The word “cloud” has been a buzzword for many years in the business world. You have most likely heard mentions of moving to the cloud or transforming your business using the cloud. As cloud technology continues to become widespread, it can play a fundamental role in equipment finance companies’ digital transformation efforts. CEOs, CFOs, and other executives may only regard the cloud as primarily an IT opportunity. However, today we discuss how equipment finance companies can leverage the cloud’s many advantages to transform their business. In the first part of this series, we examine how different solutions affect the way you interact with the technology you use every day and the benefits of moving to the cloud.
On-Premise vs. Hosted vs. Cloud-Based Solution
As you begin to consider moving your business to the cloud, it is important to understand the three main business technology solutions. These three solutions include on-premise, hosted services, or a cloud-based solution. Each option has its benefits tailored to meet your organization’s needs. It is important to examine each technology solution to best choose the option specialized for your industry. The asset and equipment finance space has several core business processes. These core business processes range from origination, underwriting, documentation, and portfolio management functions such as account management, collections, and termination. Understanding which solution best meets your organization’s needs will help improve your core business processes. Therefore, having the best technology solution will equip your organization to adapt to changing market demands.
On-Premise Solution
First, on-premise software is the most traditional way that most people are used to purchasing and using software. It requires the customer to purchase the entire license upfront. Since the entire software is licensed, it then resides within the customer’s premises. The vendor then installs the software locally on your computers and servers. However, for an on-premise deployment, you are fully responsible for all ongoing costs. These reoccurring costs include managing server hardware, software licenses, maintenance, and technical support of any potential issues that could arise. As a result, an on-premise solution is less scalable and requires large upfront investments for servers.
Hosted Services
Secondly, hosted services are defined as technology services with infrastructure located outside the customer’s physical location. The customer would then have the software installed at a data center. At the data center, you would set up the physical or virtualized servers that you own, lease, or finance. You would implement the hosting services solution similarly to how you would an on-premise solution. With a hosting service, the customer would pay a large upfront software payment. The customer would be responsible for payment of the software implementation. The customer is also responsible for an initial provisioning fee from the hosting center. Other fees the customer is then responsible for include a monthly fee for rent of the hosting center’s equipment. Hosting software backs data up regularly, which makes hosting software secure. Consequently, the reliability in hosting software may be limited due to the installation of the hardware.
Benefits of Moving to the Cloud
Ultimately, you should base your decision on your technology solution on what will work best for your business. By understanding the key differences between on-premise and hosted services, we can understand how moving to the cloud will help your business gain efficiency and long-term success.
The simplest definition of the cloud refers to a centralized location on the internet where businesses can store information, run applications, and connect anytime and from anywhere. From helping you run your day-to-day operations more efficiently to growing your business, the cloud offers many benefits. These advantages of the cloud will help you stand apart from your competitors. Cloud-based technology is a more modern technology, where businesses can use a subscription model to pay for what you need. In addition, cloud computing means that the vendor manages all the server infrastructure, security, data integrity, backups, and updates. With a cloud solution, it provides businesses the flexibility and agility of scaling up or down. With having costs of running servers in the cloud, it can save you large capital expenses in hardware.
ASPIRE™ Powered by LTiCloud
In fact, LTi has over 12 years of cloud-hosting expertise and more active cloud users than anyone else in the industry. ASPIRE™ Powered by LTiCloud gives you faster implementations, top-level security, reliable disaster recovery, operational agility, and profitable scalability.
With a low entry price, lessors of all sizes now have access to the same powerful equipment finance solution used by leading banks, independents, and captives. Moreover, with the cloud, no updates or maintenance is required, and the storage of files can occur almost instantly. Additional benefits include lower cost and better security. Further, the cloud can automatically back up data, preventing you from losing all your data. Benefits of a cloud solution such as ASPIRE™ powered by LTiCloud include:
- Comprehensive Software as a Service (SaaS) solution
- Full origination and portfolio management solutions in one system
- Integrations with third-party vendors
- Ability to support a wide array of asset classes
- Adaptable for all market types and industries
- SOC I & II compliant
- Rigorous security protocols ensure the confidentiality and integrity of your data are always maintained
Above all, cloud technology has impacted almost every aspect of our lives. The cloud allows us to access our e-mail from any device and even affects how we store and access data on our fitness trackers. These daily interactions using cloud technology has simplified our lives and revolutionized the way we communicate and connect with each other. Despite the digital transformation cloud technology has had on our personal lives, the equipment finance industry hasn’t uniformly realized the potential benefits of cloud technology. In the second part of this series, we will discuss five key ways of how leveraging ASPIRE™ powered by LTiCloud can transform your business.
