Is the cloud right for your business?

Cloud services have been shaking up the industry for years now, and its adoption by small and mid-sized businesses is driving cloud computing’s growth.

Yet while there are many benefits to migrating to the cloud, it isn’t the solution for every situation. This article will explore some reasons why your business may not suit the cloud.

Don’t get us wrong. There are many business benefits of working in the cloud. These include:

  • consistent access to the same applications as on-site colleagues for every user;
  • no need to install software on every individual’s device;
  • upgrades and security patching made easier for the IT team;
  • faster setup and easier scaling (up or down as needed);
  • enterprise-level security without having to reinvent the wheel at the individual system level;
  • built-in redundancy offering protection against a single point of failure.

Still, cloud computing isn’t a silver-bullet solution. There are areas of the business that you may want to think twice about before migrating to the cloud.

Proceed to the cloud with caution

Consider how a move to cloud computing could affect your business. Don’t blindly sign up to put everything online. For one thing, cloud migration makes your business reliant on internet connectivity. If your small business struggles with a dodgy internet service provider (ISP), solve that before moving to the cloud. ISPs that suffer frequent outages or slow speeds are not great hosts for cloud computing.

In situations involving large amounts of data transfer, such as video editing, it doesn’t make sense to work from a cloud server.

You’ll also want to think twice before putting sensitive data in the cloud. Switching to cloud servers can improve security for many small businesses, and the move also gives them access to encryption and redundancy, but if data security is a concern (or a compliance issue), do a deep dive into providers’ cybersecurity efforts.

If you use custom software and data transfer, you may also want to reconsider migrating to the cloud: it may have never been designed to work in the cloud. New cloud-based software may promise all the same features and cost savings, but make sure you understand what that software does and doesn’t do.

The cloud option may not be right for you if your needs are going to change as your business evolves. Cloud vendors are going to try to keep you dependent on their solutions, and they don’t always make it easy for you to move to new software when you need different or new features.

You also run the risk of becoming a multi-cloud organization. This is when different teams at your business each have their own cloud software. This can give users access to best-in-class applications, but it can also lead to unwieldy computing complexity.

Supporting your cloud decisions

Successful cloud migration also requires good customer support. If your IT team is overworked (or nonexistent), you need a vendor with accessible cloud support. Alternatively, you could work with a managed service provider to support your transition to the cloud.

Considering a move to the cloud? Consult with our cloud computing experts first. We can guide you to a well-established cloud provider with a wide range of services. We’re also here to help with the migration. We can help make sure the solution suits your needs and the transition goes smoothly. Contact us here.

AVOID DOCUMENT DISASTER: Empowering your Business

The POWER Trifector Solution for Document Automation

The environment in which we operate has significantly changed. Businesses in Northland have been driven to embrace remote working.  

Every good business is constantly on the hunt for new ways to improve their efficiency, keep their costs down, and increase productivity and profit and decrease risk.

What if we told you that you might be sitting on a goldmine of opportunity?

Having Microsoft 365 is bit like owning a spaceship. You know what it’s used for, but how to use it? Let’s unpack it a bit further.

Most Common Problems

The most common problems we hear of through our IT Alliance network around the country are:

  • Putting your documents into the cloud, document management and approvals
  • Empowering your business while working remotely
  • Managing emails and automating them
  • Keeping your company cyber safe

Would it surprise you to know that 50% of IT Alliance clients underutilize their Microsoft 365 Teams account? So why pay for something, and not use it all? You can join in our Empower Series here to hear more, but for now let’s start with document management and approvals.

Making the most of Your Microsoft 365

Sharepoint and Power Automate are both free with your business Subscription. Did you know you could use them in these ways?

Microsoft SharePoint – SharePoint (their free document management system) can seem overly complicated because it can offer so much. But it doesn’t need to be so scary.

You can start small and use more functionality as needed or as you grow.

Basically, it’s a platform that offers content management and collaboration.

It helps with reducing duplicate files, gives you remote access (needed more than ever!) and allows you to work on the same document at the same time.

Microsoft Power Automate is another free app that allows you to automate workflows across applications. You can use it to connect email and instant message alerts, synchronize files between applications, copy files from one service to another, collect data from one app and store it in another, and much more.

Templates are available to get you started. Efficiency is key for sustained success across businesses and Power Automate assists this by simplifying workflows with the automation of repetitive tasks.

Power Apps – is a low-code application development platform that integrates with Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Azure and more.

With Power Apps, web and mobile applications can be built without writing code. Instead, you can use pre-built templates and components with drag-and-drop simplicity.

Power Apps has been described as a bit like a meal delivery kit. The ingredients are pre-measured and chopped. The instructions are ready to go. All you have to do is prep and cook.

Because Power Apps has advanced logic and rules built-in, development time is cut by 70%. In some cases, it takes just a few hours to build an app. Or you can customize one of the pre-built templates in just minutes. Plus, Power apps connects to hundreds of business systems and databases. Here are some impressive statistics to show how Power apps is super useful.

  • 188% ROI over three years3
  • 74% reduction in app development costs4
  • 2 hours of line-of-business employee productivity improvement per week5

Real Business, Real Change

Quality Food Services is the largest exporter of butter pastry in NZ.  Up until a few years ago they were struggling with their documents and approvals as they were complicated and manual.

They used SharePoint to create an online document management system that had version control, search features and navigation that made finding documents and using them easier. 

You could track your changes so that everyone was always up to speed on any project.

Power Automate helped QFS to automate their business processes and approvals using tailored notifications and automated data entry, saving plenty of time and increasing the accuracy of the approval process.

Power apps helped to collect information and display where everything was in the process so that the project could be managed much more easily.

All of this saved them time, money and decreased their risk significantly.

Where to from here?

If you have a process that you are helps make your document management process a little less of a headache, speak to us here. You are welcome to register to attend our next Empower Session here.

Document Management – How to Save Time, Decrease Risk and use what you already have!

Meet Quality Food Southland

Meet Quality Food Southland or QFS for short. What started as a humble bakery and Café in the 1900’s by Annie C Miller, grew into New Zealand’s leading manufacturer in butter-based bakery products and sauces. They are the largest exporter of butter pastry in NZ. Up until a few years ago they were struggling with their systems and processes.

Document Management and Approvals headache!

Their document management and approval systems were completely manual. This meant a LOT of paperwork, and complex filing systems as each product version had to be kept on hand. There could be many iterations which make things complicated.  Their approval process was also a headache. QFS had eight different approval processes. At each stage, approval had to be signed off by three different signatories. As you can imagine there was a lot of paper, storage and wasted time, not to mention the risk of making a mistake, was really high.

Aiming for Change

Ideally, the team at QFS were keen to make a few improvements. Document storage and security were key. They wanted to get rid of the complex document folder structure while managing and keeping all their file changes. They wanted to replace the manual time-consuming approval process for an online version, complete with change notifications, tracked changes and approval process stage indicators.  Essentially, they wanted to have the process more manageable, consistent and streamlined.

Empowering QFS with Microsoft

After consulting with an IT Alliance Member, the QFS team decided that the best course of action was to have these seasoned professionals cook up a nicely balanced solution using some Microsoft products called SharePoint, Power Automate, and power apps. These were all available through having Microsoft 365.

SharePoint helped create an online document management system that had version control, search features and navigation that made finding documents and using them easier. It even had a check in and out function. You could track your changes so that everyone was always up to speed on any project.

Power Automate helped QFS to automate their business processes and approvals using tailored notifications and automated data entry, saving plenty of time and increasing the accuracy of the approval process.

Power apps helped to collect information and display where everything was in the process so that the project could be managed much more easily.

The End Result

QFS ended up with a very slick looking web-based system thanks to Microsoft 365 and its added products. The best part is that it is all in one place. The new system stores all documents, manages document check-in/out, maintains all version history and records document changes.

 It allows users to check-out a document, make the required changes then completes the document approval process from start to finish. It includes notifications to stakeholders, updates progress and document control lists throughout the process. On approval, it creates a pdf version and stores it in a duplicate SharePoint suite used by “view only” staff.  The result helps their business run more efficiently, with less risk. Sounds too good to be true, right?

If you are ready to empower your business with Microsoft Products like these, you can reach out to us here. If you would like to learn more, join us at this free event by registering here.