In the past, the term “in the cloud” may have brought to mind images of someone out of touch with reality. Today, in the cloud often refers to cloud computing, a general term for the delivery of hosted services over the internet. Plus, cloud computing promises several attractive benefits for businesses and end users. 

 

• Self-service – end users can use resources almost any where and on-demand

• Collaboration – a way to share and co-author documents and files

• Elasticity – companies can easily scale up or down to meet demands

• Pay per use – allows users to pay only for what they use

 

And it is simply a wise business decision to delegate manual processes to someone else, so that you can focus on tasks that need more of your creative juices. Here are a few ways you can save time through cloud collaboration.

 

Get your head in the cloud

Yes, you read that correctly! Don’t worry; we’re not asking your staff to start daydreaming about their next vacation. We mean cloud computing – the concept of accessing data and computer services and software from the Internet. Today, almost every software application can be accessed from any computer or mobile device with an Internet connection. This allows your entire team the ability to stay updated on their projects, no matter where they are. 

 

For example, let’s say your sales team is usually out in the field, calling on their clients who are scattered across a particular region. Each sales person needs to update the same document to keep the rest of the team informed. In instances like this, tools like Google Docs are fantastic for collaboration. With shared document settings, your sales team can share and update documents with ease. Security settings allow you to give access to the people you want, and restrict access from the people you don’t.

 

Google Docs Add-on: Mail My Doc™

Cloud computing can be a huge help with your direct mail projects and daily correspondence, too. Click2Mail offers a service specifically for Google Docs that allows users to have documents printed and mailed to virtually any address in the world.

 

With Mail My Doc™ add-on for Google Docs, you can have any document printed overnight, prepped, and mailed the next day via First Class Mail. Users have the option of sending a postcard or letter-sized document, and can mail it to a single address or to an entire mailing list – by inputting the addresses manually, importing them from your contacts, or uploading from a list. You couldn’t ask for a simpler solution for collaboration!