Do you remember the late 90s? That time that was smack dab in the middle of the cyber revolution, when businesses were just starting to figure out how to use the web? In this environment, one of the big benefits for small businesses was the ability to look like an enterprise company. A well-designed website could make any company look like a professional organisation and provide a global platform – in the world-wide web – to connect and interact with customers. But if you peeked under the bonnet for many of these companies, while they might have looked like mature enterprise organisations, they certainly didn’t function like them.
In the cyber revolution, small businesses were still limited by the costs of infrastructure and people needed to manage their digital footprint. Not just the cost of hosting a digital property, but also for ensuring compliance, device provisioning, app integration and, perhaps most importantly, security. For many smaller businesses, keeping their data – and their clients’ data – safe was an ongoing challenge.
Now you can have enterprise ability with small business agility.
The good news, though, is that we’re not in the cyber revolution anymore. We’re now amidst what experts are calling the fourth revolution, or industry 4.0, where small companies can not only look like big companies, but can function like them as well. Because so many of the ‘tools’ that you rely on to run your business can now be offered as a service, companies of all sizes have access to enterprise-level hardware, apps and infrastructure. Small businesses are no longer limited by being on the wrong end of economies of scale. With so much being offered as a service, you can scale as economically and strategically as your business needs.
Microsoft as a service
Take, for instance, three key offerings from Microsoft: Windows 10, Surface devices, and Microsoft Office. Whereas these were once bought as a set of fixed costs, they can now all be bundled together as a service:
Windows as a service
With Windows 10 Enterprise edition offered as a service, not only do companies get the great user experience and built-in security that comes standard in Pro, they also get additional protection for company devices and credentials, increased compliance support to help you avoid steep fines of noncompliance, and increased mobility. With Windows as a Service, employers can connect a licence to a user rather than a device, so your employees can move seamlessly between their mobile devices, tablets, laptops or PCs.
Surface as a service
Speaking of devices, Microsoft also gives small businesses access to some of the most powerful, versatile and well-designed devices available – as a service! Now you can equip your team with Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 devices through a managed service offering that evolves as your company does. Need to scale up quickly? With Surface as a Service you can grow as quickly or as slowly as you need to with the latest Surfaces devices through quick and streamlined process.
Office 365
Small businesses can also empower their employees with the latest version of the most widely use productivity suite on the planet: Microsoft Office. With Office 365, you get access to the most up to date versions of Office across multiple devices per user. From the more familial personal productivity applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint to newer and more collaborative applications such as Teams, Skype for Business and OneDrive for Business, small businesses can get everything they need to get work done anytime, anywhere, with anyone.
Enterprise ability, small business agility
Having these Microsoft solutions available as managed services frees up time and resources from IT, security and compliance overhead, allowing you to better focus on the things that help to grow your business like engaging your customers and creating new products and services. It also gives you the flexibility to scale your entire business up or down as needed.
Want to find out more?
If you’re ready to find out how you can access the services that let you look and function like an enterprise organisation, speak to us today. As Microsoft Gold Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.
To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back. This handy infographic from Microsoft also outlines succinctly how its solutions can assist your organisation’s GDPR needs.
