One problem faced by all businesses, now more than ever, is budget constraints. Whilst demand for the latest IT services continues to increase, it's becoming ever more difficult to get CapEx sign off for IT projects.

Solution
No capital expenditure - all ThinkGrid's services are provided on a simple, per user, monthly subscription. This means no capital expenditure is required, all costs are transparent and predictable, and you only pay for what you use. What's more, we take advantage of our economies of scale to provide applications at a far lower price than purchasing them outright.

Most businesses want to stay up to date with the latest applications in order to benefit from their new features. However, application upgrades tend to be a very inefficient, cumbersome, management-heavy and CapEx-intensive process. Moreover, there are normally problems encountered with individual users not wanting to upgrade their applications, and therefore having to be catered for separately.

Solution
Switch to software on demand - instead of rolling out new applications when it's time to upgrade, moving to software on demand can provide a rapid and cost effective means of achieving the same end. Also, because it's not an 'all or nothing' model, if you've got individual users who are reluctant to change, they can continue using their old applications as before.

Businesses of all sizes are increasingly looking to enable remote workers, both those on the road and those wanting to work from home for some or all of their working week. This can present serious challenges to IT teams, who have to provide the platform to make this possible.

Solution
Anywhere access - because they're hosted, our on-demand applications can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, be it in the office, at home, an internet cafe or even abroad. No matter where users log on from, they can access their business applications, meaning that, from an IT standpoint, it's irrelevant where they choose to work from. And, as no data ever actually leaves our data centres, they can do so with complete IT security.

Approximately 80% of businesses that suffer a severe IT failure close within 18 months and, even without such a catastrophe, any unplanned downtime can have a huge financial impact on businesses. However, whilst this creates an obvious need for business continuity provisions, building truly resilient, n+1 IT solutions is often prohibitively expensive.

Solution
Complete security and availability - we deliver applications that are completely secure, backed-up, disaster-proof, have guaranteed availability and are supported 24/7 by dedicated teams. Because your data is no longer tied to local hardware, even in the event of theft or loss of, say, a PC, all your data is completely safe and still immediately accessible.

Many SMBs wishing to host line-of-business applications and deliver them to their users using the likes of Citrix or Terminal Services are constrained by the limitations of their own infrastructure, such as a shortage of available space or insufficient server power.

Solution
State-of-the-art hosted infrastructure - businesses can escape the limits of their in-house infrastructure by using our grid computing model - and the virtually limitless computing power it offers - to host their own specific line-of-business applications.

With so many things to focus on, it's difficult for IT teams to find the time to implement new projects. Given that new solutions require rigorous research, finding reliable partners, lengthy sign-off and procurement processes, learning new technologies, then finally installing, configuring and deploying the solution, it's hardly surprising that this can be painfully cumbersome.

Solution
Instant, agile IT - software on demand can be deployed immediately, on any scale. It doesn't require hardware investment or CapEx, nor is it necessary to worry about choosing from multiple vendors or learning any new technologies. Applications can be delivered in minutes and provide an end user experience identical to using the application locally. In addition, you might think a certain application will be of benefit to the business, but can't be sure. With ThinkGrid, instead of having to make an 'all or nothing' decision, you can simply access the application for however long you want, and either retain or remove it as you wish.

Most IT teams have to spend a disparate proportion of their time dealing with the day-to-day headaches of managing, maintaining and supporting their users' applications, leaving them too little time to concentrate on their true function of actively adding value to the business.

Solution
Let ThinkGrid do the work - software on demand means letting us take the administrational headaches of managing applications off your hands. We take care of patching, maintenance and upgrades, and all applications are supported by dedicated teams, 24/7. And it's not just standard applications that this can be used for - you may need a specific line of business app but don't have time to deploy the solution in-house. With Software On Demand, you can ease the burden on your IT team by allowing ThinkGrid to host and deliver the application for you.

Though SMBs tend to have in-house IT teams, there may be limits to their experience and expertise, particularly regarding individual applications. This means that training and familiarisation, amongst other things, have to be accounted for before any software can be deployed and properly supported.

Solution
None needed - Software On Demand allows you to take advantage of ThinkGrid's experience and expertise in delivering applications, taking the burden off your shoulders. Once delivered, our services are then SLA guaranteed and supported 24/7.

Despite not having the reach of a large enterprise, many small and medium-sized businesses have multiple offices/sites and need to maintain a consistent IT infrastructure between them. With the difficulties of mass-managing applications across disparate PCs and locations, this is a time and resource-consuming business.

Solution
Unified hosted infrastructure - among the key benefits of Software On Demand is the ease of mass-management, because the applications reside centrally yet can be accessed from anywhere, allowing you to pull together disparate locations with ease.