Did you know that there are countless cloud services that your business can take advantage of, including accessing many of the software programs that you require? Gone are the days of having to constantly purchase new and update old software. Read on to find out the different types of applications available to you as well as the most effective offerings. If your business is looking for reliable cloud services including software hosting, contact Digital Service Consultants (DSC) today.
What is Software as a Cloud Service?
Software licensing is expensive and the hardware required to run the software can also be costly to purchase, especially if you have a new or rapidly growing business. This is why many businesses are turning to a third-party to provide them with the software applications that they require. Software as a service (SaaS) is a popular model where a software service provider will host applications on their own servers and then make them available to your business over the Internet or “cloud” at a relatively low, fixed monthly payment.
Advantages: There are many great advantages to getting software as a cloud service. These include:
- Time Savings: software that you access on the cloud is already installed and configured so you don’t have to take the time to do it yourself.
- Lower Costs: Instead of purchasing an expensive software package, you can access the software at a relatively minimal monthly fee. You also don’t have to be constantly paying for updates and newer versions of the software.
- Scalability: As your business grows you can easily add more users to your plan.
Categories of Software Cloud Services
There are many different categories of software that you can access on the cloud depending on your particular business requirements. These include:
- Communications & E-Commerce Tools
- Network Monitoring and Data Security
- Accounting and Financial Tools
- Business Data Document Management
- e-Learning and Training Management
- Helpdesk Software
Communications & E-Commerce Tools
MailChimp Email Marketing
MailChimp is the world’s largest email marketing automation platform. It can help you create the perfect email marketing campaign that will enable you to sell your product, share your latest company news, or tell your story. It integrates with all major e-commerce providers, letting you use your purchase data to send personalized campaigns to your customers. MailChimp reports will also show you how well you are reaching your target audience and how much revenue you are generating.
Cost: Basic plan: free; Pro: $209/month
Citrix Grasshopper – Voice over IP (VoIP) Telephone
Voice over IP (VoIP) allows your business to use the Internet to make phone calls instead of traditional landlines. Citrix Grasshopper will give your business all the capabilities of a large office phone system at a fraction of the cost. It is extremely fast and easy to set up and offers features such as basic call routing/IVR , voicemail, and fax. You can make your business look bigger by using an automated greeting that answers your calls and directs your customers to the appropriate departments or employees.
Cost: 1 number with 3 extensions: $29/month; 5 numbers with unlimited extensions: $89/month
Shopify E-Commerce
The best thing about Shopify is that it requires very little technical expertise to set up and navigate. Shopify will help you start your online business by handling your marketing, payments, checkout process, and shipping. In one unified platform, you can fully customize your online store, quickly add new sales channels, manage your inventory, fulfill orders, and track your sales and growth trends.
Cost: Free 14 day trial with free templates and tools; Basic: $29/month; Advanced: $299/month
Network Monitoring and Data Security
Spiceworks Network Monitor
Spiceworks Network Monitor allows you to monitor your network to help you understand how your applications, servers, and websites are performing. It will enable you to oversee your network processes and let you know as issues arise so you can address them before they become too serious. It is designed for businesses that are monitoring less than 25 devices.
Cost: Free
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is an effective antivirus utility that can help you to manage passwords, secure your browser, “shred” electronic files, and defend against ransomware. Bitdefender will allow you to stay anonymous on the web, get unlimited encrypted traffic, and even secure your wi-fi hotspots.
Cost: $29.99/year
Accounting and Financial Tools
Intuit QuickBooks Online Plus – Accounting
Intuit QuickBooks is probably one of the best known cloud-based accounting software. If you are a modest-sized business, then it is especially helpful as its wide range of features is well-suited to to this demographic. You can choose from several different plan options depending on your needs; the most popular is the “Plus” plan. It allows you to track income and expenses, capture and organized receipts, invoice and accept payments, track sales and sales tax, track inventory, manage 1099 contractors, etc. for multiple users.
Cost: $30 per month for the first 3 months then $60 per month with a free 30 day trial
Rydoo – (Previously: Xpenditure Small Business – Expenses
For an expense tracking tool, Rydoo, previously known as Xpenditure, is very well-priced and easy to use. It’s user-friendly platform is multi-lingual which is great if your employees travel. It can perform Optical Character Recognition (OCR) scanning as well as mileage tracking.
Cost: Packages start from as low as about $7 per user per month
Business Data and Document Management
Microsoft Power BI – Business Intelligence
This free tool from Microsoft is a suite of business analytics tools that will enable you to drag, drop, customize, and analyze up to 1 GB of data for free. You can upgrade this service is you need more storage space and the upgrade will also let you interact with other Microsoft Office 365 users. You can also produce beautiful reports and publish them for your organization to use on the web and across mobile devices.
Cost: Free or upgrade your plan for $9.99 per user per month
NutShell CRM – Customer Relationship Management
NutShell CRM is specially designed for sole proprietors and small businesses. It is a mobile customer relationship management program that will help you compete with the larger corporations by simplifying your contact management, automating your sales processes, and giving you access to a wide range of helpful reports and analytics.
Cost: Packages start at $19 per user per month
e-Learning and Training Management
Rosetta Stone Catalyst – Language Learning
Rosetta Stone is well known for its awesome foreign language learning programs. The Catalyst version is geared towards helping your employees learn a new language in preparation for business trips abroad or visits from colleagues or executives from a foreign country. It is designed to let you focus on business-specific lexicons and it includes 24 different languages.
Cost: Fill in the online form to request a price quote
Articulate Storyline 360 – eLearning Authoring
Articulate Storyline 360 offers you all that you need to develop online courses. It is continuously updated with new features and it has more than 3 million stock assets that you can add to your project right from withing the app. You also get access to live online training with industry experts. You can deliver interactive courses to your learners on any device.
Cost: Free 60 day trial
Helpdesk Software
HappyFox – Helpdesk Ticket Management
If you are looking for a great helpdesk software, HappyFox is one of your best options. It is great for tracking and managing helpdesk tickets and it features a wonderful combination of self-service tools and automation that will enable you to reduce your ticket workload and as a result speed up your customer service. You can reduce confusion in your support processes by using their robust support ticket system and get helpful advice from their community forums.
Cost: Packages from from $29 per agent per month to $89 per agent per month
Freshdesk – Helpdesk Ticket Management
Freshdesk is an easy to use helpdesk software tool that does an excellent jog with ticket management. It let you assign tickets to individual agents according to the work that is needed. It can also generate helpful replies to commonly asked questions as they come up, streamline all your customer conversations in one place, automate your repetitive work, and collaborate with other teams to resolve problems quickly.
Choose Digital Services Consultants to Provide All Your Cloud Services
Digital Services Consultants is a premier data center located just outside of Atlanta, Georgia that offers you the best information services possible. We provide a full range of internet- related and cloud services including cloud backup, system monitoring, software hosting, dedicated email, website development and implementation, web hosting, e-commerce, security, and a variety of related products and services. We also provide network support for Linus, Microsoft server and workstation platforms, Fortinet firewalls, and Cisco Systems. DSC has been a trusted name in the IT industry in Atlanta for more than 30 years. Contact us today for all of your internet-related requirements.
“Great facility – Digital Service Consultants has a staff of dedicated, caring professionals that addressed not only our colocation needs, but also our consulting needs for secure hosting environment.” – Marc Orcutt
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DSC Gives Back to the Georgia Community
DSC is proud to be part of a thriving Georgia Community and we care enough about our community to want to give something back. That is why we started the “Next Generation” training days. During the training, our students learned about the history of CPUs and GPUs. The training focused on the performance and success of different models and brands and which ones excelled during their various time periods. You can access an audio recording of the training on the DSC website for free. Click here to listen to this informative podcast.
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