Communicating with Cloud: How Aussie businesses are using tech

Why cloud?

Firstly, remote access means we are able to collaborate more effectively with our colleagues. We can be responsive from almost anywhere, via our compatible phones, laptops and tablets. It gives us the ability to access corporate services and corporate data outside the office, meaning we can provide our colleagues or staff with the materials they need, when they need them.

Secondly – and this is perhaps its most exciting use – cloud computing has offered up a new way to communicate with customers.  Customers are able to select from a wide range of communications methods to meet their preferences, or the needs of the specific environment they find themselves in. Additionally, API integration to business applications enables communications to be instigated and accessed from within the user’s application.

Being responsive

Companies that stay responsive – to both advances in technology and to the wants and the needs of their audiences – inevitably thrive.

Jurlique is one example of an Australian company benefitting from advances in cloud communication. A natural skincare product company, Jurlique uses ingredients derived from its farm in South Australia, however the company’s offices are now international. Using cloud to stay responsive is crucial for Jurlique.

“We have offices across Asia, in North American and in Europe, so we need to be connecting over the phone or through video conferencing,” says Mark Whyman, CEO.

“We need to be storing data, and we need to be sharing and accessing data. Particularly customer data, so that we can understand our customer better and how we serve them through brand campaigns, through products, and the way that we service them.”

By moving to cloud, Jurlique now has the tools to adopt an omnichannel experience for their customers in the future.

“We’re looking at bringing the omnichannel experience to our customer so that we can integrate our regional point of sales systems with our online presence.”

The power of analytics

More than two thirds of IT and business decision makers plan to investigate or deploy a cloud-based analytics system in the next year, according to research carried out by IDG Research Services. The more communicating we do with customers on various platforms, the more data we are able to gather about their preferences, the way they like to be contacted and the way they prefer to be spoken to.

Analytics determine patterns for utilisation, patterns in potential faults and issues with the product, and patterns in how customers are dealing with them. Fundamentally, those insights gained are all going to work to deliver better services for the user.

To meet the challenges of the market today, Australian businesses need to offer tailored, multi-channel communications. The flexibility provided by cloud-based communication provides the scope of power to get to know and stay connected with your customer base in an increasingly sophisticated way.