Cloud technologies are being utilised to optimise global operations for ambitious firms who look to grow internationally whilst still remaining as secure as they would be if they operated from their own office.
Technology is an enabler for North East businesses expanding their borders beyond the region and the UK. Cloud-hosted desktops allow businesses to virtualise their entire office space resulting in no boundaries when it comes to international working.
With virtual desktops, organisations can benefit from geographically redundant data storage, automatic failover to other sites and the ability to scale the environment up or down to support the growth of the organisation. Unlike traditional hosted scenarios, as soon as the need diminishes (seasonality, cyclical, event-based demand, etc.) you can downsize the infrastructure and stop paying for its continued operation.
In terms of globalisation, The Frost & Sullivan report, “The Born Global Business” 2016, found that 71 percent of cloud users have entered new geographic markets in the past five years, compared to only 31 percent of non-cloud users.
Scaling revenue and technology
Following a record-breaking year for the company and growth in global revenues of 17%, recruitment consultants Finlay James expanded its workforce in November 2017 with the opening of an international base in San Francisco.
This was an addition to the four UK-based offices that Finlay James is currently operating from. Despite the expansion on a global scale, the Atlas Cloud platform enabled staff to access their work desktop at any given time, regardless of time zones. The data resides in data centres around the UK with secure access being granted with internet connectivity and two-factor authentication.
Discussing how the Atlas Cloud platform enhances business growth, Sara Gaughan, Chief People Officer from Finlay James said, “We have the ability to grow with complete flexibility. We plan to expand both nationally and internationally to 80 people by September 2018. The Atlas Cloud platform enables us to grow easily as the solution is fully customisable to our changing business requirements.”
Dynamic solutions for dynamic businesses
Atlas Cloud’s client base also includes a UK-based marketing agency which specialises in event marketing roadshows. To support the dynamic nature of their work, the cloud platform enables their staff to securely integrate individual systems of 45 different countries into one platform that can be accessed at any location, on any mobile device.
All staff are able to communicate, collaborate and share files efficiently and securely in real time. According to enterprise social network, Yammer, 38% of employee time is lost duplicating work. With the Atlas Cloud platform, staff only ever have access to one live version of the truth regardless of their location and the device they are accessing it from.
Pete Watson, CEO of Atlas Cloud, says, “We support the global expansion of organisations by providing a fully secure platform that can enable business growth with complete flexibility. We understand that the modern-day workforce needs access to their working environment around the clock, from any location. Cloud technology is empowering workers to pick up their project work on the go, to collaborate in real time, and to improve their productivity, regardless of where they are and their co-workers are located.”
Read the article in the May edition of The North East Times here.
