Recently, I took to the keynote stage at OpenText World to talk about the benefits of our latest cloud platform, OpenText Cloud Editions 21.4. The platform is designed to deliver innovative solutions that leverage everything that the cloud has to offer, helping businesses grow faster, be more efficient, embrace creativity and thrive in a world of accelerating change.

But what does that mean exactly? How do these cloud-based solutions translate to real-world challenges and opportunities?

Smarter tracking for real-world challenges

The supply chain is a timely and relevant example of how having access to real-time, cloud-based tracking can provide fundamental data for businesses. Throughout the course of the pandemic, the need to digitize supply chains has become more essential than ever and OpenText Business Network Cloud, which integrates systems, people and things, can help businesses of any size seamlessly exchange information with trading partners. Leveraged by more than one million global trading partners who collectively process 26 billion transaction per year, Business Network enables companies to monitor the status of goods using self-service tools through dashboards, asset-tracking and real-time visibility into all A2A (application-to-application) and B2B (business-to-business) data flows.

One important element of any real-time product-tracking technology is the ability to securely conduct business – whether in sales or trade – in international markets. Cloud-based applications give companies the flexibility to launch commerce capabilities in real-time and adhere to regional regulations and compliance requirements.

Organizations also need to better understand the customer experience by leveraging multiple data sources and digital touchpoints. By doing so, businesses can utilize the flexibility of the cloud to personalize customer experiences and communications. By integrating with other tools via the cloud, more data can be pulled in, processed and analyzed.

Master modern work with a hybrid cloud model

The past two years have demonstrated the important role technology plays in enabling organizations to be agile, productive and creative. Being digital is the key to mastering modern work, powering modern customer experiences, digitizing supply chains, protecting against cybersecurity threats and building the API economy. As more companies rethink their cloud strategies, they should focus on enabling people to work smarter, not harder, by leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to intelligently capture information to extract, classify, file and protect on both public and private clouds.

The hybrid cloud enables organizations in regulated industries to utilize public cloud, private cloud and on-premises infrastructure to manage large volumes of documents – legal, real estate and insurance, among others – and provides the flexibility they need to maintain control over sensitive material while also providing access to specified documents for those who need it.

Overall, organizations taking a hybrid cloud-based approach to content services report seeing greater benefits to customer experience (72% vs. 25%), security (70% vs. 16%) and usability (64% vs. 16%) compared to companies with a content strategy that is solely on-premises. It’s a clear indicator of this platform’s potential impact on businesses.

Finding the truth in data

With today’s ever-present cyber threats, no company can afford to disregard the need to be cyber resilient. Modernized workflows and artifacts available through private and public cloud platforms give companies new ways of working remotely with the ability to do so in a secure environment.

But security goes beyond the traditional definition. Today in the field of law enforcement, more than 80% of the evidence collected in investigations is in a digital form, creating a significant challenge for public safety officials as they grapple with the most effective ways to conduct digital evidence management.

OpenText recently unveiled its Digital Evidence Center, a cloud-based solution that helps law enforcement agencies close cases faster by centralizing the collection, analysis and storage of rich media and digital evidence—aimed at making the world a safer, more secure place by finding the truth in data.

Today’s business challenges are real. The need to be agile and flexible in a digital-first environment cannot be underestimated. Consider, for example, how quickly a pandemic and a supply chain bottleneck threatened entire economies.

A cloud-first approach across all aspects of business isn’t something reserved for the future. The capability is here today and presents a proven path to help companies translate their market challenges into opportunities, to adapt quickly to the changing needs of modern work, and prepare for future growth.

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