5 Ways the Cloud Can Make Money for Your Customers

Partners have been very successful in helping customers save money with cloud computing. The next step: helping them make money with cloud computing.

The cloud provides partners with a true growth opportunity. Here are five ways to help your customers help themselves (and their bottom line) with the cloud.

1. Unify, unify, unify

A cloud platform that integrates key business systems such as ERP, EPM and SCM will enable companies to gain a 360-degree view of operations. This will allow them to develop, track and integrate key performance indicators across the organization, eliminating silos and creating a “single source of truth” by enabling enterprise data to flow freely across systems.  

2. Leverage the next big thing

Technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning are increasingly leveraged to meet customers demand for apps and services that are tuned to their personal preferences and habits. These technologies are often out of reach for many companies—especially SMBs—but the cloud democratizes the use of technology and enables companies of all types and sizes to make effective use of even the most sophisticated platforms.

Speaking of the next big thing, watch this video on Oracle’s self-driving database debuted at Oracle OpenWorld. This new technology automates management to deliver unprecedented availability, performance, and security—at a significantly lower cost.

3. “Subscribe” to increased revenue

The subscription-based model that is saving your customers money can also help them make money. Offering existing products in subscription form can generate more regular and predictable revenue streams, as well as more cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.

4. Let people do their jobs

The cloud puts smaller companies on an equal playing field with larger organizations, and in a way, it can do that for employees, as well. The more cloud platforms and services an organization makes use of, the less time employees have to spend dealing with technology headaches (whether they are in IT or not).

5. Light a fire under innovation

Once employees are unbound by on-premise complexities, the cloud makes it easier—and faster–to ideate and to put those ideas into action. Encourage your customers to think of the cloud as an innovation engine—one that can support thinking outside of the boundaries of on-premise systems. Partners are in the perfect position to work with customers through an ongoing innovation process and recommend the cloud-based platform(s) that will bring their revenue-generating ideas to cost-effective fruition.

The cloud has the power to help companies both save and make money. Partners can grow their own businesses by helping their customers grow their use of the cloud.

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.