Cloud BI - the perfect match

“Cloud computing and business intelligence are an ideal match. Business intelligence (BI) is about delivering the right information to the right people at the right time, and cloud computing provides a lightweight, agile way to access BI applications. The beauty of Cloud BI applications is the accessibility on multiple devices and web browsers. This circumvents traditional software barriers such as the requirement to access the application on-site.

Executive management of technology-dependent industries, including manufacturing and healthcare, are pushing to become 100% cloud-based because they are pursuing digital models to drive revenue growth.

For the last decade, cloud was seen as a cost reduction strategy, but now it’s enabling a digital business model. The main reason for cloud adoption is to provide access to data from anywhere, but cloud investments also bring greater flexibility to companies, quicker reactions to changing market conditions and the ability to scale.

Advantages of Cloud BI

Cloud BI applications offer some significant advantages over on-premise applications. Cloud-based BI applications, like other cloud applications, tend to be easier for end-users to operate and set up. This means reduced IT involvement and costs. Cloud BI is faster, simpler, and more intuitive than its hardware-based counterparts.

Cloud BI accessibility

Cloud BI can be accessed on any web browser using any mobile device such as a tablet or smartphone. This means your employees can work from anywhere in the world without worrying about accessibility, proximity, or system speed. Mobile accessibility allows streamlined sharing and collaboration, which will foster increased productivity.

Cloud BI means faster deployment

Cloud applications are very quick and easy to deploy, because they don’t require additional hardware or software installations. Because the system is administered remotely via the cloud, deployment takes a fraction of the time. Faster deployment means your company can transition without a major disruption to operations. Cloud BI solutions like Phocas, integrate seamlessly with your various data sources. While all BI collaborates with different systems, cloud-based systems offer a fast, sleek process of integrating collecting your data.

Cloud BI can scale

In-house solutions are usually developed to meet the needs of a company at its present stage of growth. It can be costly and time-consuming to create patches and update the system to accommodate a growing business. On the other hand, cloud-based solutions can be rapidly scaled to adjust as the company grows. When companies hire more employees or expand geographically, adding new users to an existing cloud BI solution is quick and easy. In addition, technology is constantly evolving. Integrating an in-house solution with new platforms and aggregating critical data will be quite difficult. Solutions like Phocas are designed to be scalable and will easily adapt as your company achieves its growth markers.

Cloud BI is secure

As popular cloud-based services such as Office 365 and Slack have demonstrated, the early concerns about security in a cloud-based environment have proved groundless. From our GPS to our smartwatches, we use cloud applications in our everyday lives. At Phocas, we’re protective of your company’s precious data. Therefore, access to your data is controlled at the Phocas administration layer. You choose how to restrict access at all levels: from set up, to data sources, dashboards and software features. You can set restrictions by user to ensure each individual user only gets the information that they need to see, and nothing else. This flexibility allows you to share reports with managers, employees, and even suppliers or customers without ever worrying your data will end up in the wrong hands