small business technology trends: and they are all cloud

Small Business Technology Trends… And They Are All CloudAN OPINIONATED GUIDE TO THE SUBJECT

DENIS S WILSON – PRESIDENT – DWP INFORMATION ARCHITTS

Denis Wilson

Principal Consultant

DWP Information Architects Inc.

Board Member of Independent Association of

Microsoft Channel Partners (IAMCP)

Principal Liaison for the Microsoft Community

Connections initiative

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Agenda

PART 2 What are the ten small business trends that use the cloud

PART 3 How to get started

PART 1 What is Cloud and how does it work

What is the Cloud? The “Cloud” is a way to describe hosted applications, services, servers… hosted everything, that you gain access to via

the Internet. And “hosted” means, someone else owns the headaches, you rent the use of the resources you need.

What Cloud products are we using today?

We use lots’a different cloud products today.

Online Banking / Wells Fargo

CRM / Salesforce

File Storage / Dropbox

Social Media / Facebook

Accounting / QuickBooks Online

Productivity / Microsoft 365

Apple Storage / iCloud

Telephony / Skype

Retail / Amazon

“Technology leaders far outperform their peers in the marketplace.”

More likely to invest in new tech

2X

15%

5x

Faster job growth

Faster increase in annual revenues

Technology as a differentiator

Than what are the key reasons we are afraid to adopt the cloud in our business

We don’t know what it is, and how to figure out the TCO and then the ROI

We do not understand how the new products fit our business model – can we keep our old one?

The new technologies are hard to adopt making training an issue and gain employee acceptance

We simply do not understand the language used to describe and sell the technologies

So what are the small business trends

I am not afraid

ABANDON OR REDUCE ON-PREMISES TECHNOLOGY

1. ABANDON OR REDUCE ON-PREMISES TECHNOLOGY Offices used to host an array of desktop computers, printers, servers, network switches, wireless access points and firewalls. The cost of procurement and maintenance severely dented the bottom line

As IT equipment ages out, look at the cloud instead. My guess is that you can replace half of the gear in your office.

Use an expert to outline your options

START NEW PROJECTS IN THE CLOUD

2. START NEW PROJECTS IN THE CLOUD

If you’re happy with your current solutions, e.g. it works and it provides value, consider using the cloud for new projects.

Some that you might consider are: mobility, databases of customers, or backup and data recovery.

The other new kind of new projects to consider are specialty apps designed for your internal users and for your customers. Not expensive and way up on the “cool” charts.

INCREASED CLOUD BACKUP AND RECOVERY

3. INCREASED CLOUD BACKUP AND DATA RECOVERY (BDR)

This project is a natural for the cloud. Most implementations of on-premises backup are poorly executed and maintained.

Look to the cloud for data backup, data archiving, data recovery, and disaster recovery.

However, keep two key issues in mind when choosing: total cost of service, and how quickly can the vendor deliver a recovery.

Also, as your data is your company, use a hybrid approach. Backup to local storage, and back that up to the cloud. Get an expert.

SENSIBLE DATA ARCHIVING

4. SENSIBLE DATA ARCHIVING

As storage costs continue to plummet, it has become the norm to store everything and keep it for posterity.

Be wary of compliance issues: IRS, PCI, SOX, HIPPA, and others.

At least retain all customer information, financial records, and any company-owned intellectual property (IP) of value.

MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IS A MUST

5. MOBILE TECHNOLOGY IS A MUST

As younger workers enter the workforce, they demand the ability to run business applications via smartphones.

Bosses and wired staff who own that latest wiz-bang computing technology want to use it. BYOD – Bring Your Own Device – has become the dominent trend.

60% of SMBs call mobile solutions critical to business

AUTOMATED MARKETING

6. AUTOMATED MARKETING

The primary reason most new companies fail in the first two years (other than under-capitalization) is generally attributed to a lack of marketing savvy.

With a plethora of cloud-based marketing applications, SMB marketing costs are much more affordable. However, the business owner must up their game. You must understand and use best practices to market to new customers

Get an expert who knows the ins-and-outs of the new marketing.

There is a lot of hype and you need to test drive a least a couple of solutions before making your choice.

INTEGRATED MARKETING

7. INTEGRATED MARKETING 62% of SMB buyers are still looking for basic contact management like ACT!, for the first step to sales force automation (SFA).

42% of US buyers, however, are looking for an integrated suite of multiple CRM applications.

Of those buyers, 88% want combination of sales and marketing automation. Bottom line, SMB want fuller-featured CRM to better align marketing and sales.

And further, 71% expressed a preference for a cloud-based solution.

CRM: SKIP THE SOCIAL BELLS AND WHISTLES

8. CRM: SKIP THE SOCIAL BELLS AND WHISTLES Don’t get oversold on social media marketing. For every story of a SMB blog that attracts lots of new customers, and a Facebook page with thousands of followers, there are many small companies whose efforts lead to nothing.

Rather than social functionality, most buyers of CRM chose integration of Outlook, Gmail, or calendar apps.

The most advantageous feature of a CRM was the automation of group calendars and tasks based on your customers.

LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD

9. LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD

It used to be software was categorized as “enterprise” or “small business”, cloud software is becoming the great equalizer. Software that was only available to large companies is now available to everyone, e.g. Salesforce.com has a single-user license.

This trend will continue to speed up.

Again an expert is necessary in order to make sense of the very confusing market.

INCREASING SECURITY AWARENESS

10. INCREASING SECURITY AWARENESS

While the cloud brings tremendous advantages, it also brings outside attack. Businesses of all sizes must pay more attention then ever to security. But don’t take a tech-only approach.

Employee training in particularly important and it pays dividends.

Showing a few PowerPoint slides over lunch time doesn’t do it. Regular and repeated training, followed by simulated attacks. Over a few weeks, you will find employees messing up will drop to near zero. It is never zero – so the need to remain vigilant remains.

“Think before you click”

Next steps

Contact us

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We are a vendor to business only, so we just ask that the service call be for your small business of 5+ PCs, and perhaps a server.

Denis Wilsondenis@dwpia.com

866-995-4488dwpia.com

A Microsoft Channel Partner in North and West LA, and Ventura County

QUESTIONS

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