My entire life is on the cloud. Wedding photos, video of my teenagers’ high school graduations, and all of my personal finance information. I never think “I’m adding this to the cloud.” It’s just the way we manage data these days.

Isn’t it interesting that many businesses are reluctant to move their data collection to the cloud? Of course, as the CEO of a SaaS company, I might be biased. But honestly, we put all of our personal information on the cloud because it makes life easier, so why don’t more businesses use the cloud for data collection?

Cloud-based reporting is faster, easier, and can dramatically limit your liability.

At RizePoint, we focus on foodservice, hospitality and retail, but any industry can benefit from cloud-based reporting.

TIME

If I had a dollar for every time someone said “I know your time is valuable,” I would be driving a new Ducati. But, data collection does take time. It takes time to quality-check 5,000 hotel rooms. It takes time to meet food safety regulations at 1,000 franchise restaurants. It takes time to check boxes, upload information, and glean results from audit data. But time is what the cloud can save you. One of our clients, Papa Murphy’s, saved one day per audit by moving to the cloud. One day! Imagine how much your QC team could save by doing cloud-based audits. Actually, don’t imagine. Calculate it:

Auditor hourly rate X hours saved per audit X audits per year = Dollars saved per auditor

Example: $50/hour X 8 hours X 180/year = $72,000

Change the variables to match your audit schedules and I guarantee you’ll calculate savings. Cloud-based data collection saves time and money. Period.

SIMPLICITY

The number one reason I do everything on my phone is because it’s easy. I can book flights, file taxes or find a taco stand at the press of a button. Cloud-based reporting offers that same simplicity. Auditors can use one platform for data collection. Need to make a change after an incident? No problem. All auditors can have the new form after one click. Need to translate the form into different languages? Super. Auditors in France can read audit data in French.

Think about the alternative. If you fail a food safety audit and need to add corrective action questions, it could take days or weeks to update your audit spreadsheet. It takes time to update the XLS file, distribute it to your global audit team, and then ensure that your team uses the new form. Adoption can be the biggest hurdle for compliance. Cloud-based reporting makes it easy to streamline all of your data collection, update forms and translate any audit data.

REGULATIONS

Every business faces some form of regulation. I do not know any CEO who loves regulations. What I do know is that business leaders are accountable when it comes to compliance. If your company is out-of-date on their compliance – and there is an incident or recall – you’re liable.

Moving to the cloud makes compliance easy. Really and truly. You do not have to panic when you read about an industry recall. You can log in and confirm that your food safety audits are in compliance. Plus, as regulations change – as they will with FSMA – you will be able to adapt your audits to reflect the changes.

Let’s recap: Cloud-based reporting = audits – time – hassle + peace of mind.

If you’re still not convinced that the cloud makes compliance easy, you can see how Papa Murphy’s saved time and money using our cloud-based compliance software. Warning: this video will make you hungry.