Running your business on dead software is frustrating. Dead software may be real hard to use compared to apps on your phone, or lack regular updates which keep it relevant. Software limping along on its last legs causes one to miss out on time saving automations, modern usability and increased information usefulness. Reliance on dead tech is particularly risky because it is not keeping with the times from a security standpoint.

As part of the Prism software user community, you automatically benefit from enhancements users like you have requested. As “alive” technology, Prism is up to date, secure and continuously provides new value over time. Hit the link below to see a video highlighting some of the hundreds of time saving capabilities brought to Prism just this year.

Redefining Forest Technology is about enabling forestry and natural resources businesses with the tools to function in the digital age – learn more at our website at the link below:

The future of business will be information driven.

Business owners and managers are experiencing rapidly increasing demands for information – a trend that’s expected to continue.

A successful strategy for information supports growth, the ability to work from anywhere (like necessitated during COVID), the delivery of new services for existing customers or simply to increase employee quality of life by reducing tedious data entry.

Data rich and information poor.

Data which does not function as “useful” information for answers and decisions is a source of frustration and lost time. The quote “Data rich and information poor” (Waterman, R. 1982) refers to being rich with data which is not easily turned into information of value.

You may be information poor if your systems formed incrementally over time where the parts do not function together as a whole (e.g. they’re fragmented).

Are your personal digital photos “useful information” or just data?

Digital photos (data) on a hard drive in a desk drawer are of limited use, whereas photos on a smart phone are easily used by just about anyone.  A digital photo taken with a smart phone has utility which was difficult to “picture” 15 years ago when most people had point and shoot cameras.  For example, digital photos on a smart phone can:

• Be shared with others through various social media like Facebook and Instagram.
• Be stored in one place (you guessed it, in the cloud!).
• Be accessed securely from anywhere via a user account.
• Be texted directly to loved ones.

How can businesses use their data like photos on a smartphone?

Would business data generate greater value if it were easily kept up to date and could be shared? While business systems are more complex than photos, many of the underlying digital capabilities for photos can be applied to meeting the growing information demands of businesses.   Such examples include:

• Team members access a single, authoritative source of business information.
• Staff with any technical ability level can share and get answers to every day questions like “what is the status of Smith Tract thinning job?”.
• Data entry and manual processes are reduced and even eliminated.
• Information can be shared securely inside or outside an organization.
• Teams access real time information on smart devices wherever work is done: from home, the truck or the field.
• Information security and trust standards are in place to reduce risks of hacking and ransomware.

The most capable and cost effective business technologies are based on – and enabled by – cloud computing. Neglecting the use of cloud computing platforms is akin to milling your own home-building materials when standard dimensional lumber and other materials streamline the building process by fitting together uniformly. (you’d really have to want to do all that work!) Technology providers who have yet to embrace cloud-based computing platforms will spend more to deliver less by building out features that computing platforms have out of the box.

2. Always getting better.

In our experience, cloud computing technologies are always up to date and continuously improving. With desktop personal computers, it can be a challenge for providers to keep software up to date when each computer is different. In the cloud a provider completely controls the computing environment. By utilizing cloud-based capabilities, inefficiencies due to infrequent updates or obsolescence is a thing of the past. At the end of the day, a cloud based approach allows providers to deliver more value by keeping tools progressing and with minimal business disruptions.

3. More functionality and flexibility.

Need to enable more than just email on company smartphones? Many cloud-based software are multi-user based (e.g. many can edit at once) with tools which can function simultaneously across multiple devices, users and applications. These phone and web apps can function on a single source of data making it much easier to collaborate and maintain consistency.

4. Reduced (or no) dependency on physical offices.

Since cloud-based computing solutions are in the cloud, they don’t rely on computers in offices. This means software can function independent of office power or internet. One does not need to be at the office to access information, or rely on an office computer because it has a certain software or files on it. Our experience is that cloud-based software is more reliable than software which runs on a personal computer. The value of systems being independent of offices has really hit home during Covid-19 when people needed to distance and still use business tools and data and share information between staff. One client stated that “Had we not worked with you all to move our forest technology to the commercial cloud, we would have been dead in the water for running our operations during several staff quarantines”.

5. More secure.

We know of many organizations which have been hacked or had their server data held ransom in part because they have delayed cloud adoption. These events come at a great cost and disruption to operations. In the commercial cloud (Amazon or Azure, etc) there are much more security options, and the machines being used are kept up to date and secure for you while also being backed up.

6. Highly Configurable.

Cloud-based computing platforms offer “low code” functionality that moderately technical users can manage. This allows components and features to be re-arranged in different ways to meet your needs. Low code, configurable computing is a huge movement for many reasons including reduced costs and avoidance of risks associated with custom on premise software. One our favorite benefits of configurable apps is that we can set up tools for new projects in hours.