How to run a business entirely on cloud software
Someone I went to college with posted a request on social media. They were asking for recommendations for an IT services company to come in and troubleshoot their IT network and devices. They were having all kinds of problems with software updates, viruses, server capacity and more. They are a relatively young SME specialist consulting firm.
How is it that in 2018 a small company can still be dealing with the hassle of running this? It’s such a shame that the CEO’s time is being spent on this and that their team’s being hindered by old approaches to workplace technology.
I had a quick google for advice on setting up a small business to see what’s out there. It’s a bit disappointing. Most of the articles and advice for people setting up a new business still talk about installing desktops and servers. An excellent way to provide a crap experience for staff and install an ongoing problem for you to deal with.
What should you do instead?
I’ve worked in government, a software startup and a design agency. Here’s how I would set up a small business to run using software as a service (SaaS). The great thing about this approach is you can be up and running in a day. All you need is a device and access to a secure wifi network.
Devices
Give your staff an allowance that’s relevant to the work they will be doing. For someone using normal productivity tools you can get a laptop and second screen for £1500 that will cover most scenarios. For developers, designers and anyone else with specific needs £3000 and they can buy what works for them. The best places I’ve worked pay you the allowance to go get the kit, after 18 months service it’s yours to keep. In another 18 months you get the allowance again to update the device. People can choose what works for them, manage their own device and (perhaps most importantly) feel trusted.
Collaboration
I can’t imagine how you can run an organisation (with more than 10 people) without Slack. As you get past having ten people there are too many lines of communication to manage effectively. Slack is a superb way to connect teams and clients. I’ve seen it used well in government, in product teams and sales organisations. At it’s simplest it’s a messaging platform for group and one-to-one conversation. It also offers a wide range of integrations with other services.
There’s a free tier to get you started and then per-user licensing. There are alternatives, but I’ve not seen one that offers anything like the user experience of Slack.
Productivity tools (office software)
The core set of tools for a lot of businesses. This has traditionally been the domain of Microsoft with applications like word, excel and exchange. Microsoft do offer their productivity suite as SaaS (Office 365) and it’s very good. However, it’s not quite caught up to G-Suite from Google which offers the most intuitive and user friendly set of tools from about £3 per user per month. This is going to take care of email, calendars, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, video conferencing and file storage. It will work across devices.
Time tracking, team scheduling and expenses
A pair of applications from the same company. You can have one or both. They are particularly powerful when used together. Harvest covers time sheets and expenses, helping you track against project budgets. Forecast lets you take a forward view of how your teams are aligned to different projects. Not necessarily something every business will need, but very helpful if you run a consultancy model or need to track hours against projects.
Like most of the products I’ve mentioned, there are lots of integrations available for accounting and productivity tools. A real feature of these types of application are that you can move your data around.
If that’s a bit more than you’re looking for and you just need something for managing expenses, then take a look at Expensify. I used this application a lot while travelling around Europe and the USA for work. I can confirm their product strapline — it’s a great way to do “expense reports that don’t suck”. Excellent mobile application, so you can quickly upload receipts at the point of purchase. Integrations with Quickbooks and other accounting platforms to connect up with your payroll processes too. Everyone is a winner.
After having been punched in the face repeatedly by years of using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) products, from the likes of Oracle and SAP, it was a pleasure to use something designed for the user and not the needs of the bureaucracy.
HR Software (that people will like using)
My experience with HR software has been the same as with expense and time recording. This is because they’re usually bundled into the same awful product, designed solely for the needs of business administration. The good news is you can have this and an experience that users will enjoy by signing up to Charlie HR. A British success story and great user experience.
See what’s happening across the company — who’s on leave, who’s off sick, who’s got a work anniversary or a birthday. You’ll probably have noticed a theme in the applications I’m recommending, they all do a specific task very very well.
Managing a sales pipeline and relationships with customers
Most enterprise sales and customer relationship management (CRM) platforms are bloated and packed with features you will never use. Salesforce is the industry leader by size, but it’s not a product I’ve ever enjoyed using. It’s become a platform or ecosystem, that has eaten many other start-ups over the years.
I prefer simplicity and Pipedrive does this well. It keeps track of all of your existing and potential new clients and let’s you track opportunities through a sales process. You can integrate with your email and get a lot of great reporting through the product dashboards. There are a bunch of features (that I track in other productivity tools) for setting and managing goals and actions. There’s a great mobile app and integrations with things like Slack… so you can share updates with your teams automatically.
If you need something with a few more bells and whistles, take a look at Zoho before you jump into Salesforce.
Managing projects
If you’ve already got G-Suite or Office 365 you might have everything you need for managing your work. I’ve not had the best experiences managing projects through spreadsheets. There are a couple of different things I would recommend trying.
I love Basecamp for its simplicity and the lovely thinking of the company founder. It’s a product that helps you organise teams (yours and your clients) around projects. Share to do lists, documents, messages, status updates etc.. It promotes a wonderfully straightforward approach to getting shit done.
It’s not a product I use at the moment. A lot of my work is done with teams who work on design-led projects, that follow an agile philosophy. We find that using Trello and the card based structure is a good way to teach some of the rhythms and rituals around agile project management. There is a free tier, which means it’s become a staple of how I organise my life.
A lot of these products appear to do similar things
There is definitely some crossover between these different platforms. Inevitably, in a competitive market for business productivity tools, you’re going to see features creep in to try and take market share from others. This is an inherently good thing. The competitiveness of these SaaS companies means you will continue to see innovation and a focus on meeting your needs. Something the big old ERP providers will struggle to match.
In starting to use these products, think about what’s essential to running your business first. You might be able to manage everything within G-Suite, or Office 365’s “teams” feature might take away the need for things like Slack and Trello. A lot of these products are free to try, so you can experiment.
Avoid vendor lock in
You won’t be locked into long contracts and can switch these services off as easily as you switch them on. Their business model is to become “sticky” by providing value. They will naturally want to expand into your organisation and make it harder for you to contemplate life without them. Keep some natural scepticism and have a plan for how you would migrate to another service if the need arose. The benefits to SME’s (and larger organisations too) are enormous. My advice to the friend who asked about their IT troubles is a link to this post 😃.
