The concept of running applications in the cloud is not at all new. In fact, there are literally millions of business users accessing hosted applications and cloud app services every day, and adoption didn’t reach those numbers overnight. While the value of running software such as QuickBooks in a cloud model may differ from business to business but the underlying benefits are there for all to achieve.
The main value for some business owners is in being able to access information and data while traveling out of the office or when working from home. Using almost any portable computer or mobile device, business users are able to get information on customers, orders, payments, and other valuable data regardless of the work location. Being able to keep tabs on the business even when they aren’t there is very important to some business owners and secure remote access has become essential for today’s mobile workforce.
Where mobility motivates some to move to the cloud, collaboration is what drives others. For public accountants and small business bookkeepers this benefit becomes essential to effectively delivering services to clients. Because small businesses and the professionals that serve them do not operate in the same locations, the ability to work in the same software and data at the same or different times allows business owners and their accountants and bookkeepers to work seamlessly together in support of the business. Business owners benefit from better financial data in real-time, and the accounting professionals are able to deliver results without time-consuming travel and doing the work on-site.
Business owners and the accounting professionals supporting them end up realizing the benefits of improved IT, where greater predictability in performance and cost matters. Businesses need to focus on their business and not on the IT which supports it, and outsource professionals such as accountants and bookkeepers need to be able to work with clients efficiently and without having to invest in expensive tools and services to make it happen.
When a cloud platform is deployed for the client business it can not only deliver benefits to the business owners and operation. A cloud-based approach can also provide tangible benefits in worker efficiency and productivity through improved access to information for the professionals who support the business.
Businesses need technology to support their operations, and the requirement generally spans far beyond pure accounting and finance. Unfortunately, many outsource bookkeeping and accounting professionals focus only on the accounting or financial systems when considering a cloud-based implementation, failing to consider the critical aspects of the operational level applications which support the various functions of the business.
This is often where a cloud hosting approach meets business needs better than a single cloud app. With a cloud hosting model, the existing business software and data can be “enabled” to allow accounting professionals access to the complete realm of business data, putting them in a far better position to ensure that the information resulting in the accounting system is of high quality and may be trusted.
Make Sense?
J
Cooper Mann Company 