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Cloud transformation journeys are always intriguing. The fact that an organisation's entire Information Technology (IT) requirement is supplied through a virtual platform has always caught my imagination. It is good to see an organisation leapfrog traditional IT hurdles and fulfill the demands through cloud.
Cloud computing is no longer in its nascent stages in India. It is a fully developed construct that is slowly but surely replacing old technologies. Though confined to tech-based businesses, it has crossed over to all industry segments as the advantages to the bottom line and to the business are easily quantifiable. Advertising and marketing are among key segments where cloud has made an impact.
As marketing has shifted online with social media, marketers have found themselves increasingly reliant on the IT department to help them access and run the applications they need. The problem is that many industries are unable to provide the data storage and advanced applications that marketers are looking for to take their work to the next level. Thankfully, cloud computing addresses these issues in large measure.
According to Forrester, a majority of consumers in 2020 will leave local client-installed programmes in favour of web-based applications. The move is not purely driven by personal preferences, as businesses themselves are pushing for migration to cloud due to the cost savings they can realise. Marketers also need to go where their customers are, and find new ways to interact and engage which now extends to numerous channels like social media and e-commerce websites.
In recent years, we've seen tremendous growth in marketing technology, leading research firm Gartner to predict that chief marketing officers (CMO) would out-spend chief information officers (CIO) on IT by 2017. As sales empowering tools drift more toward digital applications, marketers want to automate their content positioning across outlets and devices, to engage prospects and take presumption out of understanding their interaction. With cloud-based applications, marketing professionals can gain actionable insights through the use of analytics by tracking user engagement along the way. This real-time consumer intelligence and measurement will help fine-tune offerings and provide clear insight into the success of external-facing prospect marketing and sales enabling tools. And guess what? The cloud helps them attain this feat and more!
As marketers look to implement collaborative sales and marketing applications, we're running into hundreds of devices, architectures, platforms, global networks, enterprise firewalls and proxy servers. On top of all this, we have a user base of prospects, customers, channel partners and sales teams that need everything to be very simple.
Sales and marketing content is continually being rationalised to parallel businesses' ever-changing objectives or newest product offerings. So, new product launches, case studies, videos, presentations, and any recently updated content must be deployed seamlessly for customers. By hosting content in the cloud the information is now imitated in multiple data centres worldwide, making it local to the end user. This causes less latency in accessing data, ensuring information is instantaneously getting into the hands of those who need it the most.
A best example would be of a chocolate manufacturer that has become one of the world's most consumed confections through innovative candy-making techniques and superior recipes. Fast forward to today and the company is hitting its sweet spot by transforming its business model - from simply manufacturing chocolate to selling directly to consumers. One of the interesting things about this company's ongoing transformation is the role of cloud and analytics in driving the personalisation and scale required by their new direct sales model.
The chocolate company provided customers with a department store, luxury experience online and mobile experience, resulting in their new website doubling conversion rates and tripling revenue on mobile devices. With the flexibility that cloud solutions offer, the company is able to execute highly personalised seasonal promotions for the many chocolate-craving holidays.
For this and other companies that are transforming their operations putting customers at the centre of operations, the alignment of organisational roles is critical as consumers expect their favourite brands to understand individual preferences and shopping habits anytime, anywhere.
Interactive sales and marketing applications can be very large, so the updates need to be cumulative, particularly for universal audiences with restricted internet connectivity. By using a cloud-based server, marketers can sanction for exceptionally high-speed information transfers with the potential to have greater bandwidth as and when required. Hosting your own server can lead to high capex and opex. Marketers looking for cost effectiveness are turning to the cloud to share the expense with multiple users, paying as they go based on usage.
To succeed in business, one needs to stay ahead of the competition. Now is the right time to adopt the cloud, because soon it will become a standard in marketing. Every marketer can benefit from what so far only big networks or corporations could realise.
Vivek Malhotra
Director IBM Cloud India/South Asia
Director IBM Cloud India/South Asia
