Midsize Insider contributor Rick Robinson recently reported that some enterprise software industry observers are identifying several ways in which cloud services are fundamentally changing the way firms manage information about their customers. While enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have been typically on-premise solutions, cloud solutions that are easy to implement via a cloud database form are becoming more prevalent.

“The current industry norm is to rely on ERP systems, located on-premises, as the repository for up-to-date customer names, phone numbers, histories and other basic customer data,” Robinson wrote. “Increasingly, however, firms are looking to cloud resources for this information. In particular, say industry observers, software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings, especially in customer relations management (CRM) are becoming the ‘newspaper of record’ for customer information.”

The source indicated that cloud-based custom CRM resources will likely be more up to date when compared with on-premise solutions, as the cloud platform streamlines the online world and a company’s data. Furthermore, as SnapLogic’s Zeb Mahmood explained, decaying data is one of the basic major challenges associated with managing customer information. People often move and change phone numbers, meaning that even information about some of a company’s top and most steady customers is at risk to quickly become outdated.

A recent Tech Cocktail blog post commented on the new trend of consumerization of enterprise software, noting that the online, digital world is making it so that “ugly” enterprise software and applications are becoming a thing of the past. The source noted that while enterprise software has been known for unattractive, frustrating products, the easy customization of cloud-based tools has modern enterprise products looking as good as the value they bring to the company.