A Cloud Supply Chain Management approach to Small Business
Small businesses are entering into a new era where older value systems and relationships are changing into digital ecosystems with emerging complex relationships.
In the book, Being Digital, Nicholas Negroponte--the Director of MIT 's Media Lab--introduces a simple and powerful model for describing and predicting the effects of digital technology on information exchange; he suggests that we 're moving from a time where information is traded as atoms or Evian bottles to a time where information is traded as bits. He suggests further that moving from atoms to bits will have a particular sociological effect: "As we interconnect ourselves, many of the values of a nation-state will give way to those of both larger and smaller electronic communities. We will socialize in digital neighborhoods in which physical space will be irrelevant and time will play a different role. Twenty years from now, when you look out a window, what you will see may be five thousand miles and six time zones away" (Negroponte, 2015).
Small business needs to be digitally wired due to the merging of physical boundaries with the stateless digital technology. If a small business doesn’t reinvent itself in the modern digital sphere, it will lose its existence due to technological disruption. Embracing and integrating the modern cloud technologies into every aspect of the business (Manufacturing, Marketing, Supply Chain, Sales and services) is
All types of business models can find benefits from cloud computing infrastructure. As for example cost and flexibility from small business viewpoint whereas total IT problems can be solved for large companies. It will add advantages for companies, their employees, consumers, distributor where the overall business solution can be provided.
Adopting clouds in a typical manufacturing enterprise can save the cost in a multiple way, for example the elimination of some of the functions that were essential in traditional IT (Xu, 2012). Owing to the decreasing cost, cloud computing lowers IT barriers to innovation, and also makes enterprises easily scale their services according to client demand, which is increasingly reliant on accurate information.
This paper discusses cloud based supply chain applied in health care, life cycle information and food supply chains. Poor demand and supply visibility result in inefficiency and poses various risks in critical sectors like Healthcare, whereas in other sectors it can lead to great financial losses. For example, emergency drug shortages can pose a great threat to people’s lives, had proper supply and demand data were available this could have been avoided. In food industry, inadequate sharing of information could lead to food safety emergencies and can lead to price inflation. The only solution for all these problems are proper information sharing which can be achieved through cloud
A new business model is enabled by Cloud computing that supports on-demand, pay-for-use, and econ¬omies-of-scale IT services over the Internet.
In doing a small business, most small companies usually have a lot of stuff to be stored safely including their application, files, data, business record, customer's information, and to name a few. As a result, most of the small businesses would continuously have problems finding space for all their necessary data when there is a disaster happen. In a realm of science fiction has become a reality with cloud computing which allows all kind of information to be widely and safely stored on the infinite space of the World Wide Web instead of in a limited area of physical drives. Therefore, many small businesses have been moving to cloud computing to keep their business sustainability and experiencing the new technologies that were never
The Internet has significantly transformed the world we live in today. The question on whether or not the internet is good continues to raise a heated debate. Whereas some claim that the growth in internet use is for the better of the society, others claim it is for the worse. However, it has turned the world into a global village. Bill Gates once said that "The internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow." If the world lacks a digital future, the issue is what the speaker will have to sacrifice for them to be heard in this ‘digital town square.' The controversy arises when one looks at the quote from the language lens and this important particularly for the young generation. Nevertheless, it is evident that bridging the digital divide will promote exchanges and ultimately empower individuals and therefore the growth in internet use is a good thing.
Cloud computing is an on-demand service which has achieved great demand in corporate data centers. The cloud facilitate the data center to work as the Internet and computing resources to be promoted and shared as virtual resources in a secure and extensible manner (X). Most small business owners shifted to use the new technological trend by adopt cloud based information system (SMH).
This report proposes a strategic E-business initiative to adopt cloud computing to host the IT infrastructure of the company. The enterprises today are facing the pressures to consolidate their IT infrastructure and at the same time improve the business agility. Also with the dynamic business environments there is a constant need to innovate to higher standards. Cloud computing is the way forward to a convenient and dynamic shared pool of customisable computing resources. It delivers rapid results with minimal provisioning.
Enterprises, both big and small, are evaluating cloud computing and moving IT infrastructure to the cloud. To achieve the financial goals of the any organization and be prosperous in today’s highly aggressive market; therefore businesses must have services that are secure, reliable, scalable and available anywhere at any given time, on any device – all while it lowers cost and minimizes integration complexity.
Enterprises, both big and small, are evaluating cloud computing and moving IT infrastructure to the cloud. To achieve the financial goals of the any organization and be prosperous in today’s highly aggressive market; therefore businesses must have services that are secure, reliable, scalable and available anywhere at any given time, on any device – all while it lowers cost and minimizes integration complexity.
With the help of cloud computing, small business goes onto the market quicker and keeps growing without worries about IT resources. According to the academic research survey, there are about 34% of Small business are willing to transferring to Cloud is because cost effective and reliable, 32% of them are trusting the safety and security environment of Cloud to store their important business data5. The remaining of the small business because the availability of services and sharing data facilities that Cloud providers provide6. With the help of Cloud services, SMEs will
For commercial organizations, cloud computing does not mean putting all data information in virtual storage on the Internet network such as iCloud, which is serviced by the Apple Company. Cloud computing in commercial organization means the firm and business to gain lower barriers to entry into business because of cost –effectiveness in IT, the ability can grow faster, the significant scalability and flexibility of IT-bases and cloud services. On the other hand, the cloud computing technology is not a miracle service, which always benefits every business (Colt, 2014, n.p.g.). Consequently, any commercial organization has to consider the different needs, of a company
This report is based upon the book The New Small: How a New breed of Businesses Is Harnessing the Power of Emerging Technologies, written by Phil Simon. The book was published by Motion Publishing and is copyrighted 2011 by Phil Simon. Phil Simon is the author of the Why New Systems Fail and The Next Wave of Technologies along with a few other management books. Phil consults companies on how to optimize their use of technology. While not consulting, Phil speaks about emerging trends and technologies. His contributions have also been featured in several technology-oriented media outlets. Simon currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Supply Chain Management is defined as the oversight of materials, information, and finances as they move in a course of action from supplier to manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer. It includes numerous activities such as coordinating and integrating these flows both within and amid companies. By directing the supply chain, companies are able to cut excess fat and provide products faster. This is done by keeping tighter control of internal inventories, internal production, distribution, sales and the inventories of the company 's product purchasers, therefore completing the objective in a Supply Chain Management system by decreasing inventory. However there are risks taken by companies as the globalization of their supply chain is paired with concerns about the quality of products that are made in other countries may not meet regulatory standards, therefore puts their products in jeopardy of being recalled. This means that supply chain managers are responsible for ensuring suppliers and their products maintain safety and quality standards. Recalls or safety issues can damage a company’s reputation.
The Digital Divide is as local as in your own town or city or as international as the next continent over