Spa Business

How Your Spa Management Software Can Decrease Your IT Team's Workload

There are many considerations when choosing a spa software. Among these is whether to choose a software solution that operates on-premise or on the cloud.

Security is one reason to choose the cloud. Time and money saved is another.

Research has repeatedly found that cloud solutions do save businesses both time and money. One study, for example, found that out of 1,300 companies surveyed, 88% of cloud users said they experienced significant cost savings, while 56% had seen an increase in profits.  

Among the cost benefits of cloud computing is a significant reduction in the workload of the IT department – which also means savings for the property as a whole. Research by Computer Economics, as reported by Acumatica, found that on average, “cloud users spend 21% less on IT as a percentage of revenue and 16% less on IT on a per-user basis.” The same research found that cloud solutions reduced the cost of IT personnel from 42.3% of the total IT operational spend to 30.9%.

In fact, one thing we consistently hear at Book4Time is that our software solution reduces the workload of the IT department. If your software isn’t doing that for you, there’s a problem.

Here are five ways your spa management software should be decreasing your IT team’s workload.

1. Less time troubleshooting and problem solving.

With on-premise solutions IT staff is commonly called upon to trouble shoot and solve problems. If an on-premise solution goes offline, for example, it falls on IT to fix the issue. We all know this pain, right? Problems can take hours, even days to resolve, which costs you in time and can also mean lost revenue. With a cloud solution, a dedicated team is there to solve these issues for you. Not only does Book4Time boast 99.9% uptime, our customer service response is renowned. We’ve been told that other software companies may leave you hanging for hours or even days, which negates any benefit of offloading the work. Moreover, your employees should not be spending time installing hardware and software that can be taken care of by a cloud-based computing solution.

2. Disaster recovery is quicker.

In areas prone to volatile weather and natural disasters, like where many resorts are located, entire systems can be knocked offline by circumstances beyond control. With a cloud-based solution like Book4Time, you can rest assured that getting your system back online is not dependent on local rebuilding and repairs. Your system won’t be the last thing to get fixed.

3. Upgrades are not your problem.

All computer systems need regular upgrades which can be a big part of your IT team’s workload. With a cloud-based system, upgrades are taken care of for you. Moreover, you won’t have to deal with digital debt, which is where things get more serious. If your on-premise solution is not upgraded in tandem with your existing interface, property management system, and payment gateway, these will no longer sync and interact correctly. Once this happens, the problem is more complicated to correct and in the interim it can cost you. For example, if a customer checks out, you may realize too late that your systems aren’t communicating and lose that payment. Meanwhile, the customer is long gone.

4. Increased security.

Security breaches are a nightmare. Traditionally, it falls to an IT Team to ensure that these don’t happen and to clean up the mess when they do. Cloud-based solutions makes breaches less likely. Book4Time is also dedicated to ensuring your system is PCI, HIPAA, PIPA and GDPR compliant.

5. More time for innovation.

Using a cloud-based solution frees up the IT department’s time to focus on other things.. Being called upon to constantly upgrade and troubleshoot systems does not lend itself to creation and innovation. Taking that all off the table changes everything.

If your IT department is still spending time on upgrades, fixes, and security concerns, it’s time to reconsider your setup so they can devote time to more important things. This is good news for your spa business. We can all do greater things when we’re not bogged down by minutiae and everyday tasks.

Innovation inspires innovation. Upgrade today.

The editorial staff had no role in this post's creation.