Business process automation in the services industry

Top 5 Benefits of Automating Business IT Processes with Cloud Computing

Summary: Its ability to provide quality software and innovative advancements, along with web-based access from anywhere, makes the cloud a suitable platform for business process automation. To align their operations with customer expectations without driving up their costs, more enterprises are now adopting this digital technology.

A report by LogicMonitor reveals that by 2020, 83% of enterprise workloads will be in the cloud.¹ The survey also predicted that 41% of these workloads would be running on public cloud platforms such as Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and MS Azure.

This shift towards a more efficient approach for software development may soon see legacy organisations struggling to catch up with their progressive, cloud-native counterparts. To avoid risk, such organisations need to start moving their processes to the cloud and also leverage its potential for automation.

The migration of siloed, on-premise IT systems to a cloud environment seems to be a huge task. However, business process automation (BPA) with cloud does reduce the time and money spent on managing them conventionally. It streamlines processes such as accounts payable, contract management and employee onboarding.

The key factors to consider while automating a process in the cloud are:

It works consistently for all teams across the organisation.

It is repeatable at regular intervals – such as payroll, accounts payable.

It is free from errors, each time it is run.

The top factors that make the cloud a better platform for BPA than on-premise servers include:

Reduced Costs of Ownership

On-premise software systems for BPA involve substantial investment due to their licensing costs. They are subject to depreciation and get obsolete over time. Updating them regularly, applying patches/fixes, rewriting customisations, and retaining a dedicated IT team for their maintenance create additional expenses. If they fail to perform on certain occasions, there are additional downtime costs.

Conversely, the cloud-based business automation solution is a pay-as-you-go model. The service provider assures the deployment, customisation, maintenance and uptime of applications through a legitimate service level agreement (SLA), which helps organisations save upon their overall cost of ownership.

Better Reliability, Flexibility and Scalability

Being a web-based service, cloud BPA is simpler and more flexible to manage than on-premise legacy systems for process automation. There is unlimited scope for storage, networking and computing in the cloud – this makes business processes agile and responsive.

With high scalability, complex and data-rich applications also run at high speeds in the cloud. A business can quickly scale its operations to newer regions and keep evolving as per advanced technology changes.

Improved Information Management

When an enterprise has cloud solution for its BPA, it can ensure that all its employees – irrespective of their location and the computing device they use – get the same access to the information database. On-premise applications do not provide such convenience.

Additionally, as per business security policies, these employees may have different privileges to check, update and modify the data stored in the platform. While enabling real-time consolidated data administration, cloud solutions also help in distributing login rights for individual users in line with their roles.

Optimised Communication and Collaboration

When business processes are automated in the cloud, teams in the concerned departments can collaborate and manage their workflows without having to work from a shared location. If the same set of applications is automated in an on-premise system, remote teams cannot access them.

By automating business processes, cloud computing also facilitates efficient data extraction, data mining and business intelligence (BI), which can be leveraged by an organisation to fuel growth and competitiveness.

More Redundancy

To maintain the continuity of their operations, businesses would always need to have a ‘Plan B’ when a particular course of action fails. However, if data stored locally on office servers is lost, it often goes completely out of hand. Similarly, custom software installed on a computer cannot be used if the machine suffers damage or the software itself has not been upgraded/patched correctly.

In the cloud, the virtual duplication of servers enables immediate failover from one server to another. This ensures better uptime and helps to maintain a consistent process flow for the organisation.

Where the cloud computing model continues to establish itself as a practical delivery mechanism for a range of business processes, it is also essential for users to ensure that they connect securely to this Internet-enabled platform.

At Tata Tele Business Services, we not only offer an array of cloud solutions, including SaaS, IaaS and Content Delivery Network, but also help our clients reach these tools without the fear of cyber threats. Our Smart VPN and Secure Connect services effectively address all concerns on data security and incident response planning.

To know more about these services, connect with us at 1800-266-1515

Source:

https://www.logicmonitor.com/blog/83-percent-of-enterprise-workloads-will-be-in-the-cloud-by-2020/