy dreamland for the future, an Oculus event did this in 2018, so it is very much possible right now. There is so much more we can do with cloud computing and it seems that COVID-19 might be the catalyst for us all to find out what. 

Anyone who attends the big tech events knows that they are huge gatherings. A company usually spreads its keynote and other sessions around a building that’s often too big to see all of it in one day. You need a strict plan to get in, see the whole three hours of what the CEO and their co-presenters have to say and then sprint off to meet with developers, experts or journalists in some far-flung corner. Wouldn't it be better for all involved if instead, in the comfort of your own home, you can just click your way around on your laptop?

So much for the grand events, but what about your own business?

The cloud enables scalability

It is the ability to scale up, and down, computing requirements, resources and power (depending on business needs) that has driven organizations to adopt and deploy cloud solutions. For many years organizations have adopted and deployed cloud services to deliver a level of computing scalability, elasticity, flexibility and agility as and when they need it. For example, the ability to scale up the computing power a charity may need during a campaign and on the day of an event when donations may spike. This scalability means that in times such as these, organizations know they can gain access to the services employees may need when working remotely. Today we are able to access a diverse and vibrant cloud computing industry that provides a range of agile and flexible cloud services to both public and private sector organizations. These providers invest significant amounts in ensuring the cloud infrastructure and services provided are resilient, safe, and secure; particularly as and when demand varies.

Connectivity is key

It cannot be overemphasized that reliable connectivity to cloud services is critical for its success. As more organizations move their business critical data and applications from on-premise to the cloud, the ability to be able to connect and access cloud services is key to operational efficiency, effectiveness and employee productivity. The availability of quality, low latency connectivity has become a key part of businesses decision to move to the cloud.

Remote working: nothing new

Let’s remember that employees being supported by cloud solutions while working from home or on the move is nothing new. Cloud services have for many years enabled increasing numbers of employees to become more mobile and agile and embracing new working practices. This support has been positively received by employees and has helped to create a cloud-enabled workforce.

Along with Cloud Service Providers ensuring that cloud systems, infrastructure and people are there to help businesses at this time, Modax Consulting are also specialists in designing cloud ERP solutions to continue to be used well after the current pandemic is over.

Businesses are now at the stage where their choice of cloud computing models is vital to their long-term sustainability and profitability. What the pandemic has bought into sharp relief is how a flexible cloud deployment is critical to enable enterprises to be agile and adaptable with their workloads, processes and the support they can give to remote work forces.

The cloud service models on offer are also expanding to meet increasingly focused and bespoke business models.

Chief executives are tasking their technology and information leaders the world over to advance their cloud deployments away from one size fits all, to specialist service providers focused on their business niche.

Large-scale cloud infrastructure service providers, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, are the workhorses for general workloads and application deployments. However, businesses are also looking past these infrastructure-as-a-service providers towards more personalized virtual machine services better suited to their needs as they assess what business means for them after COVID-19.

Sunil Prashara, president and chief executive of Project Management Institute, says:

“Leaders always need to think customer first, especially as virtual work is now the new norm, and must reimagine their businesses. They need to be virtually agile and able to adapt to how business and work gets done from this point forward.”

The near future will require a more subtle and personalized approach to cloud computing models. As businesses look past the pandemic, their choice of public, private or hybrid cloud will be driven by the new commercial environments they find themselves trading in.

Taking a holistic approach to their entire business need will result in the right decisions being made when choosing and deploying cloud services. Enterprise may have to reimagine existing service models, but also embrace new forms of cloud computing.

Working with cloud ERP

Businesses using the power of cloud ERP technology have ensured business continuity, which means they are accessing their business systems from anywhere (at any time), working in isolation without being isolated, safeguarding the security of their cloud data, and even thriving.

The idea of moving from the traditional in-house employee model to an offsite workforce is not a new concept. In fact, it’s been around for decades, and the many benefits of working remotely have already been felt by both sides of the business equation: flexibility, time-savings, increased job satisfaction, less stress, and enhanced creativity for employees; higher productivity, reduced operating costs, fewer geographical restrictions for hiring new employees, and lower turnover rates (because of increased loyalty) for employers (and don’t forget the reduction of our carbon footprint benefiting everyone).

Modern cloud ERP software, like Acumatica, or D365 provides the remote access every business needs in this time of crisis and beyond.

Acumatica’s cloud based ERP solution can ease your evolution into a remote-based organization. It is a fully integrated, user-friendly business management solution with the service commitment and telecommuting capabilities businesses need in today’s uncertain environment. Acumatica rests on a flexible, open platform designed from the ground up to give users easy access to third-party applications, scalability, security, and the confidence they’ll be able to continue operating during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

But since the surge in remote working is so sudden, it is a difficult time for organizations to oversee the operations of teams in disparate locations, time zones, and even working hours. Remote work can pose several challenges for business leaders and managers alike – including real-time communication, maintaining proper cybersecurity practices, and overcoming intermittent connectivity problems. Dynamics 365 drives the efficiency of organizations where remote working capabilities have not yet been established but need to get started immediately.

From identifying instant messaging and file sharing requirements to ensuring seamless access to ERP and CRM systems. The pace and scale of remote access is putting existing enterprise systems under immense strain, so now is a good time for organizations to capitalize on ERP systems and make it easy for remote workers to make the most of their enterprise system.

Although CIOs will have to look into aspects such as enabling workplace collaboration and overcoming network connection issues, Dynamics 365 systems can help organizations avoid unnecessary disruption.

1.    By ensuring seamless access to enterprise resources using Dynamics 365 cloud Azure cloud-based Dynamics 365 can ensure sales staff, marketing professionals, finance teams, HR administrators, and project managers can all work just as effectively from home with access to all that they need to perform their jobs. Whether it is about speaking to customers, taking or tracking orders, managing inventory, or generating sales reports, in a COVID-19 era, cloud ERPs can ensure seamless functioning of businesses. Since Dynamics 365 cloud can scale dynamically as well as reallocate resources and redistribute load, it can play a great role in ensuring business efficiency is maintained.

2.    Maintaining communication is critical in a time of turmoil; therefore, to enable real-time communication between users across the organization, using the features and capabilities of Microsoft Teams is a good first step. Microsoft Teams is already integrated with Dynamics 365 ERP, all users must do is install rich desktop clients instead of web clients to cache information and enjoy a better performance under bandwidth restrictions or networking problems. With more modern communication protocols that can better handle networking issues, users can chat with peers, share files, as well as collaborate on documents in real-time.

3.    Through integration with Office 365, users can unlock modern ways of remote working. By providing access to tools – irrespective of where users are located –Office 365, users can easily attend meetings online, share Office files, co-author in real time, and be productive from their respective homes. Users can either work on documents alone or in a group, work on the same files at the same time, and then share them with the entire team to further build ideas.

The COVID-19 outbreak has certainly disrupted operations, impacted business continuity, and completely transformed operating models for businesses across the globe. With the pandemic showing no signs of an immediate slowdown, enterprises must respond to the crisis with short-and long-term actions and be prepared for employees working from their homes. For this, it is important that the workforce can get their jobs done from home as efficiently as from their offices, so the business is in a better position to sustain value.

Capitalizing on skills and experience of Modax Consulting with ERP systems like Acumatica and Dynamics 365 is a great way for businesses to increase resilience to future disruptions and prepare themselves for uninterrupted long-term growth.