What is an Accountant’s Cloud? Part 2
Most businesses purchase a Cloud to replace their in-house server or give them an online edition of a product that they need anytime, anywhere access to. By hosting their clients, the accountant’s cloud is more difficult to understand. As a reflection on the firm, it is important for them to perform for the client as the client themselves would. During the Cloud presentation, you will be educated on howit looks, how fast it is, how secure it is, and be taught about performance and how easy it is to use. It is important to note that if the Accountant’s cloud is out of order, it also means the firm as a whole is down and thus their clients. This could be disastrous for the client as well as the Accounting firm and makes the decision of which Cloud Computing provider to use, an even more delicate choice.
Accountants are not like a traditional business using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, some QuickBooks and maybe a CRM system. There are a number of things Accountants can use Cloud based services for. Accountants, their employees and their clients have access to an endless list of programs and applications. Real-time data is essential to the end result.
One of the most important features that accountants take into consideration when choosing a Cloud provider is security. Cloud will host their client’s financial information and confidential records without risk to security breach at any time. Data security is invaluable via research of a variety of researched factors. It is obvious that an Accountant cannot re-create the physical or intellectual security that an enterprise level hosting company can, but the details in which that host rolls out their security protocols needs to be researched as well. The Cloud Computing provider needs to be extremely secure. The SAS 70 Type II standard, with high standards of data protection practices at data center that is also physically manned by security staff round-the-clock. To save on costs many Cloud Computing companies outsource their data storage to the Middle East or Asia. Under IRS regulations, whenever data is transmitted to non-American locations, the written consent of the clientele is mandatory. The tech support can also be done out of house, and this is something the accountant needs to consider when conducting research to seek a good provider of cloud services.
The benefits of cloud and why an accounting firm would go for the cloud are some things that needs to be discussed The following are the most popular reasons for an Accountant to head to the Cloud.
Cost Savings: Exactly how much they spend yearly on IT, is not realized by many firms. Cloud computing can help reduce operating costs compared to the cost of purchasing large hardware to support the max usage you could have, the cost of an IT consultant to come and network, setup, maintain, update and service the equipment and software, the licenses for the operating system etc, the backups, anti-virus protection, and security protocols, etc..
Security: It is a common misconception that the Cloud is less secure than having a traditional client-server setup. Cloud service offers a service that is secure and solves a lot of problems that accounting firms could offer if they had the means, and most of them don’t.
Convenience: The Cloud provides anytime, anywhere access. It is sufficient for accountants to have internet connectivity to access their applications and they no longer have the necessity to store it as data files on the PC
Scalability: Think of Cloud Computing like a power grid, you use what you need and pay for what you use. The era of buying huge servers and maintaining them are gone. Virtualization has effected an environment which is more cost-effective than a traditional IT-managed infrastructure is.
Shift the Focus: Accountants did not go to school to spend their days managing a server or focusing on updating their software to the new release. By moving to the Cloud, accountants will be allowed to shift their focus from billable hour work to IT.
Collaboration: An environment that houses many users gives access to files to many users at the same time This will give the client and the accountant up to date numbers and financial information to collaborate with while making important decisions within their business.
Transforming IT: Replacing IT with traditional hardware as you go along helps in improving utility
New Service Offerings: New and innovative service contributions enable Cloud services to proffer its accountants with additional sources of revenue and profits. They can charge their clients for “e-services” like an online portal, document management and storage, disaster recovery plan and much more.
In Conclusion: Its easy to throw the word Cloud around and there are a lot of companies that offer Cloud services. Meeting a client’s specific need of give them a specialized product that brands their company as well as an all in one virtual office solution is often the most challenging problem. It’s important for modern accounting firms to research their options when selecting a vendor; they should ensure that their vendor is secure, can adapt, and that it has accounting technology. Although the benefits of the Cloud are easy to see, the timing and selection of who to provide those services is much more complex.