Online Hosting--Is It Right For Your Business?

What to know about online hosting for a distributor?

406.255.9500 | TIMSSOFTWARE.COM/INDUSTRIAL

ONLINE HOSTING—

IS IT RIGHT FOR YOUR BUSINESS?

A GUIDE FOR INDEPENDENT DISTRIBUTORS

byGayleSmith

TIMSSOFTWARE.COM/INDUSTRIAL | 406.255.9500

Introduction | Are You Ready to Take a Leap?

Chapter 1 | What You Need to Know

Section 1: What is a Hosted Solution?

Section 2: Hosted vs. Non-Hosted

Chapter 2 | Weighing Your Costs

Section 3: ROI

Chapter 3 | TIMS Online Hosting

Section 4: Let Us Lift You to the Cloud

Section 5: How Does TIMS Online Hosting Work?

Chapter 4 | Take the Worry Away

Section 6: How Secure is Secure?

Section 7: Your ERP Resolution

TABLEOF CONTENTS



IT costs associated with it.

Are You Ready to Take a Leap to the Cloud?

I’m sure you’ve already asked yourself, “What

exactly is the cloud anyway?” Basically, cloud computing is

storing data over the Internet instead of on your computer’s

server system. The cloud enables you to use data from one

device to another via the Internet.

Let’s say you own a Kindle® eReader. The cloud enables

you to read an eBook from your Kindle, continue reading

the same eBook on your laptop, and pick up where you

left off on your smart phone. More importantly, the cloud

provides secure data backup for your business. An onsite

server becomes a thing of the past for you, as does the expensive IT costs associated with it.



CHAPTER

What You Need to Know About Online Hosting

1


When you switch from an on premise solution to an

online hosting solution in the cloud, your computer system no

longer works from your onsite system as it doesn’t need to. All

of your data and applications are stored at a data center. Your

company is assigned space on a file server, which acts as a

common collection point, which in turn is shared by all your

PC users. If and when you decide to make the change from

your current system to an online hosting solution, it’s critical to

choose a hosting service that fits your business, and

secondly, to make certain

that it is a company

you can trust.

What Is a Hosted Solution?1


2

HOSTED NON-HOSTED

Security

Fixed Costs

Data Protection

Reliable Network

Nightly Back-Ups

Eliminate Expensive Hardware

99.9% Network Uptime

No Maintenance

No Administration Costs

No More Emergency Calls to IT

Data is Always Backed Up, Protected & Accessible

Expert 24/7 Monitoring

Installation Fees

Hardware Costs

Maintenance

Services

Support

Data Loss

Unexpected IT Costs

Human Error

Computer Crashes

Malware Infections

Mounting Expenses

Productivity Lost During Downtime

Paying a Hard Drive Recovery Service



CHAPTER

Weighing Your Costs

2


Of course there are costs associated with both methods. Some

businesses are happy with the way things are and the way their

server is working. If you have some doubts or maybe you have

a system that will need to be replaced soon, ask yourself the

following questions:

ROI 3


And, what about data protection? No one likes to talk about it,

let alone think about it, but protecting your business’s data as

well as your customers’ data from viruses and power outages

or other natural disasters is clearly a critical issue for you.

What’s it really

costing me to run

my own in-house

system?

If my system

crashes, so does

productivity.

What’s that costing

me?

Are my employees

backing up my

company data?Do I have a crash

recovery plan in

place?

What about

unexpected

setbacks?What about ROI?

How old is my hard

drive system?



CHAPTER

TIMS Online Hosting

3


How important to you is peace of mind? You’ll have

complete security and reliability of your hosted data, plus a

significant decrease of daily systems management. Our experts

become your experts—monitoring the facility, the network, and

the computer system around the clock. We’ll take care of

managing the system, so you can focus on running your

business.

Instead of having unforeseen IT costs, with TIMS Online

Hosting, you’ll have a much smaller upfront investment, a low

monthly service fee that is affordable, and more importantly,

it is predictable because it becomes a fixed cost. You’ll be able

to log on to the system from day one knowing that your data is

automatically backed up. Application support and training are

just a phone call away.

Let Us Lift You to the Cloud4


No worries! TIMS Online Hosting handles virtually all of your computer

server requirements from our state of the art data center.

Equipped with fiber-optic and microwave connections, generator

and battery backup and redundant cooling systems, our data

center assures a completely stable and efficient system. For an

automated solution to store your valuable data offsite, we have

partnered with Dakota Backup® which means your TIMS data is always

protected. Online data is stored at SAS 70 Type II compliant

top-notch facilities and transfers are secure with military grade

encryption.

5 Here’s How TIMS Online Hosting Works



CHAPTER 4

Take the Worry Away


| Full-time facility monitoring—24 hours a day, seven days a

week, 365 days a year.

| Protective firewall using Cisco® routers prevent the system

from being breached by outsiders.

| Your system environment and database are entirely isolated,

self-contained and not shareable.

| We take care of license renewals. This equals no hassles for

| Nightly data backups with off-site tape storage and top-notch

security. We guarantee that your data is safe and secure at all

times.

| For superior and reliable performance, TIMS Online Host

is powered by the latest HP® Servers running Microsoft®

Windows Server and Microsoft® SQL Server.

How Secure is Secure?6

you.

ing



Full-Time Facility Monitoring—24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Stringent Security

TIMS Online Hosting safeguards

your information with three layers of

security via a secured socket layer

(SSL) and/or VPN. | Automatic Software Updates

Comprehensive in-house

analysis and beta tests

precede every automatic

software update to TIMS

Online Hosting, ensuring your

system is up-to-date

and delivering optimal

performance.

|



Your ERP Answer

Along with Online Hosting, TIMS Software is the premium

ERP software solution for gas and welding supply

distributors. Available features include fully integrated

cylinder tracking/management; order processing for gases,

hard goods and rental equipment; inventory/warehouse

management; truck routing/dispatching; electronic vendor

price updates; EDI; document imaging; point of delivery;

integrated eCommerce; mobile computing and powerful

data analysis.

It’s That Secure.


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Online Hosting--Is It Right For Your Business?

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