Written by: Daniel Haurey on 05/24/13

Cloud computing is taking off and practice managers are embracing cloud computing for its many benefits, including:

  • Eliminating investment in servers and endless hardware refresh cycles
  • Attaining a flat, predictable monthly payment for IT
  • Eliminating regular IT maintenance tasks
  • Gaining the ability to scale IT with the practice, without buying more servers
  • Enjoying high availability of their IT solutions
  • Accessing Enterprise-Class IT equipment they otherwise could never afford

Two very simple axioms apply:

[PICK A LOCAL CLOUD PROVIDER]

A local cloud services provider takes the time to understand your practice, create a customized cloud solution and help you change it as your practice evolves and grows. They’re a single point of contact for support no matter what application you’re having a problem with. So, instead of trying to determine who to call this time, then getting in a phone queue to talk to someone you’ve never met, you call the one local company you know has already fully documented your environment and will take complete ownership of the problem so your staff can focus on their jobs.

Also, a big, multinational IT provider isn’t going to feel much of an impact if you take your practice elsewhere. On the other hand, your business helps a local IT services provider pay their mortgage. Because you’re paying a flat monthly rate, the most important as well as cost-effective thing they can do for their business is to keep your IT running smoothly.

[UNDERSTAND THE CLOUD COST/BENEFIT FORMULA]

When comparing costs of on-premise versus cloud, it’s important to avoid performing a strict hard cost analysis. One of the major benefits of a Cloud solution is better uptime than on-premise IT environments typically deliver.  Ask yourself: “How much does downtime cost my practice?”

Here’s one formula: I have (X) employees that make an average of (X) per hour. If they are down and can’t work for (X) hours, what does that translate to?

Downtime costs often go beyond just productivity, though. It often halts production, causing delays and restart costs, and it harms your reputation and patient confidence in your practice.  How much is that worth? A recent survey by CA found on average, {practices} suffer 14 hours of IT downtime per year. Half of those surveyed said IT outages damage their reputation and 18% described the impact on their reputation as “very damaging.”

IT has become critically important to viability of medical offices, but is not their core competency. It makes sense to place IT into capable hands in an ideal environment, but not with just any provider. Healthcare practices need a boutique provider who prioritizes their needs, creating a turnkey, managed cloud solution that combines the best of Cloud with the benefits of a local, trusted provider.