Upgrade inertia is an old story when it comes to computers. Not just individuals, but organisations too are resistant to change. “Will this new system work with my existing business process?” “Why do we have to change anyway?” “Testing this will cost money and time!” “It ain’t broke – don’t fix it!”
But with technology, as with everything, an ounce of prevention is worth pound of cure.
SMEs are especially at risk of falling behind on security and software updates, because they generally don’t have in house IT expertise. Sole traders and small businesses benefit hugely from the productivity gains of modern information technology, but they don’t want to worry about maintaining that technology. Their focus, rightly, is on their businesses; on sales and customer service, on profits and on growth.
SaaS Makes Sense
That’s why the rise of Software as a Service (SaaS) has seen such a popularity among SMEs. Software as a Service makes sense: it’s not like the hardware which is a depreciating asset. Software doesn’t stand still. As vulnerabilities are discovered, it’s a constant effort by software companies to make sure that their product is up to date, and the industry as a whole has moved to a subscription model.
For modern small businesses with little or no in-house IT expertise, it makes sense to automate software updates and to put the burden of maintenance on the vendor. With Office 365 from Blacknight, support is at the end of the phone from our headquarters in Carlow.
With a subscription to Office 365, you get the familiar Office applications like Word, Outlook, Excel and Powerpoint, always up-to-date with the latest features and patches, as soon as they become available. And there’s a slew of newer applications built around the flexibility and potential for teamworking provided by the Office 365 platform.
Outsource your IT Infrastructure
The benefits for email are especially significant: Office 365 does away with the need to maintain your own email server infrastructure. But it goes further than that, with Microsoft OneDrive giving every user a cloud storage facility and the ability to share documents with other users and collaborate on them in real time. This is datacentre infrastructure your business does not need to maintain for itself: it’s safe and available in Microsoft’s Trusted Cloud.
With Blacknight as a Microsoft Tier-1 Cloud Service Provider, you get an additional outsourcing benefit at no extra cost: our team is now your IT Helpdesk for Office 365. And if you’re already a Blacknight customer for web hosting, domains or other services, that’s one less supplier you have to deal with, and the convenience of a single monthly bill for all our services.
Click here to find out more about Office 365 from Blacknight, or call us in Carlow on +353 (0)59 9183072.
Bonus: Watch It Again: Blacknight/Microsoft Webinar on Office 365.
About the Author: Conn Ó Muíneacháin
