CLOUD

COMPUTING
Chapter 2: Part B
Acknowledgement
Author: Roger McHaney
Book: Cloud Technologies: An Overview of Cloud Computing Technologies for Managers
Publisher: Wiley
Material Title: Chapter 2 – Part B Slides

Copyright Notice
This edition first published 2021
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to
obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
The right of Roger McHaney to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) Software
■ Strategic approach for tracking interaction with customers
■ Goals include building relationship with client and ensuring relationship is
reinforced positively through each contact, even when different
organizational members made the contact
■ CRMs keep customers connected and provide consistent messages to client
from all parts of an organization
■ Natural fit for SaaS cloud environments since cloud computing removes
geographic constraints
Modern CRM
■ Term now includes CRM systems, processes or software packages that track
organizational relationships and interactions with current customers and potential
customers.
■ Keeps companies connected to customers, receive reminders about contact, streamline
interaction processes, Improves business relationships, enhances communication, and
ultimately creates a path to greater profitability
■ CRM software includes relationship management with traditional customers, service
users, colleagues, suppliers, and other stakeholders
■ Organizes data into a complete picture of stakeholder to track and build relationships
over time
CRM Benefits
 Enhanced stakeholder contact management
 More effective cross-team interaction and collaboration
 Improved sales forecasts
 Tools for lead management
 Better customer relationships
 Consistent handling of stakeholders
 Increased productivity
 Richer report and decision-making capability
 Improved customer retention
Example Cloud CRM Packages
■Salesforce Essentials: Salesforce.com among the first to create a SaaS CRM
platform that became widespread
■Zoho CRM: Flagship Zoho product in a suite of business software
■Apptivo: Focuses on customer support with sophisticated security controls 
■Freshsales: Small business or startup can use for free to jumpstart CRM
activities
■Pipedrive: Basic CRM package with straightforward, powerful interface
■Insightly: Provides email tracking and integration with Microsoft Power BI
Considerations for CRM Software Selection
 Price
 Customization Capability - Additional contact fields, custom sales records and other
key elements
 Core Feature Set – Contact management, workflow automation, email tracking,
campaign organization, sales pipeline management, lead management, analytics,
priorities, and so forth
 Platform features – Does the tool work offline, in mobile environments, and using
various computing platforms?
 Deal and Opportunity Tracking
 Workflow Automation – Does the tool manage sales processes, follow-ups, and
reminders?
 Reporting Tools – What reports and features for decision support are included?
 System Integrations – Can the tool be integrated with other software used by SME?
 Customer Reviews
 Data Management – How is the data stored and managed?
Project Management (PM) / Task Organization

Tools and SaaS systems to ensure people cooperatively

complete tasks in a time conscious, organized manner
SaaS Applications for PM and Task Organization

■Trello: Enables development of structured to-do lists and project tasks

■Asana: Widely used in IT-related organizations and other companies that engage in complex, multi-
person projects
■Basecamp: Real-time communication tool with built-in project management features that focuses
on making sure everyone is on same wavelength regarding tasks and projects
■Wrike: Offers tiered solutions perfect for an organization that envisions future or rapid growth
Office Automation Software
• Includes tools to create documents, spreadsheets, calendars,
and presentations.
• SaaS technologies permit greater levels of sharing and
collaboration.
Microsoft Moves Beyond SaaS
Other Office SaaS Packages
■ Zoho Office: Integrates with Zoho’s software offerings and includes Writer, Sheet,
and Show as replacements for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Added are Projects
and Books.
■ Google Apps (and G Suite): Google’s free online office suite designed to leverage
online collaborative work. Mirrors many of 365’s offerings and includes Docs,
Sheets, and Slides.
■ Apache OpenOffice: An open-source office software suite with components for
word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphic design, database, and others.
Online Survey SaaS Companies
SaaS Data Analytics for SMEs

■SaaS applications ideal in this area

■Tableau Online hosted in the cloud and allows users to upload data, publish
dashboards, and share reports via a cloud interface. Specializes in data
visualization and the creation of graphic output to represent data.
■Microsoft Power BI comes in both paid and free versions.
Social Media for SMEs
■ Facebook: Every SME should have a presence (e.g. Page).
Offers Business Tools which enable SME to see who visits,
market products and services, and access analytics.
■ Twitter: Excellent for connecting with potential customers.
■ LinkedIn: Falls into the domain of business professionals.
Allows an SME to establish its credibility and make
connections.
■ YouTube: SME can post informational videos that can help
develop a reputation. Content is king on YouTube.
■ Pinterest: Good for SMEs with visually interesting products
and services.
■ Instagram: Connect with stakeholders by sharing photos and
other information.
■ Snapchat: This tool provides a way to connect with customers
if an SME focuses on young people. Offers a visually
interesting way to share information.
What is a Social Media Strategy?
Social media strategies should be used to show that your SME understands its stakeholders

 Define a consistent and relevant voice

 Listen
 Respond
 Post new content regularly
 Balance postings. Specialists in this area refer to the 30/60/10 approach.
30% = New Content; 60% = Reposts; and 10% = promotional material
 Use scalable, cloud-based platforms that grow as the SME grows
Purchasing and Procurement
Find, buy, and manage supplies and services required to conduct business

Procurify: Tracks and controls inventory to manage costs. Enables teams within an organization to make
purchases and then consolidates all organizational purchasing information to help find volume
discounts and the best vendors.

Snapfulfil: Provides procurement and purchasing from a warehouse management perspective. Meant
for Business-to-Business (B2B) as well as Business-to-Customer (B2C) use. Ties tightly to physical space
management within an organization.

Infoplus: Specialized for industries such as consumer goods, food and beverage, and retail. Offers
physical inventory-related features including demand forecasting, inventory optimization, kitting,
vendor-managed inventory, and lot sizing tools.
Help Desk and Service Software
■ SMEs save time and resources using software developed for
tracking and managing customer issues.
■ Enables SMEs to resolve customer concerns or problems by
managing tickets generated to track problems from receipt to
resolution.
Example Help Desk and Service Software
LiveAgent: Unique features like self-service tools and help items, and multiple service
level capabilities so particular customers can be given more help or priority service.
 
Zendesk: Focuses on communication and keeping customers in the loop.
 
Freshdesk: Built to quickly scale upwards with easy data import and storage features.
 
Desk: Part of the Salesforce software family. Widely considered the most powerful and
fully featured helpdesk package. Uses a ‘customer health’ metric which helps identify
frustrated customers needing extra attention.
 
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software

■Suite of business tools to automate all basic business functions.

■Integrates applications using a consolidated database and ties all business functions to an
accounting system.
■Typical items range from purchasing to order fulfillment. Often included are human
resources, CRM, invoicing, supply chain, inventory control, finance, project management,
procurement, accounting, and many other business functions.
■Typically domain of large organizations
■SMEs often use a subset of ERP features and scale up into a broader set of functions.
■SME ERP marketplace has many choices: Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite ERP, and SAGE
are among the leaders. For smaller businesses, Apptivo and Work[etc] are good choices.
Corporate ■Primary focus of Chief Information Officers
(CIOs), IT managers, and others.
Managers and ■Large organizations use SaaS platforms to
reduce the cost of software ownership and use.
Users ■Corporate managers rely on cloud computing
to reduce volatility and enhance elasticity.
■Corporate users of SaaS services find
applications quickly and efficiently scale to
meet changing capacity needs.
■Translates to stable, predictable savings and
reduced budgets.
PaaS Users

■ PaaS has transformed DevOps in organizational settings

■ DevOps (which stands for development and operations) focuses on
enterprise software configuration and development in a way that tightly
links it to IT operations in the form of an agile relationship
■ PaaS provides development and deployment cloud-based environment
IaaS Users
■IT managers use IaaS to leverage operations resources in many areas
■Encompasses web servers, storage, backup and recovery, high performance
computing, and number of other areas
■Reduces need for capital investment and helps reduce recurring hardware costs
■Onsite data centers, physical servers, and other hardware items are virtualized,
and replaced with subscription services
Other Corporate Uses

■File Storage and Backup

■Disaster Recovery
■Big Data Analytics
Chapter 2 Summary

■ Cloud computing is pervasive and ubiquitous.

■ Users come from businesses and organizations of all sizes, shapes,
and forms.
■ Individual users find the cloud appealing and have incorporated SaaS
into their lives using social media, personal software subscriptions,
and online storage of media and personal artifacts.
■ Future Chapters focus on organizational use of cloud computing.