Cloud computing has been around for a long time, but it is accelerating at a tremendous pace. More and more companies are adopting it, and for good reason. It offers businesses several benefits: cost reduction, additional resources such as database storage and processing power, improved IT operations and security and increased flexibility.
Below are just some of the many benefits that cloud computing can offer businesses in Ireland and across the United Kingdom.
Reducing costs for small to growing businesses
An estimate of 50 percent of IT labour costs is reduced with the implementation of cloud computing. Take cloud accounting, for instance: it significantly reduces costs for small businesses and startups - and already includes accurate sales tracking, faster reconciliation of figures, and secure storage of data. This is particularly useful for startups, who might not have an in-house dedicated team to maintain their accounting software.
The cost of running a business is ultimately what your customers pay, which means it makes sense to make the best use of the tools available to help you run your business more efficiently. This includes cost-savings accounts, which allow you to compare prices and invoices from different suppliers in one place.
Another useful element to have in your chosen cloud computing solution is the ability to choose features and tools that are applicable for your current stage of business. If you’re a small business owner growing at a casual pace, then there’s an increased likelihood that you need a simple yet intuitive sales dashboard and straightforward business banking integrations. If it’s your mission to scale and expand to more warehouse locations for example, then you can opt for full-stack servicing tools, real-time inventory tracking, order scheduling and more. Both examples are businesses in different stages of growth and any good cloud solutions provider will give you multiple preferences to choose from.
All so you only pay for the tools you need, and not additional features not applicable to you and merely burning a hole in your budget each month.
A competitive advantage through the cloud
Cloud computing is a big deal for the SME sector. In just a few short years it has developed from an exciting prospect – perhaps a future-proof technology – into a potent real-world competitive advantage. SMEs can now compete with big businesses with a fraction of the time and cost, whilst simultaneously gaining access to valuable expertise unavailable to them from traditional business premises.
It creates efficiencies that previously took hours of staffing and investment to achieve. The benefits are clear; more time with clients or customers equals more business opportunities and scaling due to a competitive advantage which can save your business money in the long run. In addition, with cloud computing, SMEs can offer end-to-end processing of digital payments transactions.
The Southeast Asian market is ripe for digital payments, and the UK is not far behind. Studies show that the use of cash in the UK has significantly reduced, and that cash could account for just 7 percent of in-store purchases by the year 2024. To be truly competitive in a modern market where consumers come to rely on digital payments, businesses should have proper cloud accounting to support sales tracking from such sources.
Increased financial security
Anyone who has worked with large software systems knows how difficult it is to maintain complete control over a server environment. Keeping an eye on the status of servers and their health is a basic duty of any IT professional. But there's another thing that's even more important - taking care of your data.
When you store your data in the cloud, it's not just that you lose control - there's a risk that your data could be lost forever if you forget to back up your important files. Cloud computing gives you a way to protect yourself and your data without experiencing the performance hiccups that come from working on your hardware.
If your business receives money from clients or suppliers, and if those transactions are exclusively in cash, cloud accounting is the fastest and most reliable way to keep track of those transactions. With cloud accounting, your accounting data is stored in a secure, online data storage environment. It can be accessed from anywhere in the world so you can conduct your business with total transparency and accountability. With the highest level of encryption available, it is impossible to read or modify account information without explicit permission.
However, it is important to continuously educate your workforce on how to utilise cloud solutions appropriately to ensure no data breaches are prone to happening. Enabling two-factor authentication is one of the many ways to make this happen. This can also be achieved through people management training, stronger policies and limiting user access only to include select team members in a department.
Boosting productivity and organisation
79 percent of executives also believe that big tech such as artificial intelligence (a common element in cloud accounting software) will increase their company’s overall productivity, as supported by the latest accounting facts. A key area of improving productivity is the ability to collaborate seamlessly with team members when running the day-to-day operations of a business.
Yet, relying on traditional emails sent back and forth or congregating data into tens of spreadsheets is risky. This can have big consequences: time lost, projects delayed, and productivity suffers. If your business uses a cloud ERP system, for example, your data can ‘live’ on a central platform that’s both secure and accessible within seconds by members of your team. It reduces the time it takes to create reports and automates some administrative tasks.
For example, you’re managing a large sales order and need to get products delivered by a tight timeline. Here, you can instantly see sales made from that order, your team can request raw materials from suppliers, log that in and schedule delivery to a customer right on schedule – minus the back and forth communications over other channels. This is a system that would allow you to complete tasks faster and with less human intervention, which ultimately saves you money and resources.
Cloud computing gives businesses an edge. It allows them to keep costs down and compete with giants in the industry. Compared with traditional forms of shared IT, cloud computing allows organisations to manage resources much more cost-effectively across geographically dispersed teams. It is easily adopted by companies of all sizes, particularly those with large IT budgets but limited resources.
