By Anuj Mathur, CEO Q3 technologies
www.q3tech.com

During the last couple of years, the software industry has seen a marked increase in the number of cloud based services aimed at Enterprise Management functionality. These services are a part of the bigger Enterprise Mobility practice which had become prevalent among SMEs with the advent of cheaper Cloud options and faster mobile connectivity. Globalization, outsourcing and automation are three popular resources SMEs have engaged to help cut costs in recent times.

Broadly speaking, a cloud based model enables organizations to move their in-house applications, tools and associated IT elements on to a cloud based infrastructure. This typically works on a subscription model, and thus allows the organizations to make huge savings on inhouse infrastructure investments and maintenance. While the cloud service provider takes care of the infrastructure, its maintenance, security and scalability, organizations can focus their energies on core processes and enhancing their applications to improve overall productivity.

In order to choose an effective and applicable service, especially when moving your in-house custom or packaged applications to a cloud platform, a number of considerations will need to be kept in mind:
1. Does the service provide any pre-defined templates related to your enterprise domain?
2. What kind of data import facilities does the service provide to migrate the current in-house data to cloud?
3. Does the service provide a convenient and usable planning interface?
4. Does the service provide an easy-to-use task updation and task management interface?
5. Does the service have any limitations in terms of size of the project or storage space? If yes, then does the service provide easy to use integration with third party storage services like Dropbox or Google Drive?
6. Does the service have a robust Mobile Application available for the major prevalent platforms?
7. Are there adequate mechanisms and infrastructure available on the service for disaster recovery and business continuity?
8. Is the service quickly scalable to accommodate growth in users and data without compromising performance and usability?
9. And most importantly does the service guarantee sufficient security to organization data?

Every cloud service provides the basic ability to manage projects. But the answers to the above will set a Project Management Service apart from the rest. Time Management is another aspect that can save SMEs valuable capital if done efficiently. However, home grown time management systems tend to get overloaded due to scalability issues after some time.

Time Management tools are some of the most used applications and record each and every activity that the users perform. Therefore the size of data grows very rapidly and an easily scalable system is a must. This is why engaging a cloud based service for Time Management makes all the sense for SMEs. In addition to scalability provided by the client, the corresponding mobile apps also provide the employees with a closer and more personalized time management experience.