{"id":48987,"date":"2022-04-26T17:18:40","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T09:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=48987"},"modified":"2022-04-26T17:18:43","modified_gmt":"2022-04-26T09:18:43","slug":"how-cloud-applications-power-a-shift-to-a-brighter-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2022\/04\/26\/how-cloud-applications-power-a-shift-to-a-brighter-future\/","title":{"rendered":"How cloud applications power a shift to a brighter future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Juergen Lindner<\/em>
SVP, SaaS Global Marketing Leader, Oracle<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the vast majority of us, the pandemic has been a very humbling and personally taxing experience. But it also came with a silver lining of sorts: We learned a tremendous amount on a journey that accelerated significant new trends in business and society.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From resignation to attraction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the pandemic lingered, we heard a lot of talk about the \u201cGreat Resignation<\/a>\u201d\u2013 the troubling exodus of workers that threatened to undermine economic growth. This year, however, I expect that we will see this trend flattening out as businesses have moved quickly to adopt new HR practices and technologies that focus on employee well-being, retention and drawing in new talent by putting employees at the center of their business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increasingly companies are taking steps to avert employee burnout, address mental health challenges and invest into talent retention \u2013 a phenomenon some have labeled the \u201cGreat Retention\u201d. I think we\u2019ll go one step further to embrace what others are calling the \u201cGreat Attraction\u201d. That\u2019s when you focus on really being an employee of choice by better understanding the needs of your people, providing a more rewarding workspace, and crafting new work models that are more flexible and productive and personally rewarding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, we can expect more companies to harness technology to become better in tune with their labor pool and tap new sources of talent. AI and ML-driven insights will show employees how they can best evolve in their career path and what skills they should acquire to shape their future in a more productive and rewarding way. Some may be surprised to know that people trust AI\/ML-driven \u201crobots\u201d to provide smart career advice. In fact, a remarkable 82% of people in our survey said they believe robots could support their career better than humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest HCM solutions can discover emerging trends in the labor market and help you be more predictive and proactive in suggesting new career trajectories for employees. When your workers are challenged to learn something new, they are more likely to stay with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frankly, if you\u2019re not tapping into that sentiment, you might find your business on the receiving end of an eroding talent pool. We are now seeing that companies that invested more decisively in newer technologies are the ones coming out of the pandemic as early winners with the best chance of attracting talent. In my view, this will be a key differentiator between companies in the coming year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data + AI = Smarter finance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology has been transforming finance well before the pandemic came along, and this year we can expect finance departments to become more automated and data-driven than ever before. According to Gartner, 89% of the finance function is highly repetitive and automation can help reduce this tedium, freeing people to take on more rewarding roles such as driving innovation and advising lines of business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve seen how automating back-offices can improve efficiency, cut operational costs, and boost employee and customer satisfaction. Emerging AI and ML technologies will continue to fuel this success, liberating workers from repetitive tasks and helping augment the human potential. In finance, automation is making monotonous routines like book closings practically a non-event. At Oracle, even during the pandemic, we were able to shave several days off the closing cycle, to the point where we are now the fastest company in the S&P 500<\/a> to report earnings to the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you think about it, everything in the business world has a financial aspect, whether it\u2019s hiring<\/a>, supply chain, or customer service. With access to data and insights across all Lines-of-business on a unified cloud<\/a>, you can automate more tasks, innovate faster, and empower better decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building a more resilient supply chain<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic has completely altered how we look at supply chains. Today we\u2019re constantly aware that supply chain disruptions can happen at any moment and it\u2019s made us look at previous supply models in a radically different light. For example, the traditional strategy of \u201cmake in the east, buy in the west\u201d may see alterations for many global enterprises going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New habits that emerged during the crisis are almost certainly here to stay. Consumers became addicted to delivery during this time. New business models like curbside pickup turned from a touchless necessity during the pandemic to an attractive convenience that no one wants to give up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We saw a new appreciation for supply chain flexibility as businesses learned to optimize for razor thin margins. The need for a localized supply chain drove companies to demand better visibility into stock levels, shortages, and attracting the right talent in new locations. To thrive in the new normal, supply chains must be able to provide access to this information almost instantaneously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businesses must also balance increased demand for environmental sustainability and ethical sourcing. This means that unless you can track every link of your supply chain and account for everything that goes into your product, you may soon lose your status as supplier of choice and risk putting your brand in jeopardy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joint-collaboration across your business functions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tackling these challenges and seizing new opportunities in the year ahead will test the ability of companies to stay competitive \u2013 indeed to stay viable \u2013 in a quickly evolving global marketplace. Success will require new digital capabilities in business planning and insight, a more resilient supply chain and workforce, and systems for enabling continuous innovation. Companies that invest in technologies that can integrate supply chain and human resources on a single platform<\/a> are poised to take the lead here and become smarter and more responsive to changing supply and demand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year wasn\u2019t easy for an economy hobbled by a virus that wouldn\u2019t go away. But our renewed sense of humanity bolstered by smart investments in technology<\/a> helped us navigate the turbulence and become even stronger and more resilient than before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2022, we can expect more companies to harness technology to become better in tune with their labor pool and tap new sources of talent. AI and ML-driven insights will show employees how they can best evolve in their career path and what skills they should acquire to shape their future in a more productive and rewarding way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":48988,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,26],"tags":[148,857,1038,1130],"class_list":["post-48987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-opinions","tag-cloud-computing","tag-cloud-services","tag-cloud-solutions","tag-cloud-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}