These days, more and more businesses are turning to cloud-based budgeting and planning solutions. And it’s no wonder why: the cloud offers a number of advantages that traditional on-premise solutions simply can’t match.
Here are just a few of the ways that companies are benefiting from moving their budgeting and planning to the cloud:
1. Increased Flexibility and Scalability
One of the biggest benefits of the cloud is its flexibility and scalability. With on-premise solutions, businesses are often forced to either over-buy or under-buy licenses, leading to wasted resources and inflexible processes.
With a cloud-based solution, however, businesses only pay for what they use, making it easy to scale up or down as needed. This can be a huge advantage for companies that are growing rapidly or experiencing seasonal fluctuations in demand.
2. Improved Collaboration and Communication
Another big benefit of the cloud is improved collaboration and communication. With on-premise solutions, it can be difficult for employees to access information or work on projects together. It can also be difficult to segregate private data so that colleagues only have access to their specific areas.
With a cloud-based solution, however, everyone can easily access the same information and work on files at the same time along with extensive user security profiles and audit trails This can lead to better decision-making and more efficient processes overall.
3. Eliminate Excel and the damage caused by unauthorised changes to formulae
The damage that unauthorised Excel changes can do is extensive and far-reaching. Not only can it result in the creation of broken formulae or links, which can cause major disruptions to your workflow, but it can also inadvertently cause catastrophic data loss. This is because Excel is a complex program that contains numerous algorithms and functions, many of which are not fully understood by users. As such, any changes made to these functions or formulae can lead to unforeseen errors and glitches that compromise the accuracy and integrity of your data. Furthermore, Excel’s reliance on macros for complex calculations makes it vulnerable to malicious attacks from hackers who may gain unauthorized access to your system and wreak havoc on your data. For these reasons, it is essential to eliminate Excel from your workflow and adopt more robust tools that are better equipped to handle the complexity of today’s business environment.
4 Proven & Tested Formulae and Business Process Templates
Cloud based system use proven and tested formulas and business process templates that will increase the accuracy of budgets and forecasts and eliminate the risk of divide by zero errors and other common excel issues.
Cloud based systems will incorporate extensive BI packages which enable the production of much more detailed reports and dashboards which can be customised and include variance actual reports and rolling forecasts.
5.Harness the power of AI
Cloud systems will incorporate proven AI solutions, preferably not black boxes, but AI solutions that can be user modified, because no AI solution can know what you know!
6.Inbuilt scenario and “What Iff” planning
Advanced scenario planning is at the heart of most cloud systems, enabling users to rapidly adjust forecasts in line with environmental, economic and political changes, all areas that traditional forecasts and budgets find difficult to accommodate.
7. Faster Month End Closing Routines
Cloud based systems will seamlessly integrate into many accounting systems enabling data to be pulled in quickly and accurately so massively speeding up month end procedures.
8. Reduced IT Costs
One of the biggest advantages of the cloud is that it can help businesses reduce their IT costs. With an on-premise solution, businesses have to pay for their own hardware, software, and licenses. They also have to hire dedicated IT staff to maintain the system.
With a cloud-based solution, however, all of these costs are included in the monthly subscription fee. This can lead to significant savings for businesses, especially small and medium-sized businesses that may not have the budget for an on-premise solution.
9. Increased Security
Another big advantage of the cloud is increased security. With an on-premise solution, businesses have to worry about securing their own data centre. This can be a daunting task, especially for businesses that don’t have dedicated IT staff.
With a cloud-based solution, however, all of the data is stored off-site in a secure data centre. This can give businesses peace of mind knowing that their data is safe and secure.
10. Improved Disaster Recovery
One final advantage of the cloud is improved disaster recovery. With an on-premise solution, businesses have to worry about backing up their data in case of a disaster. This can be a time-consuming and expensive process.
With a cloud-based solution, however, businesses can take advantage of the built-in disaster recovery features. This can save businesses a lot of time and money in the event of a disaster.
As you can see, there are a number of advantages that companies can enjoy by moving their budgeting and planning to the cloud. If you’re looking for a more flexible, scalable, and secure solution, the cloud is definitely worth considering.
ProForecast has all of these benefits and many more, ask for a free demonstration to see how we could help you.