If you’re keen to save money on IT support, move to cloud computing

There’s a lot of talk about the benefits of cloud computing these days. Public clouds, private clouds, hybrid clouds are all being used more often and by more businesses. This means that the cloud is becoming mainstream in terms of IT support solutions.

At Westtek Information Technology we would like you to take up cloud-based IT solutions, but we’d like you to do so for sound business reasons. Here are three ways businesses like yours can save money by switching to the cloud.

Reduce computer downtime with Cloud Computing

When your staff can’t access your company’s commercial data, they can’t do their jobs as well as they, and you, would like. Yet, even today, many companies with office-based IT systems accept that server downtime is a fact of life. Things go wrong and problems have to be dealt with. Whilst you’re waiting for the technician to arrive and a solution to be implemented, people’s time, and your money, is being wasted.

With cloud computing you can put these nightmares behind you. Your cloud-based storage is part of a much larger online system. That system is set up and managed with clients’ service needs in mind. This means keeping your systems running is always a high priority task. One of your IT support supplier’s key commitments is to keep your systems running and to make sure you can access your cloud-based support and storage systems day in, day out.

Plan more effectively via the cloud

For many companies keeping track of staff, setting appointments and getting people together for meetings is a headache. When your staff members want to schedule meetings, nobody is quite sure if information held in the office about people’s commitments is up to date.

Cloud-based IT systems have the facility to allow you to link all your office’s planning systems, diary organisers and mobile devices. This means you can use information from all these sources to produce a map of who is scheduled to do what, where and when. This information is stored in the cloud and can be accessed by all relevant staff.

With such systems in place you’ll never have to spend time checking people’s availability. You’ll always know just who is busy and who can take on additional tasks.

Cut down travel time by using the cloud

Yours may be a busy office, but do people really need to be there?  Are people making visits to collect files and new information unnecessarily?  Are people coming to the office to access data that could easily be stored in the cloud?

If people can access remotely all the information they need to do their jobs, they will be better equipped to achieve more. Your sales force and other customer-facing staff, for example, will be able to fit in more customer visits because they’ll be spending less time travelling to and from your office. You’re likely to see improved productivity as a result.

Show how much could you save?

If you could greatly reduce computer and server downtime in your business, along with the costs of getting those IT problems solved, how much would you save?

If you could ensure that every one really does know the commitments and schedules of other staff, how many fewer calls would be needed to set up team meetings? How much less time could be spent checking and updating diaries?  By how much would overall productivity increase?  What would these savings mean to you?

If people didn’t have to travel back to the office in order to access updated customer information, or to collect files, how much more could your staff get done in a working day? What would that mean to your business?

About the Author:

Frances West is Director at Westtek …

If you would like more tips and or advice on how to improve your IT systems to reduce productivity loss and frustration, please contact us on 0203 195 0555 or help@westtek.co.uk.