What happens when you miss a conference or speaker event? You get the podcast. How do you find that song you’re looking for? You Youtube it. No expansive CD collection; just internet access and a few clicks. How do you organize a social gathering? You create a Facebook event, or get everyone interacting on Eventbrite.
This is cloud hosting at its purest: net-based hubs for storing and organizing information. Such is their efficiency that we rely on them utterly. They are the way we use the internet; the way people interact with the world. Clunky desktop PCs and filing cabinets are outmoded. The old restrictions of office space, staff and technology departments are phasing out. We carry our PCs in our pockets and access whatever info we desire at the click of a Google search.
The world is operating on a smaller, faster scale. A successful enterprise must cater to its market’s need for speedy, efficient service. Customers want their product with minimum effort at maximum speed. To provide that kind of service, your business needs to streamline processes, and going virtual allows it to do just that.
So what’s it all about, anyway?
Ask yourself: how much of the cost, infrastructure and staff do you actually need to run your business? Do you really need a full-time tech support guru? Do you have the time to do book-keeping yourself? What if there was another way?
Consider office space for example. With the global recession felt by all, one can’t afford to waste money on cumbersome corporate organization – not to mention desks, computers, office equipment and up-to-date software. Setting up a workplace infrastructure represents a significant investment and therefore, a significant risk should one be forced to downsize. If the solution lies in passing on the risk, going virtual is the key.
As a virtual service company, Boldly offers web-based services such as telephone answering, off-site PAs and virtual services for the organization of data. This virtual infrastructure provides solutions for businesses large and small. An off-site PA can make bookings and handle administrative duties, a writer can produce the company’s website content, and a virtual assistant can manage their data capture. Thanks to the clever organisation of your virtual professional services, your new staff work from home and are paid by the hour, and they come with all of the equipment they need to hit the ground running. Information can be stored in cloud databases and accessed at any time, from anywhere. A coffee shop becomes a work space at a moment’s notice.
This also achieves business flexibility. If you’re working within a rigid corporate environment, you will be hard-pressed to cope with sudden market changes. A venture with the majority of its administrative tasks outsourced to work-from-home customer service professionals and PAs which are paid by the hour simply rolls with the punches and adapts its strategy from within this agile project environment. You get all the benefits of having a fully staffed office without the costs, risks or hassle.
In today’s fast-paced business environment, the question is not “should I outsource?” but “what aspects should I outsource?”
Outsourcing allows any business to operate on a fraction of the costs which the traditional corporate model would demand of it, and the benefits of saving money need no elaboration. A streamlined business will focus all its efforts and funds on providing the core service or product, and outsource administrative necessities in order to cut costs. Despite the virtual environment in which virtual service professionals operate, you’ll notice a distinct and rewarding tangible benefit to outsourcing to the cloud – fewer expenses, greater flexibility and ease of operations, and more time to focus on the things that matter.
