I recently returned from holiday in France where I spent a couple of weeks on a campsite. I was surprised at the proliferation of laptops; it seems more and more people want to stay connected, whether to be able to access emails, files, internet radio, websites, etc. And the campsite has recognised this demand and made wi-fi available for free. For my part, I have always taken my laptop with me much to the mild annoyance of my wife who thinks a holiday should be a computer-free zone. However my argument has always been that I would rather keep an eye on what’s going on with my business than return after 2 weeks to a mountain of emails to process. Previously I would go to the local internet cafe and hook up to the internet connection there, but the availability of wi-fi at the campsite where I was staying made the process of staying connected much easier.

While I was there I was able to respond to an urgent enquiry for information which I would otherwise have missed. Having all of my data on the cloud, and being able to communicate easily reinforced the benefits of the cloud model. I was able to access relevant documents and information and put together the required response before my mid-morning trip to the beach. I was able to stay in control.

The cloud enables one to have access to data and communications wherever they happen to be. It empowers businesses with the knowledge that they can provide a seamless response and service to their customers.

In this instance I was happy to have a cloudy holiday.

I was fortunate enough to be asked to give a couple of talks at a London school to pupils who were about to go on their 2 week work experience. The session was organised by the Enterprise Business Partnership (EBP) which encourages local businesses to interact with schools and colleges and offer advice and guidance.

Having accepted the invitation, I was suddenly gripped with apprehension. I had thought I would do it “on the fly” but I realised an hour is a long time in which to dry up, so I sought some advice from my wife who is a lecturer. She helped me create a lesson plan structure; I added some content, inserted some timings, and downloaded some youtube clips about working in an office – they were humourous ones like “The IT Crowd”, “The Office”, and the “Computer says no” from Little Britain, but I figured that they would be a distraction if the pupils got bored with my droning.

So fully prepared, I went along to the sessions with the faint hope that I might be able to make a small difference. As it turned out I didn’t follow my lesson plan – the pupils led the sessions by asking lots of very relevant questions. But I was glad I had a backup plan if necessary.

I was really surprised at how nice the pupils were – they were honest, inquisitive, motivated, and generally wanting to make a good impression. There was no cynicism that adults acquire as they get older. They asked some poignant questions which made me think a bit about what I had done and what I was doing with my life and with my business.

I left feeling really rewarded and thinking how nice it was to step outside my normal daily routine of chasing the dollar and get in touch with the real world.  I think everyone would benefit from doing something like this once a month. Some enlightened companies allow their staff paid time off to do community work and I’m sure I’ve read somewhere, the staff feel more motivated at work as a result and feel good about the companies they work for.

And finally if these kids are representative generally of kids in the UK, I think our future is very bright.

The enemy of business is procrastination, disguised by a need for perfection.

If you think about all the permutations, if’s, and but’s you’ll waste an awful lot of time building the perfect “thing” which you might then find nobody wants.   

Fail fast, learn fast, fix fast – a quote by Guy Kawasaki – one time Apple evangelist, investor, marketing guru. Phase 1 is always imperfect; you need quality feedback to continually improve it.

Remember you can always think of a reason for not doing something.

We set up Nuage because we felt there was a real opportunity to help small businesses and sole traders navigate through the sometimes bewildering options and choices available to them, in particular with their IT systems. By using our hosted or cloud based IT services, they effectively buy widely used software and services on a pay as you go basis, allowing them to scale according to their business needs. The hassle of choosing, buying and maintaining these is eliminated at a stroke, and they can sleep safe at night knowing that their data is safe, backed up at least once a day and accessible from anywhere. So if disaster strikes, it’s easy to switch to a different laptop or PC, location, and continue working. The cost element – it is generally a lot cheaper to buy hosted services (as well as being more reliable) – is not always a deciding factor and often comes in second to continuity of business and flexibility.

12 months on and the trend toward cloud IT continues. In that period of time, more companies have adopted a cloud strategy and many more are thinking seriously about it. In our experience, the decision usually rests upon a compelling event – the risk of losing company information, the need to work more flexibly, the opening of a new office, perhaps inhouse servers are coming to the end of their life and a decision needs to be made on whether or not to replace them or “go hosted”.

Whatever the reason, we advise businesses on the options available – for us it’s a question of recommending the right options, whether it’s inhouse, cloud, or a hybrid, rather than trying to force them down a route which may not be suitable.  So a couple of meetings, at no cost or obligation, is we feel, the right approach to get to know the business.  There is a feeling that cloud IT providers are “virtual companies”, sometimes faceless, transactional, and difficult to get hold of. However, by combining all the benefits of cloud (or non-cloud) solutions with good old fashioned people to people relationships, we want to develop long term trusted partnerships with our customers, and be a company they can turn to for ongoing advice and support, no matter what the context is and no matter if it falls outside the scope of the services contracted.

Well according to an article I read recently it is. The article in question was about the hotel industry and was demonstrating that increased capacity through lower rates was actually earning less income than lower capacity at higher rates; i.e. keep rates the same of even raise them a bit!

 When the economy is weak, this seems counter productive, and it does depend on the industry in question. For example, brands like BMW or Mercedes add free goodies to the list price of some of their vehicles, a perk they can remove very easily, whereas if they lowered the price of their cars, it would erode their brand value and also destroy the second hand market for their cars. 

It’s a bit more difficult for Retailers of FMCG’s such as Tesco or even the local grocers; there, you do see price wars between the big players such as Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys, but eventually this can only go so far unless they start giving stuff away for free; two for one offers are good, but ultimately it’s about customer service and quality.