There’s a lot of talk about the “cloud” these days. “Cloud” is a fancy name for portal. If you access your banking information online, you use a portal. So how do you know which portal is right for your company? In our search for our “cloud” VBO encountered a few issues. Consider the following before selecting your portal.
1. Accessibility. Perhaps you’re surprised that price is not first. There’s a phrase, you get what you pay for. If you subscribe to a portal that you have difficulty accessing, does it matter how much you’re paying for it? It’s like getting up to go to work and your car not working. Ask the service provider if they know what their “down-time” ratio is. This is the amount of time that the portal is shut down for maintenance and upgrades.
2. Security. Owning a business means you have all sorts of confidential information. Tax ID #’s, Social Security #’s, Bank Account Information. What measures does the service provider take to maintain your security?
3. Software. VBO subscribes to InSynq portal service. It offers licensing rights to utilize Quick Books on the Cloud. InSynq also offers Microsoft Office. These are important tools during an ordinary day at VBO. If you use industry specific software, make sure the service provider you’re looking at can download the software on your “cloud”.
4. Functionality. VBO was solicited by a service provider that allowed our documents to be saved in PDF format on the cloud. However, it did not allow us to open a Word document and make necessary changes. Our current provider allows us to open, edit, save, and create documents as if working off an at-home laptop.
5. Price. Price should always play a factor when you’re shopping for a new product.
6. Space. Some service providers allow you to save documents up to a certain file size for free. Once you go over a certain amount of storage, then you’re required to pay a monthly fee. Find out how much storage you’re allowed on your “cloud”.
7. Support. Our provider offers 24/7 support not only to VBO but to our clients as well. VBO does not get congested with IT issues. The issues are dealt directly with our provider.
8. Back-Ups. Does the provider make routine backups of the data saved on the portal?
Use these helpful guidelines while shopping for your “cloud”. It’ll get you moving in the right direction.
If you have any questions or if you’d like information on subscribing to our “cloud”, please feel free to e-mail us at info@yourvbo.com or call us at 845-402-0070.
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