Many years ago, before I opened CloudCFO, I ran into a colleague who had just bought a 64GB iPad as his primary computing device. Not that exciting! Except this colleague downloaded a lot of music and videos as well as being a virtual business operator. I asked him how he could get away with using just the one device with limited storage – his response “I’m successfully living in the Cloud”.
Right at that moment I knew that’s where business technology was heading and not long after that I opened CloudCFO.
As a bookkeeper and CFO I assess business costs day in and day out and I’ve spent my career searching for effective ways to help my clients’ business grow, be more efficient, save costs, maximize returns etc. After considerable research, I jumped on the Cloud bandwagon and got excited about helping my clients save and grow.
Cloud technology is simply an external server spanning multiple servers with the physical environment managed by a hosting company who also manage data security.
Cloud has enabled businesses to run on lean start up models enabling company’s to focus on innovation, diversifying their offering, expanding services and reaching new markets. If you are operating in Australia the ability to focus on innovation is great news as Turnbull’s announced $1 billion in funding for innovation just this week.
In accountancy the advancement of technology has opened doors for greater automation of simple processes and has reduced the need to have an in-house accounts team. You no longer need to pay for expensive accounting software and you can track sales, expenses, invoicing and cash flow projections from any device.
With all the benefits I often wonder why any small or medium business would opt not to implement cloud based accounting technology.
One of the reasons some clients hesitate to switch is data security. “Will my finances be safe living up there in the cloud?” is a question I get asked by new clients and new users of cloud based accounting practices. There is no increased risk in moving your data off-premise and in fact the greatest and only issue is poorly constructed passwords!
Oxford Economics and SAP (German multinational software company) conducted a survey of 200 business and IT executives in 2012 and again in 2014 on Cloud technology. It showed that the movement towards Cloud has greatly increased and that businesses security questions moved from generic to specific meaning that as the technology becomes more sophisticated and adopted by business the greater the understanding.
Block Quote “Business remain highly enthusiastic about the Cloud and have ambitious plans for the future”
You can check out the results in the below info-graphic:
When you move to Cloud accounting technology, your business will know it’s successfully living in the Cloud because these things will happen:
1. You’ll integrate your existing accounting platforms such as MYOB and Xero to make payroll and accounting quick, easy and transparent
2. Transparent and access to information in real time – no more waiting days for the revenue report to come through!
3. Flexibility to work from anywhere as your data is not kept on a single server you can access it from any mobile device
4. Your small business will be able to compete with big business as you’ll have the same ability to scale up and you’ll do more with less
5. Long-term costs will be reduced as you’ll save on hardware and software expenses, reduce rack space, power usage and IT requirements
6. You’ll integrate mobile app technology to speed up your offerings, share client information across the organization from sales, customer service, marketing, HR, Finance, analytics and more
I personally switched my entire life to the Cloud some time ago and have never looked back. I even use Cloud with the family to schedule our busy lives!
If you are thinking of switching to Cloud based accounting technology then please give me a call and I can take you through all the amazing options so you too can successfully live in the Cloud.