Introduction
Background

Corporations of all sizes in the accounting industry, in addition to other industries such as retail, information technology, insurance, and media industries, capitalize on public cloud services. The steadily advancing features of the cloud, including infinite and unrestricted storage and powerful analytic tools, system infrastructure software, various accounting applications in addition to enterprise resource management and customer relationship management, play a pivotal role in everyday business operations. Significantly, in the contemporary setting, companies and entrepreneurs in the accounting sector are no longer constantly installing software apps on their computers or computer systems situated within the premises to operate their businesses. Rather, they are opting for the cloud. Cloud computing is facilitating substantial agility for companies. The advantages of solely paying for the software and hardware services utilized and also leveraging on the cutting-edge technologies enable the companies to improve their digital operations and aid them in innovation and, subsequently, success in the market.

Significance of the Topic

Cloud computing continues to be a significant topic in the accounting industry, owing to its ease in the level of flexibility, scalability, and simplicity of gaining access to systems across the world. Whereas customary IT structures can preclude an accounting organization’s capability of conducting business operations productively, cloud computing can facilitate a greater level of control and data backup, security accessibilities and also enables the accounting enterprises in business diversification. Numerous accounting organizations are shifting towards cloud computing owing to the reason that they presently understand the benefits facilitated, including increased mobility and heightened satisfactory interactions with consumers. Furthermore, rather than spending massive amounts of money on investing in servers, storage, and IT assets, progressively, more accounting organizations are emphasizing cloud computing because they can focus on various elements of their business operations when implementing the accounting software on the cloud platform. Furthermore, personnel and managers of the accounting organizations can gain accessibility to the cloud infrastructure at any given the time of day and from varying geographical areas. Ultimately, this provides the organization with a competitive advantage because the business operations continue running smoothly.

Research Problem

In the present day, the advancement of globalization has significantly increased the level of competition in industries and sectors. Multinational companies in different sectors, including the accounting industry, have business operations across the globe. However, there is increasing competition from both local and international businesses. Also, the advancement of technology has intensified the level of competition, prompting organizations to seek out competitive advantages. Significantly, competitive advantages do not simply emanate in one distinctive form, but rather they come about from different areas. A fundamental area in which companies are seeking out advantages over market rivals is cost. A cost-effective structure has numerous advantages for organizations. A company can weaken its rivals and have a greater level of profits generated by diminishing the costs incurred. Cloud computing has become one of the key ways in which accounting organizations have sought to have a competitive advantage over their market rivals.

Research Questions

The following research questions will guide the research study:

1. What is the applicability of cloud computing in accounting organizations?

2. How do cloud computing services facilitate cost-effectiveness?

3. What are the various ways that cloud computing generates cost savings for accounting organizations?

Purpose of the Study

This study’s purpose is to comprehensively examine the impact of implementing cloud computing services to an accounting organization in terms of cost-effectiveness.

Methodology

The qualitative approach will be utilized in the research study. The data employed for this research study will be collected through interviews. These will be administered using structured interviews that will be undertaken through different avenues, e-mail, post, telephone, and Skype.

Good Title for Study

A suitable title for the study would be The cost-effectiveness of cloud computing within an accounting organization.

Literature Review

Cloud Computing Definition

Cloud computing is delineated as a computing capability that facilitates a construct between the computing resource and its fundamental technical construction and design, facilitating expedient, on-demand network accessibility to a collective group of configurable computing resources that can be quickly provided and divulged with negligible management struggle or service provider contact. This basic definition of cloud computing accentuates the five fundamental features, which include on-demand self-service, wide-ranging network accessibility, resource sharing, rapid elasticity, and services that are measured (Yarlikas and Bilgen, 2015).

Types of Cloud Computing Services

There are three most frequently and extensively embraced cloud computing services, including infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS).

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

This is a cloud computing model in which virtual infrastructure is provided and managed by external cloud providers for the organization. Concerning infrastructure as a Service, organizations can outsource for data and information storages, various services, data centers, in addition to different constituents for data networking, all of which are connected over the internet and provide the same kinds of services and functionalities as the infrastructure physically situated within the corporate premises. Fitting examples of the extensive usage of infrastructure as a Service are automatic and policy-oriented operations like internal networking, data recovery, backup services, and also website hosting. In this type of cloud computing service, it is the service provider that is fully liable for the construction of the servers and the storage centers, networking services, and installation of security and computer firewalls, and also physical data spaces and centers that are situated within the organizational buildings. Some of the renowned IaaS service providers include Google Cloud Platform and also Amazon EC2 (Mehmood, Katib, and Chlamtac, 2020).

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Notably, Platform as a Service advances its services from Information as a Service. In this particular case, the vendor of cloud services partake in the delivery and rendering of computing resources, both cloud software and hardware infrastructure constituents such as operating systems, necessitated for developing, testing, and advancing applications. The Platform as a Service setting facilitates cloud users, obtaining their level of accessibility through different webpages, in order to partake in the installation and hosting of various data sets, development of implements and applications for business analysis, in addition to constructing and preserving essential hardware (Prabhu, 2015).

Software as a Service (SaaS)

This type of cloud computing service is distinctive in the sense that it includes both Platform as a Services (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). In this particular case, the cloud service provider is responsible for the delivery of the whole software suite. A fitting example is a pay-per-use model whereby the organization solely pays for the software and hardware services utilized. Software as a Service enables the users to gain simple accessibility to software applications over the internet, for instance, electronic mail, and accounting worksheets. For example, one of the most renowned examples of SaaS is Microsoft Office 360, which encompasses different applications such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel over the internet. SAP and Oracle Cloud are other fitting examples (Jamsa, 2016).

Deployment of Organizational Cloud Services

Cloud computing services can be deployed to accounting organizations in three different types of ways to facilitate the capability of the business enterprises in the management and protection of assets, in addition to business necessities (Surianarayanan and Chelliah, 2019).