According to a U.S. Census Bureau report released in Oct. ’11, cell phone and tablet subscriptions (326.7 million) outnumbered people living in this country (312.4 million). The number may grow 40 times within the next four years. New technology results in a greater demand for storage space and devices. As a result, storage processes and devices needed to be simplified. Fortunately, cloud computing solves that.

What is cloud computing? Imagine all your documents, photos, music, and videos on your PC synced to your tablet and all your mobile devices. Now imagine accessing all of your files and data via the Internet at any time from anywhere. Cloud computing provides people the ability to develop and edit information in real-time and share it with anyone that the user desires. People have already begun using cloud computing without realizing it. Cloud computing pioneers like Google and Apple have offered cloud features and services like Google Docs and iCloud to its clients for a while. 

I propose cloud computing presents a bright future not only for consumers but also for businesses. Niche service industries, as such, could share client information through the cloud to offer a better client experience. If one of the businesses is unable to give a service for any reason, another vendor with the same service credentials can be contacted for replacement without presenting any inconvenience to the client. Businesses can work together to meet a common goal: exceeding customer satisfaction.

One of the most important features of the cloud is eliminating redundant information. People fill out and share the same information repeatedly. Think of several times you filled out a form that asked for your name and contact information. With the cloud, a person is able to fill in that information one time and distribute it to anyone that needs it without having to re-write it. So, for instance, the next time you are in the emergency room, if you have cloud access, you will spend little to no time in the lobby filling a new patient form and instead you’ll spend that time receiving care.

Another cloud computing feature prevents miscommunication and information loss. Can you think of the number of times you have sent out an urgent e-mail only to discover your client or partner never received it?  Maybe you sent it to the wrong person or maybe it was the wrong e-mail address. With the cloud, a history of information between two or more parties is kept, making each party accountable for his own work.

Data mining is simple but it’s problematic to translate it and make it useful for business. With instant feedback from customers, businesses are able to see patterns quickly. If a customer submits feedback that he is experiencing a problem with a product or service, and the following day another client submits the same feedback, a business is able to pull all feedback and form a file that has that same problem. Businesses are then able to develop products and services to solve that problem faster.

I have spent the last year developing Bowtie Turtle, a cloud computing service, for my own clients and wedding professionals. I created Bowtie Turtle to help my own clients and colleagues manage their weddings, which I do with PhotOlé Photography. As a business owner, I often found myself asking all of my clients for the same information. I realized that my colleagues were doing the same thing. This means my clients were providing the same information to roughly 10 other businesses just to create one wedding. To put this in perspective, my clients would have filled out the same information: bride’s name, groom’s name, wedding date, bride’s address, groom’s address, ceremony, reception, with their officiant, videographer, florist, DJ, hair salon, caterer, etc. 10 times in a row to 10 different vendors. As a business owner, this created clutter and more work for me because their personal information kept piling up in my office, at home and in bank safes and I ran out of places to store it all.

To make sure that I meet my clients’ needs and all of us are on the same page, I get together with them at least three times before their big day. Together, we review and edit contact information, schedules, and locations. My clients would end up meeting with other wedding vendors to do the same thing.  On average, a couple will meet their vendors 20 times before their wedding day. This means my couples would meet with all their vendors a total of 200 times. This leads to duplicate and lost information.   

Through this process I discovered many important details about my past clients: information I could have used to solve problems they were experiencing. One of the most important facts I learned about my clients was that when they hired me it was their first wedding and they needed help and guidance on putting other aspects of their day together. Many times, after I had already completed the job, I realized that I could have provided other services they needed or could have directed them to a trusted professional in a specific field which means greater selling opportunities and referral fees were missed resulting in less revenue for my business.

Today, Bowtie Turtle allows couples and their vendors to understand all the aspects of wedding details. They will no longer carry binders packed with contracts, magazine cut outs, and seating charts. Instead, couples fill out their contact information from the comfort of their home once. Then when a bride finds the perfect wedding dress, hairstyle or theme in a magazine, she snaps a picture with her cell phone or tablet and sends it to her profile where her bridal shop, beauty salon, and wedding coordinator can see what she wants. By the time couples arrive for their trials and fittings, the vendors already know exactly what they need. Any last-minute RSVP responses are added, edited, and sent to the venue or caterer hours before the wedding. The florist, DJ and photographer know what time they can set up because the venue has sent out a message to every vendor in advance.

In my experience, I predict cloud computing will change the way people store, manage, and share information and it is directly impacting the future of my business. If it is impacting mine I predict it will also revolutionize others.

Cloud computing is what is important now.

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