Manufacturing SMEs turn to low cost UC and cloud computing

That's the assertion from Piers Linney, joint-chief executive at mobile unified communications and hosted IT solutions firm Outsourcery. He explains that unified communications – which integrates IT, telecoms and mobile tools – can now provide SMEs with better ways of improving efficiencies and cutting costs at a time when the purchasing managers' index has regressed to 51.8 from 53.4 (October 2009 figures). Linney suggests that in the face of this harsh reality, SMEs are turning to unified communications tools that were previously the preserve of large corporations – enabling employees to communicate with each other in a more efficient manner. "The arrival of cloud computing has parallels with the early use of electrical power. When industry first started using electricity, each business had to build a generating plant… This model was replaced with large centralised power stations with electricity distributed using the National Grid network – providing customers with on-demand power, without investment or maintenance costs," says Linney. And he adds: "Cloud computing can sound like a very amorphous concept, perhaps even conjuring up images of important business data floating around in the skies above us. It often raises questions about control and security. But the reality is a lot more down to earth and it is quite simply the future of computing and the way in which businesses will consume pooled resources of software and hardware," he adds.