Small businesses have started to realize how important data is for understanding their companies. Entrepreneur notes that data analytics can make a significant impact on business operations by driving sales. However, data analytics goes deeper than that. With the right implementation, data analytics can potentially speed up a company's processes. In this article, we'll look at four data shortcuts that can benefit small businesses in a big way that managed service providers (MSPs) should be offering to their small enterprise clientele.

1. Cloud Computing

Cloud adoption by small businesses is increasing every year. Right Scale notes that 84% of all enterprises utilize the cloud for their daily operation. Offering cloud services as a service provider opens doors for small businesses, allowing them to speed up their data processing and collection immensely. Cloud computing, combined with emerging technologies such as IoT devices, can help enterprises to scale effortlessly, only paying for the processing power they need.

2. Identity and Access Management Solutions

Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions can help a managed service provider deal with hardware remotely. It ensures that the MSP doesn't need to install on-site identity management hardware. IAM is a SaaS solution, which means that you don't need to dedicate time to configuring the solution. That responsibility falls to the clients.

3. Microsoft-based Backups

Backups are an essential part of a company's data management strategy. If a company, for example, Pharr Road Animal Hospital, uses Office 365 for their data processing needs, then having secure backups is always a concern. If the system crashes, it could mean the loss of thousands of records and information relating to clients. There are several backup solutions available, but an MSP can quickly provide access to Office 365 backups for their clients. Direct integration with Microsoft suite tools is an essential part of ensuring this backup system works. In other cases, for non-office-based software, integrations may exist to help clients back up their data to Microsoft's cloud servers.

4. Real-Time Analytics

We're already well aware of how vital analytics can be to a business. By relying on collected data, a company can make decisions that can significantly affect their performance or bottom line. An MSP can take this one step further by providing a way for small businesses to leverage real-time analytics. This offering deals with the most significant problem small companies tend to have with using analytics, the lag time between the collection of data, and the generation of results. Real-time analytics offers feedback to the client immediately, as new data comes in.

Making a Business Faster

Small businesses have a unique window of opportunity since their size makes them easy to pivot and take advantage of new ideas. Each of these shortcuts offers small businesses the chance to increase the scale and efficiency of their operation massively. While the final adoption rests with the client, the MSP has a vested interest in ensuring that their clients have access to this cutting-edge technology. By making clients more competitive, an MSP can, themselves, compete more effectively within the industry.

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Article Author: Steve Jones

Author for Datafloq

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