The Sky is the Limit for Cloud Based Businesses

Taking Your Business to New Heights

In an environmentally friendly and digital world, it's not unusual for businesses to continuously look for ways to move away from the 'norm' and introduce new ways to operate day to day. With digital methods now becoming more popular, perhaps the most obvious way for businesses to develop their processes is to move away from paper and unsecured data by beginning to store information in more secure locations. As companies continue to grow, the days of stacks of paper, excess printing and filing cabinets containing sensitive information will hopefully be long gone.

For 2019, the worldwide public cloud services market is projected to grow by 17.5% to mark a total of a whopping £214 billion, up from £182.4 billion in 2018. By 2022, it is predicted that over 90% of businesses will have adapted to cloud based services to operate their business. 

According to Forbes, 74% of tech chief financial officers also said that cloud computing had the most measurable impact on their business in 2017. 

With that in mind, could your business afford to be in the 10% that didn't adapt to new processes? What would it mean for you?

What Does it Mean to be Cloud Based?

Cloud-based is a term that refers to applications, services or resources made available to users on demand via the Internet from a cloud computing provider's servers. It creates an all round joined-up approach to operations, allowing you to store all of your information in one place, securely and easily.

Why Move to the Cloud?

The benefits of being a cloud based is what has become so attractive to businesses and is what has allowed the industry to grow at such a rapid rate.

Flexibility:

Cloud-based services are ideal for businesses with growing or fluctuating bandwidth demands. If your needs increase it’s easy to scale up your cloud capacity, drawing on the service’s remote servers. Likewise, if you need to scale down again, the flexibility is baked into the service. 

Secure Data:

Cloud computing gives you greater security when the worst happens. If your data is stored in the cloud, you can access it no matter what happens to the computers within the organisation. You can even remotely wipe data from lost laptops so it doesn’t get into the wrong hands.

Disaster Recovery:

Businesses of all sizes should be investing in robust disaster recovery, but for those smaller businesses that lack the resources, this is often more an ideal than the reality. Cloud is now helping more organisations buck that trend.

Increased Collaboration:

When your teams can access, edit and share documents anytime, from anywhere, they’re able to do more together, and do it better. Cloud-based workflow and file sharing apps help them make updates in real time and gives them full visibility of their collaborations.

Document Control:

Before the cloud, workers had to send files back and forth as email attachments to be worked on by one user at a time. Sooner or later – usually sooner – you end up with a mess of conflicting file content, formats and titles. When you make the move to cloud computing, all files are stored centrally and everyone sees one version of the truth. Greater visibility means improved collaboration, which ultimately means better work and a healthier bottom line.

"Will my Business Really be Affected by not Making the Move?"

As a business that utilises a cloud based software, you may be thinking it's easy for us to talk about the benefits of it, but, with that aside, have you thought about the drawbacks your business could face if you decide not to make the move?

Have you considered the financial and operational risk you might face?

As a starting block, think of your competitors. Everyone's main objective is to be a market leader, but can that be achieved without moving your processes forward? Cloud based technology allows even small businesses to act fast alongside their much larger competitors. Cloud business applications mean small outfits can run with the much larger players, and disrupt the market, while remaining lean and nimble. Without it, it's likely you could be left behind.

As previously mentioned, in an era where saving the environment is of high importance, it is likely your business would face criticism should you print endless documents and store them away unnecessarily, never to be seen again. If your customers are looking to do what they can to benefit the planet, there is always the potential for them to look for a business that provides a more environmentally friendly service.

Security is perhaps the biggest drawback of not being cloud based. Would your customers feel safe knowing their sensitive data is easily accessible? What would you tell them if they asked how you store it? A cloud based system allows you to be able securely store all data with minimal fuss, updating passwords every time an employee leaves or something changes within the business.

Small businesses spend up to 240 days working on administrative tasks or, things they don’t get paid for doing. Part of this administrative burden includes hardware and software maintenance and upgrades as well as license management for both. Wouldn't it be easier if this was all done automatically so your staff can focus on the really important work?

Lastly - we can't encourage the move to Cloud based services without mentioning the financial gain to your business. This process cuts out the scary cost of IT hardware. You simply implement a tailored system that works in tune with your cash flow. Add to that the ease of setup and management and suddenly everything seems so much simpler. 

So What Are You Waiting For?

Our expert in house team at Netmatters, are known for efficiency and reliability when it comes to Cloud based systems.

We make every effort to keep up with ongoing industry improvements in cloud computing, to ensure your business is running as smoothly as possible. 

For more information, contact us via the form below or ring us on 01603 515007.