News & Blog

Read the latest business news, blogs and thought leadership articles from our members, as well as updates on the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce's work in the city.

News & Blog

Embrace new technology to keep pace with changing workplace

Posted: 14th July 2015

More than 100 Edinburgh business people gathered for a special technology event focused on the benefits of cloud computing.

Capital Document Solutions’ IT director Kevin Lorimer was in attendance for  Scot-Cloud 2015, an annual conference designed to offer a unique forum for engagement through networking, knowledge exchange and discussion.

Organised by Scot-Tech Engagement, the event was held at the city’s Our Dynamic Earth. It welcomed business leaders and IT professionals from a wide range of private and public sector organisations, including chief technology officers, chief operating officers, IT managers and lead developers.

Key speakers included Peter Sturrock of Skyscanner, who explained the scope and scale of cloud infrastructure around the firm’s website, particularly the business benefits of scalability.

In addition, Ian Massingham of Amazon Web Services shared advice on how companies can tap into the wider expertise of the Amazon marketplace.

Scot-Cloud was an entirely ‘paperless’ event with all delegates provided with an app upon arrival, containing the delegate list along with other key information.

Kevin Lorimer said: “While cloud computing isn’t necessarily the right solution for every business, what the technology does offer is tremendous scalability, particularly for start-ups or fast-growing businesses as the level of data they are required to store securely increases significantly.

“Effectively, this means that companies can grow their infrastructure at the same pace as they grow the size of their business – without the need for any additional investment in hardware.

“For any business, regardless of size, these technologies can form part of a long-term strategy to help maximise return on IT investment. Here at Capital, we’ve been steadily increasing our use of cloud computing with the long-term objective of adopting a hybrid variation of this and other technologies across our entire business operations.

“Cloud computing has given us access to significant resources which can be turned on and off as and when the company requires. Along with enhanced data recovery and business continuity is the peace of mind that comes with access to complex infrastructure that otherwise wouldn’t be available to us.

“We are currently developing a customer portal which sits on the Microsoft Azure platform. This has resulted in significant upfront cost savings for the business; instead of an initial capital expenditure for hardware of between £10,000 and £15,000, we have paid only £40 over the first six months of development.

“As well as allowing the business to keep costs down, this technology will bring wider benefits to members of staff, either working remotely or at operations across Scotland, who will have full access to applications and programmes from wherever they log in.

“As a forward-thinking company, we fully recognise that cloud computing is here to stay; it’s then imperative that IT professionals embrace the technology as a vital means of bringing added value to businesses.”

Scot-Tech Engagement was established to allow IT professionals across Scotland to engage, network and discuss advancement in their sector via conferences and technology meetings. For further information visit: www.scot-tech.com and www.scot-cloud.com

Established in 1979, Capital Document Solutions provides a range of office document and print solutions including copiers, printers, scanners and software with comprehensive national maintenance and training support.

Scotland’s largest independent supplier of office equipment and document solutions, Capital employs 215 people at operations in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness and Shetland.

For further information visit www.capital-solutions.co.uk

Business Comment

Business Comment is the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce’s bi-monthly magazine. It provides insight on Edinburgh’s vibrant business community, with features on the city’s key sectors, interviews with leading figures and news on new business developments in the capital.
Read more here