The proper hosting plan for your business will produce several things that are cost prohibitive for your business.
Back Up - Proper hosting requires on site back ups through a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID). The RAID backup programming prevents data loss due to a hard drive crash. Additionally, your hosting plan will back-up servers off site so that you will not lose more than 24 hours of data in the event of a catastrophe. Redundant back-ups cost money, someone else's system used on a subscription (SAAS) basis reduces your capital expenses.
Security - Using an ACT! Hosting plan reduces the amount of 3rd Party Hardware your customer's information will pass through. This reduces your security footprint, and reduces the chance of breach of privacy. Your costs increase as you have to ensure security on your hardware, website hosting plans, and more.
Physical security - An ACT! hosting plan has to meet physical security requirements. These requirements are easier to provide on scale, and create value for your business that would require an inordinate amount of capital.
Customer support - Building an in-house solution requires you to pay technical support to do on-site repairs. Most hosting services provide free or cheap customer support for your users' end and do all their in-house technical support on the back-end hassle free (on your part).
History - Any endeavor takes time to learn. An ACT! certified partner has shown 6 months of successful hosting via customer recommendations. Your business gains value by using a hosting service for your ACT! CRM software because you gain that experience.
Adequate hardware - With all the experience, backup, security and system requirements required to be an ACT! hosting provider, your business gets substantial gains in the time it takes for trial and error on your own systems. This increases value while decreasing costs to you, since you do not have to upgrade any of your own hardware.
Gold Cost Advisors offers certified ACT! hosting. Please contact us for more information on how a hosting plan can work for your business.
To talk more about your ACT!, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks.
