September 18, 2022 Blog
Welcome to yet another post from our weekly series, which is usually based on how cloud computing helps different verticals in meeting industry-specific challenges and emerging as the winner of the time. In our previous post, we covered cloud migrations for the Automotive Industry (LINK: How Does Cloud Migration Help your Automotive Business: Migrate to Cloud with LogicEra!) and discussed how Automotive companies are leveraging the power of the cloud to achieve improved scalability, better vehicle engineering, faster time to market, uninterrupted network services, reduced costs, etc. In this post, we will discuss how cloud migration is helping manufacturing businesses not just transform their design, production, and supply chain processes but also in driving innovation, enhancing customer experience, accelerating growth, reducing costs, and much more.
With manufacturing companies experiencing organic growth caused by pent-up demand from consumers & businesses, greater geographic reach, new product categories, and more product diversity, the following two things are guaranteed for them:
These two factors alone are driving them towards digital transformation and cloud adoption, though there is a whole list of reasons why manufacturing companies should move to the cloud. The cloud has led to the true arrival of the modern manufacturing era by revolutionizing the design, production, & supply chain processes, and by truly driving innovation. It has led to the influx of productivity & workplace applications & tools that are designed to meet almost every need. All these reasons account for the rapid growth in the manufacturing cloud computing market size.
As depicted by a recent report, the global cloud-based manufacturing market is expected to reach $131.15 billion by 2022 at a CAGR of 22.9%. Propelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, manufacturing companies’ need for the cloud has increased even more.
Here are the top seven ways cloud migration is helping manufacturing businesses in reaching multiple targets while reducing costs at the same time.
Rapid response is crucial irrespective of whether it is a predictable or an unpredictable event. While in the case of a predictable event you are prepared, an unpredictable one can land you in trouble if you don’t use the cloud. Your on-premises applications may be too slow for structuring, expanding, and scaling up operations. This limitation can put you at a disadvantage, especially when you compare your business with other rapidly growing businesses. However, at the same time, the cloud allows faster deployments with rarer work slowdowns while implementations. Moreover, with the cloud, you need not burn cash in upgrading your infrastructure. Taken together, all this helps you achieve a better bottom line.
Irrespective of whether you are a large organization or an SME, on-premises IT installation can be expensive for you. The time, effort, and money that you need to put into maintaining, upgrading, and repairing the hardware can thwart you from paying attention to your core business. By leveraging the power of the cloud, however, you can get rid of all these investments & responsibilities and can focus on improving your business bottom line. Moreover, many studies in the past have revealed that the total cost of ownership is considerably low in the case of a cloud-based ERP system than the traditional software implementations.
You usually source fabricated and raw materials from several different suppliers from across the globe. The cloud provides you with an integrated view of your network suppliers, logistics, producers, and of course the distribution channels. So, viewing, managing, and controlling of sourcing of these materials becomes quite easy with the cloud. Through the fully integrated supply chain system, manufacturing businesses can track the supplies that in turn help them in meeting manufacturing & delivery deadlines.
Let’s suppose you want to launch a new branch at a different location. Unlike legacy IT infrastructure, you need not make huge investments in installing expensive hardware in case of cloud deployments. With the cloud, you can easily scale up to meet the growing needs of your growing business, without needing to put much effort, time, and money.
Since several steps of the business processes could be automated for eliminating duplicate data entry and replacing manual activities, the cloud enhances the productivity of manufacturing operations. Not just that, through a cloud-based ERP system, the collaboration between departments as well as with distributors & suppliers can be improved. Besides, the cloud enables real-time access to information related to tools, equipment, materials data, and even employees, helping you improve manufacturing efficiency even more.
Though sounds trivial, incorrectly entered data if not caught in time can not only cost you money but can also damage your reputation. It could be anything product configuration, payment information, price to quotes, delivery addresses, etc., a delay in detecting the incorrectly entered data can land you in trouble. However, through cloud-based automated customer approval workflows, quoting, and pricing, you can ensure the orders are accurate. This accuracy accelerates the cycle times.
An enriched customer experience has become quite crucial in the digital ecosystem of today. However, with customer relationship management (CRM) solutions based on the cloud, the entire customer journey can be easily and efficiently managed on a single platform. So, manufacturing companies can quickly address and resolve customer queries and issues.
The seven most apparent factors driving cloud adoption in the manufacturing industry are digitalization, budget constraints, skill gap, enhanced customer experience, acquisitions & divestitures, and supply chain visibility. Based on these factors, mentioned above were the top seven ways cloud computing is specifically benefitting manufacturing businesses. There are several other benefits of the cloud in general such as improved operational resilience, security, agility, flexibility, sustainability, backup & disaster recovery, etc.
However, to reap the maximum benefit from your cloud, you must carry out thorough research and create an effective cloud migration strategy before you move to the cloud. If you think you need supplemental support you can contact an MSP as most of them provide cloud migrations for the manufacturing industry as well.
If you are a manufacturing company looking for cloud migration services in UAE, the good news is the world leader in providing cloud services, Microsoft Azure is among many UAE Cloud Service Providers. Moreover, as discussed above, if you are finding cloud migration difficult to handle yourself, you can take help from an MSP. One of the most trusted partners of Azure and a reputed MSP in the UAE & UK is LogicEra. The MSP is renowned for accomplishing seamless migration processes within the shortest possible time.