Nominee: Interware Systems from Markham, Ontario
Describe the solution, service or initiative
Cloud Freedom is an end-to-end business solution that combines the features of many disparate cloud offerings. With Cloud Freedom organizations can securely migrate all of their documents, email, services and even their entire IT infrastructure to the cloud. Small businesses demand a solution that is secure, highly available, and increases productivity. Cloud Freedom is a paradigm shift that addresses all of these concerns by transforming an on-premises solution to on demand service. This Solution also includes e-mail, document management, collaboration, file synchronization, presence, messaging, and productivity tools. You have the liberty of managing it yourself, or engaging us to manage it on your behalf. With end-to-end solutions being a key principle of ours, Cloud Freedom takes care of the entire project from planning through procurement, deployment and ongoing management.
What makes it original or innovative?
Cloud Freedom combines the many focused cloud offerings to provide a holistic, comprehensive business solution focused on enhancing efficiency and effectiveness while eliminating the use of unnecessary resources. Competitors in this field have the tendency to help their client with the project upon implementation, and then it’s hands-off from there. In contrast, we serve fully as an IT partner, and Virtual CIO, while continuously keeping the Cloud Environment running at optimum efficiency. Further, our clients have approached us with concern over the increasing use of 3rd party cloud storage services by employees to store and share corporate data. Frequently, these services are either not cross-checked with IT departments on are in direct violation with organizational security policies. Cloud Freedom’s data storage and sync solution goes above and beyond industry norms by giving small businesses full control of corporate data while giving their employees the benefits of cloud services. This storage and sync solution has been engineered from the ground up for business and provides the following key benefits. Enterprise Security: 448-bit Blowfish Encryption and many more security features guarantees data is safe. Infinite Revision Capture: Instantly restore deleted or changed files from as far back in time as you need Mobile Access: Freedom to access files from mobile phones across all operating systems (Android, Blackberry, Apple, Windows, Symbian and more) User Controls: Set strict usage and access policies at company and user levels. Monitor all data shared, created and revised on cloud freedom. Local Oversight: Information is stored on dedicated servers at Cloud Freedom’s secured and monitored Data Centre located in Canada. This local oversight of the infrastructure further strengthens security.
Describe the improvement this solution made to the customer’s sales or revenues and provide measurable evidence of such.
Upon the implementation of Cloud Freedom, our client immediately saw a reduction in IT infrastructure maintenance, power, and cooling costs. They immediately gained improved accessibility and enterprise grade high availability and disaster recovery (HA/DR). The “pay per use” costing system allowed our client to transform upfront capital expenditure into affordable, predictable operational costs. This freed up cash flows to reinvest in the company and core business processes. Our client saved approximately $10,000 in capital costs and about 35% on ongoing IT related maintenance costs.
Describe the improvement that was made to the customers efficiency, with measurable evidence.
After deploying Cloud Freedom our client’s employees was no longer chained to the desk as the documents and tools they use were always available and accessible. Cloud Freedom’s instant messaging (IM), video conferencing, and file sharing tools addressed challenges in collaboration allowing employees to communicate via the cloud. Cloud freedom eliminated the concept of overcapacity with infrastructure that adjusted instantaneously to varying demand and helped avoid IT expenditure on infrastructure that would not be efficiently utilized otherwise. With 99.9% availability, the client never has to be concerned about downtime during power outages, system upgrades, or IT maintenance.
How did the solution improve the customer’s ability to serve internal or external clients?
The client had immediate improvement with internal and external clients in reduced response time resulting from anywhere-access to documents and services. The efficiency enhancements freed up funds for the client which allowed them to invest in Client Relationship Management (CRM), business processes, new staff, and more. In addition, Cloud Freedom’s secure storage and sync solutions have provided employees an alternative to using 3rd party consumer grade cloud storage services. This gave our client full control over corporate data while delivering employees the benefits of cloud storage.
In what ways does the solution go above and beyond industry expectations?
Cloud Freedom combines the many focused cloud offerings to provide a holistic, comprehensive business solution focused on enhancing efficiency and effectiveness while eliminating the use of unnecessary resources. Competitors in this field have the tendency to help their client with the project upon implementation, and then it’s hands-off from there. In contrast, we serve fully as an IT partner, and Virtual CIO, while continuously keeping the Cloud Environment running at optimum efficiency. Further, our clients have approached us with concern over the increasing use of 3rd party cloud storage services by employees to store and share corporate data. Frequently, these services are either not cross-checked with IT departments on are in direct violation with organizational security policies. Cloud Freedom’s data storage and sync solution goes above and beyond industry norms by giving small businesses full control of corporate data while giving their employees the benefits of cloud services. This storage and sync solution has been engineered from the ground up for business and provides the following key benefits. Enterprise Security: 448-bit Blowfish Encryption and many more security features guarantees data is safe. Infinite Revision Capture: Instantly restore deleted or changed files from as far back in time as you need Mobile Access: Freedom to access files from mobile phones across all operating systems (Android, Blackberry, Apple, Windows, Symbian and more) User Controls: Set strict usage and access policies at company and user levels. Monitor all data shared, created and revised on cloud freedom. Local Oversight: Information is stored on dedicated servers at Cloud Freedom’s secured and monitored Data Centre located in Canada. This local oversight of the infrastructure further strengthens security.
How does the solution further your customer’s green or environmentally friendly plans?
Cloud Freedom is designed with the most environmentally-friendly business solutions in place. Our solution reduced on site IT infrastructure and lowered both power and cooling requirements. ‘Anywhere Access’ allowed staff to work from home thereby cutting costs in pollution from commuting. Our simplified collaboration tools reduce the need for printed documents as they can be easily accessed from anywhere through a variety of devices simply by connecting to the cloud.
Find out who the big winners are on Sept. 11 when CDN presents them at the CEA Awards Gala.
Learn more about CDN’s Channel Elite Awards 2013.
