{"id":10190,"date":"2014-06-16T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T02:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smithink.stackedsite.com\/?p=10190"},"modified":"2019-05-30T18:55:18","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T08:55:18","slug":"want-to-go-to-the-cloud-try-this-quick-quiz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smithink.com\/2014\/06\/16\/want-to-go-to-the-cloud-try-this-quick-quiz\/","title":{"rendered":"Want to Go to the Cloud? Try This Quick Quiz"},"content":{"rendered":"
The profession is bombarded every day with messages that unless you get your practice and your clients to the cloud, the world is going to end for you very soon. While that may be a gross over statement there are clear benefits in utilising cloud technologies which can significantly reduce costs, provide ready access to data on any device anywhere, enable collaboration \/ sharing of data with clients and enable sophisticated automated processing, utilising advanced data feed and data matching technologies.<\/p>\n
But despite these benefits, concerns still remain. In the 2013 MYOB and Smithink 2020 Leaders & Laggards Survey when it came to the six main concerns that people have about cloud computing – around 80% of people were still either slightly concerned, moderately concerned or very concerned about the risks. However, what is interesting is that the numbers who were very concerned dropped from around 40% in 2012 to 30% in 2013, so it does appear that confidence is rising.<\/p>\n
Given that there are still significant concerns – what can practitioners do to obtain comfort with individual cloud providers so that they can utilise the technologies to improve practice efficiency and client service? As our prime minister has a habit of saying – there’s baddies and goodies out there and unfortunately a lot of baddies use the internet as their tool of choice to get to us goodies. So let’s look at what vendors should be doing and the questions you should be asking.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately the answers to many of these questions can be quite technical. It maybe worthwhile to engage the services of an IT professional to assist you in assessing the supplier responses.<\/p>\n
By conducting this brief review you should be able to gain confidence that the provider has addressed the concerns that you may have about using a particular cloud provider and you can move forward with confidence. Of course, if you’re not using a cloud provider and you’re utilising desktop software on your own local area network, it would also be a good idea to ask them same questions about your hardware and software implementation. I suspect in many instances you will find that many of the reputable and established cloud providers have stronger security, disaster recovery and reliability.<\/p>\n
Cloud computing is a game changer for the profession in how accountants can process data efficiently and provide opportunities for real time information sharing and collaboration with clients. Like everything in business there are risks. It’s just a question of ensuring those risks are effectively managed. Dismissing the opportunities without adequately understanding and assessing the risks may leave you in the horse and buggy as others are zipping along in shiny new motorcars.<\/p>\n