7 ways the cloud helps solve daily business problems

We all want to get more from our day at work. Caffeine always helps but here are a few ways cloud services are doing their bit.

1. Maximises our time – finding small pockets of time in our day is like gold! As business owners we want to make sure we’re being productive but waiting in that airport lounge or travelling home on the train is very frustrating if we can’t get to our work. We may have laptops but if you can’t get to your software and data when on the move it’s nowhere near as useful.

2. Keeps us professional – being able to check things whenever we need to can help us remain professional at all times and have all the relevant data with us. What were those stats? Which company sent us that proposal? Who are we supposed to be paying tomorrow? We’ll make far fewer mistakes if we have access to our business tools whenever we need them.

3. Ensures we don’t delete our own data – data is critical and yet fragile enough that it can be removed with a single click of the mouse. However, the cloud means that our critical data is there for us even if we change or remove it. The sales proposal five minutes before the presentation, the spreadsheet that has taken hours of perfecting, the carefully crafted legal agreement with our new business partner – if we lose them we lose business.

4. Protects our data assets from disaster – we want our company data kept safe but its hard to prevent fire, flood, vandalism, burglary, disgruntled staff, power surges without spending a lot of time and money. If it happens, bad luck, reach for the insurance agreement and hope for the best. Those using cloud computing however know that their data is being kept safe within purpose built data-centres run by trained professionals.

5. Speeds up our processes – a business needs to share information to connect staff and business processes as well as keep focused on progressing key tasks. In the past when we travelled beyond the confines of the office to see clients, meet suppliers or simply travel between home and work we were disconnected from the business. Now the cloud is a great enabler of real time sharing of information. Data entered centrally in real time allows others within the business to react and involve themselves in the business process immediately.

6. Saves us money – cloud computing is a business model that provides the IT resources you need for a fixed monthly subscription. No surprises, no hidden costs and no equipment upgrades. The certainty of the fixed monthly fee means we are able to budget and plan our other costs sure in the knowledge that we won’t have an IT cost blowout! With the centralised applications and data managed within the cloud by experts then all we have to manage is the local IT equipment like laptops and printers. In many cases once an onsite device is causing significant problems its probably cheaper to replace than fix.

7. Gives us more holiday time – many business owners struggle to get away and have a break. There are times when a business needs its leader to the point where we just can’t seem to take a decent week or two break. However by remaining in touch with the critical issues via the Internet for perhaps 30 minutes a day the rest of the time can be spent taking that well earned rest on the ski slopes, beach or golf course.

Using software in the cloud ticks a lot of boxes when it comes to improving life at work – every day.