Everyone is using some sort of cloud application these days to conduct business – in the office, at home, on the road, and everywhere else service is available for a smart phone or mobile device. The client server software hayday is mostly over as companies are realising they don’t want the responsibility of owning depreciable assets, the capital expense of a refresh every 5 years and the headaches involved with software licensing. And these are mainly financial and administrative concerns. Here are 5 reasons you should adopt more cloud-based applications for your business.
- Files Are Available From Any Physical Location
No matter where you happen to be, you’ll have access to the files that you need – anytime of day or night. A cloud-based file structure allows you to securely and instantly retrieve and make updates to information from your mobile devices or any computer with secure internet access. This makes it easier for employees to work in a way that best fits their lifestyle while still providing superior service levels. - Collaboration Becomes Easier
There are dozens of times each day when a staff member may need to share information with customers or external vendors. While emailing files is no longer considered secure, sharing files in the cloud is a different story. Cloud services provide secure, trusted links that you can feel confident sharing with vendors and partners. Each link can be set to expire at a certain time in the future, or only be available for specific individuals. This helps protect your business information from being shared beyond the intended viewing audience for the files. - Add More Structure To Your Folders
Over time, any folder and file naming convention is bound to become less structured. New individuals take over positions and teams shift, and then it can become increasingly difficult to find the files that you need quickly. Making a shift to the cloud provides you with a fresh start where you can introduce new structures and encourage adoption from your organisation. - Tightly Control File Security
A key security requirement is limiting the number of individuals who are able to access specific files and folder locations. Having too many people with access to information can cause all manner of problems, and shared passwords are another primary concern for today’s organisations. With cloud-based file structures, you control access by work-group and individual to files and folders, ensuring that staff members and contractors only have access to the information that they need within your organisation. - Enjoy The Fruits Of Innovation
With cloud applications, new features and upgrades are regular and bountiful. And they don’t require hardware and operating system upgrades which reduces the time it takes your team to start maximising the productivity benefits. In some instances, cloud versions of client server software are not as feature rich. But don’t worry, large application hosting providers are addressing this problem by offering full featured versions in secure data centres with expensive server infrastructure they lease and manage.
Ready to explore adding more cloud applications to your business? Contact us today to start the conversation.