Hosted Software Means Less Risk and More Time for Your Business

The idea of business data residing at remote locations causes some distributors to hesitate.  For many owners, comfort is found in keeping data physically present in the back office.  People in this industry are hands-on with their business and take the same approach with inventory, pricing, and customer data. 

Security and data reliability should be a top priority in any business.  How much time do you (or someone else in your company) spend maintaining servers, backing up data, and updating virus software?  Do you test your back-ups to ensure that if a crash occurred your back-ups would actually work?

Most distributors don’t have time to properly maintain data.  Smaller companies can’t afford to hire someone to maintain server architecture. You want your people selling building materials – not worrying about the next security patch.  If you could pay someone else to do this, then you could focus more on your business and eliminate the ongoing hassles of managing and updating technology.

Not all hosting solutions are created equal, and you should ask tough questions before selecting a partner.  Does the hosting partner provide both application and hardware support?  Do they have guaranteed up-time?  What are their backup, recovery and security procedures?  What are your options for growth?  The two most important things to look for in a hosted solution are a company with experience hosting your specific application and a long list of customer references.  DMSi Software, has 74 building material distribution customers totaling over 1,000 users running Agility in their hosted environment.

Hosted solutions simplify your life by building, managing and maintaining your application server for you.  Server hardware and software reside at a remote, secure and expertly maintained data center, and back-ups are completed nightly.  With a hosted solution, you no longer need to worry about how your IT demands will grow when your business grows, the risk of obsolete technology, or the scarcity, expense and management of IT technicians. 

One common pricing model in a hosted environment is to pay a monthly fee per user.  This model allows you to pay for only the technical resources your business needs today.  In the traditional on-site server model, you have to decide between investing money in a server you may soon out grow or buy a much larger server than you currently need in hopes of growing into it someday.  An average size company with 20 users could spend less than ½ headcount for a totally secure and scalable environment.

Hosted solutions offer incredible flexibility.  All you need are a PC and a reliable internet connection and you are instantly connected to up-to-the-minute inventory information from anywhere in the world.  For instance, owners can access inventory levels while at a customer site or salespeople can get to data from a hotel room or a prospect’s business.

Transitioning to an established hosting environment requires much less effort then configuring a new hardware infrastructure.  In fact, companies who decide to host their application locally still use hosted environments to get a “jump-start” on their application setup while they are buying and testing local hardware.

In addition to flexibility and low-maintenance, hosted software solutions are critical to a business because they protect against unexpected events. During one particular site visit, an owner of a small distribution company was asked if they had a server on site.  The owner pointed over to three boxes sitting in the corner of the room and replied “I think one of these is a server.”  This company had an accountant come in once a month to create an external tape back-up.  The risk of this situation is that if their computer system failed the day before the accountant performed a back-up, they would lose a month of business.  In this scenario, how many distributors have the time and energy available to regain this invaluable information? 

Distributors who know the pain of losing data love hosted models.  A hosted solution eliminates the possibility of losing data when a risk event happens – server crashes, power failures and natural disasters.  Too many distributors with multiple branch locations are crippled across their entire business when one site crashes.  It’s the proverbial “don’t put all of your data in one basket.”  The costs to recover lost data and keep a business running after an event are staggering.  And the chance of complete recovery is slim. According to the Department of Commerce, over 60 percent of companies that experience a major risk event are out of business in two years.

Do you have a customer list with accurate contact information?  Do you know who owes you money?  Do you know to whom you owe money?  What do you charge for each item in your inventory?  If an unexpected event occurs in your business and compromises your data, can you accurately and quickly answer these questions? 

You have a choice to take proactive, preventative steps towards protecting your business.  A hosted solution gives you more time to focus on your business and gives you peace of mind in the process. 

For 30 years, DMSi has been the leading business management solution for distributors of building material and forest products. More than 350 of North America’s top lumber, millwork, roofing, siding, laminate, drywall, and other building product suppliers use DMSi software to efficiently manage daily activities in nearly 1,000 distribution yards, shops, warehouses and offices. For more information on DMSi software, call 402.330.6620, email dmsi@dmsi.com or visit www.dmsi.com.

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