Lattes and Lumber
DMSi was one of the first computer services companies serving the building industry to offer cloud-based data management. “Cloud computing allows companies to focus on their businesses, not IT stuff, and it allows for disaster recovery planning,” says Dan Vogt, DMSi’s manager of IT services.
“With a laptop and a cell modem you can be up and running–you can go to Starbucks and buy lumber,” says Vogt.
DMSi still offers its clients locally hosted data services via on-site servers, but Vogt says “90% of our new customers are in a cloud environment.”
Computer Associates Inc. (CAi) of Smithfield, R.I., is approaching the cloud from a different direction. Recently, CAi created an app that enables iPhone and iPad users to connect to their data while outside the office. This might not qualify as cloud computing because the server being accessed still resides at the lumberyard, but it does deliver one of the benefits of the cloud: Ability to access information on the road.
Does cloud-based computing make sense for all LBM dealers? Not necessarily. Says Epicor’s Anderson: “If they have an IT shop, and they are comfortable with updates and backup, they might keep doing that.”
For large companies with dozens of locations and a sizable IT staff, locally managing their own data may well be more cost-efficient, since prices for cloud service are based on the number of users, or seats, in the off-site hosting environment. “I think … the rank and file of LBM customers will increasingly want this cloud option as they come to buy new servers,” says Anderson, and Epicor wants to give its dealer clients options.
Snohomish, Wash.-based Chinook Lumber adopted the cloud computing model of data management one year ago, using Progressive Solutions’ bisTrack software and its secureHosting model. Company vice president and general manager Joost Douwes says that one of his biggest reasons for going to the cloud was his inability to keep Chinook’s on-site servers cool enough with an air conditioning system that could barely maintain optimal operating temperatures in the winter, let alone the summer. “I wanted that stuff out of there,” he says.
“Now I never have to buy another server again,” Douwes declares. “I never have to buy software again; and I never have to buy client access licenses again.”
Instead of a capital expenditure of $100,000 for a server–”and have it become outdated almost immediately,” Douwes notes–Chinook pays Progressive a monthly fee that includes hosting, use of the Windows-based software, and maintenance of the off-site servers. “That’s a huge benefit,” he says. Pre-cloud, Chinook had two full-time IT staffers and one part-timer. Now a part-time IT staffer can take care of what needs to be done.
Douwes is also impressed with the security that cloud computing offers. “Something that we could never replicate in-house is multiple power sources and generators,” which his cloud host offers. He says Progressive not only backs up data locally at its data center but also sends it off-site to another data storage facility, a redundancy that reassures him Chinook’s critical data will never be inaccessible.
Aloha, Mr. Cloud
High IT costs and a frank risk assessment are what cinched the matter for HPM Building Supply’s Riki Newkold.
Just last month, Newkold, vice president of finance and IT at Hilo, Hawaii-based HPM switched to Progressive’s secureHosting, after 16 years of operating an old in-house legacy system using ECi’s Software Solutions Advantage business system.
“We are a company that is run very lean,” says Newkold. Our IT staff is three. We have tsunamis, earthquakes and sometimes hurricanes.” She says that for a company of HPM’s size (five locations), the costs would have been prohibitive to invest in a hardware structure with the up-to-date technology advances needed to run the business. “At the same time, we would have to invest in additional staff that we wouldn’t be able to afford.” Investing in the hardware, plus high salary IT personnel, would have cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars, Newkold reckons.
Cloud computing won’t suit every construction supply operation. But before sinking big bucks into replacing aging servers, take a look at your options. You may find that cloud data management can inprove your bottom line–and perhaps even offer some unexpected benefits.
“I can go back to enjoying a cold beer after work,” says Fakes & Hooker’s Roberson. Plus, he promises, “You’ll sleep better at night, and your hair won’t turn white.”
