Leaders of America’s fastest-growing companies paint an optimistic picture of growth prospects this year, yet many still aren’t optimizing the cloud to aid in that growth, a new survey suggests.A joint effort by Oracle and Inc. Media, the survey revealed that more than 90 percent of Inc. 5000 leaders plan to expand their workforces this year. Sixty-five percent will enter new markets, while 61 percent will offer new products. Nearly one-third will expand international business.Nine out of 10 respondents to The Talent and Tech Driving America’s Fastest Growing Companies survey described themselves as “extremely” or “very” confident about their prospects for the future.The survey was commissioned to “get inside the heads” of Inc. 5000 leaders, finding what makes them tick, what makes them successful, and what they’re planning for 2017, according to Inc. Both current and recent Inc. 5000 honorees were asked to participate.Forty-four percent said they struggle to achieve integration across cloud products Only 36 percent of respondents have their finances in the cloud Only 29 percent have put their e-commerce functions in the cloud (compared to 51 percent for sales and 62 percent for human resources) "Rapidly growing small and medium businesses have had the advantage of building on the cloud from day one," Reggie Bradford, senior vice president of Oracle’s Startup Ecosystem and Accelerator, said in a statement. "But their fast growth, paired with the array of cloud solutions from different vendors, presents some challenges.”
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