How Businesses Benefit from MultiCloud Mobility
Posted on: May 3, 2017 | By: Jim Bertler | Acumatica, ERP Selection
Businesses are more mobile than ever, and professionals in various departments are tasked with getting more done from more places. Whether that’s from the office, the airport, or the kitchen table, the job needs to get done, and it needs to be done quickly.
Fortunately, many vendors are providing this access through the cloud. Unfortunately, however, these applications are tied to various “clouds” which don’t always “talk” to each other. For instance, Salesforce and Zenefits, two leading cloud applications available for businesses today are both accessible via browser, mobile, and more, but due to their differing cloud environments can’t communicate as easily as a user hopes.
This is a common occurrence in the “MultiCloud” world—different clouds with different environments and different infrastructures operating independently—creating complexities alongside the benefits they provide. The question, of course, is “how do we address this and build an environment in which the two applications can talk to each other?”
Understanding and Embracing Mobility in a MultiCloud World
This depends on a few factors: An understanding of mobility and a policy that invokes a MultiCloud approach to enhance this mobility.
Understanding Mobility: The Evolution of “Mobile”
Before the age of fast internet, smartphones, and lightweight laptops, employees were metaphorically on a leash—tied to a desktop connected to an on-premises server, in which software had to be updated on each computer. Remote access was available, but connecting was painfully slow, with missing functionality, in an environment that could only be defined as “clunky”.
Time passed, and standards changed. Thanks to the HTTPS protocols and other high-level security functionality, software vendors began to build applications that offer access in a browser rather than through installed software. In this, the “cloud” was born.
All in all, the cloud made things better for everyone, even if there were certain complexities that companies still needed to address.
With this in mind, mobility means two things:
- Hardware that provides mobility: Smartphones, tablets, and laptops that can access the internet when and where you need it.
- The Physical Location: Mobility also means the ability to access all of this, regardless of device or location, in an environment in which data is connected across all of these devices.
Embracing Mobility in a MultiCloud World
With the definition of mobility covered, now it’s time to look at why it’s imperative to use software that works in the MultiCloud world, tearing down walls between multiple applications.
Without the proper integrations, users are tasked with switching between multiple windows in a browser, tapping or “alt-tabbing” between applications—a laborious and inconvenient process stemming from “real estate” restrictions. In this environment, users need to go through the labor-intensive process of switching between multiple applications or embrace a space-consuming multi-screen approach. Even tougher, trying to use multiple business applications on a smartphone or tablet results in rapidly draining battery life while using a mobile application that often doesn’t provide the needed functionality business users need.
To address this, organizations and business users need integration that allows software and applications to communicate across devices and clouds, creating a truly mobile business.
The Secret to Mobility? MultiCloud Integration
One such example of this is Acumatica’s add-in that connects Outlook with Customer Relationship Management, or CRM software. This add-in allows organizations to seamlessly connect information between email and CRM in ways never before possible with an ERP solution, all available via phone, tablet, or laptop.
Conclusion
As businesses evolve, automatically connecting applications across multiple devices and clouds will be the next step in embracing a true cloud business environment. The road to true MultiCloud mobility may be hard, but this is why Acumatica is working so hard to position itself on the cutting edge of adaptability and flexibility—connecting differing data sources that underlie each cloud. To learn more, download the IDC ebook: True Cloud Applications for Agile and Fast-Growing Businesses.
