01 Jan 70

Is it cloudy outside?

Having a physical computer, boxes of CD’s and disks, and a team of IT engineers to run it is the traditional view of computing within a business.  The term cloud computing is becoming more main-stream, but only with the advent of always connected smart phones and tablets are people starting to understand what it means.

The internet and telecoms infrastructure has matured so that high speed broadband with global connectivity is a given, the cloud has emerged as a way for software to move from your phone or IT server room to a data centre somewhere in the web.  This transition has allowed a generation of applications that perform specific functions to be maintained by external experts.  These applications achieve high levels of performance and functionality at a much lower cost. 

Smaller businesses can now take advantage of software solutions they can share; managing information in ways that normally require huge investment.  The feature most often overlooked is that the rollout of new services in a business can be dramatically accelerated by using an already operational cloud based system.  The ROI is easier to calculate as the costs are based on usage.  The ROI is transparent and understood by all stakeholders rather than hidden within the percentages of people and equipment in a large IT budget.

The B2B connectivity market requires high speed data exchange, the ability to cope with a range of interfaces, flexibility to cope with non-standard implementations and most of all – ease of use and speed of deployment.  These requirements play to the strengths of outsourced services and the cloud.  EDI is a natural fit, and using a similar easy to understand model, connectivity to faxes, printers, web services, and legacy IT systems creates a complete and diverse eco system, automated and connected.  Companies wouldn’t expect to run their own telecoms systems, and shortly they won’t expect to own or operate the systems giving them connectivity and interoperability with suppliers and customers, leaving them to focus on doing business.

OmPrompt provides a B2B messaging solution configured as an off-premise, in-the-cloud solution, but more importantly provides expert analysts who can configure, deploy and support it.  There is no point outsourcing the software if you still have to manage it or maintain expertise.

It may be cloudy outside, but is the sun shining in your business?