Author Archives: CLASPdev

Software-as-a-Service or SaaS for public sector can help keep public services available and keep the business of government moving forward, even during times of disruption and partial shutdowns.

According to a recent Gartner Research article, governments at all stages are still lagging behind public sector in cloud adoption.

“Although government CIOs who have safely migrated encountered challenges — such as a lack of an enterprise cloud strategy, internal skills or access to an external talent pool — they succeeded nonetheless,” said, Neville Cannon, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner.

Here are Gartner’s five steps to going cloud in the public sector with SaaS for Public Sector:

• Create a policy, strategy and adoption plan
• Establish a cloud center of excellence
• Build essential skills
• Expand SaaS use
• Increase the adoption of cloud policy across the enterprise

With SaaS for public sector, employees are able to access important software remotely, so they are able to work from home or anywhere with an internet connection. With the ability to access analytic software like enterprise resources planning with real-time data and dashboards, government leaders can make forward looking decisions and inform policy based on actionable insights.

SaaS is scalable to adapt and meet the changing needs of governments of all sizes. The ideal SaaS for government will be highly customizable, allowing agencies to tailor the solution to fit their needs. Users can also be given permissions to configure the system to fit their specific work needs.

Desktop as a Service

With desktop-as-a-service or DaaS, organizations and agencies can enable an integrated software experience, giving decision makers access to a huge variety of cloud-based software and services so they can react quickly and decisively. Learn how DaaS is critical to enabling telework.

Hosted Desktop Services or Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) is a method of desktop virtualization in which the user business leverages the service providers remote servers to host the remote desktop solution and other applications. The user business pays for the hosted desktop services on a subscription basis.

What are the Benefits of Hosted Desktop Services?

There many benefits to leveraging remote desktop hosting. In this post, we are looking at some of the key benefits and they are broken up into three main categories:

• Productivity
• Visibility
• Flexibility

DaaS for Productivity

Hosted desktop services gives business leaders remote access to management portals with scheduling and other efficiency tools to streamline tasks and reduce downtime. DaaS also increases processing power for faster loads and smoother experience when running multiple applications at once. This makes it possible to run all the critical aspects of your business from anywhere.

DaaS enables managers to create a more productive workplace by connecting their teams across departments for a more coordinated effort in achieving goals.

Because network infrastructure is outsourced to the provider, DaaS relieves the burden on a business’s internal IT team, allowing them to get more done.

With device-agnostic access to your critical systems from home, Desktop-as-a-Service helps your team do their jobs at peak efficiency even from the home office. DaaS also enables dynamic resource assignment so your team will have access to all their critical files and applications in one spot.

DaaS for Visibility

These days, if you’re managing a business, that probably means you’re dealing with a lot of moving parts all the time. From leading a team of remote employees to resolving supply chain interruptions, the more moving parts a company has, the more important it is that managers have a complete picture of the company’s status.

A key advantage for administrators using desktop hosting services is the improved visibility it can deliver to managers and decision-makers. Verified managers with the proper credentials can be granted access to their management portal giving them increased visibility across the business. Managers can remotely provision new accounts, add or remove apps, manage passwords, create accounts, and make decisions based on real-time data.

DaaS for Flexibility

Hosted desktop services can deliver access to a wide array of customization options, allowing business user to deploy a tailored setup to meet their specific needs.

With convenient subscription licensing it’s easy to scale the system, adding or removing users without losing money on on-premise licenses when an employee leaves the company. As we said before, DaaS increases a business’s ability to deliver device agnostic solutions to employees. This combined with the ability to quickly grant employee access to applications and files allows administrators to help users create a virtual workspace that best meets their individual needs.

In addition to letting users decide how they work, virtual desktops also enable work from home or anywhere there is an internet connections. No matter where you have to be, your business is only a click away.

While new businesses are starting as cloud natives these days, there are still many businesses who have not made the transition from on-premise to cloud ERP. According to 2019 survey results published at CIO.com, almost two-thirds of businesses are planning to, or in the process of going cloud with ERP.

Moving from on premise to cloud ERP comes with a lot of benefits like allowing companies to leverage the provider’s computing resources without the need to purchase and maintain on-premise servers and equipment.

The top 3 reasons business make the switch from on-premise to cloud are:

• Increased scalability 65 %
• Lower cost of ownership 61%
• Maintenance included by the provider 49%

3 Key considerations when transitioning from on-premise to cloud ERP include:

Licensing Model – With the subscription model common to cloud, businesses usually pay a monthly fee rather than purchasing licenses up front. This enables businesses to easily ad and remove users as needed, without having to pay for licenses. Upgrades are also simplified on this model as the software is often maintained by the provider and all users are upgraded to the newest version at once without having to purchase new licenses.

Customization – Businesses that choose to use a one-size-fits-all cloud ERP solution out of the box will have substantially less ability to customize the system than those who use a private hosting provider. Customization abilities will vary from one brand of ERP to another and from one hoster to another.

ISV Solutions – When going cloud, many legacy ERP users will also have add-on integrations of apps that might not work with a new system. With the right hosting provider, adding on industry specific integrations should be simple, and the right ERP solution will be supported by a multitude of ISV solutions. Again, this can vary greatly depending on the ERP solution you choose.

With private hosting services, you can also make the witch from on-premise to cloud ERP while maintaining control of your critical data, and ad or remove integrations as needed.

Learn about how you can go cloud today with tailored hosting services for Sage and Microsoft Dynamics ERP

IT teams in businesses large and small have had to react quickly in recent months to enable a remote workspace. Here is why DaaS should be at the top of their list of new technology.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) enables business to access and use an operating system and applications over a network, just as they would if the software is running locally on their laptop or other device. VDI enables a seamless experience across devices and makes that experience available from anywhere with internet connectivity.

Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) is a type of VDI that is hosted by a cloud service provider so there is minimal upfront investment for the end-user, as the user pays on a subscription basis while the provider maintains and monitors the server.

For startups and established businesses looking to go cloud or upgrade systems, DaaS provides an extremely agile and scalable option to deliver IT solutions to the entire company, with low cost of entry and fast return on investment. Business who implement DaaS solutions are paving the way to a long term work from home strategy.

Why DaaS is Critical to a Long-Term Remote Workspace Strategy

In the last few months we have seen the workspace move from office suites to the home office as businesses have reacted to the COVID-19 crisis. About 66% of workers are now working from home at least part-time according to a recent survey.

IT departments are still scrambling to provide the solutions necessary to make this transition happen, and DaaS is one of the fastest and least expensive ways to enable a seamless remote workspace.

Key benefits of DaaS for the Remote Workspace include:

Increased Mobility – With seamless IT experience across machines DaaS is built to be mobile

BYOD – Since DaaS can be used from almost any device, employees can sign-on from their own laptop. This enables businesses with stretched budgets to hold off on investing in hardware to provision their employees’ home offices. Though these business will eventually want to supply their employees with hardware to ensure local security.

Improved Productivity – According to Forbes, increased employee mobility can improve productivity by as much as 23% – and other processes by as much as 30%

Simplified Integrations – Most applications virtualize easily and integrate seamlessly into the VDI, but even demanding applications (such as security or printer applications) are much easier to access and use after a successful integration.

IT Efficiency – With DaaS, your operating system is being maintained by your provider freeing up time and money in your IT department. This unburdens your IT team so they are able to focus on other critical issues during a crisis, like ensuring your customer service resources are working at peak efficiency.

Need help turbo charging your remote workspace? CyberlinkASP can help. Learn more

Automation has reached the tipping point across industries and more manual tasks seem to be automated every day. As happens with most innovations in business operations, automation solutions that once offered a competitive advantage are rapidly becoming competitive requirements.

For some small businesses, manual processes are fine to get by day-to-day, but as a business grows, manual tasks become more time consuming. Moreover, human error becomes more prevalent and more costly.

Such errors can prove especially costly in accounting and inventory management. In addition to reducing manual tasks like data entry, automation solutions can improve data reliability. Plus, real-time tracking enables managers to react quickly to changes like market fluctuations and supply chain interruptions.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software enables automation or partial automation of the following tasks:

• Period Closings
• Financial Statement Creation
• Reporting and Planning
• Inventory Tracking
• Sales order creation and allocation
• Invoicing
• Inventory Replenishment
• Receivables

In addition to being one of your key automation solutions, ERP also delivers reliable, real-time data insights for better decision making. With role-based user sign-on and traceability, ERP can help safeguard your business against fraud, errors and other audit risks.

It’s also important to note that other automation solutions designed for specific industries can often be integrated with top ERP solutions like Microsoft Dynamics and Sage.

With private hosting services, you can also go cloud with ERP while maintaining control of your critical data, and ad or remove integrations as needed.

Other important automation solutions include Desktopas-a-Service, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Payables Automation apps and social marketing tools.

With the rise of fintech and other financial startups, the competitive landscape of the financial services industry has seen a lot of change in recent years. Whether you help run a small credit union or own an investment startup, managing and maintaining your applications, hardware and files internally is an expensive and time-consuming task. Fortunately, you can reduce this strain with private hosting services for financial industry companies.

Here are 4 key benefits of going cloud with a private hosting services provider:

1. Go Cloud and Stay in Control of Your Data
Unlike many of the large public cloud offerings, a private hosting services provider gives you the productivity, agility and accessibility of the cloud and lets you stay in control over your data and applications as you need.

2. Enable Remote Work
Whether working from home during shelter-in-place orders or planning for the future and running the business on-the-go, private hosting for Remote Desktop, accounting software and other apps enables you to access your critical data and applications from anywhere and on any device.

3. Merging Disparate IT Systems During the M&A Process
If you are running a business in the financial industry, you know that mergers and acquisitions can be stressful enough as it is. The last thing you need to worry about is keeping your IT systems running smoothly while merging data from disparate systems. Using hosting services for your IT systems can streamline the integration process to ensure a smooth IT merger so you can focus on your business.

4. System Maintenance
A managed service provider (MSP) will manage your hardware so you never have to worry about setting up or maintaining your servers. With desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) you will never have to update your operating systems or applications again.

Is your financial industry company a niche business? CyberlinkASP can tailor our private hosting services for Desktop, ERP and other apps to meet the needs of financial services companies of all sizes.

We have all adjusted to working from home in the last couple of months with about 44% of all workers currently working from home full-time, according to a survey from Clutch research. This represents a 17% increase since the COVID-19 pandemic. Another 22% are working from home part-time. While these numbers aren’t exactly surprising it’s helpful to see them.

Now, let’s take a look at how working from home is effecting workers…

Eliminating Commuting is Workers’ Favorite Part of Working from Home

While the pandemic will likely have long-term impacts on the job market and economy, with many facing furloughs and layoffs, there are silver linings for those who are able to work from home.

About 47% of employees surveyed said that not having to commute is a benefit of working remotely and 43% said they are enjoying a more flexible schedule.

Collaboration Challenges were the Least Favorite Part of Working from Home

About 33% of survey respondents said that it is more difficult to collaborate with coworkers when teleworking.

While collaboration platforms allow screen shares, voice, chat and other key features to enable remote collaboration, workers have found that nothing replaces the ability to visit a coworker’s desk and ask questions or relay information directly.

Top Collaboration Tools Used while Working from Home

• Zoom – 36%
• Microsoft Teams – 19%
• Skype – 17%

Staying Productive while Working from Home

While the technical side of remote working is more possible than ever, those of us who are accustomed to the routine of going into an office everyday might be in a slight state of shock. With that in mind we recently wrote a blog post with tips to keep your sanity and stay productive while working from home. Here are the top five tips:

Give yourself at least an hour between waking up and logging on

1. Stick to your ordinary morning routine
2. Create a break schedule for yourself
3. Compartmentalize your workstation from your home
4. Invest in your usual office supplies

Dive into these and more in this blog post: 7 Tips for Keeping your Sanity and Staying on Task While Teleworking

Create A Work From Home Policy For The Future

While some may be working onsite part-time and soon many will be returning to work full-time, others may be working from home permanently as businesses have realized many benefits of a remote workforce. Some businesses simply want to be prepared with a work from home policy in the event of future disasters or force majeure events. In any case, now is the time to establish a sustainable work from home policy for the future. Learn about some tips you can use to start creating your Work From Home Policy For The Future

If you have existing assets you want to move to the cloud or need go cloud with new apps, CyberlinkASP can help. Find out more about our hosting services for remote desktop, Microsoft Dynamics ERP, Sage and other applications.
Contact us

As the digital world continues to evolve, the way people do business has evolved in response. Adopting a digital transformation strategy is more important than ever and there are any number of solutions and services to help businesses keep pace with this evolution. But these three are critical to keeping up with the modern world:

• Virtual Desktop Integration (VDI)
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

VDI allows all of that hardware to be stored in an off-site datacenter. Instead of having to host your own servers, VDI allows you to access all of your important data and files from the cloud. In a time when better mobility means better productivity, VDIs give users unprecedented freedom of mobility to work remotely.

ERP today is more than just accounting software. Modern ERP solutions are cloud-ready and enable businesses to manage people, finances, supply chains and more. In a time of increased regulations, frequent supply chain interruption and strained resources, management of these things has to become tighter than ever. ERP can help automate and manage your most critical processes.

CRM can now help you engage your customers on every level, whether its social media, drip campaigns or pay-per-click advertisements. In a time when brand engagement and customer experience are rated among the major determining factors in whether or not a business is successful, a modern CRM solution is critical. Now lets take a look at the benefits of each.

VDI Benefits
• Reduce Hardware Costs
• Boost Productivity
• Enhance Employee Mobility
• Increase Flexibility & Customization

ERP Benefits
• Automate Processes
• Improve Forecasting and Inventory Management
• Boost Reporting Capabilities
• Streamline Front-Office & Back-Office Functionality

CRM Benefits
• Boost Sales
• Increase Opportunities
• Improve Customer Experience
• Streamline Front-Office & Back-Office Functionality

CyberlinkASP provides hosting services for Desktop, ERP and other apps. We can help you build a winning strategy for Digital Transformation. Find out how today.

Businesses in every industry are facing unique challenges. If you have been considering private hositng services like Desktop-as-a-Service, now is the time to go cloud. If you own or manage a pharmaceutical company, this might be doubly true.

Pharmaceutical companies are facing a growing mountain of complicated rules and regulations. Today, pharmaceutical and biotech companies require advanced IT solutions that allow them to efficiently collect, store, and share important clinical data.

Whether you’re a new startup or in active production, you need to keep your front office processes and other data processes working, whether from home or in the physical office.
In addition to enabling remote work, private hosting for DaaS and other software delivers the following benefits…

1. Optimize network resources
2. Eliminate redundancies
3. Easily adapt to changes and integrate new systems
4. Increase efficiency

Choosing to move your business management systems to the cloud using a private hosting provider rather than a larger public cloud provider allows you to go cloud quickly and maintain control of your IT assets. What’s more, as with any cloud offering, you stand to cut costs, streamline processes and boost performance.

Ask us about hosting solutions for your company today…Contact us

Even as tensions around pandemics ease and workforces prepare to move back on site, the future of work from home practices has changed. While some may only be returning to part-time onsite work, others may be permanently becoming remote employees as businesses have realized many benefits of a remote workforce. Some businesses simply want to be prepared with a work from home policy established in the event of future disasters or force majeure events. In any case, now is the time to establish a sustainable work from home policy for the future.

In a recent article, Gartner Research discussed some of the ways business can create a flexible work from home policy with long-term benefits that out-value any perceived disadvantages.

Here are 5 takeaways to include while creating your work from home policy:

• A plan for addressing barriers and fears – many still fear working from home will negatively impact employee performance
• How you plan to maximize the benefits of work from home – eliminated stress and time of commute, reduced overhead, increased size of hiring pool
• Prepare employees for work from home – clarify what requirement to which they will have to adhere
• Identify suitable equipment and resources needed to enable employee home offices
• Provide adequate communication and collaboration technology – keep teams on track and on task

An effective work from home policy should be flexible and responsive to meet unforeseen future needs. It should also be designed with the goal of delivering value to the business, not just a band aid measure to survive a current crisis.

If you have existing assets you want to move to the cloud or need go cloud with new apps, CyberlinkASP can help. Find out more about our hosting services for remote desktop, Microsoft Dynamics ERP, Sage and other applications. Contact us

Until recently, the life of a small business owner involved a lot of time on-the-go, whether sprinting across town for meetings, networking at conventions or travelling to scout new markets.

Since shelter in place orders were issued in reaction to the current health crisis, SMB owners have to get the same amount of work accomplished while spending as little time possible on-the-go.

With no solid date of when workers will start returning to offices, many owners have had to go cloud and develop a successful work-from-home strategies practically overnight.

While SMBs face new challenges there is fortunately technology available to help manage your business and employees from home, but in times of strain, implementing brand new systems like Cloud ERP solutions can be an additional strain that some businesses can’t handle.

If you need to go cloud fast but investing in all new solutions isn’t an option, a private hosting provider for Remote Desktop, Accounting and other apps can help you reduce downtime.

A private hosting provider can help you:

• Go cloud fast with many of your current software solutions
• Integrate Apps
• Tailor a cloud environment to meet your needs now and after the crisis
• Maintain control over your data
• Connect your employees to the files, data and apps they need to keep the business running
• Pull up your email, manage your calendar, schedule staff meetings
• Make informed strategy decisions with real-time data insights from home

You don’t have to implement new technology to go cloud today. Contact CyberlinkASP today to discuss your options.

With recent stay-home orders, teleworking has become the new normal for most offices in the United States. While there is no real upside to the current health crisis, the silver lining is that it comes during a time when cloud computing has reached full maturity. With cloud, telework is now exceedingly achievable.

While the technical side of remote working is more possible than ever, those of us who are accustomed to the routine of going into an office everyday might be in a slight state of shock. For some people, their work performance might suffer as it can be difficult to focus in the new telework environment. With that I mind, here are…

7 Tips for Keeping your Sanity and Staying on Task while Teleworking

1. Give yourself at least an hour between waking up and logging on
Traffic is horrible, but let’s face it, that daily drive has been the perfect space between the pillow and the desk to think about the day to come. Give yourself this time, preferably alone, as you mentally shift from home life to work life.

2. Stick to your ordinary morning routine
This is a big part of the previous tip. It’s important to do your best to keep your normal routine in trying times. Typical things include coffee, breakfast and preparing children for their day. If you have a favorite radio show you normally listen to on your commute, don’t let the lack of commute keep you from tuning in. If you had a workout routine before work, stick to it.

3. Create a break schedule for yourself
It’s easy to get chair-lock in your home office. Or take breaks haphazardly when mood strikes. It’s better for you to set a schedule that allows you to unplug on two 10-minute breaks and at least a thirty-minute lunch. This schedule will not only give you something to look forward too, it will help you stay on task by keeping your mind on completing work between breaks.

4. Compartmentalize your workstation from your home
This one might not be possible for everyone, but do your best, even if that means hanging a sheet as a divider in a loft or studio apartment. Keeping your work life separate from your home life will help stave off the sense that the hours and days are just running together in one long stream. This separation is critical to making it possible to unwind in your home when the workday is over.

5. Invest in your usual office supplies
Whiteboards, good monitors, comfy chairs and even your favorite office snacks are not only critical to your work performance, investing in these for your home office is critical to establishing a sense of normalcy in your workday. Other items include ergonomic keyboard and a drawer full of post-its, pens, paper clips etc.

6. Exercise
Even if you didn’t exercise before the stay home order, you might be underestimating how much you had been getting up and moving. This includes walking to and from your vehicle, walking to the kitchen on the other side of the suite for coffee and water, taking the stairs and even walking from one cubicle or office to another. Even if you weren’t a health-nut before now, don’t let your physical activity drop to zero. A quick online search will produce some simple exercises you can do at home that are easy for anyone. Even if all you’re doing is breathing exercises and lite stretching for 20 minutes this is very important.

7. Stay Social
This one is easier said than done, but maybe now is the time to ramp up your social media presence like you’ve been meaning to do. More so, we’ve all quickly adapted to using remote collaboration platforms. Organize virtual happy hours, and stay in touch with co-workers, even the ones you don’t typically work with directly but may have seen passing in the halls.

We hope these tips help you stay happy, healthy and productive while teleworking through quarantine.
If you are in need of a cloud hosting solutions to enable telework for your office contact us today.