How Cloud Computing Can Improve Your Bottom Line

how cloud computing can improve your bottom line

Taking your business to the cloud is an easy and effective way to cut costs while increasing your efficiency. Cloud computing is becoming increasingly popular among businesses of all sizes. These solutions have made it possible for commercial organizations to go paperless, establish disaster relief plans, reduce their teams and simplify their operations among other things.

What Cloud Computing Is

Cloud computing allows companies to move various aspects of their operations to virtual space. Files, programs and even entire desktops are stored in digital format where they can be accessed by approved system users from any computer or device that has a functional internet connection. This allows workers to telecommute, increases data security and prevents data loss as the result of technical malfunction or other expected events.

How Cloud Computing Can Save You Money

There are many ways in which cloud computing can save companies money.  If you are ready to make your business a paperless one, this is the best way to do it. Your files can be archived in virtual space. This will make them far more secure and much easier to manage. For most businesses, this eliminates the need to have a full-time file clerk on board. Companies can cut these positions or they can divert this talent to other vital areas of their operations. Cloud-based computing can also reduce the need for massive amounts of commercial space by eliminating the need for file cabinets and off-site storage for archived records.

Access To Innovative Software

There are a number of innovative, cloud-based programs that can help companies improve their efficiency and increase customer satisfaction levels. Software as a Service or SaaS solutions are taking the world by storm. They are increasing the efficacy of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) campaigns, allowing for greater levels of data integration and improving  knowledge sharing systems.

The major benefit of using solutions that are cloud-based is simply the fact that these services are so affordable. Large companies with greater needs can opt for managed services. Developing businesses can use services that are better tailored to their more modest needs and budgets. 

Contact us to find out how cloud computing can work for your business.

The Long-Term Benefits of Cloud Computing as Your Company Evolves

the long term benefits of cloud computing as your company evolves

Cloud computing could easily fall under the analogy of evolution when it comes to how things change in businesses over time.

And because businesses are always evolving, the investment in going to the cloud may be one that’s designed as much for the future as it is helping you in the immediate term.

In the realm of evolution, how does getting into cloud computing place you on an evolutionary scale? If you use the analogy of biological evolution, you have some interesting comparisons going from the primitive to the supreme.

The Early Evolution of a Business

Those who have yet to join the cloud may be considered the prehistoric life still residing in the swamp where using one’s own server makes them more vulnerable to falling behind. In this instance, it’s the expense of maintaining a server, the security threats, plus the chances that a third-party server may lag beyond one’s control to a point of lost productive time.

Up on ground are the ones who use the cloud where they have a vast set of intelligent features, security, and an assurance of fast-running computer systems. There seems to be a clear difference, yet those ones still in the swamp probably don’t make the leap for one reason: They aren’t sure the ones on the ground are safe either.

What those in the swamp don’t understand is that the best cloud services have 24/7 monitoring to assure safety at all times. Plus, there’s the assurance of the future where evolution in this case truly blossoms.

The Future Evolutionary Path of a Business

All businesses are going to grow over time, some to massive heights. Consider the evolutionary timeline of Amazon.com and how they went from a fledgling little online store to buy books and CD’s to a behemoth corporation revolutionizing technology and shopping experiences. In just 20 years of their existence, that’s an extraordinary leap forward.

You can look at your own business in the same light and envisioning where you might be in a decade or two. When you use the cloud, you already have features that enable instant access to information anywhere there’s an Internet connection. Down the road, though, cloud services will automatically upgrade their features for you so you’ll never have to buy new equipment. Features like Software as a Service and Hardware as a Service automatically upgrade over time so you’re gaining the latest features without needing to invest a cent.

As your business evolves, the cloud can also accommodate that growth instantly so you won’t be stuck on how to proceed. That’s evolution at its greatest when you can evolve without getting stuck in place and not knowing how to move forward.

Here at 4 Corner IT, we provide a comprehensive cloud computing service that gives you everything you need to function in the now and in the future when exponential growth occurs. We also provide other comprehensive IT services to help advance you and keep you safe for years down the line.

Contact us to find out more about how we can evolve your company and keep you evolving on a level that goes beyond just survival of the fittest.

Making Poor Cloud Computing Decisions for Your Business?

making poor cloud computing decisions for your business
Services Needed Network Support

In a recent article from Forbes called “9 ‘Worst Practices’ to Avoid with Cloud Computing,” one kind of mistake that comes up throughout the list is the tendency of businesses to make impulsive, ill-prepared moves to various cloud-based services.

Cloud computing has many advantages for small or medium-sized businesses, but the benefits of the cloud are only available to businesses that rely on expert IT assistance and make judicious, well-informed decisions.

What are some of the ways that businesses adopt cloud-based services with insufficient foresight and preparation?

Businesses may select cloud-based providers out of loyalty to a particular company or a sense of comfortable familiarity with some of their other services. 

For instance, a business owner who’s had a positive experience selling merchandise on Amazon may pick Amazon’s cloud services, even though the two aren’t related to each other; the fact that Amazon might be a reliable distributor of goods doesn’t necessarily mean that some of the cloud-based services they offer are best suited for the business in question.

Other times, business owners and employees aren’t prepared for what they need to do in order to successfully manage cloud-based services.  For one thing, they may not understand all of the service models (e.g. software as service, platform as service, infrastructure as service). 

And they may not have been trained specifically in understanding and working with these different cloud services.  (This is one area where obtaining the assistance of an IT company to manage your services would come in handy.) Employees may also be resistant to sudden major changes in IT that they have to accommodate and shoulder all on their own.

Lastly, businesses sometimes don’t give thought to how shifting to cloud-based services will specifically affect day-to-day business operations, including unforeseen costs and outages in service.

For making informed decisions about cloud computing that are best for your business, contact us.  Not only can we give you expert advice on which services to choose; we can also manage them for you, leaving you more time and energy to focus on growing your business.

Why Cloud Storage Isn’t Enough for Disaster Recovery

why cloud storage isn t enough for disaster recovery
cloud servers.

Signing up for a cloud storage service provider means you’re on the right track for disaster recovery planning. The next step is to avoid being like one of the many businesses that think that using cloud storage by itself is an adequate disaster recovery plan.

Although backing up your data on the cloud is an important step of disaster recovery, there are several other aspects to the planning, such as communication, employee assignments, and so on.

A recent Cloud Tweaks article discusses this common pitfall and explains why it can be so damaging to businesses. According to the article, there are several important aspects to disaster recovery planning, and cloud storage can really only be effective if all the other pieces of the puzzle are in place:

“Just assessing your technology environment is not enough. A comprehensive assessment should look at your organization from three distinct points of view: your technology team, the business leaders IT serves and the finance executives who have to agree to pay for it all. The true potential of cloud technology can only be realized by tightly aligning technology with business objectives.”

If a business purchases a cloud storage service plan to make all of their business continuity problems go away, they’re going to be in for a rough surprise when disaster strikes. Data loss is only one of the many harsh implications that stems from a disaster, and therefore data recovery on its own isn’t enough to fully restore business operations.

Businesses should plan and discuss a thorough disaster recovery plan for when the time comes. This includes how the business will be able to communicate with clients and customers, what the role of each employee will be, and how the business will restore it’s data.

This plan is crucial for business continuity and it is often complex. Business with no experience in the subject should considering outsourcing their IT services so as to not jeopardize their future business continuity.

If you would like more information about backup and disaster recovery, contact us.

CRM Integration: Developing a Relationship With Customers

crm integration developing a relationship with customers
CRM

Some IT companies take your computer needs and can make software applications dance like magic in front of your eyes; they almost make you forget that their service is not tailored to your field of business, and not to you. At 4 Corner IT, you are an individual and your IT answers are fitted to your personal needs. Like our website states: “there are so many different kinds of technological devices that it can be hard to pick what will be best for your employees. Have no fear, we are here to help.” Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is shorthand for the digital relationship that we at 4 Corner IT develops with you, and that you in turn have with your customers.

Say that you are a starter company with a really great new widget to sell. We will evaluate your needs. You are not just a clump of data to us; you are a group of people trying for the same goal, selling the best widget possible.

The size of your company does not matter, your goals do. All businesses can gain an advantage with CRM Integration regardless of size and small businesses can have an edge that will prove priceless in day-to-day operations.

“In fact, smaller businesses need to be more organized because of their size as every customer is almost irreplaceable, unlike larger companies that make up profits in huge volume.”

We examine the tools you need to get your widget on the public stage of the cloud and then help you stay at a maximum state of success. Phrased succinctly,

“A CRM helps you and your company manage your customers, your prospects and your sales. CRMs can be either web-based or stand-alone systems and can keep track of people, their relationships to you, whom they work for, what they’re doing, what they’re thinking about buying and how often they contact you, among an incredible number of other options.”

Today’s businesses cannot compete without a good CRM integration partner, such as 4 Corner IT. We want to work to keep your product or service on top of and ahead of your competitors’ inferior widget.

Get in touch with us and we will show you how CRM planning can handle the technological and data security aspect of your business, and let you make the best widgets of all time!

Take a look at some of our cabling services!