Cloud-centric corporate cultures: a positive factor for innovation and collaboration

Why a cloud-centric corporate culture?

The introduction of a cloud-centric corporate culture offers the companies concerned a wide range of benefits. For example, the use of cloud technology opens up new possibilities when it comes to mobile working. A topic that has become increasingly relevant, especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but that is still firmly anchored in the minds of employees today. In a study by the Hans Böckler Foundation, 48% of respondents stated that they wanted to continue working from home. 39% stated that they wanted to reduce the number of days they worked from home again, and only 13% of respondents said that working from home was no longer an option in their everyday working life after the pandemic. The trend shows the role that location-independent working plays in the attractiveness of a workplace for the current society and how important fully digital access to data and applications is in this context to ensure the flexibility and mobility of employees.

In addition to the advantages mentioned above, scalable IT resources in the cloud offer a company the opportunity to react quickly to changing requirements and implement them in a largely automated manner. This plays a particularly important role in fast-moving industries where innovation and agility are a decisive factor for success. According to a study published on Statista, the top 5 industries with the highest innovation expenditure as a percentage of turnover are as follows:

1. Electrical industry (10.1%)
2. Vehicle construction (9.8%)
3. Technical services (8.1%)
4. Chemical / pharmaceutical industry (7.6%)
5. Information / communication services (7.3%)

These results are hardly surprising, as they clearly reflect current trends such as the increased interest in electromobility, people's heightened health awareness and companies' eagerness to embrace digitalization.

Ultimately, cloud technology enables seamless collaboration between employees and service providers around the globe, leading to greater efficiency and an increase in the level of innovation within the company. In the rest of this article, we will take a closer look at the topics of innovation and collaboration with regard to cloud-centric corporate cultures.

Promotion of innovation

Innovation processes are iterative and require documentation, which means that project teams need to be well organized in order to gain new insights and implement requirements in a targeted manner. A cloud-centric corporate culture can have an additional positive influence on achieving this goal, as it allows all participants easy access to digital resources and reduces restrictions in the teams' ability to communicate. In addition, the strict implementation of a cloud-centric corporate culture gives the company an opportunity to process results faster thanks to existing processes. This enables them to bring new products to market immediately.

Supplemented by a variety of new tools and technologies, the cloud offers many companies an optimal innovation platform for the development of new products and services. From simple topics such as increased reliability and optimal scalability to cutting-edge topics such as artificial intelligence and big data analytics, the cloud combines everything a company needs to explore new digital business opportunities and gain a competitive edge over rivals.

Ultimately, a cloud-centric corporate culture promotes a culture of experimentation and risk tolerance through its dynamic adaptation capabilities. Once in place, the cloud enables a cost-effective, time-dependent setup of test environments in which the wildest ideas can be tried out and quickly adapted if necessary, without taking a high financial risk. A global study from 2017 shows that cloud technologies already played a major role in technical quality assurance and IT security for over 50% of the companies surveyed years ago. This trend has continued to this day.

Promotion of collaboration

Collaboration between teams and departments plays an important role in innovative processes. A cloud-centric corporate culture can improve this enormously by creating a technically suitable platform, because sharing documents and other data in the cloud allows employees to work together more efficiently, regardless of their location or even their time zone. 

If important decisions do need to be made that require a meeting, cloud-based communication tools such as video conferencing and instant messaging via Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zoom or other tools can provide a way for teams to exchange information digitally. Even beyond digital meetings, team members can stay in contact and build a professional and, if wanted, private bond with each other despite physical distance. This is more important than ever before, as social isolation has already increased enormously due to the ongoing trend of working from home. In the BARMER social health@work study, 23.5% of those surveyed stated that they felt isolated, which can have a number of negative effects on their performance at work and in their private lives during prolonged phases.

Ultimately, the technical advantages should be considered alongside the organizational ones. Actively promoting the use of cloud technology within the company opens up new opportunities for integrating processes and systems. By providing a central data pool, the use of cloud-based ERP and CRM systems, for example, means that internal processes can be optimized and process efficiency can be increased thanks to the far-sightedness of the data.

Conclusion

Adopting a cloud-centric culture is a critical factor for a company's success in today's digital economy. By fostering innovation and collaboration, cloud technology enables rapid adaptation to the current market situation. It has therefore become a key component for companies that want to gain a competitive edge in the digital world. Not least because creating a culture of technical experimentation and open exchange can greatly increase a company's innovative strength and thus ensure long-term success.