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16
COVER STORY
With this document sharing and
collaboration solution, Sharp is
meeting the demands of Generation
Cloud, empowering its partners to
capture a larger chunk of a growing
market. Industry analysts IDC said that
half of all businesses are already using
cloud services in some form or other
today and that this figure is predicted
to rise to more than 90% in the next
three years.
A Gartner study of large businesses
found that despite the fact that the explosive
growth in the number of mobile devices used
by employees is driving demand for easy
remote access, only a small proportion had
moved towards cloud email or office systems.
These findings, coupled with the results
of research conducted by Sharp last year,
which identified the emergence of a new
generation of worker that’s moving towards
a more flexible, collaborative working model
and an increasingly tangible demand for
more collaborative, flexible working practices,
reinforce the point that by delivering cloud-
based solutions, channel partners have the
potential to grow their businesses.
Giving back control
Solutions Product Marketing Manager Chris
Hale said: “With Cloud Portal Office, resellers
have a powerful message to convey to
customers.
“An issue with a number of cloud storage
solutions on the market today is that the
business doesn’t have full control over the
information that’s stored and accessed. Say
for example a member of staff wanted to
share a file, they could simply open up a
Dropbox or similar account, but what that
means is that information is removed from
the business and outside of its control. Worst
case scenario, if that employee moves on,
then potentially the data moves with them
and is no longer accessible to or controlled
by the business.”
Designed to take office productivity to a whole new level,
Sharp’s Cloud Portal Office creates new opportunities for channel partners
to secure a new revenue stream by adding further value to Sharp MFPs.
Sharp’s
Cloud Portal Office
adds even more value
Hale said that Cloud Portal Office
removes this threat. The service is accessed
through a single sign-on portal, the Sharp
Cloud Portal, which is securely controlled by
the IT department. As employees leave or
take on different roles, administrators can
use the Sharp Cloud Portal to change access
permissions, cancel/add subscriptions or
increase storage space at a moment’s notice
– all through a secure web page.
The business case
The Sharp survey, which polled SME
employees in UK, France, Germany, Sweden
and The Netherlands, identifies a clear
opportunity gap between what Generation
Cloud workers are demanding in the
workplace and what is actually being
provided by SMEs across Europe.
Half of respondents believe that
increased collaboration in the workplace
would have a direct impact on their
business’ bottom line by making it more
profitable. However, the reality of service
provision within the SME sector is far from
the demands of Generation Cloud workers.
The results demonstrate that by not
fully embracing new ways of flexible and
collaborative working, SMEs are failing to
realise the business benefits it can bring:
n
61% of respondents claim it would make
them more efficient;
n
43% do not have ways to easily share
documents and collaborate with people
outside the corporate network;
Half of
respondents
believe that
increased
collaboration
in the
workplace
would have a
direct impact
on their
business’
bottom line.
