Cloud has revolutionized the way people work and the places they work from. Just few years ago, it would been hard to imagine that people would be able to accomplish almost all office or business tasks from the comforts of their homes or while sitting on a beach and sipping a beverage.

Cloud assisted technologies and work scenario

Cloud has literally liberated the new generation from shackles of time and place. We can access, edit, retrieve, and upload data from any place and even while on the go with advent of cloud computing. One of the leading private sector banks in India has proposed a new scheme for its female employees and the scheme is aptly named as ‘I-Work-@-Home’. The change in paradigm has been made possible with support of cloud based technologies.

The shift in the way people would work was predicted by a management professor from MIT, in 2009. According to him, there would be a revolutionary change in the way people would work. They will have freedom to work from anywhere and choose their bosses. Employees will be electronically networked and will participate in decision making processes.

There are many different terminologies coined for a new class of working. Terms including fractional employment or hyper-specialized work convey that, the new type of work will not be considered as a full time job that involves a single employer. Rather there will be number of employers offering opportunities to work on projects for a defined period to people who are experts in specific domains.

These task based opportunities will be assignments for specific time lines instead of full time jobs. Experts will be able to choose the projects or assignments and will be signing confidentiality agreements rather than appointment letters. This arrangement will result in overall improvement of work quality and speed of accomplishing time bound objectives.

Background of work fractionalization

The first ever experiment of successfully braking down a large project into smaller tasks was conducted at Ford by implementing the process of assembly line. Every worker was assigned with a small task that was part of the entire assembly process. By integrating number of such fractionalized tasks the end result of an affordable automobile for masses could be achieved. 

Process of virtualization has made it possible to adopt similar fractionalization of jobs with support from cloud computing. This has created number of outsourcing destinations across the globe. One of the most obvious examples of cloud based outsourcing is emergence of plethora of call centers in India. Overseas organizations could achieve remarkable customer support initiatives by outsourcing work to Indian call centers. Although, the technology of cloud was initially adopted to gain cost benefits, it was soon realized that cloud outsourcing could offer many more advantages than mere saving of costs. 

Beneficial effects of technology on work profile

One of the most striking advantages of cloud technology is enhanced efficiency of sharing workloads among geographically dispersed people. One can communicate and share work related data with anyone irrespective of locations and timelines. The sharing happens in real time and in a highly affordable manner. Organizations can identify and approach the right talent for assignment of tasks.

In modern business paradigms, life cycles of products are getting shortened and there is a perpetual demand for generation of new ideas and faster turnaround. These objectives can be fulfilled with help of cloud assisted technologies. Organizations can be more agile while responding to market demands with rapid development of new products by leveraging cloud. The new concept of instant procurement of expertise is gaining importance.

Cloud boosts globalization of work

Growing competition and dynamic market forces have resulted in disappearance of permanent jobs in many sectors. Organizations are slowly changing to assignment based contracts to get faster results without any obligations. 

It means that, if you possess the right skill sets, then you will always be in demand from plethora of organizations even if the assignments would be of limited duration. In addition to this cloud-workers will be able to work for organizations across the globe without any geographical restrictions. Cloud has integrated the entire world into a unified market place. 

State of the art platforms such as UpWork.com and 99Designs.com facilitate convergence of employers and cloud workers. Workers can match their skills with available assignments and get hired for accomplishing a particular task. Similarly employers can access required talent pool and hire people as and when required. This employment model is a true personification of the cliché, think globally and act locally. 

Cloud workers need to communicate by way of email, Skype, or live chats and the assignments can be submitted through specially designed online software. There many online tools including Goggle sheets, OneDrive, and DropBox that leverage cloud technology for real time collaboration. 

Technology can have profound effect in the way work is accomplished. Early adoption of new technology can benefit organizations as well as workers. Cloud is transforming the business landscape faster than one can imagine.