The Sleeter Group says that many or most small companies and business pros are chronically habituated to software applications developed to run on Windows, and the thought of pulling the plug on all of that software simultaneously to go with an all-inclusive cloud-based accounting system is frightening.

This is when the concept of “hosting” your existing windows software applications in the cloud becomes not only a doable plan, but rather compelling (to say the least). “By using a hosting solution, we can move to the cloud-based accounting without having to retrain all the staff and switch to new workflows all at the same time,” says accounting industry über thought leader Doug Sleeter, president of The Sleeter Group, who advises firms throughout North America.

See also: ‘Chunkified’ Cloud Accounting and the Future of Your Practice

The Sleeter Group converted its own desktop software to cloud-based hosting, including Cloud9 Real Time dedicated virtual cloud servers.  “We’re doing this not just cause it’s cool, but because we believe it will reduce costs, improve performance, and enhance our security,” says Sleeter.

In the case of The Sleeter Group, like many conventional financial firms, all of its software and hardware systems were aging, and they were facing the issue of whether to replace or upgrade their servers, or to finally abandon them and make the jump to dedicated virtual cloud servers and a cloud-based accounting system.  According to Sleeter Group:

“While it’s been nice to own equipment and “touch it” every day, it’s really starting to become obvious to me that continuing to invest in on-premise equipment will have diminishing returns. The reasons are many:

 “1. On premise equipment needs babysitting. This is expensive. So the idea that you can “buy it once” doesn’t quite tell the whole story.

 “2. Providing quality “offsite access” to your on-premise equipment is difficult and expensive. When you first look at it, it looks FREE, but like most things, free doesn’t usually mean free. We have several staff members who need to do some or all of their work remotely. When all of our systems are located inside an office, providing our offsite workers FAST internet access to these systems is often impossible. Although we can do it, it sure is expensive!

 “3. Security of on-premise data is very hard to guarantee. In most small businesses there is almost no real security for your data. In a typical office there are many devices with USB connections (easy to quickly insert a thumb drive, copy data and slip out the door), open wireless access to the network (easy to sit just outside the door and jump onto the network), unattended screens when someone goes on break but forgets to lock or log out of the machine, and much more. All of these are serious risks to the security of your important business data.”

While this isn’t exactly new, many or most small businesses are simply not aware of the intrinsic cost and risk involved in using desktop software tethered to local hardware installation.

“We chose Cloud 9 Real Time and we are implementing a “dedicated virtual cloud server”, rather than using one of the many shared server solutions available in the market. This virtual cloud server is hosted in one of the top enterprise-class data centers in the nation,” says Sleeter.

“And the SPEED of the system exceeds the speed we were getting with our local hardware! What a pleasant surprise this has been. You would think it would slow things down to move to anything “cloudy,” but in this case, it actually improved our performance.  Plus all the backups are now handled for us by the vendor, and keeping the hardware up and running is now their responsibility.”

“What about support? The support experience we found with this service is absolutely outstanding. They have been available by telephone, email, and online chat with very short turnaround times and their support people are knowledgeable, courteous, and responsive,” Sleeter adds.

Thanks for the plug, Doug Sleeter and The Sleeter Group!

Read The Sleeter Group full essay –Still Addicted to Desktop Software? Get it Cloud Hosted

Remember us: Cloud9 Real Time was the hands down multiple award winner in 2012 for best QuickBooks, Sage, and other Cloud-hosted server solutions.  Get our demo or take a 7-day test drive and find out what all the hubbub is about!