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Why have a hosted virtual desktop flexiDesk® from 404®?

If you’ve still not got to grips with what a “hosted virtual desktop” is, don’t worry, as it took me a long time to get my head around.

Here’s a short article (for the non-techy) to help you.

There are already a few companies out there doing hosted virtual desktops.

They might call them something different, or brand them, like we have – the flexiDesk® – but they are all basically different flavours of the same concept.

It’s already much bigger in the US than it is here – we are about two years behind the States, where larger organisations (even with thousands of users) have adopted this way of doing IT.  The market here is still small but growing, although after the Netherlands, we are the biggest European adopter so far.

So why are organisations changing the way they “do” and buy IT.  Well, it is because there is a compelling event.  What do I mean by  “compelling event”?  Well, try these:

• you’re not happy with your current IT provider for whatever reason
• you’re frustrated with the lack of budget-ability (you’re reviewing your company accounts and that IT line is again over budget)
• you need to hire freelancers rather than employ people but you want these guys to be connected to the core stuff of the company
• your server has fallen over (it’s old, it happens) and the PCS are rickety too and you can’t face the outlay of new kit
• you can’t afford an in-house IT department any longer (times are hard, there’s a recession on out there you know)
• you want to enable home-working to give staff more flexibility
• you’re on Windows XP and you know that time is running out
• your organisation is undergoing an environmental or a sustainability review for accreditation needs or ethical reasons

Our job at 404® is to find companies that have this kind of “compelling event” as we are here to help.

As are other companies too, who offer the same as us.  So why 404®?  What’s so special about us?

• Well, what I believe is our USP is that are we are human, first and foremost.  We have a way of doing things simply and in a non technical way.  Having been a “victim” of IT in a former “life” I feel very passionate about this.  The decision makers in any organisation are most often non-technical people, they want simple solutions, simple pricing, billing, contracts, budgetability and all that jazz.

• On a technical level I believe our offering is beautiful.  We have gone for the upper end approach.  We want our desktop to be top end experience.  Yes, there are cheaper versions (in fact we can offer a flexiDesk® Basic) but we’ve majored on the top of the range experience.  Now unless you try it you wouldn’t know what I’m talking about – it’s like a top of the range car as opposed to the basic model, you need to see and feel the difference. But I’ll try and put it into words.  Our guys have worked tirelessly with a fabulous company called Point to Point to architect and build an “infrastructure” (servers, virtual servers and wizardry) so that the way you work now will not change at all, just that it’s achieved without you owning any hardware, software, or licenses.  Other more basic models may mean that things you’re used to now could be lost.  Here are a couple of simple examples.  Say you like your toolbar on the left going vertically down the page, so you put it there, and you like the desktop to have a photo of your summer holiday.  Well, with a “lesser” version you wouldn’t get that.  Another thing, you know when you send an email to someone and you start writing their name in the “to” field and your computer picks up on a range of people you’ve emailed in the past and you then click on the one you want.  Well, that would go too.

• Another reason is our System Profiling service.  We don’t want to just sell to you without really understanding the needs of your business and how your current IT is set up and how virtual desktops could work for you.   At the end of System Profiling, we may need to shake hands and walk away from the business because a virtual desktop is not the answer to your needs.  We take a consultative approach rather than just set you up with something for the sake of selling.

So there you have it.  Still not clear, not a problem!  Let us know so we can explain it better and amend the article to make it clearer still. 

Jo Radcliffe

Co-Founder of 404 team Ltd who is passionate about bringing colour, clarity and budget-ability to businesses' experience of IT.