If industry pundits and strategic reviews of global technology research firms are to be believed, the major portion of Indian software exports can be attributed to solutions that combine cloud and analytics. It is interesting to note that cloud and analytics are significant components of SMAC (Social Media, Mobile, Analytic, and Cloud), which is fast emerging as a robust facilitator of business as well as technology of the approaching decade.

              

Understanding Role of SMAC

The concept of SMAC implies that the integration of these four technologies is going to drive innovation in business processes with improved operations and ability to move closer to customers with minimum investment and maximum revenue output.

Development of new products, customer interactions, and marketing strategy planning, are some of the areas that are highly influenced by modern technologies as well as SMAC. Organizational productivity can be expected to accelerate with emergence of new collaborative platform as a result of proliferation of SMAC and other emerging technologies. Therefore entrepreneurs need to design a robust approach to explore these technologies rather than focusing at strategy for individual technology.

Key Factors for Successful Implementation of SMAC

If you try to assess the changes being adopted by companies that are looking at ways to adopt SMAC into their business infrastructure, following three basic observations can be made in terms of new business strategies. Needless to mention, these organizations are reaping benefits of implementing the concept of SMAC.

  1- These enterprises have adopted digitalization in different spheres of businesses by recognizing the significance of the same for seamless adoption of SMAC. Integration of physical and digital resources that are within and outside the organization is only possible by implementing digitalization. It also facilitates collaboration of human talent and technologies in many different ways. SMC must be supported with full-fledged digitalization in order to achieve operational distinction by encouraging innovation.

  2- These organizations are confident about the need to have digital operating model that is able to exploit the innovative drivers of value. The digital model needs to be in sync with ever expanding digital ecosystems. By successful creation and adoption of this model, it would be easier for companies to gain competitive edge and ability to accelerate marketing processes such as product launch, faster distribution, and extensive availability. Organizations are also able to be more agile and able to connect with customers with greater ease.

  3- Leading organizations are able to adjust to changes that are necessary to facilitate digitalization. This has empowered these enterprises to establish faster and sustained connectivity with stakeholders as well as customers.

             

Integration of SMAC

Even though the role being played by every individual technology is different than others, there is a need for amalgamation of these technologies for designing an integrated model. Social media provides us valuable information about our customers and associates while mobile phones support instant access with each other.

The overall data gathered in the form of structured and unstructured format is processed and presented as meaningful information by data analytics technology and the entire gamut of these processes is backed by cloud solutions.

It is easy to understand relevance of SMAC by appreciating the role of individual technology. Social media is indispensible for connecting with people in the modern world that is driven by smart phones. The mobile devices are connected via internet and can be used for browsing various services and products. The new ecommerce stores have adopted mobile friendly designs to help young users shop even while on the go.

Data analytics and cloud based hosting solutions help organizations understand customer behavior and gain useful insights regarding their buying habits and browsing histories to design tailored marketing strategies.

It should be noted that most of the organizations are already using at least one form of technology from the four components. However, unless there is an integration of all four parameters, one will not be able to succeed in deriving cutting edge benefits of the SMAC concept.

              

Role of IT Department in Adoption of SMAC

Organizations need to involve IT departments as principal facilitators of SMAC concept for improving overall efficiency of adopting the new strategies. In fact, most of the unique advantages of SMAC strategy would be boosting IT operations.

IT departments need to be agile and quickly respond to the new challenges. In contrast to the traditional resources, IT departments are able to access cloud based applications to provide instant solutions and add new functionalities with a single click of button.

IT departments are required to focus on mobile applications by tailoring such solutions to match needs of the enterprise more effectively. These mobile optimized applications have immense potential to improve efficiency and productivity of different departments including sales, marketing, and supply chain facilities.

Social media interactions can be assessed by using various cloud based applications to derive meaningful understanding of customer concerns and feedback in relation with products as well as services. IT departments can tap a plethora of sources for generation of analytics such as social forums, service tickets, and so forth.

Conclusion

Functioning of IT departments can be transformed by adopting SMAC to make their functioning faster and leaner. This is probably the reason why large numbers of organizations are increasingly embracing SMAC.

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