When running a small to medium-sized business, we occasionally come up against the giants in our field. We all want to be the one to reach the success of IBM, Amazon, Facebook or Google, but with limited resources it’s hard to compete. What these companies spend on their marketing budget may be more than we gain in revenue in 10 years, so we have to work smarter, not harder.
One huge advantage that the larger companies used to have was enterprise level software that cost massive amounts of money to buy and maintain, filled with features that we could only dream of. However, someone came up with a way to be smarter: cloud based software.
Gone are the massive investments in infrastructure and IT staff to keep a server park running, instead we use the cloud and let our providers take care of the details for an affordable fee. Just look at the multitude of, for example, project management reviews, around the web and you will see that many of them can handle the same tasks as enterprise level software.
Remote work
Gone are the days where we have to be in the office to get our work done. Although there is some debate going on whether this is the way forward or not, the benefits of project management software and related cloud services are undeniable.
- Cutting down on commuting if working from home
- Accessing information anywhere, at any time, from any device
- Increase talent pool by hiring in far away areas
- Healthier and more loyal staff
- Saving costs on expensive office costs
Reduced IT costs
When using cloud based software, your provider will house the hardware. There is no need for you to hire IT staff, nor invest in expensive infrastructure. Hassle with, updates and upgrades is also cut out, as this is also handled by the provider. Most cloud services employ a pay-as-you-go model, where you only pay for what you need, and if your need increases then you simply ask for an upgrade.
Document version control
Keeping all documents in the cloud will enable you to always have the most recent version in front of you. That important proposal that several people have made edits to, you will know it’s the most recent one, which can save both money and headaches in the future.
Collaboration capabilities also increase, as sending documents back and forth via email can easily create version confusion, and real-time editing in the cloud will solve that.