This is Assignment 1 for Unit 16 Cloud Storage And Collaboration Tools. It meets all the Distinction Criteria allowing for an overall Distinction Grade. This unit has 2 Assignments, please check out my profile for Assignment 2 for this unit.
Criteria Covered
To achieve the criteria you must s...
Unit 16 - Assignment 1
Cloud Storage and Collaboration Tools
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Introduction
I have recently joined a manufacturing company as an IT support technician and as one of
my first tasks I have been asked to create an analytical report on whether or not cloud
technologies can benefit the company and in what way. In this report I will be discussing the
benefits and drawbacks of using cloud technologies within a business and how information
technology is deployed and assists a business.
Deploying IT in an organisation
Technology on a whole has become so developed since the start of the century that it has
become integrated in an organisation foundation. Regardless of the size of the organisation
or business they have incorporated technology to assist them in providing their services.
From a small corner shop that may use basic stock control software to determine their
current stock and what and how much of something they need to get from their suppliers. On
the topic of order processing software our manufacturing does require a multitude of
software including stock control and manufacturing, order processing and personnel
systems. Stock control software allows a business to check its inventory at any given time
and with this information the business can determine how much of a certain product they
need to order to replenish their stock. The stock control system will be live and will update
regularly to ensure the information is accurate so whenever an order is placed or an item is
purchased the stock control system will correct the total amount of the product and display
the remaining amount. An example of stock control or inventory management software
would be Brightpearl. Brightpearl is a cloud-based retail operations platform that tightly
integrates your sales channels. Brightpearl connects your sales orders, fulfilment, inventory
management, accounting, reporting and planning, warehouse management, replenishment
and more. Brightpearl even have reviews on their website and one of the reviews states that
bright pearls services save them so much time and their orders can get out 5 times faster.
So not only does brightpearl help with inventory management but it also affects the
organisation work flow in a positive way. Having a inventory management software/stock
control system not only helps with seeing how much stock you have left but you can also see
the frequency of your sales and how often something is being sold this is a huge advantage
as if a certain product is in demand then you can by more of that item to keep up with the
demand and hope to out do your competitors who lack a systems that can analyse sales and
inventory. Normal stock control software/inventory management can be managed from a
local server but this is inadvisable as there are many negatives to this. One being that the
information can only be accessed if you're connected to the server meaning most of the time
you have to be in the building and cannot access the information remotely. Also if the
organisation in question allows employees to use personal systems then they might have
some difficulties not only with connecting to the server but a whole other issue arises that
concerns the safety of the data. Allowing employees to connect their personal devices to the
server can come with some risks such as if malware was to be downloaded on the server
could lead to the whole organisation being compromised which is only the start of their
, problems as the public's view and faith in the company will change. This is where cloud
technologies come in as cloud technology is way more flexible in terms of cost, usability and
more. Cloud allows the user to access the information remotely and can allow employees to
work from home if necessary this especially now after the world has suffered from the recent
pandemic is a huge positive as it is one of the biggest reasons most business are still here
while business that lacked the ability to access the resources they needed to function during
the lockdown have either gone under or were hit pretty hard and are still recovering. The
information can be accessed through multiple devices such as computer, laptop and mobile
phone. This can be extremely helpful as if someone needs a certain piece of information
such as recent orders or order details instead of going to the organisation's building they can
access it from their personal devices which saves a lot of time.This impacts the business as
they can be much more flexible and efficient with work. Employees can work remotely
meaning if they require a sick day the chances of them receiving one are increased as they
can still fulfil their roles from their homes. Examples of similar instances/scenarios in other
industries are present and continuously happen and I too have first hand experience of some
of these scenarios for example a couple of months ago there was a snow day and the
teacher couldn't get to college that day because of it so as an alternative all students were
told to join a google meet call where the lesson would take place. The lesson went along as
normal but the fact this is possible is purely thanks to cloud computing as the reacouse for
the lesson being accessible for both student and teacher even from home allowing the
lesson to continue. This is only an example but as you can conclude from this, employees
for the manufacturing company can still perform their roles remotely and the roles that can
be fulfilled are not small in quantity for example SKY hires employees to work from home
and perform customer service roles. Employees are given a script to follow when on call with
customers and assist them with whatever issues they may have and if they cannot help them
they transfer them to someone else who can. This shows that roles that would be expected
to be in a call centre can be done from the comfort of peoples homes and all that is required
is a script and a computer. Of course to do this a stable internet connection is required but
that is to be expected in this day and age where everything is run through the internet or with
the help of the internet. The business owner can also use the cloud to communicate with
employees and clients and respond to issues faster and can also remotely receive alerts and
updates. Brightpearl being cloud based allows for all of this making it an excellent choice for
our manufacturing company. Another possible alternative to Brightpearl would be CIN7.
CIN7 is also cloud based like brightpearl and is a powerful tool that connects your items,
stock locations, sales channels, orders, workflows, warehouses, reports, etc., into a single
automated solution. CIN7 is extremely useful and may be a better option than Brightpearl as
it seems to be way more efficient and flexible as it allows sales through multiple channels
such as retail, online or wholesale and for our manufacturing company it can help us
organise our warehouse and materials. It is also very flexible as it can be integrated with
multiple well known companies such as amazon, shopify, paypal and more.
Cloud technologies and delivery models
There are 3 types of delivery models and they are Saas, Paas and Iaas. To start off Saas
stands for software as a service and is mainly designed and used by end users. Saas allows
for on demand service and is per pay use of the application software. Unlike licence bought
programs the software does not need to be downloaded on your pc meaning saas is
platform independent. Also the computing resources that are responsible for delivering Saas
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