The following is a guest post by Selena Narayanasamy. An avid lover of all things caffeine, Selena currently does SEO and is a social media marketer/analyst as well as a writer. She has multiple degrees in business, marketing and finance. Along with all this, she also writes for Searchenginejournal.com and is growing Esvienne.com, her own personal social media and tech blog. Twitter- @esvienne
The cloud is something that has been all around us for quite some time now, but we may not have noticed. Many of us didn’t think we needed to utilize the cloud; and we’re right. We have our own ways of managing tasks and information, from planners to our cell phones. There are certain markets that should be using the cloud, specifically small and large businesses. Since the cloud is ever-changing and nothing solid, it’s often confusing to a company who may be considering a work-flow overhaul and is looking at different options. There are 7 reasons in specific to use the cloud:
1. Employees are utilizing the same resources:
This can bog down your network and kill all chances of getting a good system flowing. Frustration with editing and slow resources can add stress to employees and hinder their abilities to work effectively and efficiently. Having many tools available in the cloud will allow there to be a place where everyone can work and collaborate freely. You won’t have to keep asking and waiting for someone to email you a document or a zip file.
2. Client and customer information management is simplified:
You’ll no longer have separate databases of client information. Nothing is worse than having one person edit a client’s details and then finding out everyone else still has the wrong information. CRM is no longer a complicated task, it’s simple as pie.
3. IT constantly has to focus on resolving issues/updating software:
This is a place where you can waste time and spend unnecessary money. Whatever cloud application that you’re using will have a support system waiting to resolve any issues there may be. This isn’t taken out of your own resources and can save your company money by not having a team dedicated solely to IT problems.
4. Keep web content current and up to date:
By using CMS software, you can have anybody hop on and edit the content for your website. You’ll no longer have to rely on an IT team to edit your website and risk errors occurring. All the content is in your hands.
5. Employees can be mobile:
Now, this can be both a good thing and a bad thing. Some employees find being able to access their work and email from anywhere as useful and others will find it a royal pain in the butt. Families will no longer be missing their mom or dad at dinner time because they have to stay late at the office to work. Employees can continue work from the comfort of their own home if they need to. You could always install the software needed and work from home without the cloud, however, security issues may arise. Do you want your children romping around on your computer, possibly erasing files?
6. Email and contacts are always up to date:
With exchange hosting, you can get your Outlook and Exchange available to you on any computer as well as your mobile smart phone. Working away from the office couldn’t be any easier for work-a-holics because your emails and contacts are just a click (or touch screen) away.
7. Cloud hosting solutions:
With cloud hosting solutions, everything can be done instantaneously. When you need an extra server for a separate division of your company, you no longer have to wait for a dedicated server to go through and space out the RAM. You’ll also have the ability to re-size the servers whenever you want to, and you won’t have strangers sharing your dedicated space with you. This will ultimately keep your server running faster and smoother.
These are just a few reasons to get into the cloud and embrace it within your business. Not only will it make work flow easier and less confusing, but your employees will be more inclined to work closely with one another because it will no longer be a hassle. It will improve your project time and management, as well as cut down on IT time because you’ll have the company itself handling any issues. Plus, everyone is jumping on the cloud. Don’t you want to see what the crazy is all about?