Many businesses buy a cloud product to replace their own servers or to get an online version of their products or services. By hosting their clients, the accountant's cloud is more difficult to understand. It is a direct reflection of their firm and must perform for their clients as they themselves would. This comprises some key considerations concerning each Cloud, such as appearance, security, speed, performance and practicality. It is important to recognize these differences and see that if the Accountant is hosting their client's data on their Cloud and they go down for any reason, not only is the Accounting Firm down, but their clients are down as well. This could be disastrous for the client as well as for the Accounting firm; this makes the decision of which Cloud Computing provider to use an even more delicate choice.
Traditional software programs that use Microsoft Office differ and are surpassed by accountants. Accountants use specialized industry specific applications for time & billing, Tax Preparation, inventory control, Document Management and Storage Systems, reporting tools and different financial sync services like bill paying services or payroll automation programs. Accountants, their employees and their clients have access to an endless list of programs and applications. Dealing with the financial stats in real time is necessary for the final result.
One of the most important features that accountants take into consideration when choosing a Cloud provider is security. Their client's financial information and confidential records will be hosted on their Cloud which cannot be at risk for a security breach at any time. It is important to make research into the hosts' data center, their redundancies,the precautionary measures to secure data A enterprise level hosting company no doubt can create a physical or intellectual security that an accountant cannot but the details of the security protocol roll outs etc that they use should be well researched A typical standard of any Cloud Computing provider is that they are at a SAS70 Type II data center that is highly secure as well as staffed with on-site security at all times. To save on costs, many companies outsource their storage to other countries. While this may be perfectly acceptable to the Accountant, the IRS requires that the client be notified and sign a release confirming that they too are comfortable with their data being sent outside the US. When conducting research to seek a good provider of cloud services for an accounting company, It is important to confirm if the technical support team can also be outsourced.
The benefits of cloud and why an accounting firm would go for the cloud are some things that needs to be discussed Business companies take to cloud for great many reasons, but the most compelling and common reasons for an accounting firm are mentioned here.
Cost Savings: Exactly how much they spend yearly on IT, is not realized by many firms. When you combine 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, the Cloud can save firms on average 30-50% on IT costs annually.
Security: It is a misnomer that using the Cloud is less safe than using a normal client server setup. In reality the Cloud service providers have created a secure environment with enterprise solutions and physical security that no accounting firm could replicate without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Convenience: The Cloud offers anytime, anywhere access to your hosted information. 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: You pay for what you use and use what you need, like a computing power grid. The era of buying huge servers and maintaining them are gone. Virtualization has created an environment that is more cost effective than a traditional IT managed infrastructure.
Shift the Focus: Accountants have never learned to manage servers or to update software during their school days Moving to the Cloud allows Accountants to shift their focus from IT to billable hour work.
Collaboration: The Accountant, employees and clients can simultaneously open, view and work on the files due to the multi-user access environment. This provides real time numbers and financial data to help the client and the accountant to make important business decisions
Transforming IT: Buying as you go forward and what you need is the benefit of IT as utility, moving away from the traditional hardware infrastructure.
New Service Offerings: Accountants that use Cloud Services find new streams of revenue by offering their clients new services. 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 is important for the modern accounting firm to research their options when selecting a vendor and choose one that is secure, adaptable, and 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.
Traditional software programs that use Microsoft Office differ and are surpassed by accountants. Accountants use specialized industry specific applications for time & billing, Tax Preparation, inventory control, Document Management and Storage Systems, reporting tools and different financial sync services like bill paying services or payroll automation programs. Accountants, their employees and their clients have access to an endless list of programs and applications. Dealing with the financial stats in real time is necessary for the final result.
One of the most important features that accountants take into consideration when choosing a Cloud provider is security. Their client's financial information and confidential records will be hosted on their Cloud which cannot be at risk for a security breach at any time. It is important to make research into the hosts' data center, their redundancies,the precautionary measures to secure data A enterprise level hosting company no doubt can create a physical or intellectual security that an accountant cannot but the details of the security protocol roll outs etc that they use should be well researched A typical standard of any Cloud Computing provider is that they are at a SAS70 Type II data center that is highly secure as well as staffed with on-site security at all times. To save on costs, many companies outsource their storage to other countries. While this may be perfectly acceptable to the Accountant, the IRS requires that the client be notified and sign a release confirming that they too are comfortable with their data being sent outside the US. When conducting research to seek a good provider of cloud services for an accounting company, It is important to confirm if the technical support team can also be outsourced.
The benefits of cloud and why an accounting firm would go for the cloud are some things that needs to be discussed Business companies take to cloud for great many reasons, but the most compelling and common reasons for an accounting firm are mentioned here.
Cost Savings: Exactly how much they spend yearly on IT, is not realized by many firms. When you combine 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, the Cloud can save firms on average 30-50% on IT costs annually.
Security: It is a misnomer that using the Cloud is less safe than using a normal client server setup. In reality the Cloud service providers have created a secure environment with enterprise solutions and physical security that no accounting firm could replicate without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Convenience: The Cloud offers anytime, anywhere access to your hosted information. 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: You pay for what you use and use what you need, like a computing power grid. The era of buying huge servers and maintaining them are gone. Virtualization has created an environment that is more cost effective than a traditional IT managed infrastructure.
Shift the Focus: Accountants have never learned to manage servers or to update software during their school days Moving to the Cloud allows Accountants to shift their focus from IT to billable hour work.
Collaboration: The Accountant, employees and clients can simultaneously open, view and work on the files due to the multi-user access environment. This provides real time numbers and financial data to help the client and the accountant to make important business decisions
Transforming IT: Buying as you go forward and what you need is the benefit of IT as utility, moving away from the traditional hardware infrastructure.
New Service Offerings: Accountants that use Cloud Services find new streams of revenue by offering their clients new services. 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 is important for the modern accounting firm to research their options when selecting a vendor and choose one that is secure, adaptable, and 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.
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