Cloud solutions in the trading companies

Penetration of clouds into trade organizations began with cloud services of BI and analytics. The main growth of cloud solutions in trade will happen in the following directions:

• Fast deployment of solutions — applications for mobile trade, means of analytics and planning. * In trade the new functionality is necessary within several days, but not in several months or years.
• The low cost of operation — support of cloud solutions costs significantly cheaper, than traditional solutions. As a result without increase in IT budgets the IT service can service the bigger number of outlets.
• Ease of geographical scaling — the trading companies often have tens and hundreds shops in different regions. Costs for deployment and support of IT solutions in each point can be very essential. At the same time with a cloud solution it is much simpler to provide connection of all necessary IT services in new outlet.
• Lack of high capital costs — the traditional model of distribution of software assumes the big initial budget of the IT project. After the economic crisis business reluctantly spends the large amounts for IT. Cloud solutions can be deployed completely at the expense of operational budgets.

However in cloud solutions there are shortcomings which interfere with penetration of cloud solutions into the trading companies:

• Novelty of technology — perhaps the biggest problem on the way of cloud solutions to trade. While clouds are at a stage of adoption and approbation, however interest in these solutions grows every year.
• Security — a common problem of cloud solutions regardless of a scope. Many trading companies believe that data movement in a cloud increases the probability of their theft or loss.
• Lack of new functionality in cloud the solution — cloud solutions do not offer the companies new opportunities and instant growth of satisfaction of users. Without it process of replacement of existing solutions will happen according to normal lifecycle.
• Loss of control of IT assets — IT in trade has first-priority value - it is one of the most automated industries. The idea to lose a part of control of IT solution is unacceptable for many companies today since it affects key functions of business.