How Cloud-Hosted ERP Future-Proofs Your Business

In light of current events, to say that life is unpredictable would possibly be the biggest understatement of the decade so far. In the blink of an eye, the world as we know it has changed, forcing many organisations to rapidly digitise and putting many millions of workers into the “work from home” category overnight.

However, for businesses that have already embraced digital transformation, the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t stopping them. Through the power of cloud-hosted ERP technology like metasfresh, business continuity has been ensured. These businesses haven’t been hamstrung by a lack of internal IT resources which has left many companies struggling to scale their IT capabilities at short notice to accommodate the sudden increase in the number of remote workers they need to support.

Indeed, with a cloud-based ERP that runs in any modern web browser from any device — fully managed and maintained by the cloud hosting provider — the sudden shift to remote work has been relatively simple to facilitate, providing the remote access to business systems, customer and company data every business needs to be a connected business in times of crisis and beyond.

Unsurprisingly, the pandemic has prompted an acceleration in the adoption of cloud technologies and managed cloud hosting services — both by companies that were already digitally mature, as well as those that have suddenly had to expand their IT capabilities.

A recent survey by IT asset management firm Snow Software of 250 IT leaders across the globe confirms these trends. Out of those surveyed, 82% said they had ramped up their overall cloud usage in response to the pandemic, with 66% noting that this increase will continue over time — not level out when employees return to the workplace.

Interestingly, though it is of course the likes of Zoom, Slack, and Microsoft Teams that have dominated the headlines, cloud infrastructure is actually the biggest driver of this increase. More than three-quarters of those surveyed (76%) said they have increased their use of cloud platforms and private cloud — compared to a little over half, respectively, of those who said they had increased their usage of collaboration tools like Slack, etc. (55%) and cloud-based videoconferencing software (52%). The likelihood is that many companies were already utilising such communication and productivity services to some degree ahead of the crisis — whereas the surge in cloud infrastructure represents a more fundamental shift in how organisations intend to operate going forward.

In all, 91% of IT leaders said they expected some sort of change to their cloud strategy. Of the strategic changes being pursued, three stand out as having the highest priority:

• Accelerate cloud migration (45%)
• Accelerate digital transformation initiatives (41%)
• Examine technology use to search for efficiencies (29%)

Increasing business needs to enable the remote workforce is of course one of the primary drivers behind cloud migration and digital transformation trends. There are further benefits of moving enterprise applications like ERP to the cloud, however — such as cutting operating and infrastructural costs, and increasing the efficiency of internal resources.

Cloud ERP solutions like metasfresh Cloud bring a predictable cost model for operating ERP software. With the cloud, the costs of maintaining servers and other hardware — as well as backups, disaster recovery and energy costs — completely disappear, for it is down to the expert service provider to manage and maintain the enterprise solution and the infrastructure it runs on.

This includes the administrative aspects of the solution’s IT requirements, keeping systems updated, and keeping the business current with the latest updates and technologies. And with that predictable cost model in place, IT teams can refocus on more strategic projects that have the highest value business impacts — rather than worrying about an expensive, time-consuming and potentially disruptive server replacement or infrastructure upgrade that will inevitably be required sooner or later.

Indeed, according to Spiceworks’s 2020 State of IT report, of the 44% of businesses who plan to increase their tech spend this year, nearly two-thirds (64%) expect upgrades of outdated infrastructure to soak up the budget — the strongest answer by far from this line of questioning.

The primary advantage of cloud hosting services is that organisations are provided with all the benefits of large IT infrastructure without the need for large amounts of in-house hardware — and equally large teams to maintain it. There is no need to worry about maintaining technology infrastructure or servers reaching end-of-life — and the cost and disruptions associated with replacing them.

As such, no matter if you’re looking to start outsourcing your IT to free up internal resources, or find yourself suddenly having to scramble together an IT team for the first time to enable a remote workforce in response to current events, metasfresh Cloud ERP is the solution.

With metasfresh Cloud, you simply leave the technology management to us, so you can continue focusing on growing your business and other aspects of your digital transformation. metasfresh Cloud provides your whole team — no matter where they are — with direct access to an extensive suite of business management tools, functions and live data from any device with internet access, giving you instant insight into business operations across finance, accounting, HR, product development, supply chain management, sales, marketing and more.

You can track profitability, generate reports, manage financials, customer relationships, orders, shipping, sales, and monitor your business’s day-to-day performance from one centralised information system, providing the insights you need to make informed decisions based on real-time data.

Having a cloud-based ERP that can be accessed from anywhere on any device — and one that is expertly maintained by a dedicated team ensuring the solution is correctly configured, secure, performing optimally, and readily scalable — is crucial for future-proofing your business. A reliable and secure business process management, collaboration and communication solution, metasfresh Cloud ERP ensures business continuity and connectivity between customers and suppliers — even in the event of a global crisis.

At metasfresh, our aim is to free up your valuable resources so you can save time and money on the implementation, maintenance, servicing and operation of your ERP system, allowing you to focus on the development of your core business.

Talk to us here at metasfresh. Since 2006 we have been developing our ERP software non-stop with open source components and under the open source licenses GPLv2 and GPLv3. Our mission is to enable each and every company to access a powerful ERP system that supports digital transformation and fuels corporate growth. Get in touch today for more information and insights.