How the Cloud Levels the Playing Field for Small and Midsize Businesses
Mobility is no longer a future trend. It’s an undeniable fact of business today. Not only have mobile devices infiltrated our lives, they’ve brought a whole range of activities—previously limited to desktops and laptops—to our fingertips. More essential than ever, mobility is a powerful tool for startups and growing businesses to empower workers and connect with customers.
To succeed in this new cloud-first, mobile-first reality means more than just allowing your employees to bring their devices to work. Your mobility strategy needs to connect your people, data, and business systems in a way that enables sales growth, reduces costs, delights customers, and puts you ahead of the competition.
Components of a winning solution. Connected mobile solutions are more accessible to small and midsize businesses than ever before. To compete and win, here’s what you need as part of your mobile strategy:
- Remote access to business applications. Business happens everywhere. No matter where you are, you need secure access to your financial and customer relationship management data.
- Data analysis tools. The data you’re collecting from sales, finance, customers, and operations management systems is only as good as the insights you can glean from it.
- Business-class communication and collaboration. Effective collaboration relies on secure email, calendar, real-time communication (voice, instant messaging, and online meetings), shared workspaces, and internal sites.
- Content creation applications. Look for familiar, standard tools for creating documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and other business communication components.
- Storage and synchronization. Enterprise-grade cloud storage keeps your information protected, accessible, and synchronized across devices.
A solid mobile strategy starts in the cloud. Cloud-based business applications and productivity tools offer better economics, convenience, capabilities, and security while enabling your mobile and remote workers to achieve more. Customers, partners, and employees increasingly demand anywhere, anytime access to data and content—think mobile-first, cloud-first to deliver what they need.
All the right pieces come together. What should you be looking for in your cloud solution? Piecemeal solutions or consumer-oriented tools may offer compelling features, but the added complexity and greater risks can lead to hidden costs. To succeed, you need business-class performance, comprehensive capabilities, familiar and consistent user experience, and enterprise-grade security, all from a single, trustworthy cloud provider.
Take a guided tour to see how a cloud-based business solution from Microsoft can help you more effectively manage customer relationships, financials, and operations from anywhere. For more tips on developing your mobile strategy, be sure to read The Cloud as a Platform e-book.
