Survey: "IT Failing One in Four Small Businesses"

I came across this article the other day (see link below) from e-Channel Line. It confirms what I’ve been encountering for the past year, as I’ve made my way through the SMB space in an effort to understand the IT challenges that the owner operators of these smaller businesses are facing these days.

This survey that was taken in support of this article, known as the international "IT Effectiveness Index (ITEI) Mid-Year Report 2009", reports that 25% of the respondents have scored the effectiveness of their IT with a letter grade of a “D” or an “F”.

Whilst an additional 37% have scored the IT capabilities of their company with a letter grade of a "C" indicating that they are barely keeping up with their IT demands as they move forward through these challenging times.

The heavyweight implementations of Microsoft Dynamics and SAP have taken their toll on the SMB market (100 or less employees) who find themselves falling further and further behind as their IT solutions become stale from a lack of ongoing care and feeding.

Adequately maintaining these traditional “bricks and mortar” IT implementations simply isn’t tenable for the smaller company who doesn’t have the deep pockets required to keep up.

The current economic climate is simply increasing the gap that companies will have to make up in order to remain competitive with their IT capabilities particularly once the resurgence begins.

Now is the time for owner operators to look very, very seriously at the alternative prospect of switching out these heavyweight solutions in favor of a pay-as-you-go, cloud-based solution like NetSuite, that will lower their cost base dramatically and won’t require anything close to the heavy maintenance burden they experience today, in order to stay competitive.

If you find yourself in this predicament, contact us at TrueCloud. We can help.

Here is a link to the article


Dave Rice, CEO TrueCloud

www.truecloud.com

No Turning Back

Here at TrueCloud, we’ve been using cloud-based tools entirely for the past year and a half now. Google Docs for mail and office automation, NetSuite is our ERP core system, and we’re using Telesphere for our phones.

There is no trace of IT here with the exception of a router for our network connection and of course, our PCs (I use a MAC).

Anyway it dawned on me last week how much I don’t miss the former world of premises-based systems when I was having some fun, experimenting with a 2 year old windows-based gaming application.

After all this time in the cloud I couldn’t get over how antiquated the windows experience seemed to me.

Intrusive dropdowns, counter intuitive workflow structures, text-based everything, continuous re-keying of information previously supplied. No useful reporting whatsoever.

As a Fortune 500 CIO for the past many years I thought, “Oh my word! Is this what I’ve been exposing my end users to all this time?”

Cloud-based applications just work. I never catch myself complaining whilst using a tool like You Tube for example. It does what I want it to do every single time. I don’t even think about it.

I mean, any kid can set up their preferences on Facebook, yet the ATM at my bank still asks me what language I want to conduct my transaction in.

My message is simple. Make the move to the cloud. You won’t miss your present day applications or at least not for very long.

Dave Rice, CEO TrueCloud

http://www.truecloud.com.

Security and Data Access in the Cloud

Are these really valid concerns?

I can understand how Fortune 500 IT organizations supporting large enterprises would pause temporarily when considering the industrial strength characteristics of the cloud. Having been a Global CIO in a multi billion dollar enterprise, I'd want to be thoroughly convinced before exposing the "family jewels" to the cloud, so to speak.

More than anything else, these companies in most cases have spent considerable time, money and resources on securing their present IT infrastructure, so it’s only prudent that they would look for a comprehensive set of assurances before considering the leap to the cloud when it comes to their “make or break” business applications.

But the converse is also true when it comes to emerging and mid-sized (SMB) firms who simply don’t have the resources or the deep pockets to implement a comprehensive security and backup system.

Cloud-based services like software-as-a-service, leverage economies of scale by hosting thousands of clients and therefore can invest heavily in an enterprise-class outcome that will largely exceed the security and backup capabilities that these smaller, emerging clients could ever hope to accomplish on their own.

It simply wouldn’t be a reasonable financial consideration for them.

Overtime, cloud computing will address all of these concerns, regardless of the differences that exist today.

It’s as compelling as the consumer shift that took place when the ATM replaced the need to engage a bank teller for every transaction.


Dave Rice, CEO TrueCloud

http://www.truecloud.com.

The Cloud is not another IT Fad

There are a lot of traditionalists in the IT community who are suggesting that Cloud Computing is nothing more than the latest in a long line of IT “fads” that given enough time, will fade away just as the others have.

But the fate of the Cloud isn’t going to be determined by IT. Business decision makers can see for themselves, the value that lies within these service offerings.

Cloud Computing is the most significant development on the computing technology front since the introduction of the browser or the inclusion of personal computers in corporate businesses around the world.

Cloud based solutions will substantially reduce businesses’ traditional dependency on IT, level the playing field in terms of providing SMBs with the same caliber of solutions previously afforded to large enterprises only, whilst ushering in a broad set of capabilities made possible ONLY because companies redeployed their IT systems and services into the cloud.

If you’re an emerging or mid-sized business owner who wants to know how the Cloud is going to save you a ton of money, we can help get you started.

Contact us at TrueCloud.


Dave Rice, CEO TrueCloud

http://www.truecloud.com.

Kids and Clouds

There hasn’t been a whole lot said or written about the Cloud and it’s impact on the Gen “Y” crowd which is a bit surprising to me.

My whole orientation to the Cloud started with my desire to take up a hobby with my son about 5 years ago which caused us to seek out what was then the brand gaming space genre of MMPORG (massive multi player online role playing games), starting with Star Wars Galaxy and then subsequently World of Warcraft.

It was then that I realized that the internet or Cloud, had come of age, behaving as one large computer, servicing millions of simultaneous world wide Gen Yrs, playing with a highly intuitive, goal seeking, problem solving, point and click based toolset. I thought immediately, "Gee, what a great way for a business to function as well."

Well now these kids are growing up. And moving into the workplace. Unlike the fuddy duddies who preceded them, they aren’t intimidated by modern computing systems, in fact they consider them to be an essential ingredient.

Suffice it to say, any business owner who hasn't yet recognized that there will soon be a correlation between the vitality of modern cloud-based systems and the future employees they’re going to be able to attract, better start taking a much closer look. Top talent will always have a choice about where they work and they won't work for businesses who won't provide systems with modern VITALITY.


Dave Rice, CEO TrueCloud

http://www.truecloud.com.