In this highly tech-savvy world, people in part of the world, even the most remote locations, want to be connected and available to their prospective, valuable clients at any time of the day or night, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Business communications, meetings and deadlines are met with utmost importance. All of this is made possible in today’s life in large part due to the ‘Smartphone’. Smartphones, and their apps, are no longer a luxury but a necessity for every individual involved in a competitive market. The utility of these smartphones have increased multiple times over, spilling into all aspects of the business world including, but not limited to procurement.
Along with these smartphones comes the seemingly never ending list of apps developed by many different third parties which take full advantage of the highly technologically advanced platforms. These advanced business apps have made communication and connectivity more transparent across the world for businesses of all sizes, both small and large. Many business professionals use various apps to keep the workplace running even when they are travelling, to be in touch with their prospective customers and to ensure products are delivered on time.
A few examples of the important business apps available for use on your smartphone are Dropbox (storage app for all important files and documents that can be shared between multiple users in different locations with realitme updates), Docusign (app to send, sign and save documents on any device), Skype (app for online video streaming), GPS tracking pro (app for keeping track of any movement of any person anywhere in the world), even silly sounding apps like Remember the Milk (a to-do app for your Smartphone), and many more.
In some ways it is like the paradox of which came first, the chicken or the egg. Every day innovative apps are being developed which is leading to a huge rise in the demand of the smartphones. More people, for both personal use and business use, are switching to smartphones which is also leading to a huge rise in the demand for apps. Most of the business apps built are cross–platform apps which increase their usability feature and can be used in any smartphone or handheld devices. In today’s world of Information Technology, the agile methodology has great importance with its iterative model of development and delivery. Hence, the business professional are working towards the solutions that fit with these new technologies and cloud procurement by its very definition is built for this time and age.
Cloud procurement would help the users to gain access to their needed IT tools whenever they need and at any place. As long as you have internet access, readily available through smarthones and other mobile devices, you can access your procurement system in the cloud. This technology will greatly improve in terms of efficiency and reduce the expenditure costs as there would be no need of maintaining and purchase of any hardware devices as such. The cloud procurement solutions help the business professionals gain deeper insights in to the activities across various line of business in their organisations through different reporting tools and dashboards. Users have the access privilege to data from anywhere in the world. Cloud procurement is a natural solution to today’s technology environment.
