By Randy Johnston Using Technology to Increase Efficiencies and Reduce Costs EVALUATE AVAILABLE TOOLS U sing the right technologies will help you to collaborate with your clients with greater ease while providing higher levels of service. When you use browser-based technologies, either in a private or public cloud, much of the hard technology work is done by others, allowing you to focus on delivering your knowledge and providing value. Solving your clients' business problems effectively makes both you and your clients more productive while increasing your value to the clients. What technologies are working well and which should be considered to improve productivity? What are the risks and costs? How should you choose between Software as a Service (SaaS), private cloud, and public cloud offerings? Most importantly, how do these decisions impact profitability and productivity? several software publishers are now providing tools that enable us to work entirely in the cloud. For example, microsoft Office 365 is a blend of storage in microsoft public cloud data centers, applications that can be run through a browser, and traditional microsoft Office applications that can work locally or connect to the cloud storage. alternatively, everything that you are running on your local machine today or on a network in your office can 18 HBma BILLINg • JaNuaRY.FeBRuaRY.2014 be hosted at a cloud provider. The key capability that cloud technologies provide is a simpler user experience for both clients and yourself. The key disadvantage to cloud technologies is your lack of control over resolving certain types of issues, such as communication speeds. First the Options a big transition is occurring in the technology industry where vendors have completely re-written their applications to be multiuser, multi-tenant, and run solely in a browser, a paradigm known as saas. many billing companies offer their products as cloud offerings either in a hosted version or as saas. even the products that run in-house have become more user friendly by implementing simpler browser interfaces or supporting remote access without special modifications. examples of productivity applications that are saas include the microsoft Web apps and google Docs. accounting software to run your firm can be traditional in-house software, hosted, or saas. all of these product examples use cloud technology and can be connected to each other with less effort today than in the past. Traditional Windows-based applications can be hosted in a data center. Publishers of legacy software are releasing updates to aid in the transition from the local area network and local installation model to enable smooth operations in a hosted environment. Files and applications can be private or shared on a computer
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