Technology Solutions For Growing Companies

As companies develop and change they constantly face new challenges.  Hosting can resolve some of the technology aspects of those challenges.

This month we consider:

• How hosted software can help companies operating from more than one country.
• How being independent of software providers allows Online50 to host the software you prefer.
• How partnering with a reputable hosting company can ensure your data is safe and your business can recover quickly after a disaster.

As we start to see the first signs of spring here in London, we trust that your business is also showing the first signs of good growth.

All the very best from all on the Online50 team.

In This Issue:

Foreign Companies - Online50 Solution For Global Teams

For companies with a presence outside the UK, financial data can be difficult to manage.

The Challenge

The challenge of either being owned by a foreign parent company or owning a foreign subsidiary are both the same — how can financial information be securely shared and managed?

The following are challenges faced by companies who ended up choosing Online50 as the technology part of the solution.

Foreign Parent Company, UK Subsidiary

A company based in Hong Kong launched a UK subsidiary. The Hong Kong based finance director was required to monitor the progress of the fledgling subsidiary in order to be able to report to the Board on its progress.

UK Parent Company, Foreign Subsidiary

A highly successful UK based training company decided to setup a sales office in Belgium in order to better establish their presence in the EU. The UK based Managing Director needed to retain a very tight control over cash flow in order to retain the ability expand into the US later in the year.

Foreign Office / Offshoring

An accounting practice offered a full finance function to national and multi-national businesses. They setup an office in Mumbai and planned to get the bulk data processing carried out there. Going forward they planned to process all payroll there also.

Online50 - A Solution For Global Companies

Location Irrelevant

Online50 specialises in making software available over the Internet. Anywhere staff can access the Internet, they can have full access to the software they have subscribed to on our systems. Provided there is an Internet connection, it doesn't matter if staff are in Cairo or Cairns, Costa del Sol or Canary Wharf. Location becomes irrelevant.

Globally Shared Sage 50 Datasets

With unrivalled experience in providing Sage 50 over the Internet, Online50 allows finance departments around the globe to share a single dataset, or multiple datasets as appropriate.

Whether they are processing data in bulk or using the captured data to generate high level business intelligence reports, staff anywhere on the globe can access and work with real time data simultaneously.

Local or Global Printing

When information or reports need to be printed, they can either be printed to a nearby printer or with the help of an IT resource to a printer in an office on the other side of the globe.

International Standards of Security

Our ISO 27001 certification alongside secure encryption provide the assurance that your data will be at least as secure in our care as it would be with your internal team — often more so. ISO 27001 is the international standard for Information Security management. All information passed from a user's computer to our servers is encrypted to the same level of security as banks use for online banking.

Host All Business Software For Greater Efficiencies

While Sage 50 is what we are best known for, we can and do host almost any kind of software. For example CRM and finance packages can share data. Sage 50 can automatically export data into reporting packages. Freight management software can export financial data into accounting packages for invoicing. The list is endless.

Working In A Global Team Made Easier

Effective global teams have all sorts of cultural and geographic challenges to overcome. Online50 provides a range of services that can make working within a global team substantially simpler and more secure.

To discuss the needs of your global team, why not give Online50 a call today.

Independent From Software Company - Reason 3 to Partner with Online50

Independant of Software Vendors

One of the cornerstones of Online50 is that we are a service provider, not a software vendor.  We are not focussed on persuading you to choose a particular software package, we are focussed on providing a service that helps you use your software more effectively. 

Industry leading software

Online50 typically hosts industry leading SME software which is why we focus so heavily on Sage and Microsoft.

Having been doing it for over 10 years, we are best known for making Sage 50 available online, in fact many people presume we are owned by Sage.  We are privately owned and not an extension of any of the companies whose software we host including Sage.

Your Choice of Software

Almost any software can be hosted online.  We currently have a range of businesses who have located all their software on our servers.  From CRM to fundraising software and from accounting practice management to freight forwarding software, our servers are used by forward thinking companies all over the world to help them gain a competitive advantage.

What software would your business benefit from having hosted online?

Basic Virtual File Server - Software Focus

A Single Location For Company Files and Folders

How to create a single store for all company files and folders is a challenge that all businesses have to address at different points in their development.  For example:

• When the second person joins a micro company
• When a company starts looking for alternatives to an inhouse server
• When a company expands to a second site or opens an office in another country

Backup - Good Intentions

Everyone knows they should backup their files and folders, but many companies never follow through on the good intentions. 

So many companies purchase an external hard drive or backup tapes - they mean to do the backup but keep forgetting.  They mean to take the backup off site, but they forget to take it or forget to bring it back.

Disaster Recovery

If a disaster struck, companies without proper backups for example could lose their intellectual property, customer records, procedures, supplier details or most importantly their financial data.  Depending on the nature of the disaster they could lose it all.

The H: Drive - A Single Location

The Online50 answer to this problem is the H: Drive.  Each company is allocated an H: Drive which only their users can access.  All company files and folders stored there are available to all Online50 users from that company.  Whichever country or whichever machine the users log in from, they will be able to access the H: Drive and everything in it as normal. 

The H: Drive - A Backup Solution

All customer H: Drives have full backups taken daily with temporary 'snap shots' taken twice each day. 

In addition, we encourage users to take backups from our H: Drive onto their local machine as the belt and braces approach to ensuring company files are always secure.

The H: Drive - A Disaster Recovery Solution

If something terrible happened at one of our customer's offices and all computers were destroyed, Online50 users would be able to carry on working as normal from home or a local library or internet cafe. 

If one of our data centres had a problem, the entire data centre is duplicated in full at the second data centre.  All servers have two or more sets of components so that if anything fails the duplicated component would ensure uninterupted service for users.

So Much More Than Just Software

The Online50 service is so much more than just a provider of software.  Why not consider using the Online50 H: Drive as a robust virtual file server for your business and enjoy all the benefits today.