Growing a Small Business Without Letting Technology Hold You Back
You know how you've fought hard to get your business up and running and today it's expanding well. However, you will need to be away from the office or store more and more. Meeting new clients, giving demonstrations, and sourcing new suppliers. You carry around your laptop but actually it's becoming an issue for you. You can't get access to this bespoke applications that are so crucial to your business. When you're out your employees are making changes, sometimes quite vital ones and you can't keep track of what's happening back at base.
Helen, your superb sales representative who's so important to your office is asking if she can work at home. She has family obligations and one more on the way so the long run is getting way too much for her. You do not really want to lose such a vital member of staff but you really can't see how this method of working can be handled.
John your office manager is working hard on a huge proposal and wants your input on a regular basis. However, you've been writing out parts of it on your laptop and giving it to him when you get back to the office. This isn't really working and John is getting really annoyed and muddled.
Technology is truly letting you down today. You gave a terrific presentation to an enormous new potential client and consented a day that you would begin working with them. You return to the office and Helen had booked another large client in for this day. Now you have the humiliation of altering the dates for one or other of the customers. You'll be uncomfortable at annoying one or both of your clientele.
Lately, you've been so busy that you're working late, but you continue having problems because you don't have all the documents that you require.
You know that you will need to upgrade your technology but have no clue what you could do to solve these issues. Nor can you afford to hire a full time IT support man. What in the world can you do?
What you really need is:
All of your information in one place so that all of your staff can get it securely and instantly.
Then you will need everyone in order to have a mobile device so they can log into all the applications they need.
It would be great if you could have all of your files, where you need them, and when you need them.
Next you will need version control in order to understand what the present information is, what the calendar looks like, and that made the changes.
Finally and most importantly you will need someone to care for all of the technical stuff.
There's a terrific new concept named DaaS - Desktop as a Service. Not to get too technical, a business will come in, talk to you about how you operate, what you need, and what specialist software you use. They will then put all this information and software on a really secure server, with terrific security and immediate support. Then you'll be able to get this information on the internet, from where you are. There'll not be any requirement for you to hire a techie whatsoever.
All this information is stored in what is called a cloud. All your employees have access to the cloud through Wi-Fi from whatever kit you opt to use. This may be a notebook, desktop computer, tablet, and just a smartphone. Sophisticated software deals with version control so that you always have the most recent information at your fingertips.
What's great about the cloud, other than the fact that someone else looks after it, is that if something happens to your notebook or tablet computer, your information is still there, safe and protected. You simply need to find another device and log in.






