The Next GIG
Scott McGillivray,
IT Manager RFMS, Inc.
Cloud Technology
and Your Flooring Store
W
ith technology growing more important in the day-to-day operations of
flooring businesses; it is vital that business owners find a reliable and effi-
cient way to protect their time, money and data.
For the last 33 years, RFMS has taught business owners about the importance of back-
ing up and securing their data. In the event of a system crash, burglary or natural disaster,
a backup is a critical part of the security and well being of any business.
Many times, backups were often the least important thing for flooring businesses to
worry about, especially when a busy day means long hours and tasks spent on the floor
covering operation. We all can be guilty of not doing backups when we should. If every-
thing is going well, a data backup doesn’t seem very important. But then, what if….?
Another area of neglect can be the issue of updating your business software as newer
versions are released. Many businesses don’t have designated IT professionals on staff and
must employ the services of a third-party company or often, family members. Aside from
just the updates of the business management software, there are other system programs
which need updates as well (operating systems, server firmware updates, AV updates,
firewall updates, etc.) There are many areas of technology that need maintaining. But we
must remember that we are in the business of running a flooring business!
What if there was a better way of managing the technology portion of a flooring busi-
ness? If a flooring dealer uses the RFMS business management system, for example, it is
possible to run everything from the cloud. With cloud computing, there is no need to buy
servers, do daily backups, or run software updates. Those tasks are provided by the cloud
hosting company whose experts are trained on safe and secure technology practices. Just
the money saved by eliminating the need for expensive hardware, can more than justify
the minimal hosting expenses for a cloud account.
Cloud computing allows owners to get back to running their flooring operation, and
to stop trying to run an IT business. As more and more dealers grow, especially as our
economy continues to improve, moving the technology to the safe and secure cloud is
becoming a best business practice. ❚
We all can be guilty of not doing backups
when we should. If everything is going well,
a data backup doesn’t seem very important.
But then, what if….?
62 Premier Flooring Retailer | Q3 2017