What If? Hosted Exchange And It Support

What if you, as the business owner, are the best adviser when it comes to moving to the Cloud?

IT has always been technology-driven. New features are developed and then a lot of training and sensitisations are made so as to get businesses to adopt them. This isn’t different at all when it comes to Cloud computing: especially with a Hosted Exchange solution.

Business managers are suggested new technologies, trendy features that every business should adopt. More often than not, those business managers decide on one option over another based on technical criteria instead of business-minded opportunities. With Cloud computing, it’s high time business managers reclaimed their authority to choose what they want for their business.

If you think about it: most of the time, business managers define their needs, without taking into consideration any technical implications. So the IT expert comes with a set of solutions, but most of the time they aren’t displayed to you say, as would be a menu in a restaurant; where you can pick and compose your own dish depending on your own personal taste and requirements. Chances are, the solution that will be submitted for your review would integrate a lot of additional “packages” (software licenses, servers, support) that should be bought together – you can’t just ignore one of those items, as the whole system won’t work. The IT expert’s interest is in selling to you this whole package and at the same time, tightening the grip he has on your business: you’ll always call to him for services related to what he has installed. On the other hand, if you have onsite IT staff, they could fear a loss of their jobs if your business moves to the Cloud - which isn’t true at all. We’ll see why later on.

The IT choices are dictated by technical constrains: regularly, you need to upgrade because your current system won’t be supported anymore. With Cloud computing, and particularly with a Hosted Exchange solution, as a business owner, you can reclaim your rights to decide which solution to opt for (and when to do it)– not based on technical requirements, but from sound business decisions, that includes the following:

• You want to be able to deal at the contract level- not at the technical level: no more yearly contract commitments. You want to be given the flexibility and freedom to switch to another provider whenever you want should your current provider fail;
• You want transparency and a layer of abstraction for technical details: this time, when you adopt a new technology, the money you spend should be defined by you and not by a software/hardware release cycle. With a Hosted Exchange solution, you don’t have to worry about “forced” upgrade anymore - it’s transparent to you as the Cloud provider manages any upgrades for you.

In fact, IT experts’ problem (risk of losing the grip on you, upgrades) shouldn’t necessarily be your issue. Smart IT experts would accompany you in moving slowly to the Cloud while standing as your advisor and IT support unit. Should your IT expert categorically refuse to have you consider Cloud computing solutions, then you know that they're only looking to meet their own needs but at the same time, neglecting yours.

As for onsite IT staff, smart in-house IT staff would recommend you moving to the Cloud without fearing a loss of work. Not only would they be helping you make sound business decision, but their role would move to a user’s support and training while avoiding imposing so much charge on the IT budget for infrastructure. To add to this, the flexibility of a Hosted Exchange solution means that it can be switched off as easily as it is switched on: a SME can use a Hosted Exchange solution to cut costs while business is slow, but they can be safe in the knowledge that they can go back to their old system just as easily – which not only provides peace of mind for IT support services, but also to you and your business.

By: Nick J Davies

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Hosted Exchange by Giacom is available to businesses in the UK, Europe and beyond. Based on Hosted Exchange 2010 technology, features include collaboration, shared calendars, contacts, shared tasks, push email, and more.