These 10 reasons to host your QuickBooks deployment in the cloud are among many benefits you will capture after migrating, but reflect the biggest gains from moving to a modern environment. Web-based solutions deliver significant advantages over on-premise deployments, which historically force you to make additional investments into hardware and maintenance to facilitate performance. On top of reducing costs and removing capital expenses, a hosted infrastructure for your desktop accounting software gives you real-time access and visibility through online channels, making it a mission-critical asset when you have employees working from home.
Intuit offers QuickBooks Online as a SaaS (software as a service) solution with browser-based features, however, it lacks the same functionality and flexibility as QuickBooks Desktop. Only an application hosted through a provider will give you the full range of the benefits of your traditional system as well as those from moving your system to an online environment.
Here is the list of 10 reasons to consider hosting QuickBooks in the cloud:
1. HOSTING QUICKBOOKS IN THE CLOUD GRANTS GREATER FLEXIBILITY
The strength of this new modern consumption model is in the flexibility it provides users and how this better empowers them to make more strategic business choices when it comes to IT deployment. For an example, compare the difference between using Microsoft Office products in the past with manual installation and now with Office 365 – everything you need from your plan is available through the web as soon as you log in. You are no longer tied to static resource requirements as you implement your bookkeeping application, or even post-implementation since the only limit to capacity will be how many devices you wish to use.
2. REDUCE THE COSTS OF ON-PREMISE SERVERS & OTHER HARDWARE
Software has historically been regulated to whatever storage is available per drive or on a server located somewhere onsite. Cloud-hosted environments exist online perpetually – as long as the hosting provider can maintain service – and your resources are delivered to you in real-time and from anywhere. You no longer have an obligation to make significant investments in on-premise hardware as users can access QuickBooks directly from their browser if they choose to.
3. PROTECT YOUR HOSTED ENVIRONMENT WITH CYBERSECURITY
Cloud security requires a different approach than what was acceptable with traditional deployments, not the least of which is because even your legacy solutions can have hidden connections to the web. The nexus of modern and outdated technology has left both software and hardware with exposed endpoints through remote desktop code that was never meant for this type of access, to say nothing about misconfigurations that are overlooked by developers. A hosting provider that offers cybersecurity will ensure that your QuickBooks data is protected at all times, and can respond quickly and decisively if an intrusion is detected.
4. UPDATE SOFTWARE IN REAL-TIME THROUGH THE CLOUD
There are many reasons that software needs to be updated, from keeping up with new features and enhancements to installing the latest security patches. Falling behind on these upgrades can have consequences as they help preserve the stability of your applications, including allowing you stay compliant with your ecosystem or protected against cyber threats, but the implementation projects can be tedious and disruptive to productivity. The cloud eliminates the need to perform these manually, however, and all of the advancements you need are delivered in the background without interrupting your workflows.
5. DEPLOY QUICKBOOKS ON MOBILE DEVICES
The flexible nature of a hosted environment enables it to be device agnostic, meaning that you can now use your software on multiple types of computers and are no longer limited to a desktop. This allows you to take advantage of mobile tools, including smartphones and tablets, and many of which your employees have already obtained on their own. Users can manage individual activities on the go now that they can gain access from anywhere and anytime, greatly improving your ability to handle emergencies and capture consistent visibility into your accounting data.
6. BACK UP YOUR DATA MORE FREQUENTLY
Historically, backing up the files contained in on-premise storage required manual transfer to physical drives, which brought a lot of drawbacks from the time it took to limiting the value of the redundancy if disaster struck. Recordkeeping that has migrated to electronic and digital storage limits this risk, but any local fire or flooding can wipe everything if you have not backed up your data often enough. Hosting QuickBooks in the cloud will ensure that backups are performed much more frequently, with your service provider able to closely manage the process in real-time and make quick adjustments for anomalies in the system.
7. OPTIMIZE YOUR IT RESOURCE USAGE
Without the static nature of an on-premise deployment, your hosted environment is able to be optimized for better performance, bandwidth or pricing depending on your needs. With your bookkeeping application being overseen by a professional cloud service provider (CSP) within their datacenter, the IT infrastructure will be managed according to your specifications, allowing you to capture the ROI you seek.
8. MAKE SUPPORT AVAILABLE AROUND THE CLOCK
With software maintenance no longer regulated per desktop or server, you will be able to receive support in real-time for your QuickBooks environment. Your CSP will be monitoring your deployment in real-time and can respond to issues that arise much succinctly than in an analog set up, and with greater visibility into the problem. Engineers will be able to identify anything concerning much more easily with the deeper insight afforded by hosting your data in the cloud.
9. ENABLE EMPLOYEES TO CONTINUE WORKING FROM HOME
The COVID-19 pandemic forced a mass shift to telecommuting that was in unprecedented in scale, and was only made possible by previous advancements in technology and the investments into deploying an infrastructure capable of handling a surging distributed workforce. Remote workers around the world are interacting with multiple solutions delivered through the cloud, including Teams, Zoom and more, and hosting your accounting software will ensure that your employees can leverage the same level of productivity.
10. LEVERAGE ONE PROVIDER FOR SOFTWARE, IT & HOSTING
With systems increasingly moving to web-based environments, publishers, developers and IT support personnel can interact with their user base at a level unheard of in the traditional model. Engaging a CSP that can service your software’s core architecture as well as the hosted environment with the same level of expertise will ensure that there is only one hand to shake when managing your QuickBooks implementation. By consolidating these provider touchpoints, issues will be addressed much more quickly and executed on much more decisively than having to go through multiple parties for a single complaint.
LEARN MORE ABOUT HOSTING QUICKBOOKS IN THE CLOUD
There are so many reasons why hosting QuickBooks in the cloud will capture the best ROI for your business, from the flexibility inherently offered to the significant cost reductions. Discover even benefits to migrating to a modern cloud environment for QuickBooks by reaching out to Secure Cloud Services.
Contact us to dive even deeper into the advantages of a cloud-hosted environment for QuickBooks and learn what SCS can provide you as your CSP.