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Last month, at the Annual OBCAI (now Global Workspace Association) Conference in Las Vegas, I had the pleasure of leading a panel discussion on Cloud Computing. Joining me were Donny Lamey from SkySuite, Josh Waldo from Microsoft and Doug Marinaro from LiquidSpace. I opened the discussion with this request, “Please give your definition of Cloud Computing”. The three panelists shared their perspective by talking about software as a service (SaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS). I then shared my definition by trying to put it more in context with our industry. “Cloud computing represents the very essence of what we do. We bring together both the physical assets (such as phone systems and office furniture) and professional services (receptionist and administrative support) such that our customers benefit from the economies of scale that they would otherwise not have on their own.” So as a center owner, your next question should be “How do I leverage this burgeoning technology standard and sell it to my customer?” The answer is simple. Do what you already know best. Create or partner with a capable provider of these services and bundle it in with all your current offerings. Here’s an example: Let’s say you have three different virtual office packages that range in monthly fees from $159 to $399. Your current plans may include a mix of office hours, phone answering, conference room time and business identity services. Well by modifying your plans only slightly, you can build in a cloud package that includes among other things:
If you’re thinking, well that sounds easy but my center is hardly equipped or sufficiently skilled to build a custom cloud offering so we’ll just have to stay with what we’ve always done. That should not be the case. The market of cloud providers has exploded over the past year and with the proper research you can find the right partner. As a center owner myself, when I search out partner solutions I ask the following questions; Do they know my business? If you have a hard time getting these answers from your partner, look elsewhere. Lastly, consider what we think is one of the greatest benefits of offering cloud desktop services for your clients and that is retention. With the average deal terms trending down in our industry, we have found that by offering services that are portable to the client, they are very likely to keep those services even after they might leave your physical space. A recent white paper from Hewlett Packard referenced how cloud computing services are going to be the next big “utility”, much like mobile phone service today. The likelihood of a client changing cloud providers simply because they’ve moved their physical location is low given that the entire premise of cloud computing is that IT resources and applications reside elsewhere. If an average business center can add 20% of its clients on a cloud package each year and they have 100 fulltime offices and 100 virtual office clients, those 40 clients on a cloud service could bring in as much as $2500-$3000 per month WITH NO EXPENSE. That’s $30K to $40K a year straight to the bottom line. If you’d like to learn more about how cloud computing services and how SkySuite can become your next service offering, Give us a call at 1-877-61-MYSKY (6-9769) or visit our website at www.skysuite.com and learn how to mine that silver lining in the cloud!! Andy Stack – is co-founder and president of SkySuite, a Microsoft Gold Partner and cloud services company headquartered in Jacksonville, FL. Andy also owns My Executive Center, a 13,000SF business center in Jacksonville. 1-877-616-9769. astack@skysuite.com 
For the downloadable PDF version of THIS issue, To receive your FREE copy shipped quarterly, email info@revvedresults.com with "Subscribe" in the (For those residing outside of North America, there is a minimal annual subscription fee to cover shipping costs.) Executive Suite Success Archive: Volume I, Issue 1 (Feb 2010)
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