Breaking down the barriers to new technology

Advances in technology have facilitated a whole host of business developments, increasing efficiency and driving productivity across a variety of industries. But the benefits of such technological improvements are mostly confined to large enterprises who are able to invest in new solutions. Often small businesses face insurmountable barriers to adopting new technology, such as lack of resources, difficulty or reluctance to move away from legacy solutions, and worries about maintaining business continuity.

Future-proofing with the cloud

For service providers and value-added resellers (VARs), the small and medium business (SMB) market can be easy to neglect when faced with obstacles that prevent them from adopting new technology. However, the cloud is providing solutions that can help service providers and VARs to access this market and open up a whole new range of customers. The flexibility and accessibility of cloud solutions break down the obstacles that previously prevented small businesses from adopting new technology. Employees have grown accustomed to using the cloud in everyday life and they now expect to at work, so a move to the cloud is no longer such a daunting prospect.

Resources

Before the advent of the cloud, adopting new technology required not just a financial investment but allocation of other resources including time, trained staff, and physical space. Moving to a new solution meant investing in new hardware and software, along with installation. Deploying new technology often requires a lengthy installation process, along with specially trained staff, ongoing maintenance, and the physical space required to store any hardware such as servers.

Cloud software as a service (SaaS) solutions break down these barriers, allowing service providers and VARs to offer products and services on tailored monthly subscription plans that require no upfront investment from SMBs. Even traditional software companies like Microsoft now offer packages such as their Office product suite as SaaS. Where customers would once have bought a CD to install each new version on their computer, cloud versions can apply updates automatically and are transferable between devices. Cloud solutions require no hardware, meaning no need for specially trained staff, maintenance or storage space. Businesses can also start using the services immediately with no delays created by installation processes.

Legacy solutions

Although small businesses are known for their agility, when it comes to adopting new technology they may be unwilling to move to a different service if they have previously invested heavily in a legacy solution. Service providers and VARs could offer a compromise with a solution that enhances what they already have, without requiring a complete overhaul.

Business continuity

There are often worries about business continuity when considering adopting new technology. Cloud solutions often facilitate a smooth transition, with much shorter implementation periods and open APIs allowing integration with existing systems.

Dubber and the cloud

Dubber call recording and voice AI are great examples of how the cloud can help small businesses adopt new technology. Our services are all available on a monthly subscription, with no upfront investment, hardware, or trained staff required. We connect directly to the network to capture voice data, so businesses do not need to install any equipment on premise or worry about maintenance or storage space. We understand that businesses may not want to part with expensive legacy equipment and so we also work with businesses who want to keep their on-premise solutions, extracting the voice data for transcription and analytics. Our open API allows companies to integrate call data into their existing systems, ensuring business processes continue to run smoothly.