How to get the most out of the cloud

20.12.2018 1,869 15

Martin Deshev

Ah, the cloud. Not the one in the sky, but the one we can’t really see, yet we all use. The digital cloud. Today it’s so prevalent, it’s not easy to describe all of the various cloud services, platforms and features available. Basically, if you think about a certain feature or service, chances are there are already several cloud versions of it out there.

That being said, this can also create a bit of confusion. There are so many options and each of them has many additional features. It’s easy to wonder if we’re using the ones we actually need or if we get the most out of what we pay for.

So, what to do to ensure we use the cloud to its fullest?

First, start by reviewing the services you already use. What are they? How do they actually reflect on the day-to-day and overall operations of your company? What additional features do they have you might or might not need?

Next, review how your team actually uses the services. Ask them about feedback. They are the ones who use them all the time and know exactly what works great and what needs to be improved.

Third, explore what more you can do. For example, cloud storage, live documents for collaboration with distributed and remote teams and more. There are also plenty of cloud CRM options ready to help you improve your business relations with the actual clients. The cloud is not only about the backend. It can have a big effect on your front-end, too. Explore the ways you can take advantage of that. For example, a service which helps you keep track of conversations with clients, tasks, reminders for follow-ups and more.

There are also financial cloud services. They can help to keep track of the budget, expenses, transactions and more. What’s even better is most of them have the ability to create various reports with a few clicks which is a great and easy way to see how the business is doing and assist the accountants.

Additional benefits

Contrary to popular belief, cloud services are just as useful to small businesses as they are to big ones. For a big business, cloud services can make handling lots of information, easier. For a small company, cloud services can help it manage different roles and information. Often it’s difficult for a small business to handle everything, especially payments, keeping track of stock, feedback and more. A nice setup of cloud services can make this a lot simpler.

Also, there are lots of cloud services which are very cheap or even free for small businesses. Yet, they offer many features including for document and spreadsheet creation and editing. This means you can get high-end professional features at little to no cost.

Using cloud services also means virtually no downtime, proper support and access to the latest hardware. It also makes your data accessible from everywhere and synched for everyone involved. And generally it’s much more secure than simply keeping it on a work computer or server. The data is also encrypted for additional protection, as is the connection. Tip: check for extra security features for each cloud service as sometimes not all of them are enabled by default.