Samantha has been working with Blytheco for over 6 years with the sole focus of helping fuel digital transformation for our clients. With over 15 years of industry knowledge and experience working with start-ups & small businesses, she’s able to generate content that is both informative and relevant. Sam is passionate about helping growing companies reach their business goals with the right software and processes. Connect with Samantha on LinkedIn.
Is a Cloud ERP Right for Your Business?
Comparing Cloud and On-Premise ERP Software
Transforming your business is no easy feat. Today’s software solutions are constantly evolving and expanding their capabilities to accommodate the growing needs of businesses like yours. Whether you are looking to improve the functionality of your current solution or replace it with a more robust option, it is important to know where to start.
A great place to start is to first determine your software deployment preference, either cloud or on-premise. This preference will help narrow your options as well as help you plan your internal infrastructure, resources, set-up, and more. Simply put, when selecting a new ERP, you'll have two options for deployment:
- Cloud Solutions: software that is hosted on a vendor’s own servers
and is accessed anywhere via web-browser. - On-Premise Solutions: software that is hosted on your own
servers and is installed locally on each local workstation.
Since every business is unique, there is no one way to define which solution is best for each company. However, there are some indicators that your business may lean toward a cloud or on-premise solution. Below are some features and requirements to consider when determining what makes sense for your company:
- Company demographics
- Data and system security requirements
- IT resources and infrastructure
- Pricing and total cost of ownership
Data and System Security: Data and system security are important items to consider when comparing cloud and on-premise solutions. As technology and security continue to advance, there are strengths to hosting the solution on a local server as well as having the solution hosted by a cloud-provider. Many small- to mid-sized businesses struggle to implement and maintain best practices when it comes to security, backups, and data protection without the help of a dedicated IT resource. Cloud providers do much of the heavy lifting for you with dedicated security and expertise often not affordable to most small- to mid-sized businesses.
About the author
Samantha Goniea