If you don’t use cloud software to run your business, you could be missing out. Here’s a list of ways using on premise software could conspire against you.
#1. You could get stuck in the past
Sure, you’ve just bought some swanky new on premise software. It’s all singing and all dancing. You are definitely NOT going to be stuck in the past now.
Until you are.
Software advances are so quick these days. The minute your software of choice has released its new functionality, someone will be developing on top of it to give it even more bells and whistles.
It might have been cheaper than cloud software in the first instance, but with on premise, you need to pay for the installation and maintenance of upgrades. These can be costly and disruptive.
If you go cloud, you’re likely to get at least 2 major updates a year (and several minor ones). That means your software is always fresh as a daisy. Because you experience the updates in smaller doses, it means you don’t have such a shock to they system (read: expensive training and reorientation exercises) as your upgrades pull through.
So, five years from now, when you’re still operating v.2017 software, your competitors who are using cloud software, will be living in v.2022 and enjoying your discomfort.
It’ll be expensive for you to change.
#2 You could end up looking stupid
“Don’t call me stupid!” I hear you shout.
But here’s a story (one of many) from my personal collection.
I used to report sales figures once day at 5pm to the MD of my company – a multi million turnover organisation.
There were over 40 sales staff booking sales onto an on premise system. It was impossible to tell exactly where we were at any given point in the day…
UNLESS it was 4 mins past the hour.
Because, believe it or not, at 4 mins past the hour (don’t ask me why), our linked spreadsheet would pull all the bookings from the system into our imaginatively titled “hourly update” document and (for a minute at least), I would have a true reflection of the sales figures.
So I would run the figures at 5.04pm, run into the MD’s office and deliver the results for the day.
It’s not great, but it hardly made me look stupid right?
However, this particular gentleman really hated people being late for meetings. I’d frequently get chastised for being late to our meetings.
Explaining that I couldn’t come up at 5pm on the dot because I’d be delivering inaccurate results didn’t seem to cut it. He was incredulous that we couldn’t get the figures right and on time. To be fair, I was incredulous at that too. But the upshot was that it made me look stupid. Stupid and late.
Getting cloud software means you are ALWAYS working off the latest version of events.
#3 You’ll Be Saving the Environment
ICT enabled solutions account for 15% of the world’s carbon emissions (equivalent to 7.8b tonnes of CO2 per annum)
Multi tenancy data providers, with server farms, reduce the need for personal IT infrastructure and owned server utilisation. If 80% of the companies who could use cloud, did, it would cut carbon emissions the equivalent of 1.7m fewer cars on the road.
It works like this. Your on premise server might run at 10-15% utilisation. Whereas, a multi-tenancy server in the cloud might run at 40-70% utilisation.
By sharing server infrastructure, you’re improving the efficiency of the server farms of cloud companies AND you are reducing the number of additional servers required across the globe.
Don’t trust me? Here’s what Accenture have to say about it.
In Summary:
Cloud software is good.
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It saves you money
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It saves you face
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It saves the environment
Written by Emma Stewart – Sales & Marketing Director and Cloud Software Advocate at Cofficient Ltd
Cofficient provision really smart cloud based software to really smart businesses.
To talk to someone about how you can more to cloud, please get in touch
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