Cloud software, often called SaaS for software as a service, is a program you reach through a web browser. The vendor runs it on its own computers and you pay to use it, instead of installing it on a machine in your office.
With cloud software, the program and your data live on the vendor’s servers, the powerful computers it keeps in a data center. You open a browser, log in, and the work happens over the internet. There is nothing to install and no server of your own to buy, run, or back up.
The vendor handles the upkeep: the updates, the security patches, the backups, and the hardware. New features show up on their own. Because the work lives online, you and your office can reach the same up-to-date numbers from any device with a login, whether that is the front desk, the truck, or the kitchen table at night.
For a fuel business, the draw is steady cost and one less thing to maintain. You pay a monthly or yearly fee rather than a large sum up front for a server and the person to mind it. The trade is that you depend on the vendor and on a working internet connection, so a serious operator weighs the vendor’s security and uptime before signing.
In useThe jobber dropped its old office server and moved to cloud software, so the owner can pull up the day’s invoices from a phone at the terminal.
See also Back office, ERP