The founder of Microsoft partner LAN Scape Solutions Productivity Partners, Mark Furr, recently revealed his intentions about making use of cloud-based technology to launch his own business as well as to assist clients to become more productive.
Furr was formerly a Microsoft employee, working in the Memphis area with enterprise organizations. A year back, he came up with his company, increasingly realizing that several companies sought expert assistance as they shifted to the Microsoft Productivity stack.
As Furr explains, there is a great opportunity in assisting organizations to get adapted to the cloud. The need for help is not limited to large enterprises but is also applicable to small and medium companies to adapt and make their websites and online presence dependent upon the cloud.
Furr’s company builds up productivity and collaboration competencies so that clients are free to work in this new modern workplace without any limitations or hindrances.
LAN Scape has extended itself ahead of Memphis and provides assistance to offices located in California, Indiana, Canada, and even overseas offices in UK and India.
This effort has been made possible through its network of partners.
Furr tries to bring in the “working out loud mentality” that he has learned during his tenure at Microsoft.
He wants to provide businesses with a robust productivity platform, through which the best people can be connected, regardless of geographical limitations or barriers.
Employees will be able to work from any place on earth without losing collaboration or productivity.
Skepticism – The Barrier to Cloud Transition
Some clients might be skeptical about the introduction of cloud technology. This skepticism might be focused on the issues of technical IT resource requirement and safeguarding of intellectual property.
Furr clarifies that a significant portion of his company’s job involves training business owners to enjoy increased ownership of their solutions. LAN Scape is often capable of revealing the immediate ROI once the organization adopts such cloud initiatives.
A certain amount of resistance has been observed in the case of healthcare and financial services. Such industries do not have an adequate understanding of the cloud and hence are comparatively slower is adopting such technology. Mostly, the organizations operating in these industries tend to have doubts regarding how secure the cloud is.
Reacting to such skepticism, Furr explains that the actual job of the cloud is to help organizations maintain business continuity and also safeguard their proprietary information in a more efficient manner from theft or loss.
Furr’s company believes in “creating experiences which empower as well as inspire all employees to go for open knowledge sharing as they operate without boundaries.”
As he explains further, subject matter experts of an organization are its biggest risk, since these people have all the team knowledge locked into their heads without any documentation.
The primary purpose of the cloud is to promote documentation and retention of intellectual property.
Time and Cost of Transition
The time and cost for the transition to cloud technology, according to Furr, varies from business to business. Therefore, at first, the current business environment is assessed from a cultural, change management and operational perspective, to arrive at the key drivers to cloud technology adoption.
Then drivers are prioritized, and an adoption strategy is created.
Although organizations may have time, staff and resource constraint, it is off due significance for them to consider how much change can be tolerated.
Selecting the proper project at the appropriate time is vital.
In Furr’s opinion, for any business, the best place for cloud transition depends upon individual requirements. It is necessary for companies to take into consideration net new projects, aging systems, processes or any initiative with significant internal backing.
Furr is proud to be a company that adopts a unique approach to assist clients to work with the cloud successfully.
[Featured Image by Sean Gallup/Getty Images]