Enterprise Cloud Services

6 Top Advantages of Cloud CRM services for SMBs

Bobby Varghese

Implementing a Cloud CRM introduces many new ways of doing business. Moving the customer and project data to the Cloud brings multiple benefits that were not accessible with traditional, on-premises CRM solutions.

Before we move on to the advantages, let’s first understand exactly what a Cloud-based CRM means. A Cloud CRM System is any Customer Relationship Management technology where the CRM software, CRM tools, and the organization’s customer data reside in the cloud and are accessed by end-users via web-based tools or a web browser. It is a platform which offers the fastest and most competent way to put the customers at the center of everything a business does. It helps the businesses in sales, marketing, after sales support, community building, etc. In short, it manages your business’ single most important goal – satisfying your customers.

 

So, what are the advantages of Cloud-based CRM?

Easy Installation:

IT leaders feel that the installation process of Cloud-based CRM services is long and complex. It is, in fact, simple and the system can be up and running in no time. All it requires is an internet connection and can be used with a simple sign-in. It saves the costs incurred on hardware, servers and maintaining software. And, as the complex installations, data migrations, upgrades, etc. are done remotely, it also saves on the cost of hiring a permanent IT person on site.

Seamless Access:

One of the greatest advantages of a cloud-based CRM is round-the-clock accessibility. You can maintain a centralized database which can be accessed remotely by you or your colleagues at any time from any device. This helps in better collaboration and offers more flexibility and freedom to keep up with your customer needs on-the-go.

Affordable:

You can pay for Cloud-based CRM services as and when you use them.  This requires minimum upfront investment and reduces risk. Moreover, there are no hidden charges when it comes to buying additional hardware or license fees. All you have to pay is a set monthly fee for using the service. This makes Cloud-CRM the most preferable and optimal solution for small and medium sized enterprises.

Highly Secure:

Customer data security is one of the major reasons why most of the enterprises are wary of adopting a cloud solution. According to Forrester Research, about 51% of the firms don’t opt for a cloud solution only because of security concerns.

Cloud CRM service providers take the responsibility to protect your customers’ confidential information and therefore, take these security concerns very seriously. In fact, the information security levels offered by Cloud servicing companies are higher than any other on-premises server. They offer advanced backup policies and also have clear data recovery plans to fight data breaches.

Flexible:

Businesses with smaller customer base prefer to prefer to start with the limited features that can help them in the current work which is relevant to customer needs. However, as the customer base grows, the company might need more features and advanced modules in their CRM system. In this case, companies can get a bigger, better and more innovative CRM system which can be updated instantly without the need to write a new program.

Enhanced Compatibility:

Today’s IT world demands flexibility in integration and standalone products have little chances of success. Especially in a small business environment, information exchange between already available technologies is of utmost importance. Thus, compatibility with other programs is the key to ensure a CRM system’s longevity and effectiveness.

A Cloud CRM can be easily integrated with email clients, software, and other Microsoft office products making it an appropriate choice for small businesses.

 

The role of cloud-based CRM should be considered as a strategic business enabler. A good cloud CRM system will lead to enhanced customer satisfaction and improve the profitability of the business. And, the right partner can not only make cloud CRM happen for your business but can also fuel your competitive edge in the process.

Do you want to find out how cloud-based CRM can impact your business? Write to our experts at info@sysfore.com or give us a call at +91 (80) 4110 5555 and get free consultation to implement cloud based CRM for your business.

Cloud Implementation Strategy For Legacy Apps

Bobby Varghese

The last decade has witnessed a tremendous growth in Cloud Migration. Today, Cloud Computing has become one of the most disruptive phases in modern IT and an increasing number of enterprises are adopting the trend to realize cost and scale efficiencies. But, CIOs and other technology leaders face numerous challenges while developing a cloud implementation strategy for their organization in order to meet their business goals.

In this article, we will discuss a Cloud Implementation strategy for legacy applications focusing on the common benefits and challenges of these migration processes.

Assess Individual Application Requirements

Before moving a legacy application to the cloud, it is important to assess the requirements of individual applications taking users and organizational needs into consideration. As the migration process is largely invisible to the users, moving a client-server application to the cloud without assessing the outcomes carefully can lead to higher angst among users. This will affect the productivity and can put future application migrations at risk.

Consider the Application Architecture

Move your traditional applications to cloud only if you see an obvious benefit. Cloud offers operationalized economics, improved simplicity and instant scalability but simply moving a traditional client-server based ERP infrastructure to cloud – as a lift-and-shift operation – without taking appropriate connectivity decisions can have disastrous consequences for users. Most database applications handle network latency poorly and shifting just the server side of a client-server application to the cloud will often increase latency beyond tolerable levels. Also, these types of applications were designed with private data centers in mind and rebuilding so much surrounding infrastructure in the cloud can often negate the financial and simplicity benefits.

Decide a Migration Process

Moving your legacy apps can be done in two different ways:

  • Copying the VMs to cloud and restarting them at the provider: This yields the best outcomes when the speed of deployment is the main concern. But there may be some complexities due to the surrounding infrastructure as mentioned earlier.
  • Rebuilding the application environment from scratch: Legacy App migration is a good opportunity to clean up and ensure that the application operating environment adheres to the latest best practices. Thus, it makes sense to rebuild the application environment considering the organizational goals and budget.

Prioritize the Applications before Migrating

Before you migrate your applications to the cloud, decide the order in which you want to “make the move”. Generally, very few organizations can simply migrate all their applications at once. Thus, prioritization is critical. These suggestions will help you prioritize your applications effectively:

  1. Start with non-critical services: Starting with non-critical services will help your staff get an idea about the overall process and learn lessons that can be applied to move critical workloads. You will also learn about how your cloud service provider supports your workloads. This will help you make the required changes as you move your critical applications to the cloud.
  2. Migrate appropriate services to SaaS: For many companies these days, operating local collaboration environments isn’t effective. Moving to SaaS passes the responsibility of managing servers to the service providers and reduces costs by great extent. But, at the same time, many providers might not offer all the features which the companies are currently using. If your company is running a heavily customized environment, do a feature-by-feature analysis and decide if your company can survive after losing a particular feature. Otherwise, prefer to stay local.
    Likewise, cloud-based reporting services can be scaled to almost unlimited capacity and you won’t have to worry about scaling the local compute and storage resources. Thus, replacing your local data analysis services with cloud-based ones would prove helpful.
  3. Decide the applications that will stay local: Finally, account for those applications that need to stay local. It is important to keep the services like DNS, DHCP, and print servers for infrastructure support and one to two domain controllers for authentication purposes. Many companies prefer keeping the critical items local as a risk management strategy. However, this is starting to change with an increase in the robust and secure working environments.

One of the most critical parts of this migration process is choosing the right vendor to work with. It is important to ensure that your cloud vendor has the capabilities to manage and host your cloud enabled applications whilst helping you to control costs, SLAs and security that your business needs.

Sysfore offers your organization an abundance of cloud-relates skills and insights, covering all aspects of the transition to an environment in which legacy systems and cloud services co-exist. Write to our experts at info@sysfore.com or get in touch with us at +91 (80) 4110-5555 to get free consultation!

Virtual Private Cloud – A Feasible Substitute To On-Premises Computing

Bobby Varghese

Virtual Private Cloud – A Feasible Substitute to On-Premises Computing:

Public Cloud has been gaining popularity and has become the most favorable deployment model for most organizations because of its cost efficiency and flexibility. It allows a huge number of users to share the computing resources provided by their service provider and pay only for the resources they actually use. Enterprises understand these benefits but many still prefer a private environment for their workloads because of security and privacy issues and Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) helps meet that demand.

VPC is a similar idea where the enterprises use a private cloud that is a small part of the public cloud instead of owning a cloud infrastructure themselves.

The reasons behind enterprises choosing VPCs are usually the complexities in building an on-premises private cloud from scratch. A private cloud may shoot up the costs due to increased management responsibilities and smaller economies of scale. Some enterprises may not even have the infrastructure required to completely build and manage a custom private cloud within their own IT department. According to Lauren E. Nelson, a principal analyst and private infrastructure-as-a-service cloud lead at Forrester Research, 82% of enterprises with 1,000 or more employees don’t have the employee strength to build a private cloud server.

In some cases, it is because many enterprises that think are operating a private cloud are actually just running a standard virtualized environment.

 

Before an enterprise chooses to deploy a VPC, it should first understand how it differs from the on-premises private cloud and the benefits and trade-offs it brings with it.

  1. Server Setup: A virtual private cloud has a lesser number of users who have higher control over their sections of the cloud server whereas, a private cloud distributes resources across multiple physical servers.
  2. Location: Generally, a VPC is hosted at an off-site which is usually hosted by a third party service provider. On the other hand, an on-premises private cloud is situated at your own data center.
  3. Cost: A Virtual Private Cloud is vastly inexpensive and cheaper as compared to the On-Premises Private Cloud. This is basically because of the costs incurred on hardware, installation, set-up and maintenance.

 

Essential benefits of Virtual Private Clouds:

  1. Security: The data storage, network, and hardware can be designed according to the security needs of your business and cannot be accessed by clients or companies in the same building or data center.
  2. Compliance: Since the network and storage configuration is based around your business, it is easier to monitor the security and compliance needs of your business.
  3. Customization: You can completely customize the network, storage and hardware performance according to the needs of your business. You can add CPUs, RAM, and Storage as and when required.
  4. Cost Effectiveness: The amount of money spent on Virtual Private Cloud depends on the resources required by your business. You’ll know how much each resource costs and how much you have to pay for any additional storage, hardware or network components you require.

 

With the many benefits of Virtual Private Clouds, enterprises these days have started taking a path towards Hybrid Cloud and are implementing VPCs to combine cloud and on-premises computing. This way, they can make use of shared resources by keeping their workloads private and secure.

Are you also looking at implementing Virtual Private Cloud for your enterprise? Sysfore can build you a single dedicated private environment that is fast and flexible enough to run everything from your CRM systems to your ERP solutions. Write to us at info@sysfore.com or get in touch with us at +91 (80) 4110 5555.