If you, like me, are joined at the hip to your laptop, you know that sinking feeling when you realize your hard drive has died. In times past, that meant days of unproductive time waiting for repairs, followed by frustration trying to get everything back to where it was before it broke.
But this time, my use of software-as-a-service applications saved me. You see, 98% of my work is supported by hosted applications. I just grabbed a spare laptop in the office and kept on working, via the web.
CRM: Our Customer Relationship Management application is built in our own GroveSite hosted collaboration software. So I knew the status of each lead, what documents had been sent, what terms had been discussed and what I was supposed to do on each. I interactively updated our CRM site with all the sales activities I did over that week. Productivity loss: 0%
Customer Support: When clients need assistance, my work with them is over the web, on their own GroveSites. Our clients sites and data are all accessible by our support personnel, over the web. Productivity loss: 0%
Finance and Accounting: We use Quickbooks Online, the hosted service, for billing, accounting, and financial reporting. So without missing a beat, we could still add new clients to the billing system, answer billing questions, issue new invoices, and produce the month's financial statements. Productivity loss: 0%
Email: Well, I had to find my password to access my webmail, but webmail worked great too. And it was even easier to keep up with email since I now use a Blackberry. Plus the Blackberry had my address book and calendar, so I didn't even miss Outlook. Productivity loss: 0%
In all, my week without my personal laptop was testimonial to the fact that web-based applications provide business continuity during a local disaster.
Are you sold on software-as-a-service yet?
