Tactiv’s government and not for profit clients all benefit from our successful cloud software, Enquire. Enquire delivers streamlined administration, reporting automation and online capability to improve grant, contract and project management.
In 2012 Tactiv began as major project to offer Enquire as a contract, grant and project management system via the cloud. After over a year on our new cloud environment Enquire, and its clients, have successfully enjoyed unlimited access, near perfect uptime, secure data backups, multiple software updates and upgrades and no storage charges or limits on project volumes.
What is the Cloud?
Cloud services are simply the provision of software, hosting and other IT applications or platforms delivered from a vast interconnected server and data warehouse. In a cloud environment 10, 100 or 1000 servers all behave as one system offering vast storage and processing capability.
Data is stored efficiently across clusters of hard drives and the account simply represents a virtual presence within this vast environment. Network access is provided via a very high quality and fast internet connection and all data is encrypted to ensure the highest level of security.
Some facts and figures
Cloud services are still a relatively new technology for site hosting, development and application delivery, but with industry leaders including IBM, Microsoft, HP and Amazon cloud services have grown massively in reach and popularity.
In 2013 global spending on cloud services was expected to reach $47 billion and grow to more than $107 billion in 2017, according to a new forecast from International Data Corporation. This is an annual compound growth rate of 23.5%, five times that of the IT industry.
Cloud services are also quickly attracting more converts too. In KPMG?s latest study of cloud adoption, 70% of organisations believe that cloud services deliver operating efficiencies and cost savings.
Already governments, businesses and the not-for-profit sector are realising benefits from cloud services. The benefits will accelerate as new approaches, innovations and maturity in the market delivers new opportunities for cloud services that more easily support and improve how organisations meet challenges, deliver and perform.
Tactiv Migrates to the Cloud
Tactiv’s Enquire is a cloud based software as a service hosted on the industry’s largest and most successful company, Amazon Web Services (AWS). In August 2013 Gartner placed AWS as the clear leader in their Magic Quadrant for cloud infrastructure, and Forrester Research also noted that AWS is among the leaders.
Already cloud based services are growing so fast that they have become a standard platform and part of many organisations. By 2016 it is forecasted that 46% of all IT spending will be for cloud-related platforms and applications. (Enterprise Architecture and Accenture Cloud Computing Presentation)
Small and large organisations are choosing cloud based options. Gartner predicts that the majority of all new IT related spending by 2016 will be related to cloud services, with nearly half of all large enterprises having cloud deployments by the end of 2017.
Already a large proportion of small and medium sized organisations are effectively using cloud services, such as document storage and email, plus increasingly a variety of business applications, from accounting software to training systems.
How Tactiv’s Clients Benefit
Enquire’s cloud environment hosts all aspects of our grant, contract and project management software application. From this virtual space Enquire is available to all clients without any local copies, local licenses or local implementation nor additional IT assets. Instead our clients require only a common web browser and internet connection.
Unlike dedicated hosting or shared hosting accounts, which both rely on a single purchased or leased server, cloud environments do not rely on a single physical machine. This eliminates a variety of constraints and costs while increasing our flexibility.
At anytime Enquire can grow as needed without impact on performance. Growth can be ramped up instantly, without expensive server upgrades to improve processing speed or purchase of costly additional storage.
Additionally Enquire’s cloud service relies on the industry’s best quality connections to the internet for the fastest bandwidth possible as well as supporting unlimited traffic volumes.
There are also other direct benefits of our cloud approach for our clients. Tactiv clients have no need to host a local version of Enquire, support a server or any IT infrastructure, upgrade equipment or expend IT resources on support issues.
Enquire is automatically kept up-to-date, and all data is securely encrypted and stored for easy access anytime and anywhere.
Our clients do not face any restrictions on how much they use Enquire, how many projects are managed, how many documents they save or how much storage they use. Likewise they do not need to worry about how much traffic their grant programs, or projects attract. The Enquire monthly license fee includes all of these considerations along with our help and support. With this certainty Enquire clients can easily plan monthly expenses, and simply forecast their annual costs.
Cloud services are here to stay and offer great potential opportunities and advantages to service providers and clients. Enquire’s migration to a new cloud-based software service has already been successful offering our clients the most secure, highly responsive and flexible option in the market.
Tactiv continues to create and develop leading innovations to ensure Enquire will develop and grow. Our clients will continually be supported to take advantage of new opportunities offered by this technology as it becomes the new industry standard.
Looking for more information on Enquire and our cloud based software as a service? Contact Tactiv.
