Optimus Systems is walking in the clouds
16 AUGUST 11
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At Optimus Systems we believe in walking the walk, not just talking the talk, which means that we test and use the systems that we promote to our clients.  Over the past couple of years we have moved most of our business into the cloud.  This gives us much greater accessibility allowing us to run our business wherever we are - be it in the office, on the go, or even in Tonga!
 
We thought we'd share with you the ways in which we utilise the cloud and show how it has made our business so much more efficient.
  • We use myoutlook for our email system.  This has probably been the key cloud service that without a doubt has made our business much more efficient.  As we are often out and about, onsite with our clients it has been absolutely invaluable for us to have access to our email anywhere, at anytime.  We are able to respond to customer requests and queries in a much more timely fashion, and without regular trips back to the office we have more time that we can dedicate to customer support. myoutlook gives us the ability to have full access to email on our phone, on our laptop, or from any web enabled computer through the Outlook Web App.
  • We use myspam for our spam filtering service.  With time always being hard to find in our busy lives, cutting out those precious minutes every morning that was spent deleting spam from our inboxes has been an absolute saviour.  It has increased our productivity, but also makes staff feel safer and more comfortable that they only have to deal with legitimate email
  • We use Xero for our accounting package. About a year ago we migrated our accounts system across to a cloud service called Xero.  Xero is a New Zealand company that is making leaps and bounds in the accounts industry.  Having our accounts system in the cloud is incredibly beneficial as it allows us access to our critical business information anywhere, at anytime, and it also enables our accountants to log in directly, so there's no more sending data files.  Another great benefit is that all of the backups and upgrades are handled by Xero.  Whenever there are changes (e.g. changing GST to 15%) Xero takes care of it and ensures that the software is upgraded and customers experience no delay.  They are focussed on continual development and relish the opportunity for customer feedback, often integrating popular requests into their regular upgrades.
  • We use Flexitime for our payroll.  Again this is a great cloud payroll package that allows us easy access anywhere, at anytime.  It's simple to use and it also integrates with Xero, so there's no double handling!
  • We use Autotask for our IT Helpdesk and CRM package. This is a new application that we have recently rolled-out and already it is paying huge dividends in improving our productivity.  We are able to access customer information as well as job requests from wherever we are - either on our laptops, on our iPhones, or even our tablet or iPad.  We can now be so much more efficient with information readily at our fingertips.
  • We utilise a custom built system for remote monitoring & management. This allows us to manage IT systems much more effectively.  It requires a server hosted on the Internet so we can access our customers machines wherever they are and whenever they require. This means we are now able to look after computers all over New Zealand and help is available immediately.
Overall, the move to the cloud has allowed our business to operate more effectively and most importantly, more productively.  We believe that use of these services has allowed us to provide a much more superior service for our clients and has also created much greater efficiencies in terms of our business operations.  For us, the ability to have access to information in real-time, from wherever we are has been truly invaluable.

In a world where we are constantly striving to do more with less, we believe that cloud based services are most certainly a key component to achieving this.

If you have are looking into utilising cloud services and would like to talk to us about any of the cloud services that we provide, or that we use, feel free to contact us and have a chat about your requirements.