Cloud computing model offers a promise of cost savings with increased IT agility. Cloud industry is growing quickly and vendors are investing significant amount of money to develop Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and harness the benefits of cloud computing in various business activities. The aim of this paper is to analyze the benefits of cloud along with certain objectives focused on cloud services that would help in designing a better cloud Supply Chain Network (SCN). Cloud can offer tremendous benefits and advantages to the SCN. Many companies have already adopted Cloud SaaS and many more companies are in the process of adopting it. Companies globally are realizing that cloud computing can offer large benefits to the supply chain industry. A cloud service can be utilized to enhance the key parameters of SCN. Proper information available at any given point of time in the SCN leads to better decisions. The benefits achieved through the integration of cloud with the supply chain can be evaluated and assessed in terms of their relative importance. The knowledge of benefits offered by the cloud is useful in deciding the priorities in make or buy decision. This analysis helps in identifying benefits that can be grouped into factors. The factors will be useful in deciding the relative preference of one benefit over the other benefit depending on the application. Such factors will enable the information data structure of the SCN to perform more efficiently.

Cloud computing is becoming a very significant aspect of every business activity, be it a part of product development or a service. Many companies today have adopted cloud computing in their regular activities, foreseeing the potential benefits it can offer. The benefits vary from company to company and service to service depending upon the nature of the business. Many more companies are in the pipeline of adopting cloud services and the rest are waiting to see significant benefits that they can derive. The field of Supply Chain Management (SCM) is quite vast and the underlying technology that runs is even deeper. Current technologies that are being used seem sufficient but with the availability of cloud services, there is a possibility of improvement in the supply chain performance. As far as the accuracy and efficiency of the current systems is concerned, it may or may not be fully capable, but the objective we have in mind is to discover those areas whose gaps can be filled in by introducing cloud computing.

Information is the core of any technology or system or chain. One process may be the producer of some information and another may be the consumer of that information, but to facilitate the free flow of information from one place to another, a seamlessly smooth technology implementation is highly required. Therefore, there is a need to identify those cloud services that can facilitate a smoother flow of information in the supply chain.

Supply Chain Management Journal, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Supply Chain Management (SCM), supply chain performance, Influence, Designing , Supply Chain Network (SCN).