Rapid change is impacting the way businesses operate today. These changes are creating a new paradigm where agility is more important than ever. Many businesses are finding that adapting to this new paradigm is both a challenge and an opportunity.

The shift in the way we do business today has been long in coming but slow to arrive, and a business’ ability to adapt to critical times is likely the best indicator of their viability in the future.

At the forefront of this change is the very nature of “the office”, which is becoming more of a hub of shared activity. This updated hub-and-spoke model is less about needing to control business efficiency in the office. The move to secure cloud-based platforms from restricted internal systems has allowed greater freedom for users and those who manage them.

It empowers companies to make the shift to this new model which is more suited to the modern business landscape. The new spokes are not ending at branch offices, but at individuals who are working remotely to contribute to the success of the company.

This new model has been adopted much more rapidly in recent days as changes in the world around us encourage greater flexibility and balance in the way we work. In a world of impactful events that affect people on both a personal and societal scale, a company that can function and adapt in an agile fashion when new challenges arise is very likely to succeed.

Whether it is changes in the market, natural disasters or a pandemic, a company that is flexible, open to new opportunities and is able to adapt to circumstances that they do not control will be in the best position to thrive.

Challenges to becoming Adaptative

A central part of this new hub-and-spoke model is cloud platform services. These services are not only distributed, making them resistant to localized problems, but they also provide a level of innovation on a scale that is out of reach for the internal development teams of many businesses.

Offloading the functions that are not core to a business to the cloud allows businesses to focus their investment and energy on the activities of the business.

Effectively leveraging cloud platform services increases profit and can create a more innovative, flexible and secure environment.

This has an interesting impact on an organization’s IT teams. As more of these services are used it will become more challenging for internal teams to manage them. Platform services frequently add new features. It can be a challenge to both manage these services internally in daily operations and to keep current with the knowledge and expertise needed to fully realize the returns that these improving services can provide.

A Practical way to Adapt

In the case of cloud platforms that have broad service offerings and expand those on a regular and frequent cadence, such as Salesforce, it can take the extensive knowledge and energy of a team of specialists to both maintain daily operations and to look to the future. Understanding these evolving offerings and implementing them to the benefit of the business should be a priority for companies, but this is a commitment that not every organization can make.

Looking to an outside provider such as Online Business Systems for assistance, can reduce overhead for a small to medium-sized company while allowing them to be ready to adapt. Using managed services can be an effective way for a company to realize the benefits of having access to the knowledge and professionalism of a team of certified professionals without the costs associated with hiring and maintaining a similar team internally.

Accessing external expertise offers businesses a unique advantage by ensuring that their implementation is able to continually evolve, appropriately, given their business requirements and the new features available.

Adaptability is at the heart of how any business will succeed today. Taking advantage of Managed Services to maximize cloud-based solutions like Salesforce should be part of your plan to succeed.

About Jeremy Scofield

Jeremy leads up Online Business Systems Salesforce Managed Services.

Salesforce Managed Services at Online has a core focus on bringing a professional best practices approach to its clients and has the depth of knowledge in its team of certified experts.