12/07/2011

By Ben Weiner, CEO Conjungo.com

I recently wrote a blog commenting about a particularly great blog that I’d read about the issues that there are or will be within the SME community for the wholesale adoption of Cloud based services.

1. Lack of knowledge. This is back to basics – Many companies don’t have the expertise or resources to fully understand the technology and benefits. There is undoubtedly a great deal of confusion as to what Cloud based services actually mean and what they actually are.

2. Lack of trust in potential service providers. This is partially because of lack of knowledge but also that many people feel uncomfortable with leaving critical data on the servers of third party companies. Knowing that your critical information is available readily on your server or PC in your office holds a lot of sway.

3. After sales service. Selling into many smaller companies is often difficult and supporting the thereafter can be difficult too. Why? Because it’s always been perceived that it’s not profitable or cost effective to do so. I believe that people are prepared to pay for a good service and that education is key. Selling a solution without proper training is practically unsupportable. With knowledge comes power or actually less problems. The customer will feel far more at ease with the solution, and safe in the knowledge at by and large many issues and problems they will be able to rectify.

Of course the tide is changing with more companies offering dedicated services to smaller companies and are able to do so because virtualisation and shared resources has made it more cost effective to be able to do so. The fact that I can send and retrieve emails and other applications on the go, for me is a fantastic. My first phone that was able to achieve this was a Palm that I had several years ago but this has been superseded by Blackberry. That said, it appears that most smart phones can pretty much achieve this state and push email too is no longer the preserve of the hallowed Blackberry.

Ironically, having had the facility means that I’m happier on my travels simply because I’m in touch and in control. Actually, you find with email that you haven’t missed much when you’re away because people know you’re away and act accordingly. The ability to stay in touch for me, helps me to stop worrying and relax…….

Find out more on Cloud Computing by watching the below video
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