Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone for most economies. SMEs make about 90% of businesses worldwide providing more than 50% of employment. In Singapore, about 96% of all businesses fall in the SME category. In emerging economies, most formal jobs are generated by SMEs, creating about 7 out of 10 jobs (Source: World Bank data). SMEs power a nation’s innovation and entrepreneurial essence and act as drivers of growth for the economy.

However, when it comes to modernization and digitization, SMEs still have some ground to cover. A study conducted jointly by the Association of Small & Medium Enterprises (ASME) and Microsoft Singapore, revealed that just over half (56%) of them said they have strategies in place for digital transformation.

The Role of Cloud in Digital Transformation

Cloud acts as the foundation for digital transformation. Cloud-based infrastructure is crucial to delivering flexible, on-demand access to the resources supporting these new digital business solutions. Also, Cloud computing is the answer to many SME priorities like improving efficiency, reducing costs, increasing flexibility & business agility. It allows companies to scale infrastructure as required to support evolving business priorities, while reducing the wastage of IT resources that restricted past investments in new digital offerings.

The Cloud provides an entirely compatible platform to power business growth without compromising on quality or efficiency. By leveraging cloud technology, SMEs can operate more efficiently, and effectively scale their products and services, to reach new markets and customers.

Main Benefits of cloud technology for SMEs

Essentially, cloud computing offers four key advantages for SMEs: flexibility, scalability, easy accessibility and cost control (pay-per-use models).

Flexibility

Cloud-based services are ideal for businesses with fluctuating infrastructure demands. It is easy to scale up or scale down your infrastructure as per your needs.

Accessibility

Having your applications and data in the cloud allows you and your employees to work from anywhere at any time. This is especially useful for small businesses, where teams can work remotely at any time and collaborate with each other seamlessly.

Cost Control

Cloud Computing eliminates the need for large upfront capital expenditure. Subscription-based, Pay-as-you-use pricing model are friendlier for SMEs.

Security

Data security is a major concern for companies of all sizes. Where enterprises can invest in security professionals who can create security frameworks, SMEs can rely on public cloud providers to ensure that the right security protocols are in place for higher data security.

Ready, Set, Migrate

There are many more reasons why SMEs need to invest in IT and leverage cloud applications. In association with Microsoft, Cloud Kinetics is hosting a complementary cloud event in Singapore for SMEs to understand this technology, key considerations and benefits for SMEs.

Date: Thursday, 6 Feb 2020

Venue: Microsoft Office Singapore

182 Cecil Street, #13-01 Frasers Tower

Singapore 069547