cloud technologyWhat is important to your manufacturing business? Low cost of raw materials, speed of delivery, thriving sales—all of this builds a strong, healthy business.

Yet, pressure comes from all sides. Tariffs on raw materials are increasing prices on steel, aluminum, and other raw materials for manufacturers. Competition from overseas continues to chip away at market share. Every day there seems to be a new challenge, a new possible threat.

To rise to the challenge, it is important for manufacturers to have the latest technology. Cloud-based technology offers a fast, cost-effective way to scale your business according to demand and need, add additional software at a low cost, and keep it up-to-date. It enables you to connect on-the-go whether you’re in the office, the warehouse, or a customer’s location.

Faster time to market, improved sales and customer service, and enhanced forecasting are within sight with cloud technology.

Faster Time to Market

An article in Forbes shared a great example of how cloud technology helps manufacturers improve
speed to market. In this article, a manufacturer avoided allocation issues because his team could share
information during product development and testing much faster using cloud technology.

Shorter time to market means greater competitive advantages. When high-tech manufacturers use cloud technology, they enable faster, tighter collaboration among teams. Sharing information easily and quickly means problems can be identified and rectified before they impact the final product.

Another benefit of cloud technology is that field tests can be conducted with new products and the resulting data can be entered immediately from test locations set up with cloud access. If everyone is using the same software, information entered at one location can be accessed at another. You’ll be able to access test results immediately and use this information to enhance your products before they hit the market.

Improved Sales and Service

Data helps sales and service departments improve their approach to business. Using cloud-based CRM ensures that the latest customer information is in a centralized system; sales teams can use this to improve their ability to match products to customer needs.

Customer service relies on accurate data, too. Nothing frustrates a customer more than calling back on a service problem and having to run through the same problem again and again. With real-time cloud-based system, your service team can simply pull up the information and immediately update the customer, eliminating frustrating rehashes of previous conversations.

Enhanced Forecasting

Older systems which rely on spreadsheets are always a few days or weeks behind in their information. That’s because it takes time to run reports from the system, rekey the data into spreadsheets, and share the information among multiple people or departments.

Cloud systems remove this delay from the equation. In a cloud-based system, there’s no need to rekey the data; reports can be run right from the system. Sure, some older software enables you to do that, but do you get the reports you want? Many companies find themselves struggling to get their existing systems to produce the reports they want with the technology they have. They resort to spreadsheets out of frustration. The majority of cloud systems offer flexible reporting options so you can choose the data you want and the time periods you need for better reports.

With accurate, timely reports, your management team can make swift decisions based on up-to-the-minute data. There are no delays or transcription errors in the data. Even distance doesn’t delay the information since it flows through the internet. It’s fast, accurate, and there when you need it. You can make better decisions about orders, equipment use, and much more with this information.

There are so many advantages to cloud computing and so few disadvantages that it makes sense for most manufacturers to upgrade today to the cloud. To explore your options for cloud-based manufacturing productivity software, contact Accounting Systems Incorporated (ASI).