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The Cost of the Cloud

At some point during our cloud discussion you've probably thought 'but what are all of these fancy cloud applications going to cost?'

Yes, there are costs associated with cloud softwares. Depending on what exactly you need there will be different cost levels involved. As an example, let's use $100 per month as our baseline; this also represents the cost of a couple 5 meat platters at the Lancaster, in other words, you taking me there for lunch. That $100 would cover an accounting software, a document sharing software, a payroll software and the EFT costs of payables and receivables for a lot of small businesses out there depending on their specific needs.

How much are you currently spending on office supplies, printing/copying etc? Obviously you would still have some costs in these areas but it could be drastically reduced. To give you an example... Our printing/copying/office supply costs are down over 70% compared to where we were at the same time last year... higher quality treats for team meetings?... get on it Momma Conn!

How much money are you spending on cheques, envelopes and stamps? It used to be unfathomable for a small business to be able to afford EFT services given the cash management fees charged by the banks. Today, a stamp costs $1.05, plus the cost of the envelope, plus the cost of the actual physical cheque (those aren't cheap anymore). Even an e-transfer costs $1.50. Nowadays we can provide domestic EFT services for a maximum of $1 per transaction... and oh yeah it integrates directly with your accounting software for accuracy.

The labour... oh the labour. Payroll expenses for small business can be significant and in many cases the opportunity costs is high given the menial tasks they perform. Take our example above... someone also has to print those cheques, envelope those cheques, stamp it, mail it, file it... oh yeah and you have to pay someone to go out and buy those cheques, envelopes, stamps etc when you run out. This is valuable time that can be spent elsewhere providing more value to your business internally or your customers externally.

Then there are all of the efficiencies that are gained operationally if you integrate an application directly into the operations of your business... the gains there can be tremendous with respect to the opportunity cost of your labour. If there is a tedious process in your business there is probably something out there that helps... that is where we come in. The question you need to ask yourself isn't 'what is the cost of the cloud' it's 'what is the cost of not using the cloud'. If you are wondering, let's have that talk, at the Lancaster, with your payment method of choice :D