5 reasons why cloud computing helps small businesses stay competitive
Over the past 25 years, the office has stopped being the only place where it was possible to work: email replaced the postroom; mobiles replaced fixed line phones; desktops replaced mainframes; laptops replaced desktops; and so on.
Cloud computing is the final part of this picture. At Regus, for example, two thirds of our customers are ‘non-residential’ - they use our workplace solutions on a pay-as-you-go basis, rather than coming in every day to the office.
Small businesses have noticed the change fastest - cloud computing offers 5 things that allow them to compete on equal terms with larger organisations:
- Processing power and memory no longer matter: So long as you have the right cloud set up, you can run most business functions on a £100 tablet, with a twentieth of the processing power, and a hundredth of the memory, of a desktop.
- Focus on the core business: Cloud computing removes the requirement for a room full of servers and an IT department, freeing entrepreneurs to focus on sales, marketing and product development - the things they do best.
- Sophisticated technologies scale with size: Because cloud services scale instantly, people pay for what they need when they need it. Nobody has to pay for spare capacity any more.
- Staying out of the office: Instead of having to assemble a team in a single fixed location, small businesses can collaborate virtually, and use office space only on the occasions when they need to meet clients or get together to brainstorm. In conjunction with Regus Businessworld, this means that workspace becomes a pay-as-you-go expense.
- Outsourcing admin: Products like Office 365 can replace a huge amount of human processing power with simple, well-designed workflows that go a long way to eliminating the administrative tasks that hold back small businesses.
What about you - what do you use cloud services for?
Regus is currently working with Microsoft to offer its customers in the UK a free 90 day trial to experience Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM - if you are a Regus customer then please email microsoft@regus.comor call 0845 872 0100 to take advantage of this exclusive offer. If you would like to find out more about Regus, then simply head to our website www.regus.co.uk
Guest author
Steve Purdy – Managing Director, Regus UK
About Regus
Regus is the world’s largest provider of flexible workplaces.
Over a million customers a day benefit from our locations spread across almost 100 countries. With our ever expanding range of innovative products and services we enable people to work their way whether it’s from home, on the road or from an office.
Where we do it
Regus is a global organisation with more than 1500 business centres across some 600 cities. We were founded in Brussels in 1989, are currently headquartered in Luxembourg and our shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Who we do it for
More than a million customers including half of the Fortune 500, as well as hundreds of thousands of start-ups, small and medium sized companies across every sector.
We, at Microsoft, provide ‘Talking Business’ to help entrepreneurs and business owners’ succeed. We believe in your ability to innovate and in the ability of technology to help, so to support ‘Talking Business’ we have many resources available for businesses like you. We have an informative newsletter, blog posts by people in the industry, and a community looking to help small business succeed.
Follow us on twitter - @MicrosoftSB, or use the hashtag #TalkingBusiness to find out more information