The cloud is having a profound effect on small businesses. Find out how cloud-based services are giving small businesses a new competitive edge.
For small and midsize businesses (SMBs), the benefits of cloud computing are endless. Cloud-based services save businesses time and money by boosting productivity, improving collaboration and promoting innovation.
They’re allowing companies to better serve clients, analyse risk and create new opportunities. In the same way that outdated onsite exchange servers made memos obsolete and the mobile phone unchained sales people from their desks, cloud-based services are changing the competitive landscape for businesses. We are in the era of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) – which is changing the way you can think about growing your business, your IT infrastructure and how to use it.
Scalability and flexibility
For small businesses that are adopting Office 365, Microsoft 365 or Azure, these cloud-based services can be about more than just transforming business operations or company structures. Entrepreneurs that are searching for a cost effective way to competitively enter established markets and disrupt industries, see cloud as the competitive edge that makes success possible.
Cloud’s scalability and flexibility is transforming business and helping create new business models. Data analytics tools like PowerBI are helping companies tailor products and services to meet the needs of even the smallest business, revolutionising information sharing and business management.
Integrated IT operations, or even doing away with an IT department in smaller businesses, is just one of the benefits of moving into the cloud. With Microsoft 365, entrepreneurs can choose the services that they need to fit the size of their business and remove the up-front investment legacy businesses were previously faced with.
By getting Office 365 from Liquid Intelligent Technologies, you can run your business just like a large enterprise but without getting stuck with unaffordable up-front capital costs. With monthly payments for all the latest tools and applications, you’ll be able to budget easily and spread costs in a predictable and manageable way.
With cloud-based applications, your business gets ease of IT management and applications that are always right up to date. As well as knowing that all your important data and customer information is safe in the cloud, you also get a reliable way of accessing that information that will not fail you at key times.
The world of business is changing
Cloud shrinks the advantage large companies have and underlines the strengths of small businesses. It gives you the power to improve profitability through better cost controls, scale up or down faster and compete more efficiently.
The cloud has made it possible for owners and employees to be freed from their desks while still being able to access business information securely through their laptops, phones and tablets. The service is removing the constraints of geography and making collaboration between partners and even your customers possible, and easier. Benefits derived from choosing a cloud service go beyond its versatility and accessibility. It is more than the loss of physical IT hardware and the benefits of virtual systems. What cloud gives you is user friendliness, performance, always on availability and security. Yes, especially security.
When asked their reasons for choosing not to move to a virtual network, the answer most often given revolves around security and the practicalities of moving without disrupting operations. The right service provider will be able to seamlessly replicate data even as you continue with transactions.
And, cloud computing updates, upgrades and secures your digital investments. That’s the irony of security concerns, moving to the cloud offers businesses the opportunity to strengthen the safeguards entrepreneurs have built to protect their business.
Cloud is everywhere
Think of cloud beyond business and you see its prevalence in your life. Without the cloud there is no Apple Music, airbnb, Gmail, and definitely no Netflix. Cloud is changing the way we do business, buy and relax – entrepreneurs who are slow to adapt and reap the benefits of the cloud will face disadvantages of legacy computing.
Start small, if you want, because cloud computing solutions gives you that freedom. Experience the benefits before making wholesale changes to how you run and grow your business. Start small and discover for yourself the many new ways to use and benefit from the cloud.
