Why a cloud ERP is essential to your multicloud strategy

Remember way back in the yesteryears of the pre-2010s when building a business often meant building out a data center?

Then the cloud blew in and what started as a nebulous buzzword became a technology strategy for companies of all sizes. Even small businesses can get in on cloud computing with shared service options from Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Cloud, and other providers. 

And with the cloud becoming more ubiquitous, software companies are answering the call. A broad range of business operations can be managed using cloud-based services, including:

• Communications
• Inventory
• Accounting
• Tax compliance
• Customer management
• Workforce management

Of course, if using one cloud solution offers strategic and financial benefits, then using several cloud solutions will offer even more benefits, right?

Welcome to the multicloud world.

Companies often rely on solutions from a range of cloud vendors. But just because your solutions are all cloud-based doesn’t mean they’re speaking the same language. To create a truly effective multicloud environment, you need smart integration — and a powerful hub — to bring everything together.

That hub should be an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution designed to support your multicloud strategy. A cloud ERP can help you:

• Increase adaptability
• Improve interoperability
• Enable greater mobility
• Focus on what matters

As your organization runs its business processes, your employees may be pulling information from public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises systems. Trying to build your own integrations would be an exercise in futility — and relying on the one-off integrations provided by each cloud vendor will only leave you with a complex maze of connections.

You're much better off using a highly adaptable cloud ERP with specific integrations for your systems. For example, Avalara integrates directly with a number of ERPs using prebuilt connectors, which allow for faster adoption.

A multicloud option may sound great now, but what if you need to shift back to an on-premises data center? Or what about migrating data from legacy systems to the cloud? With the right cloud ERP solution, you'll have the flexibility to move data, and even entire platforms, back and forth.

So whether your future includes an on-site data center, a multicloud strategy, or some combination of the two, implementing a cloud-based ERP now can set you up for success.

Over the last few years, we’ve seen a significant rise in remote work. Freed from the constraints of having to go into an office and log in to traditional on-premises systems, today's employees expect to be able to work from anywhere.

Cloud-based systems have certainly enabled this shift. But there's little benefit to having to log in to eight different cloud systems just to do your job on the road. The right cloud ERP solution will solve the complex issue of getting multiple cloud applications to work together and give your employees one place to log in to perform their daily duties.

Oftentimes, businesses maintain outdated technology solutions simply out of habit. What once worked great continues to seem good enough, even as it becomes less efficient and requires more time to manage. Think of how much overhead expense and time companies can waste on IT tasks that could easily be outsourced to a cloud ERP vendor.

More significantly, think of how many business opportunities companies miss if their old ERP system can't offer the seamless access to data that today's cloud ERP systems provide.

When you migrate to a cloud ERP, you can not only reduce your IT burden but also rest assured that your vendor will keep your system up to date with the latest ERP technology.

The benefits of cloud business solutions are no longer a mystery — and more cloud can mean more benefits. But don't just move business processes to the cloud haphazardly. Make sure your multicloud strategy revolves around a cloud ERP system that's powerful and flexible enough to serve as your hub.