LBC Week 5: Working the Cloud
This week on the LBC show, we were joined by special guests entrepreneur and business expert Nicola Horlick; Ewan Venters, the CEO of Fortnum and Mason; and Rupert Lee Browne, founder of the innovative financial services firm Caxton FX.
They shared their top business tips, with a particular focus on thinking big. Ewan encouraged entrepreneurs to go big when pitching for distribution:
Meanwhile, Nicola shared her latest business venture, Money & Co, which lends between established businesses anything from £50k to £3 million. Nicola also encourages businesses to think big when planning strategies
Finally, Rupert discussed the business values he built Caxton FX on and the need for trust to be restored to the financial sector
Mozy is a brilliant provider of cloud backup, sync and access services. With Mozy, you won’t have to spend time worrying about backing up or syncing your files, as its intuitive technology is able determine the files you need to back up and when, saving you more time to focus on your business.
Accounting can be the bane of business life, so the team behind Freeagent designed this accounting software tool. You can link the software to your bank account to keep an eye on accounts and cash flow, and you can keep track of invoices and payments too. The tool also has tax functionalities to help make managing VAT and HMRC requirements easier.
Playful name aside, this app is part of a newer generation of tools tackling some of the challenges that cloud technology presents – mainly the issue of privacy. The app enables you to securely back up your files so you won’t lose any information or documents, and you can also sync information and files across your various devices. The standout feature of the app, however, is its ‘zero-knowledge’ policy. As Spideroak doesn’t have access to your encryption key, and all files are password protected, your data will always be safe and can be shared privately.
With so many apps available in the cloud, it helps to be able to have easy access to all the programmes you have on your device in one place. FolderSync allows you to log into all of the cloud based programmes from within the app and, in addition, you can back up, store and sync files from the cloud to your phone and vice versa.
Using cloud technology often raises the question of security, but there are lot of measures you can take to ensure your business’s information and files are safe. McAfee Multi Access’s Safe Key feature allows you to create just one master password. The software will then generate complex and safe individual logins for all your accounts, which it remembers so that you don’t have to. You also have power to control user access, as well as tracking, locking and wiping devices.
Devices
You don’t need a special device to be able to work in the cloud, but it’s important to have a good connection so using a 4G enabled device works best. As its likely you’ll be working on the move, working from a tablet might be easiest. The Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet boasts an impressive 2.5GHz processor, so you can work quickly within the cloud an on apps and its large 5.2 inch screen is ideal for working on the go. Another great device for cloud based working is the HTC One (M8). Its ‘Snapdragon’ processor makes it a super-fast and efficient phone, enabling you to multi-task without worrying about sapping power from your battery.
Many cloud services allow you to take out a free 30-day trial so you can try before you buy. Once you do decide to go ahead with programmes, you can choose flexible packages so you only pay for what you need and use.
For cloud software from O2, read about our Box and Microsoft 365 packages.
Don’t forget you can enter our weekly competition here. This week we are giving away a tech package worth £1000. Tune in next week on Thursday at 9pm for our final episode of the series, in which we’ll be exploring the future of business.
