Flexible, secure and cost effective: What are you waiting for?!

Businesses of all types are able to benefit from cloud computing. However, some of the advantages lend themselves particularly well to certain aspects which characterise the recruitment sector. They simply map on to the needs of the recruitment business much better than an on-premise approach to provisioning technology for a recruitment business. Here, we outline three of them.

1. Scalability and elasticity fit very well with entrepreneurial enterprise

   Flexibility and agility are highly desired for business attributes. For any business, the ability to adapt quickly to rapidly changing market conditions or shocks to the operating environment is of great value.

   The cloud enables a recruitment business to be more flexible and agile because it is a scalable, elastic and independent of location:

   • Managers, consultants and support staff are able to work on the move or from remote sites such as client offices or home offices.
   • Enables capacity to be increased and decreased at virtually the flick of a switch and practically instantaneously.
   • Supports the entrepreneurial nature of the recruitment industry which frequently seems to be in flux due to M&A and organic growth.

    

2. Secure and helps meet compliance with DPA

   One of the most commonly cited reasons for avoiding the cloud is the perception that it is insecure. This is wrong. A correctly designed and implemented cloud solution is inherently more secure than an on-premise approach to business computing. To enjoy the peace of mind of secure cloud computing:

   • Choose a cloud services provider that restricts data storage to UK-only data centres. This prevents your data from being stored anywhere in the world connected to the internet, eliminating uncertainty over data sovereignty and the laws of which nation or regional authority govern security, privacy, and disclosure.
   • Ascertain that the service provider demonstrates an exemplary approach to security by ensuring your cloud services are hosted from data centres accredited to standards such as PCI DSS, ISO 9000, ISO 27001 and ISAE. This guarantees high levels of physical as well as IT security.
   • Storing personal data of candidates creates privacy issues. When an email can be fired off in seconds with a spreadsheet of candidate details attached, misuse or unauthorised data sharing is often hard to detect. A cloud-based Hosted Desktop solution and User Activity Monitoring provide all the checks and balances to maintain compliance with the DPA.

    

3. Get a better IT system for a fixed cost and practically zero CAPEX

   Economics provide the most compelling reasons why cloud-based computing is probably the biggest business technology trend of the last decade. Quite simply, where recruitment feels the effect of a stormy economy before most other sectors, there’s little time to prepare. A downturn hits hard and fast. Consequently, reducing the cost base without compromising the ability of IT to support the business is a necessity.

   • For a typical 50 user system we can summarise the comparative costs like this:

   Typical 50 users Hosted Desktop system
   	On-premise	Cloud
   CAPEX year 1 only	£120k	£12.5k
   OPEX year 1 and recurring	£115k	£92k
   Total year 1	£240k	£114.5k
   Total years 1- 3	£470k	£390.5k

   Over three years, a cloud-based solution costs around 17% less than an on-premise IT system.

   • Migration to the cloud - moving data and users across to cloud infrastructure - has a cost to the service provider and this is indexed to the sophistication of the system and the volume of data. The more complexity and data, the more time and the greater the cost. This front-loads the cost of the cloud by many £thousands, adding a big lump onto the price.

   But, not necessarily… The best service providers take a long view and consider the lifetime value of a company subscribing to cloud services. As a result, such service providers eliminate the cost of migration and provide the service for free. Make sure you factor this in when selecting a cloud provider.

    

Who is HTL Support?

Based in the heart of London in Canary Wharf, HTL Support was incorporated in 2009 with a clear and simple vision. The Managed Services Provider is dedicated to helping businesses find successfully adopting cloud technology to transform the efficiency and reduce costs. You can find out more about our services for recruitment firms here.

To find out the facts behind the comparative costs for on-premise and cloud in the table above, contact us on 0207 093 6000.