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By Karen Axelton

How are small businesses using cloud computing, and how are they benefiting from it? A study by CDW reported on CIO.com found that more than half of businesses surveyed are moving at least some of their functions to the cloud. What they’re using the cloud for, however, varies by business size. For small and midsized businesses, storage is the primary way they use the cloud, while bigger companies and government agencies use cloud services mostly for collaboration and conferencing.

Of course, these aren’t the only things the cloud is being used for. CDW found that companies are also using the cloud to handle messaging, to access office and productivity suites, and to use business process apps.

No matter what types of functions they move to the cloud, doing so brings many benefits to companies of all sizes, CDW’s survey contends. Greater efficiency was the major benefit, cited by 55 percent of respondents. Close behind were greater employee mobility (49 percent), improved ability to innovate (32 percent) and freeing up the IT staff’s time to focus on more important work (31 percent). However, cloud computing may not save as much money as you expect: Just one-fourth of respondents said that reducing IT costs was a major benefit of cloud computing.

If you’re considering moving some of your business functions to the cloud or using cloud computing to access new applications and services, keep the following advice from CDW in mind:

• Carefully analyze costs and benefits before making the decision.
• Start small, using cloud services for functions that are simple to implement, aren’t business-critical and don’t put your company’s data or processes at risk.
• Ease your employees into using cloud computing by leveraging their familiarity with consumer cloud services that they likely use, such as Spotify or Dropbox.
• Keep track of your ROI to ensure that cloud services are truly saving you money or providing additional benefits that make them worth the cost.
• Always review cloud service providers’ contracts and terms carefully. Make sure the provider’s security precautions are suitable for your needs, and know what type of customer service assistance you can expect in case of a problem.
• Make sure a cloud provider’s offerings can scale up quickly with your company as it grows. This can be one of the major benefits of using cloud services, but you also need to know what costs will be as you add users, applications or services to make sure the solution is still cost-effective.

Image by Flickr user Kevin Dooley (Creative Commons)

By Maria Valdez Haubrich

America’s economy is growing again. Does that mean you can go back to marketing to your target customers the way you did before the Great Recession hit? Not so fast. A sobering new study by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University found that Americans remain deeply scarred and pessimistic about their financial situations and their futures.

• Six out of 10 people in the nationwide survey Diminished Lives and Futures: A Portrait of America in the Great-Recession Era
• say that the U.S. economy has undergone a permanent change.
• More than half say the economy will take at least six more years to fully recover from the Great Recession.
• Nearly one-third (29 percent) say it will never fully recover.
• Just one in five are confident that the next generation of American workers will enjoy better job and career opportunities.

Why so glum? The recession hit home for Americans:

• Nearly three-fourths (73 percent) either lost a job or saw a friend, relative or member of their household lose a job in the last four years.
• More than half (56%) have less money in savings than before the recession began.
• More than one-third (38%) have a lot less in savings.

Although unemployment is down and private-sector job growth has continued for the past 35 months, less than one in three Americans say the economy is better than it was last year; nearly one in four say it’s gotten worse. Only one in three believe that economic conditions will improve a year from now; one in three think the economy will get worse, and the rest think it will stay the same.

“Five years of economic misery have profoundly diminished Americans’ confidence in the economy and their outlook for the next generation,” said study co-author Carl Van Horn. In fact, the vast majority say college will be permanently out of reach financially for the majority of young people.

“While all segments of society have been hit hard by the Great Recession, millions of students coming out of high school and college have had no place in the labor market to go for half a dozen years now,” said study co-author Cliff Zukin. “There is some evidence we may be seeing the beginning of a new generation in American society —no longer Millennials but Recessionals. Whereas older workers hit by the recession might recover their past consumer habits, this period of the recession might leave a lasting imprint on young people in their buying habits and need for security as they make their way through life.”

What do these results mean for your business?

• Reality matters less than perception. Even if the economy is better in actuality, it’s your customers’ perceptions that drive their purchasing behavior. Show them how your products can appeal to their need for savings or security.
• Target young people differently. What is worth spending on for your younger customers? Whether it’s tech gadgets or affordable treats, look for what your Millennial-aged customers consider worth buying and why.
• Be cautious. With consumers’ outlook still so pessimistic, invest in marketing to reach out to them, but don’t overextend yourself financially, either.

Image by Flickr user Tony Fischer Photography (Creative Commons)