It’s not easy running a business these days. Political deadlock, economic insecurity, and unstable business conditions can lead any CEO to reach for ulcer medicine. It doesn’t have to be like that. One can take advantage of what the computer and the Internet was supposed to have given us when first we heard of them. That is less hassle, more production, and greater profits.
Perhaps it was hype at first, but not too long ago a game changer was introduced into the field of computing. It was called “Cloud Computing” and it has made business owners and top executives sleep a little better at night.
Basically, the “Cloud” is technology that allows computers to share software. You don’t need to have a particular software on your computer that may be essential to your business right now. Instead you can share that software from cyberspace for as long as you need it. If conditions lead to you no longer needing it, you can ignore it and connect to another software you need.
Why is it a game changer? Well, in these volatile times you don’t have to spend additional money to upgrade your computer network nor do you have to spend money to hire somebody or a staff of some bodies to manage and service software that you may trade out depending on business conditions. You can connect to the cloud and get all the computer support you need by hiring another company to provide it to you. It may be an extra expense at first. But over time you will save money, time, and avoid a lot of headaches.
An example of a company that offers this kind of service is Echopass. Established in 2000, Echopass is headquartered in Pleasanton, California and has become a major provider of cloud-based computing as well as hosting services. It provides all this seamlessly and automatically from data centers in Salt Lake City, Utah; Ashburn, Virginia; and Irvine, California.
The company has won many contact center industry awards for innovation and customer services.
The Echopass software features a modular, layered architecture that includes Echopass developed elements as well as third party elements. This allows for quicker and easier integration of new applications. Echopass includes Echoplace, which has technology partnerships with outside companies. The partners on the Application side include Genesys, which supplies routing, IVR, Outbound and WFM; Verint, which offers call recording QM and analytics; and [24]7, which furnishes speech platforms. Partners on the tools side are IBM and Nuance, which has speech engines. The infrastructure includes Net and SQL services from Microsoft and server systems from HP. Cisco, Acme Packet, Audio Codes, and Gateways are offering network solutions. Carrier Services are coming from AT&T, Level (3), Sprint, Verizon, and XC Communications.
Echopass is contributing agent desktop reporting, chat, email, and fax for Application; provisioning and management utilities and application integration framework for tools; multi-tenant service delivery engine for infrastructure; business continuity services for the network; and automatic failover management system for carrier services.
Companies or “Integrated Solutions Partners” who provide pre-packaged or custom solutions to Echopass clients include 24/7, AT&T, BluIP, Cisco, Nice, IEX, Monet, Pega Systems, PSS, Redsky, and RightNow. EchoPlace consulting partners include Accenture, Computer Science Corp., Hennessy Consulting, IBM, J.D. Power, Maximus, MediCall, and VoiceCurve.
There are all sorts of redundancies built into the system to assure that service is provided under any circumstances 24/7. Moreover, the system is secure and client files are individual and private.
In an article titled What Every CEO Should Know About Cloud Computing published in the November, 2011 edition of the Harvard Business Review it was written:
"In 2010, an IBM survey of more than 1,500 CEOs worldwide revealed a troubling gap: Close to 80% of them believed that their environment would grow much more complex in the coming years, but fewer than half felt their companies were well equipped to deal with this shift. The survey team called it 'the greatest leadership challenge identified in eight years of research.'
“Unfortunately the information technology infrastructure at most companies makes this challenge even more difficult. Their technology environments actually impede their ability to sense change and react quickly. While there is not simple fix for this problem, help is at hand in the form of cloud computing, a new suite of digital tools and approaches."
Instead of trying to upgrade and innovate in-house, it may be more cost effective and time saving to outsource the problem to a cloud computing expert like Echopass.
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