Far from being just a management buzzword, innovation now firmly has a place in the directives of businesses aiming to survive, succeed, and stay ahead of competition in crowded marketplaces.

According to new research released by Allianz Insurance, innovation is recognised as a key driver of business success according to 83% of Britain’s businesses. Whilst the results from the survey of 500 UK business leaders indicated that innovation is inherent to business success and survival, the data also demonstrates a downward trend in engaging with innovative processes, citing lack of money and a focus on profits as key driving factors.

“It is understandable that some business leaders believe that in difficult financial times, innovation should become less of a priority” - Andrew Torrance, CEO of Allianz Insurance

Innovation and marketing?

Innovation itself – simply, finding new ideas, methods and solutions to services, products and concepts – can often be the first thing to go in a struggling business, and is often missing from the marketing approach.  A core issue in the struggle to engage with innovation is that the creative thinking, homogenous approach required to foster new ideas and solutions (as cited here in our piece on the Shanzai) is directly opposed to the culture and practise of daily business.

Matt Cooper, writing in Computer Weekly, talks about the difference in “rhythm” of innovation from the daily business practice: “Instead of driving to efficiency and operational excellence, successful innovation requires space and time to create, tolerance of failure and a culture of open experimentation”.

How to pair innovation and marketing

Business cultures such as the thriving innovation hub of Silicon Valley weave innovation into the heart of business operations and daily practise. But what of businesses who cannot afford to dedicate teams to innovation and creativity? Cooper points towards outsourcing the innovation function to gain the best results, since “aspects of how innovation is built and executed may be outsourced, as external parties have skills and competencies which the company may not have or even need to be in-house”. But we say that whilst outsourcing can work, you need to know what you’re getting, and something like expertsourcing can provide just the boost that you’re company’s looking for.

Whilst innovation needs to be present at board level in order to exist, expertsourcing specific areas such as marketing can reap myriad rewards. The marketing team of any business is well placed to push forward any new ideas as they have the closest connection with the businesses users and know what they’re looking for.

Expertsourcing allows a business to collaborate, when needed, with the required creative resources for specific tasks as required, and the obstacles to innovation can be overcome. Budget, creative culture and innovation skills may all be found in an existing third party business ready and waiting to plug into your company when required, making savings to that all important bottom line whilst future proofing at the same time.

This blog was written by Jo Gifford, a designer, writer, lecturer and blogger on blur Group’s Media Exchange. You can follow her on Twitter at @dexdiva.

Image Courtesy of Grant Cochrane / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Is this your first time here on a blur Group blog? Why not check out our About or How it Works pages to find out more about the Global Services Exchange. If you’d like to read more blogs then you can visit the Innovatrs blog, or if you’d like a more diverse selection of reading material then check out the other blur Group blogs.

In previous blog we talked about the importance of government policies and support in increasing the level of innovation within a particular nation, and how this would impact the countries level of sustainable growth. As you might have guessed from the title we’re now going to take a deeper look at how different players within a country can affect a nation’s ability to enhance innovation, specifically Thailand.

Where does Thailand start with innovation?

Not too long ago, you could be excused for not thinking of Thailand and innovation in the same sentence. Their history toward ground-breaking innovation has been low to non-existent, especially compared to their Asian counterparts: South Korea, Japan, Singapore, China and Hong Kong. All of which have been listed as the top 50 most innovative countries in the world. Compared to other countries within the Asian region Thailand lacks sufficient skilled personnel resources, policies to drive innovation and has weak ties with foreign & local firms. However, innovation over the years has become a hot topic for Thailand’s government, as both the public and private sectors have worked tirelessly to foster, promote and facilitate innovation development. This has manifested into new opportunities within industries such as automotive, agricultural, textile and foods sectors.

The Thai government have rolled out numerous programs to encourage activities within R&D and technology. Thailand and a collective of other countries within the region have collaborated with each other to share resources, creating a spill-over effect of knowledge and resources that can be transferred across the different countries. Thailand is also part of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nation), which is made up of ten different countries from the Southeast Asia region that together accounts for over 600 million people and is the eighth largest collective economy.

How does the ASEAN work?

One of the key areas ASEAN is interested in is innovation for global markets raising competitiveness for sustainability and incorporating innovation through the use of science and technology. Each country utilises each other’s natural resources and creating policies towards furthering the relationship between public & private sections, increasing the level of collaborative partnerships can be created. Previous projects have included the countries working together to improve each others infrastructure developing a better transport and energy systems. More recently, ASEAN and Thailand have approved a $68 billion loan to build a high speed transport link that will last 7 years as well as a number of other transport related projects. The project is designed to reduce costs and make Thailand more competitive as a manufacturer.

Other countries outside of the ASEAN nations have partnered as they also have a mutually interest in countries such as Thailand becoming more innovative, as this will create more opportunities for direct foreign investment. This has resulted in affiliations with the USA and other innovative countries such as China, Japan and South Korea creating ASEAN + 3. Collaborating with more experienced innovative countries has meant that Thailand has been able to learn what strategies can be put in place to further their level of innovation. This has helped Thailand build a better financial infrastructure for technology and science by rising over $407 billion annually to stimulate growth.

By adopting a dual track policy Thailand’s government have increased the capabilities of local and regional Thai businesses, while at the same time enhancing their competitiveness on an international scale. In addition, Thailand’s government hosts numerous competitions to encourage Thai innovators and entrepreneurs to become more creative and innovative. Policymakers have even introduced competitions such as Innovation Idols Thailand awards. The award is sponsored by Thailand’s Department of Intellectual Property, the Ministry of Commerce and Google (Thailand Division). The purpose of the awards was to create an idea that incorporates online technology. The finalists are given the chance to turn their idea into a real life product and, the opportunity to work with industry experts, who would advise the finalists throughout the innovation process. Many of these policies have helped Thailand to exploit new and existing markets, protect home-grown innovation, and develop their nation’s knowledge-base and find further investment to support research & development that can be transferred to improve Thailand’s social and economic.

Science parks

Another popular method that has been adopted by Thailand and has proven successful among many countries that wishes to enhance their innovative activities has been to invest in a science park. In 2002, The Thailand Science Park (TSP) was founded to strengthen the country’s innovativeness and encourage further R&D activities with the integration of world class facilities under one cluster. TSP offers a number of support services that can be accessed by the tenants within the park this ranges from financial advice/resources to Intellectual Property services. The purpose of the science park is to create a suitable infrastructure that will nurture sustainable innovation by creating a location for Thai entrepreneurs, local companies and educational institutions to collaborate and thrive over a period of time. TSP aims to use an innovation incubation and support system to produce over 100 indigenous innovative start-ups and SME’s.

With the 2nd largest economy in Southeast Asia after Indonesia, all of these innovation mechanisms have been devised to build a long-term innovation and generate growth within Thailand’s economy. With such a diverse innovation strategy implemented by the Thai government, it will be interesting to see how Thailand will progress in the future.

This blog was written by Daniel Tuitt, an Innovation and Technology Expert at blur Group.

Image Courtesy of lkunl / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Is this your first time here on a blur Group blog? Why not check out our About or How it Works pages to find out more about the Global Services Exchange. If you’d like to read more blogs then you can visit the Innovatrs blog, or if you’d like a more diverse selection of reading material then check out the other blur Group blogs.

Funnily enough there is a movement brewing within the culture of innovation, where the importance of stimulating innovation is a hot topic for organisations and countries that wish to be seen as attractive location for overseas business opportunities. The creation of a sustainable national system for innovation can make all the difference between being left in the dark ages or of a nation seeing prosperity through sustainable economy growth. Historically the government, national institutions, and individuals have been important players in supporting innovation, and they’ve now become essential in the effort to driving home-grown growth. But for this to thrive on a national level all of these players need to build a sustainable, working relationship.

Developing Countries

This may often sometimes be complicated. For many developing countries innovation has become the number one driver to create jobs, boosting the economy, and most importantly attracting new external conglomerates to invest within their nation. Developing countries such as Thailand have benefited from government support towards innovation endowments within the automotive, textile, and food & beverage sector which has encouraged prosperity throughout their nation.

Developed Countries

America is a prime example of how a strong national system can become a catalyst for innovation. As they have found a balance between both public and private sector support to drive individuals such as Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs to thrive in an economy. They’ve really got it down when it comes to nurturing home-grown talent. The key to America’s success has derived from the ability to invest in knowledge (which is not the same as intelligence), making them a very knowledge intensive nation, where they have focused on research and development, education and training. This has led to innovative government policies that have been a key contribution to their economic growth.

In recent years President Barack Obama has introduced policies that have supported technology and innovation businesses within the US. The policies are designed to create a national environment that encourages entrepreneurship, which is seen as a fundamental tool to stimulate innovation.  Over $100 billion of Federal investment is estimated to be used to support building closer ties between both universities and businesses that have led to radical innovation projects. In addition to putting down the foundations to spur on innovation, a heavy amount of investment has gone towards research and development for emerging markets for the future to devote their attention to renewable energy and healthcare technology. For many countries including the United States to remain competitive, innovation and entrepreneurship must remain centre stage of many governments’ agendas.

However this is not anything new as the US government has a long and proud history of promoting been innovation and the ability to distribute knowledge on a national level by introducing policies to support innovation and entrepreneurial activities. In 1980, the Bayh-Dole Act was created to encouraged spill-off companies or non-profit institution from US universities to be formed, these start-up’s were able to retain their IP rights. Most of these organisations are now situated within Silicon Valley thanks to their humble beginnings when they were just incubator projects within universities such as Stanford University.

With such a robust national infrastructure for innovation, especially toward the early stages of technical and innovation development it is no wonder that America is seen as the world’s most innovative country by measuring the level R&D intensity, productivity, high-tech density, researcher concentration, manufacturing capability, education levels and patent activity. Other developed countries within Europe such as France, Germany and England are beginning to follow suit as they realise the connection between government influence and the impact on national innovation.

There is no doubt that government plays an invaluable role in the progression of innovation on a national scale to encompass economic growth and be seen as attractive investment for external investors. However, the true success of any nation does not full on the shoulders of the government alone, there needs to be a fine tuned balance between support from both the government and the private sector. This can vary depending on the region and the government’s policies on innovation within a nation. Abu Dhabi have relied on heavy private investment as well as the support of the government to build Masdar City; a $20 billion sustainable tech city that has supported the growth of innovation within the nation. The construction of Masdar University within Masdar City has acted as a support mechanism to develop an innovative cluster to maintain Abu Dhabi’s sustainable growth for decades.

The question that the government needs to ask themselves is, what policies and support can they provide to ensure that innovation thrive within their country to sustain a level of competitiveness by deploying the right policies on a national, regional and local level. The government’s involvement in increasing innovation within their own national interests have helped them develop their eco-system over time to become more prosperous in terms of attracting the right businesses, entrepreneurs and to see the balance of power shift in the next decade.

What are your thoughts on the state of your nations system to encourage innovation are they doing enough or just playing catch up to the big boys that have managed to get it down to a science?

This blog was written by Daniel Tuitt, an Innovation and Technology Expert at blur Group.

Image Courtesy of jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Is this your first time here on a blur Group blog? Why not check out our About or How it Works pages to find out more about the Global Services Exchange. If you’d like to read more blogs then you can visit the Innovatrs blog, or if you’d like a more diverse selection of reading material then check out the other blur Group blogs.

Google, LinkedIn and Facebook may well be household tech names in their own right, but it’s only recently that they’ve taken the rocky road towards an initial public offering (IPO). Could it be that Twitter is about to join their esteemed ranks?

Whilst Google and LinkedIn have faired pretty well, Facebook’s story has been one of upheavals and a roller coaster share price – one still struggling to even return to its ambitious debut price last year of $38 per share.

For its part, Twitter has already immersed itself in company buyouts, gobbling up Silicon Valley tech firms such as a music discovery service We Are Hunted, Bluefin Labs, a social TV analytics firm, and Crashlytics, a mobile crash reporter.

Now, the markets are busy tweeting about a possible Twitter launch onto the stock market with the appointment of Cynthia Gaynor – a senior investment banker at Morgan Stanley – as its head of corporate development. The announcement was made fittingly via tweet and responded to in kind by Ms Gaynor using the same social media platform that took the business from quirky startup in 2006 to a goliath of a company, currently estimated to be worth around $9 billion.

IPO speculation is fueled even further by the fact that Morgan Stanley has been spearheading a tech revolution on the stock market of late. Working with Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and gaming company Zynga, the investment giant has guided Silicon Valley’s finest into the public domain, and Cynthia Gaynor has worked at the heart of the these initiatives, albeit with mixed results.

An IPO is now, it seems, the trophy sought by many tech companies keen to establish themselves as contenders worthy of serious investment. blur Group knows the value of an IPO after it raised almost £4m on its launch onto the AIM – a trading arm of the London Stock Exchange – last year.

“Our ambition has always been to build a UK global technology success story. The IPO is a key part in helping us to achieve that goal, and to demonstrate that there is a UK market for technology IPOs.”   – Philip Letts, CEO and founder of blur Group

Whether Twitter is about to take flight in this respect is yet to be seen. But it seems highly likely, given that such a high-profile investment banker has been brought into the nest.

Is this your first time here on a blur Group blog? Why not check out our About or How it Works pages to find out more about the Global Services Exchange. If you’d like to read more blogs then you can visit the blur Group blog, or if you’d like a more diverse selection of reading material then check out the other blur Group blogs.

With nobody setting targets for you or a clock to watch when working for yourself it’s easy to lose focus, meaning you can miss out on what you want to achieve. A good life coach can make all the difference and someone who is very experienced in this life coach and business advisor Judith Flowerday of the company Dare To Fly…

How did you first become a life coach?

Growing up I had every kind of job! Then around 2005 I thought to myself “I’m not really making a difference.” It was then I looked on the Learndirect site and saw the vacancies (for some reason being a builder appealed!)

It was then I saw a notice about training to be a coach and it was at that time I started to get a fizzy feeling in my tummy- I researched training programs and learned to become a lot more confident.

As I progressed through the training I found that the less bothered I was about the process and the more I worked with people the better my results were.

How would you describe your role?

I would say my role is to make people better and happier about what they do! In some respects it’s not just about setting goals- sometimes people aren’t even aware of what they want, just a general feeling of “I don’t know what I want but I don’t want what I have now.”

Once we talk about this often someone can then feel more confident and more aware of what they want. Only after that point can you start setting objectives and giving them goals to accomplish.

What advice would you give to people about achieving their goals?

• Set out a clear vision of what you want to achieve.

• Be passionate about what you do

• Put a date on it!

• Look for resources and support

• Think about whether or not you need to learn new skills

• Gather information

• Identify the first step and take it

• Review your progress- don’t just think about the end goal, celebrate achievements along the way so you don’t become demotivated by focusing too much on your ultimate ambition.

What are your goals for the future?

In terms of personal goals I want to improve my health and get a deposit on the new Lotus!

How much did you pay for your phone? An unlocked 16gb iPhone 5 will set you back a hefty price if you get it direct from Apple, and prices on smartphones vary significantly depending on which contract you locked yourself into. But what about a phone that costs just $12? Devoid of fancy add-ons but still featuring quad-band GSM, bluetooth and an MP3 player, this new breed of mobile phones could be a gamechanger in emerging markets or for people looking for a disposable second phone for travel, festivals or any other occasion when a smartphone might fare better left at home.

Sadly, this phone isn’t available to buy in the UK. But you can buy it from the Mington Digital Mall in Shenzhen. To find out more about the device, a post by Andrew ‘Bunny’ Huang on the bunnie:studios blog is an excellent place to start. He took the phone apart and examined each of the components to figure out exactly how this phone could be made so cheaply, noting that “it would certainly find an appreciative audience in impoverished and developing nations.”

The phone snaps together without screws, and all the components are soldered directly to the board. The bluetooth antenna is little more than a piece of wire. Yet for all its simplicity, it still has features such as decorative lights and a back-lit keyboard. More importantly, it allows the user to fulfil a range of basic communications requirements.

A New Source for Open Source

Huang goes on to say that the $12 phone emerged from ‘the Galapagos of Chinese open source,’ something Huang calls ‘Gongkai.’ Unfettered (or, some might argue, unprotected) by typical Western notions of IP, this new open ecosystem is an exciting breeding ground for innovation and entrepreneurship.

“Significantly, gongkai isn’t a totally lawless free-for-all. It’s a network of ideas, spread peer-to-peer, with certain rules to enforce sharing and to prevent leeching.”  - Andrew Huang

The success of a new open-source ecosystem pushing out affordable mobile technology would be of huge benefit to emerging markets such as Africa, where mobile tech is already responsible for some truly exciting advances. In a nation where mobile is a driving force in allowing businesses to grow and succeed, an availability of cheap, hardy devices that are easy to repair or replace would be a real boon.

Holly Knowlman is a tea-loving Brit living in Toronto. She’s a writer, event inventor and digital communications professional. She enjoys many things including: noisy nights out, technology, contemporary art, adventures, her bike, soup, cider and trashy celebrity culture. Follow Holly on Twitter @HollyKnowlman or check out her blog.

The business environment as is everything else in life is becoming more competitive. This means it is becoming especially important to be seen as a company that is rapidly innovative as the tech and social environment around us is changing at an equally rapid rate.

However when you think about the top companies the first thing that comes to mind names such as Apple followed shortly by Google, Twitter and Nike but what do all these brands have in common besides being listed the top 2012/2013 Coolbrands list. I will give you a clue it is something you cannot see but is vital to any company that wishes to be innovative (if you didn’t guess the answer then you clearly missed the title).

For decades there has always been a heated debate regarding the issue of what environment best stimulates accelerated innovation, as businesses search for the Holy Grail that makes innovation easier to flourish. Yet the answer is not black and white, and there are many factors that can stifle or accelerate the path to innovation. In some cases it is easy to innovate but it becomes more challenging to continue to create ground-breaking ideas that no one else has thought of to bring to the market. It takes a mix of experience, hard work, and the right minds and of course creative environment. These elements have always had a strong connection that relates to encouraging innovation to foster within a business by setting the right culture and environment.

Why is this so important you ask? Simply it is a core strategy used to by businesses to stay competitive. When a business initially tries to cultivate an innovative and creative environment they look to hire the right people and create an environment that stimulates creativity to generate a productive work atmosphere.

This sounds simple enough to execute but there are many factors that any organisation needs to consider before they can create this dream environment that allows innovation to flow more freely. This becomes more of a challenge when barriers such as disruptive innovation are occurs.

Think about Apple for a moment, their innovative success has not just been founded on products like the iPhone’s beautiful and slick design. It has been built around their ability to continuously think two steps ahead of their rivals by coming up with other products and services that can be integrated within Apple’s existing products. They have only been able to do this by creating an environment that promotes individuals within Apple to innovate and take control of specific elements of operations by leveraging this culture into Apples products. This culture is still very much at the heart of Apples success even after the untimely passing of Steve Jobs. In an interview Steve Jobs explains how apple has been able to encourage entrepreneurial thinking, which has helped Apple to be nimble and flexible to enable true innovation, as within any type of innovation there is a short lived window of opportunities in which to launch a new product or service before someone else beats them to it.

There is abundance of challenges that businesses face when they try to generate a shift to a more innovative environment. One problem lies in the ability to continue to keep innovation going within an organisation. As what is normally the case, businesses can create a innovative environment, however they can easily revert back to their old ways and failing to monitor the environment over a time period. It is hard to make an innovative environment genuine, as you cannot force innovation within an organisation. This is down to understanding what innovative culture is compatible with the organisation as the wrong type of innovative culture may not work, especially when the have little historical innovation. In many cases businesses find it difficult to change the existing culture as many employees within that organisation will resist the change.

To create an environment for innovation the senior managers need to be on board, without someone from the top encouraging innovation from the top down it is pretty much like fighting an uphill battle. blur Group is a prime example of how innovation can be implemented throughout a working environment. Our CEO and founder Phillip Letts has created an atmosphere that has embraced a level of freedom and creativity within blur Group, this level of innovation management triumph has only come to fruition thanks to his experience running innovative tech companies.

This helps to build a universal acceptance to continuous innovation throughout blur Group, with a business atmosphere that is flexible and is able to adapt to any changes before anyone else. You may think that this is straight forward but many businesses oversee this element. Even some of the more experienced companies are blindsided by a shift within their eco-system.

Another important factor that blur Group understands and implements very well to create an innovative environment is the ability to work and collaborate with others.The need to collaborate has become ever more important over the years to create an environment that allows innovation to thrive.

Is this your first time here on a blur Group blog? Why not check out our About or How it Works pages to find out more about the Global Services Exchange. If you’d like to read more blogs then you can visit the Innovatrs blog, or if you’d like a more diverse selection of reading material then check out the other blur Group blogs.

Earlier this month, a court ruling gave Aereo, an Internet TV service, permission to show programming from FOX and several other networks to their subscribers. As more consumers switch to services like Netflix and Hulu , the “cord-cutting” debate comes more to the forefront.   While most consumers still receive basic cable, many are increasingly turning to Internet for entertainment.  News Corp. and Aero represent the opposite sides of the evolving TV landscape.  While News Corp. pays billions for their content, Aereo pays nothing.  They simply capture existing broadcasts and sell them for eight dollars a month to subscribers who can manage recorded shows on their computers or smartphones.

Understandably Fox isn’t too thrilled about this but why would they go this far and risk losing millions of dollars in distribution and advertising revenues? Well, because moving to a pay channel could yield billions in yearly earnings.  This “business solution”, as Carey calls it might be a perfect way to teach Aereo a lesson, send a message to the U.S. Congress, and generate profits.  But while it may sound simple, Fox will undoubtedly face several obstacles in the process.

Firstly, there will be a major blow to advertising revenue.  Unlike network TV, pay channels run without commercial breaks.   Because 15% of American Households don’t have cable or satellite television, the audience would shrink that much so advertisers would pay that much less to expose themselves to them.  This would create about a $645 hit for the broadcasting company.

Secondly, Aereo claims to have the law on their side.  “When broadcasters asked Congress for a free license to digitally broadcast on the public’s airwaves,” said a statement issued by the startup, “they did so with the promise that they would broadcast in the public interest and convenience, and that they would remain free-to-air.”

Ethical innovations that help sustain life are guaranteed to set the business world alight, and it’s about to happen again. For millennia, we’ve used natural foliage to balance the environment and keep us fed, but scientists in the US have now invented an ‘artificial leaf’ that uses an innovative technique to create electric energy.

The leaf – basically, a silicon wafer coated in a catalyst – sits in water and reacts with it to generate hydrogen that is then stored in fuel cells. If successful, the technology could provide a huge boost to the estimated 300 million people worldwide who currently have little or no access to electricity. In an earlier stage of development, the leaf’s performance was hampered by bacteria that formed a biofilm on its surface. This reduced the amount of hydrogen the leaf produced, and meant the process was only effective in clean water – a scarce resource in the developing world. Thanks to a few tweaks, however, the leaf is now self-healing and hydrogen generation much more effective.

The team behind this exciting innovation is headed by veteran biochemist Daniel Nocera. “We figured out a way to tweak the conditions so that part of the catalyst falls apart, denying bacteria the smooth surface needed to form a biofilm. Then the catalyst can heal and reassemble,” he says.

In development for over 10 years, the artificial leafs looks set to be ready for commercialisation soon. A single leaf in a quart of water can generate 100 watts of energy 24 hours a day, so the ethical benefits – especially for the developing world – could be enormous. It’s hoped that, once rolled out, the leaf could improve the lives of millions, providing cheap energy to populations who need it most.

In fact, the technology used to create the artificial leaf has generated even more opportunities. Scientists are currently working on a device that turns hydrogen produced by the leaf into a liquid fuel – enough to power an engine.

Daniel Nocera is passionate about what this could all mean for humanity. He speaks of his creation in almost biblical terms, referring to the development of his artificial leaf technology as a “new epoch in humankind”.

Openstack is a global collaboration of developers and cloud computing technologists that provides revolutionary open source cloud computing platforms that can be used as public and private clouds. The root of Openstack’s success is based on being able to provide a service that is simple to implement, massively scalable and contents rich. Founded by Rackspace and NASA, Openstack has helped their users run the clouding application platform to build on their current software or submit changes back to their projects.

If you don’t know what cloud software is, you must have been hiding under a rock for half a decade, in a hermits cave or on a beach disconnected from the world. You can hardly open any technology, business journals, newspapers or websites today and not hear something on cloud computing. However, you may ask yourself what is it and how is it changing the business and IT world. Cloud computing allows users to deliver a host of software and services over the Internet. It can be broken-down into three areas.

• Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS),
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS),
• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

Thanks to the introduction of cloud computing it has now made it possible for businesses to make that all important innovation decision at a faster rate thanks to the effortless integration with the business’s current IT platform.  It is clear that the question is no longer whether businesses will use cloud computing, but how quickly can businesses move to this platform. As the transformation to cloud software has allowed businesses to make innovative and strategic decisions in order to become more competitive.