How to Increase ROI by Efficiently Capturing Leads From All Sources?
Lead generation is as old as the book, but in recent years digital channels have added a whole new chapter. Industries like consumer lending, automobiles, software, manufacturing and many others have turned to the Internet to generate sales leads. However, according to Econsultancy, only about 22% of businesses are satisfied with their conversion rates. Furthermore, for every $92 spent acquiring customers, only $1 is spent converting them. A key challenge- Capturing and measuring leads from various channels Online leads go cold fast. These are sobering facts. Moreover, capturing and measuring leads from various marketing channels and campaigns is the key challenge for most of the organizations. Apparently, data is all scattered and organizations are finding it difficult to capture and measure leads from disparate channels. Leads are not automatically getting distributed to team members, and this is hampering rapid response and revenue. This also makes data sharing between teams extremely cumbersome. Why is Follow-up of leads faltering? The main reason behind this is that the sales and marketing teams are not on the same page. There is a double entry of data and scattered and complicated data management process that is reducing the response time drastically. There is no systematic process to create rules to distribute leads to teams and no automated follow-up task alerts or e-mail notifications to initiate e-mail drip campaigns; subsequently, these causes are leading to the time-consuming setup and costly maintenance. In conclusion The need of the hour- Your leads deserve timely follow up To speed up your borrowing experiences by overcoming the inadequacies of worn-out legacy systems, we will soon be launching a secure, reliable, scalable, interoperable, cloud-based solution. It is natively built on Salesforce platform, allowing for origination, underwriting, and servicing end-to-end. The system is economical to operate and can dramatically change your go-to-market strategy which helps users connect with consumers more quickly. This results in increasing the effectiveness of your sales operations & improves organizational efficiency. Want to learn more? You are just a step away. We would be glad to arrange a meeting with you. Say [email protected] for more information.
The Fusion of AI and Cloud Computing in Consumer Lending
Digital transformation is the key to any organization’s survival. Compared to other industries, the consumer lending industry is slow in the process of transitioning from legacy platforms to digitized environments, 87% of the banks still use legacy systems. Consumer lending and servicing is loaded with data, involves long process times, and is driven by stringent compliance requirements. There is an increased need to move away from manual lending process to a more automated, digitized consumer lending ecosystem to drive efficiencies, reduce costs, and streamline process outcomes. Enabling an end to end digital integration facilitates more seamless and engaging customer experiences, fundamentally changing the business core of the lending industry. Leveraging AI and Cloud Computing to infuse sustainable value Though the permeation of these technologies is on the lower side in the lending industry, Cloud Computing and Artificial Intelligence are slowly playing significant roles in transforming the operational and business models of this space. According to a Gartner study, by 2020, banks can offer advice by using AI chatbots that can learn about customer’s user habits. Companies paying equal attention to security in parallel, when we see 65% of FS companies said they have adopted cloud-based security (source: pwc). Cloud Computing platforms are enabling the rapid deployment of services by seamlessly connecting and configuring virtualized technology resources, augmenting faster time to value and reducing the cost of ownership. Consumer Lending firms leveraging AI and Cloud While lending firms are building digital capabilities to harness more intelligence on customer needs, they are also actively leveraging Artificial Intelligence to deliver more personalized, context-aware services to their customers. An ideal mortgage lending scenario is loaded with data attributes, making it an ideal destination for AI algorithms to analyze customer behavior and buying probabilities, enabling lenders with more decisive insights for informed decisions. AI areas of impact include Compliance, Marketing, Portfolio Management, Origination, Capital Markets, and Servicing. What changes move to the cloud? Key benefits of adopting a cloud platform include higher participation levels across various businesses, quicker access to relevant information, and improved collaboration across time zones, enabling speedy decision making, cloud repositories are scalable, centralized, facilitating data integrity and security while preventing data theft. Centralized data access streamlines document management lifecycle and promotes transparency within borrowers, lenders, investors, and regulators. In conclusion, Consumer lending businesses can leverage the symbiotic power of AI and Cloud to drive business impact. With a huge amount of centralized data accumulated in the cloud, AI can access this data to develop better CX strategies. The merger of AI and cloud is bound to influence the evolution of intelligence-driven ecosystems and will lead the next wave of technological disruptions in the consumer lending space. FAQs – Tavant Solutions How does Tavant combine AI and cloud computing for consumer lending?Cloud-native AI platforms provide scalable processing, real-time analytics, and machine learning for high-availability, secure, and rapid lending decisions. What advantages does Tavant AI-cloud fusion provide to consumer lenders?Reduced costs, faster time-to-market, enhanced security, automatic updates, and the ability to handle peak volumes seamlessly. How does cloud computing benefit consumer lending?Reduces IT costs, improves scalability, enhances security, enables faster feature deployment, disaster recovery, and third-party integration. What is AI-powered consumer lending?Uses AI to automate credit decisions, assess risk, detect fraud, personalize offers, and optimize pricing with faster, more accurate results. Is cloud-based lending secure?Yes, through encryption, multi-factor authentication, audits, compliance certifications, and advanced threat detection.
Digital Innovation FAQs Part II: Customers, Experience and Disruption in Consumer Lending
This is Part II of the Digital Innovation FAQs series. Part I talked about innovation, millennials and technology trends. You can find Part I here:Digital Innovation FAQs Part I. #4 So where do you start? How do we define the digital transformation strategy? Every company has its unique brand values and strengths. They also have some vision and strategy in place. In our Digital Experience (DEX) workshops, we work together with our clients to find the synergy and opportunities… by understanding their customers, their brand values, we go on the discovery, a journey, to see the opportunities where digital experiences can create the most value and impact. There is a fair bit of research and homework involved. In fact, some of our clients proactively do their own research and have figured out customer journeys and digital opportunities and pain points as well. The digital strategy is aligned with the overall strategy. We help with the strategy to account for any digital considerations and many companies already recognize this very well. Understand the customers, embrace the brand values and keep it simple. Strategies built around that can then focus on execution and give great results! #5 So give us an example of brand values. For example, take “trust” as a brand value. It’s still a very people-centric industry… real people dreaming about their own home and they trust lenders… real people who help them. The people in any company work a lot to get the trust of their consumers. Every channel, retail or digital, every interaction, every experience should build trust. Trust is precious… very hard to build but fundamental from a value perspective. Transparency is another. Most customers cannot understand the lending process and regulations. Lenders spend a lot of time educating customers when their time could be better spent helping them buy their dream home. By being honest, by being clear about steps, fees, regulations, you build more trust. #6 And, what is simplicity? Simplicity here can help by making information simple and clear. Lenders can then spend their time helping customers. Customers feel empowered because they understand and feel in control. You get operational efficiencies just by simplifying the information. Simplify the process, reduce the steps, make it easy to use, easy to apply, easy to approve… make it simple. You get more customers, more referrals, more business… lots of happy people. That is what digital experiences and transformation all about… happy customers! #6 That sounds simple… Why don’t we see more of that? That’s why you need to be strategic… have a clear digital strategy with priorities in place. It’s human to want more. The key is to focus on a few, experiment till you get it right and then scale it for your company. Listen to your customers. Look for business value and impact when evaluating projects and assessing where you are. #7 Can you show us more? Yeah, sure. Take a look at our Digital Practice @ Tavant for our offerings and case studies. We will be very happy to reach out and discuss… get it touch! ‘Customer journeys’ is one of the cornerstones of our Digital Experience offerings. We will be publishing a whitepaper on customer journeys soon.
Redefine Digital Mortgage Experience with Encompass® COE
Digital Transformation is set to transform the mortgage industry by addressing issues ranging from customer experience, regulatory compliance, asset quality & risk, to efficiency and cost management. Lenders must embrace digital transformation or risk becoming irrelevant. Organizations that do not formulate a comprehensive digital strategy may lose business to competitors. The National Association of Realtors® reports that 90% of all home buyers search online for their home. For 42% percent of that group, the internet was their first step in the home buying process — before contacting an agent. According to the Ellie Mae Millennial Tracker™ report, tech-savvy Millennials represent the primary home-purchasing segment of the population (Millennials accounted for 84% of closed home loans in January 2017). Millennials these days depend on intelligent personal assistants such as Apple’s Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Personal Assistant, and Microsoft Cortana. Apparently, many of these assistants function on devices that don’t even have specific screens and provide only a single “answer” to the customer’s query — as opposed to a list of results. Put another way, if the online listings for your mortgage business don’t include things such as your specialties, your credentials, and the languages you speak, your customers will not be able to find you if they search using those parameters. Improving customer experience is paramount to meeting the expectation of today’s consumers. According to published reports, 48 percent of US consumers believe companies need to do a better job of integrating their online and offline experiences. Digital natives such as eBay, Amazon, and Google have been leading the pack in remodeling consumer expectations for cross-channel convenience. In today’s evolving mortgage industry, to gain a competitive advantage, organizations must transform the customer experience. Positive customer experience can have profound impacts on your organization’s growth. Delightful customer experience is a long-term competitive advantage you can leverage to differentiate yourself in the market. While this may sound little daunting, companies are in the process of revitalizing their customer experiences every day. Are you looking to capitalize on the digital transformation? Embrace digital transformation and enhance your lending experience with Tavant Encompass Managed Services Tavant is a trusted Pro Partner that helps lenders to accelerate the deployment, customization, and adoption of Ellie Mae’s Encompass® all-in-one mortgage management solution. Our seamless integration with the Encompass ecosystem enables operational efficiency, reduced cost, effective maintenance, enhanced performance leveraging custom applications. We help our clients to easily adopt and leverage Encompass upgrades. We offer flexible and transparent delivery models to provide them with a mix of onshore, near-shore and best-shore managed services. FAQs – Tavant Solutions How does Tavant help lenders redefine their digital mortgage experience through Encompass COE?Tavant provides Encompass Center of Excellence (COE) services that optimize mortgage workflows, implement best practices, and maximize platform capabilities. Their expertise helps lenders transform their Encompass implementation to deliver superior digital mortgage experiences through process optimization, automation, and user experience improvements. What specific Encompass COE services does Tavant offer for digital mortgage transformation?Tavant offers Encompass configuration optimization, workflow automation, integration development, user training, performance monitoring, and continuous improvement services. Their COE approach ensures lenders maximize their Encompass investment while delivering efficient, compliant, and customer-friendly digital mortgage processes. What is an Encompass Center of Excellence (COE)?An Encompass Center of Excellence (COE) is a specialized team or service that provides expertise, best practices, and ongoing support for optimizing Ellie Mae Encompass (now ICE Mortgage Technology) implementations. It focuses on maximizing platform capabilities, improving workflows, and ensuring optimal system performance. How does a COE improve digital mortgage experiences?A COE improves digital mortgage experiences by optimizing system configurations, implementing best practices, streamlining workflows, ensuring proper integrations, providing ongoing training, and continuously monitoring performance. This results in faster processing, better user experiences, and improved operational efficiency. What are the benefits of having an Encompass COE?Benefits include optimized system performance, improved user productivity, better compliance management, enhanced customer experience, reduced operational costs, and maximized ROI on technology investments. A COE ensures continuous improvement and optimal utilization of Encompass capabilities.
Digital Innovation FAQs: Customers, Experience, and Disruption in Consumer Lending
Digital Experience (DEX) decides your next strategic move today. Customer journeys have taken the front seat and are fueling the disruptive force. Consumer Lending organizations looking to connect the dots of digital innovation often ask me to address these FAQs #1 What is Innovation? This is the most asked question in our Digital Experience (DEX) engagements. Simply put, ‘innovation’ is about new ideas that generate value for both the customers and the organization. In our DEX workshops, which are typically about 4-6 weeks, we work with our clients to understand their customers and their brand values… it makes innovation and the opportunity space tangible. That helps us generate innovative ideas that unlock value for both customers and business and reflect their brand values. Everyone wanted to be Apple. Decades later, there’s still one Apple. Google, Amazon, Facebook… they all did what they are good at… even Microsoft now. The key is to stay focused on your customers, listen to them and stay true to your brand values and capabilities to deliver great digital experiences. A lot of the opportunities in regulated industries like financial services and consumer lending are in making complicated things simple: – simple to understand, – simple to buy, – simple to sell. Beyond that, digital experiences are about helping borrowers focus on buying their dream home and helping brokers and loan officers to build relationships by focusing on what their customers want and freeing up time… instead of worrying about document verification, regulations or what are a hundred things to check. That’s where the most significant opportunities lie. #2 How do you deal with Millennials? Customer Experience starts with understanding customers, and it’s no different for millennials, though many of us are not millennials. Interestingly, we find millennials also want good relationships with their mortgage lenders and brokers. A recent Fannie Mae survey found that almost 2 out of 3 customers relied on real estate agents and lenders for information. Millennials are also looking for help from lenders, brokers first and they appreciate transparency. Of course, they are more than happy to use digital channels to complete forms, but they also want to talk to their loan officers and brokers. They complement each other quite well, and we try to ensure the digital ecosystem is there to enable this interaction and deliver exceptional experiences. …what about loan officers and brokers? Do you still need them? They are vital to the experience! Contrary to what many lenders think, our research finds most customers (borrowers) are commonly influenced by them, and they remain the most trusted, along with friends and family. They remain some of the delightful experiences that we design for. Fannie Mae also found that over 90% customers (including millennials) want to use in-person channels at key points…they want to talk to their lenders. This is not about a loan approval; this is about buying your dream home. #3 What about the latest trends… Design Thinking, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data? It’s about the relevance of the trends. We stay on top of the latest trends and set some of them as well. At Tavant, we work with clients on defining customer-centricity programs and the omnichannel strategies that can enable great experiences. The focus is on customer and business value and finding relevant solutions; the digital experience is really about the customer experience. Lemonade, perhaps, is one of the better examples of that. They use chatbots to settle claims within minutes, and most of their customers are honest because of that little behavioral tweak where they ask customers to pledge to be honest first. Technology by itself uncovers excellent operational efficiency. That remains a focus but, in our DEX engagements, we try to define digital experiences that unlock immense value. We have been fortunate to work with clients who trust us with cutting-edge technology and setting the benchmarks in these areas. Design thinking, the blockchain, behavioral design, big data, AI…they will transform digital experiences as we know it today. We see tremendous opportunities in some of these trends and innovation, but it is all about what is relevant to our clients. The strategy has to be based on the company’s brand values, its culture and how it is most pertinent to their customers. #4 But where do you start? What next? More on strategy, simplicity, and execution in my next post. Stay tuned! Digital Innovation FAQs Part II FAQs – Tavant Solutions How does Tavant enhance customer experience through digital innovation in lending?Tavant creates omnichannel experiences with personalized loan recommendations, real-time application tracking, instant approvals, and seamless digital onboarding. Their innovation lab continuously develops customer-centric features based on user feedback and market trends. What disruptive digital innovations does Tavant bring to consumer lending?Tavant introduces voice-activated loan applications, biometric authentication, AI-powered financial advisory, blockchain-verified credentials, and augmented reality property evaluations to revolutionize the lending experience. How is digital innovation changing customer expectations in lending?Digital innovation has raised customer expectations for instant responses, personalized offers, transparent processes, mobile-first experiences, and seamless integration with their digital lifestyle across all lending touchpoints. What digital features do customers want most in lending?Customers prioritize instant pre-approval, mobile applications, real-time status updates, digital document upload, rate comparison tools, and personalized loan recommendations based on their financial profile. How do traditional lenders compete with fintech companies?Traditional lenders compete by adopting digital technologies, improving customer experience, leveraging their trust and stability advantages, forming fintech partnerships, and investing in innovation while maintaining regulatory expertise. What advanced customer experience innovations does Tavant offer beyond basic digitization?Tavant provides predictive customer service, proactive financial health monitoring, AI-driven cross-selling, personalized payment scheduling, and integrated financial wellness tools that go beyond traditional lending to support customer financial success. How does Tavant help lenders stay ahead of customer experience disruption?Tavant offers continuous innovation programs, customer journey analytics, A/B testing frameworks, and emerging technology integration services. They help lenders anticipate and respond to changing customer needs before disruption occurs. What is the next phase of digital transformation in lending?The next phase includes hyper-personalization, conversational AI, embedded
7 Mistakes That Are Stopping Your Retail Customers to Digitally Connect With You
Do you think you know your customers well? Are you confident you understand how they experience your brand in a myriad of online and offline interactions? Well, here’s some sobering news: Even if you think that you have a firm grasp on your customer experience, that’s all going to change sooner than you think. Customer experience has undeniably become the next battleground for business and the quintessential scale to pick between brands. According to Forrester, 72% of businesses say that enhancing the customer experience is their top priority, while only 63% prioritize on implementing technology investments to reach their goal. Interestingly, market leaders are decided based not just on which company has the superior product at the lowest price, but on which company manages its connection with customers the best as ‘The Great Wall of Digital’ is being built between organizations and customers. How are you responding to the change? Do you feel disconnected with your retail customers? A few considerations 1. Not keeping it Simple Solution– Today’s customers expect an easy-to-use interface across all channels, an exciting in-store experience, and fast service 24/7. Yet many organizations, especially incumbents, struggle to meet these expectations because of not so it user-friendly and intuitive interface. Remember, a simple user experience unfolded with crisp and clear user interfaces goes a long way in the saga of man-machine interactions. 2. Not establishing an emotional connection with your customers digitally Solution: Embedding technology in your day-to-day marketing operations doesn’t mean you’re sacrificing a human connection. That indicates treating every touchpoint with your customers like a face-to-face conversation. With customer data easily available, organizations can tailor their content to connect with customers on a more personal and emotional level. 3. Not getting a unified view of the customer Solution: Remember that data integration is the secret sauce to the customer journey. You should connect disparate data silos for a comprehensive look at your customers—gather customer insights and interactions in one place and get a 360-degree view of your customers to anticipate their requirements and optimize the customer experience. 4. Not providing consistent omnichannel CX Solution: No matter what industry you operate in, your customers expect to be able to engage with you effectively across multiple channels. Why? Customers typically want to get what they want from your business quickly, efficiently and on their terms – be this on your website, via your mobile app or by engaging with your customer-care team by phone, live chat or any other means. Creating a single, uniform face to your customers that delivers them with a consistent experience as they move across channels is, therefore, key to success in this omnichannel world. 5. Overlooking Personalization- the hidden ingredient to engage your customers Solution: You need to build an insightful and personalized shopping experience that connects digital, in-store, and back office operations. You must adapt to constantly changing needs, and provide phenomenal customer service by leveraging the Next-Gen technologies and innovation. Consider offering more product selection and recommendations by combining the best of online and in-store shopping. 6. Not building immersive retail experiences Solution: You need to elevate buying behavior by deeply engaging your customers through personalized retail experiences. Seek more control over store operations through automation and advanced analytics capabilities. You must provide your customers the adaptability to make a purchase in-store, pick up in other locations, or have it delivered to their doorstep. 7. Not calming your impatient customer Solution As it turns out, intensely digital customers are also intensely impatient. They’re also not as wedded to digital experiences as we would like to believe. To retain this fickle and fast-moving group engaged, you need to focus more on dazzling them with superior digital service across all channels of interaction. In Conclusion: If you think the digital era is causing a disconnect between your brand and your customer, think again. Too many companies squander the treasure that is customer feedback. Remember, customers feel disconnected when you fail to think through the degree of effort it requires to do business with them, you don’t provide user-friendly technology solutions, you don’t simplify every touchpoint and you don’t provide the personal touch. That’s what causes a disconnect between the two of you! The solution is to get closer than ever to your customers and that too, so close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves. Create a digital strategy that places customers at its center to drive innovation that they will value, and then operationalize the model consistently. Extraordinary digital connections can undoubtedly deliver extraordinary results.
4 Ways to Harness the Power of Digital Transformation in the Aftermarket Industry
Reality Check The automotive aftermarket is undergoing dramatic changes in evolving customer expectations, acceleration of technological innovation, and shifts in competitive power. These changes are revamping the way business in the automotive aftermarket is conducted and value is created. Interestingly, Auto aftermarket sales becoming an omnichannel experience.Today’s consumer visits and researches a variety of channels — including websites, catalogs, social media, advertisements, and stores — before making a purchase. Furthermore, online channels are also giving customers quick access to the information on the prices of parts while online forums are giving customers a peer perspective on the quality/value of workshops. Before moving further, let’s quickly define “Aftermarket” The aftermarket, which is a broad term, can be at times, an afterthought in the automotive world and many consumers may not even be aware what the term means. However, it represents an enormous industry that offers significant value in improving the driving experience. Aftermarket parts are replacement parts that are made by a company other than your vehicle’s original manufacturer. The need of the hour is modernization of legacy systems in the aftermarket industry With legacy and disjointed systems, aftermarket processes suffer from high latency and lagged response. This may be because of restrictive technologies and interfaces or high cost of wrap up solutions. For example, waiting time for a service ticket is so high that it may dissuade the customer from reaching out to OEM or their dealers. Moreover, legacy systems do not enable the customer to do self-service. Additionally, without digital technologies, the customer interaction with a dealer or an OEM is constrained by time and geographic reach. This is where the digital transformation plays a vital role!!! It leads to a better understanding of the customer, helps in personalizing responses, streamlines operations, enhances customer experience and improves revenue by serving manifested and latent demands. Digital technologies allow companies to derive total life cycle value of their incumbent customer base. So how digital transformation is changing the Aftermarket landscape 1. Social Media UPS Online shoppers survey shows online buyers are diligent about research, extensively use online reviews, ratings and social media. Interestingly, 70% of business buyers purchase from an online catalog rather than through another channel. By using social media and analytical tools customer touch points can be identified as social media has made customers more comfortable with connecting and engaging with one another and sharing their concerns and thoughts. Also, with the help of social media, aftermarket suppliers can eliminate the unwanted waiting and reneging. 2. Mobility and connected devices High smartphone adoption, millions of connected devices using IoT and other technologies and ubiquitous connectivity are creating new opportunities at multiple levels for OEM’s. These technologies are reorganizing and redefining internal and external structure and the process of companies. Mobile is critical in the shopping journey and mobile phones account for 34 percent of retail e-commerce sales transactions. That percentage is expected to increase to 48 percent by 2020. Needless to say, to stand out from competitors, a business needs to provide a smooth, frictionless experience and customer engagement by providing quick product searches, delivery and in-store pickup options, and mobile-friendly access to online sites. 3. Cloud Cloud and IoT enabled infrastructure enables a highly cost-effective, rapidly responsive and elastic IT, better aligned with the business needs. Cloud enables aftermarket business to innovate faster while leveraging existing systems and capabilities. Cloud-based tools provide visibility to aftermarket suppliers for every party in the supply chain to look at same data and analytics so that defects can be detected and corrected early in the chain. 4. Data & Analytics Digital technologies connect ecosystem-wide processes so that assets are efficiently managed using predictive analysis of potential errors and initiate. Aftermarket digital transformation pushes business strategies to evolve from selling a product or service to a customer experience-centric value proposition. By using data and advanced analytics, aftermarket suppliers can accurately forecast demand, deepen customer engagement and can also drive loyalty and sales. The Bottom Line: Digital Disruption is forcing companies to recognize the aftermarket’s enormous potential and understand the entire lifespan of a sold product, including supplies, repairs, selling and servicing spare parts, installing upgrades, handling inspections and add-ons, training, and customization. To stay competitive, it is imperative for aftermarket suppliers to change their mindset, create a vision, invest in digital content and analytics, lean on data to stay in touch with customers permanently, provide service through the traditional and digital channel and deliver exceptional aftermarket capabilities coupled with self-service.
Why Cloud Paradox in the Digital Age?
Don’t let fear keep you from harnessing the power of the cloud When cloud computing was initially introduced, many organizations didn’t understand the capabilities of this technology and were extremely apprehensive about placing their data on an external server mainly due to security reasons. As technology has improved and as the business world has become increasingly dependent on remote teams and off-site workers, accessing critical company data from the cloud has become crucial. Organizations are still unsure about moving to the cloud. Are you concerned about having your data in the cloud? If yes, then discover the truth about cloud computing! According to the study by Cisco, more than 83% of all data would be based in the cloud within the next three years. While a study by Gartner reveals that by 2019, more than 30 percent of the 100 largest vendors’ new software investments will have shifted from cloud-first to cloud-only. Gartner also predicts more cloud growth in the infrastructure compute service space as adoption becomes increasingly mainstream. Furthermore, a recent IDC survey on cloud market predictions indicates that 50% of IT spending and 60% of IT spend will be on cloud-based infrastructure by 2020. Additionally, rising demand from the migration of infra to the cloud as well as from compute-intensive workloads such as Artificial Intelligence, Analytics, and the Internet of Things— both in the enterprise and startup arena — are further driving this growth. Sadly, in a world where security breaches at large organizations dominate the headlines, the ambiguity that encloses cloud computing can make securing the enterprise seem daunting and a few organizations are still apprehensive and not able to maximize the full value that the cloud offers. And some businesses still remain apprehensive. Common Concerns In no particular order, businesses hesitant to adopt cloud computing are often concerned with: Security. By far the biggest concern. Are you afraid that your data will not be as safe in the cloud, as it is in on-premise systems? Control. Do you feel that you will lose control of your data if you move it to the cloud and it’s more assuring to know that you have it nearby? Compatibility. Do you fear critical applications will not be compatible with cloud computing solutions? A Passing Fad. Apparently, Do you strongly feel that the cloud is just another passing phase? Put your doubts about the Cloud to rest Cloud is undoubtedly a way for your organizations to cut down your operational cost and streamline your business process. However, before jumping on a bandwagon, it is better if you look at some of the key benefits of transitioning to the cloud: Cloud is secure: Surprisingly, according to Gartner, through 2020, public cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) workloads will suffer at least 60% fewer security incidents than those in traditional data centers. While 60% of organizations that implement relevant cloud visibility and control tools will experience only one-third fewer security failures by 2018. Needless to say that the cloud is more secure than traditional approaches. Reduced cost– A study commissioned by Cisco shows that on average, the most “cloud advanced” organizations see an annual benefit per cloud-based application of $3 million in additional revenues and $1 million in cost savings. These revenues boosts have been largely the result of sales of new products and services, acquiring new customers faster or due to accelerated ability to sell into new markets. Decreased headcount: With significantly fewer servers to look after, and with standardized platforms, you will subsequently find you require fewer IT staff. In fact, many organizations figure out that they can reduce their staff maintenance by 50 percent. Quicker deployments: Cloud may or may not have a drastic impact on application performance, but in just about every case, you’ll be able to get them up and running much sooner. Creating—and eliminating— environments for new applications is a much faster process, allowing your development team to use their time most efficiently. Improved Agility. Cloud computing drastically increases application delivery as there’s no associated waiting time to access or allocate the infrastructure. Subsequently, by embracing continuous delivery and cloud DevOps, your business can significantly improve its agility. 20%+ faster time to market for new services 50% fewer application failures and faster recovery time (in 10 minutes or less) 30% more frequent new code deployments and a 38% improvement in overall code quality High Availability: The complete cloud computing facilities are routinely protected from system failures and outages using redundant network switches, servers, and storage facilities. In particular, by leveraging off-site backup and redundant servers and storage facilities make these well-equipped cloud computing facilities less vulnerable to disaster or malicious attack. Fewer servers: Moving infra, application, and platforms to a cloud model can undoubtedly help you with enormous savings, as you can stand down or redeploy servers that were previously hosted applications now moved to a shared model. Final Thoughts It’s time to try the cloud! Legacy systems often prevent responsiveness and derogate service levels and a lack of speed or agility often results in inconsistent and disconnected experiences for users, partners, and employees. Moreover, aging systems should not prevent you from harnessing digital technologies. However, the big question that often worries every business is what should and what shouldn’t be moved to the cloud. The answer has proven to be remarkably simple. Everything is potentially cloud-able – bizarrely, even mission-critical survival solutions like disaster recovery. The need of the hour is to focus on delivering solutions faster to meet customer demand in today’s hyper-competitive market and make a big difference. Stay tuned for Part 2 blog post on Application Modernization and Cloud Connection of our Cloud Computing blog series!!!