Is Your Accounting Firm Ready to Gain Benefits of the Cloud?
The Cloud offers Vancouver accounting firms tremendous benefits. By working with a third-party IT expert, your company can enjoy these and other advancements.
An increasing number of businesses are shifting operations to the Cloud to remain competitive. Decision-makers at accounting firms — much like others that house sensitive and valuable data — have struggled to make the shift out of cybersecurity fears, among others. The notion that client information that includes bank account information, tax records, and others would not necessarily be stored in the building seems less secure.
As Robin Hau points out in an Entrepreneur article, “Cloud service providers can successfully protect data physically and technologically while it is in the cloud, but that information can be vulnerable to hacking as soon as it leaves the cloud to interact with another system.”
The “where” has little to do with the digital burglary. Cloud service providers can successfully protect data physically and technologically while it is in the Cloud. Still, that information can be vulnerable to hacking as soon as it leaves the Cloud to interact with another system. That being said, accounting firms are first tasked with top-tier cybersecurity, and then your Canadian company can enjoy the following benefits of moving to the Cloud.
1: Moving To The Cloud Can Reduce Technology Expenses
Running a company in the technology age is teaching industry leaders that desktops, laptops, and endpoint devices, are suffering a very short lifespan. It’s no secret that technology manufacturers are rolling out upgraded devices every year, and the software that supports them changes just as fast. For an accounting firm to keep pace with security systems to house your client and company data, that could mean buying new technology every few years, at minimum.
Moving to the Cloud allows accounting firms to slow the need to invest in new devices because you have effectively outsourced data storage. Your need for technology is now only a matter of connectivity. Given the rise of personal device use across industries, the Cloud can drastically reduce the now short-lived investment of new storage hardware.
2: Moving To The Cloud Can Reduce IT Expenses
Consider for a moment that on the heels of all that shiny new technology your firm used to buy, there was the added IT cost to prepare, maintain, upgrade, scan, and repair. For every time your system struggled, went down, and required service, either you shifted employees to busy work or stopped altogether. These are not inconsequential costs and ones that impede profit-driving work. The Cloud allows your team members to access files and work-product 24-7.
3: Moving To The Cloud Increases Productivity
Business visionaries are quickly coming to terms with an emerging workforce that gravitates to positions that offer flexible hours. Many talented people are more inclined to work with outfits that allow them at least partial off-site hours. Beyond that trend among Millennials and others, flex hours support parents with sick children and others who might call out due to a family issue. The Cloud allows valued employees the flexibility to complete projects that might otherwise be put on hold. Moving to the Cloud can also attract talent you might otherwise not have on your team.
4: Moving To The Cloud Delivers Pay As You Go Scalability
Like other industries that have shifted to the Cloud, accounting firms can reduce spending by scaling their monthly and yearly data expenses. One of the primary cost benefits of implementing a Cloud migration is that businesses can expand data storage and usage needs to be based on the firm’s immediate workload.
The 2018 Government of Canada Cloud Adoption Strategy states, “Much like electricity in a home, cloud computing is on-demand, and the consumer pays for what they use.” The report also identifies “economies of scale” and “on-demand provisioning” as primary benefits, among others. In terms of applying this to an accounting firm, the organization can increase its bandwidth during tax season and scale back when activity slows. With the Cloud, you only pay for what you need and can scale up or down with a mouse click.
5: Moving To The Cloud Increases Stability
The myth of in-house data storage over the Cloud has been roundly disproved time and time again. Natural disasters, power surges, or just someone spilling a beverage on an in-house network can damage crucial information. Such incidents are more common than everyday people realize. When your firm loses or cannot access necessary data, the business loses money. The Cloud has emerged as a secure platform to store and seamlessly access accounting firm data from the brick-and-mortar building or remotely by designated staff members. It ranks as the more stable business options available in today’s technology landscape.
If you are a decision-maker at an accounting firm in Vancouver, Compunet Infotech has more than three decades of business leaders move forward with their IT needs. Contact us for a Cloud migration consultation today.
