OBT: Survey Finds One in Three Accounting and Law Firms Confirm a Future in the Cloud
Announcement posted by OBT 16 Nov 2011
Sydney, 16 November 2011 – Deploying cloud computing is the number one priority in 2012 among one in three IT decision makers from within Australia’s accounting and legal sectors. At the same time, just under half (47 percent) of these decision makers plan to maintain or increase their budget for cloud computing over the next 12 months.
These are the key findings from a survey last month of IT decision makers from law firm and accounting practices conducted by OBT, a leading Australian private cloud services provider.
The survey also found that they key objective for IT investment among 42 per cent of accounting and legal firms is to boost employee productivity while 32 per cent will prioritise IT investment to seek operational cost reductions in the business. At the same time, one in four organisations will deploy IT to increase their operational agility.
When asked about their cloud transition plans within the next 12 months, one in three organisations confirmed that they will move their desktop infrastructure to the cloud in the year ahead. At the same time, 44 per cent of respondents plan to invest in mobilising applications for their workforce while 14 per cent plan to review investment in virtualisation. Finally, 23 per cent of those questioned plan to invest in security solutions.
Shane Muller, Managing Director, OBT, said, “The results would suggest that there will be a clear uptick in the demand for cloud services in the year ahead among Australian professional services firms. As a result, when it comes to evaluating the physical, financial and technical capacity of a potential service provider, practice managers and managing partners would be well advised to really qualify whether moving to the cloud will benefit their bottom line. This process should include evaluating cloud solutions on a total cost of ownership basis and calculating the savings you can make in terms of employee time, licensing schemes and risk mitigation. In other words, don’t just compare the cost of hardware.
“In addition, professional services firms also need to wake up to the fact that new technologies, such as virtualisation and the cloud, have changed the way data is managed and subsequently should be recovered. If a company’s backup system fails to address these changes, when the inevitable happens and data is lost, it will be more difficult and expensive to recover.”
OBT’s surveys of 90 legal and accounting practice IT decision makers were conducted at last month’s Accountants’ Technology Showcase Australia and the Australian Legal Practice Management Summit staged in Melbourne.
About OBT
OBT is a private cloud service provider that was established in 1999 and is pioneering and innovative with technology. Through its Anywhere Suite and flagship offering Desktop Anywhere, OBT delivers a custom application online or a full technology infrastructure via the cloud - for the purpose of making business easier. With a focus on having the right people to create a framework to support its customers in each stage of their growth, OBT offers robust customisation services directly, or via channel partners, to clients with 20 – 1500 staff.
OBT’s clients are predominantly within the professional services sectors – in particular, the accounting, financial services, and legal industries, and together with its partners also delivers to government and educational institutions.
OBT currently delivers services from multiple regions around the globe, with data centres located in Sydney, Melbourne, and Dublin.
OBT is a Microsoft Gold Hosting Partner and is also a Citrix Solutions Advisor.
These are the key findings from a survey last month of IT decision makers from law firm and accounting practices conducted by OBT, a leading Australian private cloud services provider.
The survey also found that they key objective for IT investment among 42 per cent of accounting and legal firms is to boost employee productivity while 32 per cent will prioritise IT investment to seek operational cost reductions in the business. At the same time, one in four organisations will deploy IT to increase their operational agility.
When asked about their cloud transition plans within the next 12 months, one in three organisations confirmed that they will move their desktop infrastructure to the cloud in the year ahead. At the same time, 44 per cent of respondents plan to invest in mobilising applications for their workforce while 14 per cent plan to review investment in virtualisation. Finally, 23 per cent of those questioned plan to invest in security solutions.
Shane Muller, Managing Director, OBT, said, “The results would suggest that there will be a clear uptick in the demand for cloud services in the year ahead among Australian professional services firms. As a result, when it comes to evaluating the physical, financial and technical capacity of a potential service provider, practice managers and managing partners would be well advised to really qualify whether moving to the cloud will benefit their bottom line. This process should include evaluating cloud solutions on a total cost of ownership basis and calculating the savings you can make in terms of employee time, licensing schemes and risk mitigation. In other words, don’t just compare the cost of hardware.
“In addition, professional services firms also need to wake up to the fact that new technologies, such as virtualisation and the cloud, have changed the way data is managed and subsequently should be recovered. If a company’s backup system fails to address these changes, when the inevitable happens and data is lost, it will be more difficult and expensive to recover.”
OBT’s surveys of 90 legal and accounting practice IT decision makers were conducted at last month’s Accountants’ Technology Showcase Australia and the Australian Legal Practice Management Summit staged in Melbourne.
About OBT
OBT is a private cloud service provider that was established in 1999 and is pioneering and innovative with technology. Through its Anywhere Suite and flagship offering Desktop Anywhere, OBT delivers a custom application online or a full technology infrastructure via the cloud - for the purpose of making business easier. With a focus on having the right people to create a framework to support its customers in each stage of their growth, OBT offers robust customisation services directly, or via channel partners, to clients with 20 – 1500 staff.
OBT’s clients are predominantly within the professional services sectors – in particular, the accounting, financial services, and legal industries, and together with its partners also delivers to government and educational institutions.
OBT currently delivers services from multiple regions around the globe, with data centres located in Sydney, Melbourne, and Dublin.
OBT is a Microsoft Gold Hosting Partner and is also a Citrix Solutions Advisor.