What does the cloud mean to you?

Cloud enables me to do things quickly and be more agile - both in terms of my personal life as well as how I run my business. The more agile I can be, the more effective and productive I am, which translates to higher revenue.

In your opinion, what is the biggest advantage of cloud-based solutions?

The key challenge my customers are asking me is “I need something faster and I need it yesterday.” Based on that definition, when I gather the requirements on their standard processes, cloud solutions are usually a good option for them. Why? Because when you go to the cloud and start using these technologies, you move into “one-click” consulting. That means that with twenty clicks you can implement a system for twenty users with a basic configuration (using best practices) and solve a problem quickly.

What cloud-based solutions do you use?

I’m a 100% user – everything from CRM, payroll, email, to applications and more. The only things I use that are not in the cloud are some Microsoft products.

I’ve had some experience with SAP Social OnDemand , I strongly believe it’s a collaboration tool that has CRM capabilities verses a CRM application.  It’s very interesting because you work based on feeds and statuses – you’re collaborating and it’s very intuitive. It’s like having Facebook, LinkedIn, Slideshare and Twitter combined. The fact that you can deploy it with just one click and start using it is very impressive.

In your opinion, what is the future of the cloud?

I think everyone is using the cloud in some capacity – usually more on the personal side. For example, using Facebook to organize a meeting with your family, Twitter to communicate the details of a meetup, viewing content on SlideShare, or doing a search on Google – those are business functions too. People are already in the cloud, they just need to figure out how to be more agile on the business side verses the personal side.

“The risk in Latin America is that many call centers promote ‘non-voice services’, but they don’t really know how to do social media,” says Jesus Hoyos, a principal with Solvis Consulting.

Hoyos says that companies can become victims of their own success. If businesses and their outsourcing partners do not have a technological model that can scale, then they can find themselves paying through the nose for what should be a social media bonanza that can deliver measurable ROI.

“If a call center wants to sell you seats, and they are charging you $20 an hour per rep to manage yoursocial media, then you could end up paying for more and more people,” says Hoyos. “That’s simply not scalable, which is why you need a technological solution. If you are a bank, for example, you can’t handle 30,000 or 50,000 conversations, with people suddenly jumping from social media and picking up a phone. This is why a workflow methodology is crucial to deflect traffic.”

Read the full interview here.