Reduction in email volume

Early adopters of cloud-based collaborative apps are learning quickly how much easier it is for team members to post comments in a FaceBook-style conversation thread, instead of sending and receiving hundreds of cc’d emails. Collaborative environments are opening up opportunities to communicate and to share and edit documents in a highly efficient way that aligns better with thought processes and human dynamics.

Online signing of forms replaces print-sign-scan-send

Online form-signing apps such as SignNow, Echosign by Adobe Systems, and DocuSign allow signatures, initials and comments to be appended to electronic documents, eliminating the need to print out, sign scan and send back. Fully enforceable and protected by both international law and a clear audit trail, these forms allow early adopters of cloud technology a faster and more convenient process for the creation, storage and processing of important documents.

BYOD, cloud storage and asynchronous workflow 

By allowing employees to work on their personal favourite devices rather than company-issued laptops, and by encouraging the use of secure cloud-based storage apps such as Box and EverNote, early adopters of cloud technology are building a more resilient, creative and dedicated workforce – one that can actually take advantage of fractured schedules, fitting work into smaller spaces in calendars, and working more in-line with individuals’ own personal approaches to tasks and priorities.

Better Project Management

Project Management has been dominated for years by expensive dedicated software, but new affordable cloud-based apps allow for increased communication, collaboration and document sharing, without sacrificing the essential tools of Project Management such as Gantt Charts and Work BreakDown Structure. Early adopters of cloud technology are capitalizing on a more economical and dynamic approach to the complexities and constraints of managing a project.

Metrics: knowing what the customer wants

Data about customer habits and desires comes in many forms, and one of the best comes from siding with cloud metrics companies that review a company’s site performance in seconds, not days or weeks, and can deliver real-time awareness of customers’ purchasing and browsing habits.

By Steve Prentice