Issue link: https://www.viewpoint.com/resource-library/i/1143217
Moving Vista to the cloud took an enormous IT burden off of Atkinson. "Time is money — for me not to have to worry about constant maintenance of the servers and software updates internally, it's much less time and less stress for me," he said. "It's basically buying out my stress." The added security and data backup capability of the cloud provided additional peace of mind. Should a disaster or other incident occur, business will not be interrupted as data is protected. "If something goes wrong, we're protected," Atkinson said. "And I know we can get back up and running quickly." It isn't just the IT operations that benefitted. Atkinson said moving to the cloud has significantly boosted the productivity of users and the business as a whole. For example, the company used to employ project secretaries tasked with drafting, managing and distributing subcontracts on projects. Sometimes in excess of 60 pages each, it could be a struggle to effectively produce three a day. Now through Vista, Atkinson & Associates can produce even more detailed contracts, manage them efficiently through automated workflows and share them out in real time to all relevant parties — all at a fraction of the time. "I could pump out 20 a day if I wanted," Atkinson said. "That's where we've seen some nice cost savings. I've actually eliminated the position of project secretaries at our companies." I like the ability to log in anywhere, from any computer. If you have to run out the door, you can grab your laptop and just log right back in to where you left off. Everything is just where you left it. — George "Junior" Atkinson, Vice President, Atkinson & Associates RESULTS