There’s no doubt that mobile communications and internet drastically changed the world. Over the last few years, cloud computing has emerged as the next big disruption in technology and has become a mainstream element of software solutions just like database or websites. Or Is it intelligent cloud?
Cloud computing is now firmly established, not merely those that would be considered part of the information technology sector. Healthcare, finance, retailers and many other industries have all been disrupted by cloud computing. Despite being a relatively recent innovation, it has already made huge waves in the technology industry. Although cloud’s benefits have not been clear to businesses there is still some confusion around this technology. About 94% of employees in the US feels that cloud computing helped their organization move closer to their needs, inspite of the fact that they are not clear on how it has been done but they are happy that it had enabled resource-saving for existing infrastructure management. Consumer cloud services such as Google Drive, Drop box and iCloud have changed the way people think about digital content.
Similarly, there are many cloud-driven tools that have brought about the greatest impact on the marketing technology.
Marketing automation
Before marketing automation came to be loved by businesses and despite the advantage digital marketing offers, the process involves laborious tasks that are time consuming. Marketing automation is a cloud based service that massively reduces the time that businessman needs to spend on daily tasks, resulting in optimization and precision of business resources. Eloqua (acquired by Oracle) and Marketo are some of the leading marketing automation services.
Managing sales cycle
Depending on the industry and the product you sell, the sales cycle can be between days and several months since different companies have different steps and activities till the sale closes. Managing multiple prospects at various stages of the cycle can be quite a painful and complex process. Before the advent of cloud computing, sales managers used spreadsheets like MS Excel to keep track of the information and for the sales cycle management. Now it is done through cloud based tools like Office 365, which is on the cloud along with other dedicated tools making it possible for sales professionals to constantly track leads from anywhere, using cloud based tools.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI will become prevalent in every industry where decision-making is being fundamentally transformed by ‘Thinking Machines’. Artificial Intelligence not only powers new generation of cloud computing technologies, but has the capacity to enhance current cloud platform incumbents. The need for smarter and faster decision making and the management of big data is the driving force behind the trend. AI is moving beyond simple chat applications like scheduling support and customer service, to impact the organizations in more profound ways.