Benefits Of SD-WAN For Accountancy Firms

Like many sectors, accountancy has embraced cloud-based applications to increase efficiency and reduce cost. As these services place additional strain on existing WAN services, a solution is required. The numerous benefits of SD-WAN for accountancy firms can address this, with increased bandwidth, lower latency, and reduced cost being just the tip of the iceberg.

Software such as Sage, Xero & Quickbooks already have cloud-based versions, plus several other bespoke accounting tools are heading in the same direction. Firms are also expanding their use of cloud storage services, where users are accessing large files and other applications that require increased bandwidth. 

Changing times have also led to an explosion of remote-working, with virtual collaboration using tools such as WebEx, Zoom, and Office 365, requiring low latency, high bandwidth connectivity.

As a result, IT departments need to address these rapidly increasing demands while keeping within the company’s existing WAN budget. SD-WAN can enable accountancy firms to support application growth, keep their networks agile, and simplify the implementation of and optimisation for cloud services. 

Secure SD-WAN For Accountancy Firms

 

The Securus Secure SD-WAN platform allows accountancy firms to combine several types of WAN service, such as Internet lines, Private MPLS and even WiFi connectivity, to seamlessly access remote applications.

Centralised security and control is another SD-WAN attribute that can securely direct traffic across multiple private or Internet WAN links. Doing so offers numerous benefits, including increased performance, agility, and scalability, all while reducing cost.

Traditional WAN design can create unnecessary backhaul traffic, including traffic destined to Internet hosted cloud services. SD-WAN, by contrast, uses application recognition to route different traffic types such as VoIP, site-to-site application data and cloud-based SaaS services over separate WAN lines where applicable.

Can Accounting Firms Benefit from SD-WAN?

Cloud-based services are taking the accounting industry to new efficiency and productivity levels, yet this requires additional bandwidth. Centralised cloud-based systems allow accountants and clients to analyse data and make critical decisions based on the most current, accurate information. 

Whether your firm is a single site or perhaps larger with multiple offices and geographical locations, Our SD-WAN solution can provide that bandwidth whilst also lowering operational cost.

Cloud-based systems enable your IT department to continuously update network information, allowing accountants and clients to analyse data and make critical decisions based on the most current, accurate information.

The Future of Accountancy With SD-WAN

The accounting profession has seen steady, continuous growth over the last ten years. As an industry, it must meet the demand of evolving cloud technologies and the extra bandwidth they require. Doing so can lead to significant cost savings and productivity benefits if adopted efficiently. 

Automation, adaptive intelligence (AI), and machine learning are all part of the SD-WAN model. Our focus here is how SD-WAN provides a robust network through which all of these technologies work in unison.

AI technology is relatively new, though your firm may already use basic automated accounting processes to increase efficiencies. For example, accounting firms often use machine learning for tasks such as accounts payable, audits, purchasing, procurements, and expense management. Other tasks include supplier onboarding, close processing, and customer requests and inquiries. When these tasks become automated, humans can focus on analytical work, which is the heart of the accounting industry.

10 Benefits of SD-WAN for Accountancy Firms

Below are ten benefits of SD-WAN for accountancy firms explained in greater detail that the Securus Secure SD-WAN platform can offer.

1. Cost Saving

As accounting firms move towards cloud-based applications, bandwidth requirements of WAN services also increase, as does operating costs. With SD-WAN, firms can decrease those costs by leveraging multiple low-cost local Internet lines for all their bandwidth needs.

Another cost-saving comes when switching to SD-WAN from fully private Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) connectivity. When using Internet connectivity (or a combination of Internet and Private WAN), SD-WAN reduces the company’s reliance on those expensive lines. At the same time, it increases application performance and in many instances, actually improves SLA’s.

2. Resilience

SD-WAN’s resiliency comes from its ability to run WAN services simultaneously over multiple links (either Internet, MPLS, or both). This resilience reduces potential network downtime, minimising productivity losses. WAN outages are detected in real-time and automatically switched over to working links, keeping the network running smoothly, with little to no interruption.

Further, SD-WAN supports various secure, high-performance connections, enabling the network to share the load across all those connections. Such flexibility allows the network to adjust to fluctuating traffic flows based on network conditions. As a result, network conditions remain at peak performance, with resiliency that far surpasses traditional WAN networks.

3. Flexibility

The resiliency mentioned above leads to the next benefit of SD-WAN, agile and flexible networking. This flexibility offers accountants and other staff, including IT administrators greater operational control over networking technologies. 

With SD-WAN, the admin user portal allows more operational control and greater visibility of network performance. With these, they can make additions, moves, and other changes quickly and immediately. Traditional MPLS services, for example, are not as flexible.

4. Efficiency of Data

Such efficiencies apply to data as well as connectivity. SD-WAN changes how accountancy firms set up and manage their data usage. The rapid growth of cloud and hybrid cloud deployments have transformed data management across all industries, and accounting is no different. 

SD-WAN plays a critical role in that it gives IT departments the flexibility to execute and manage data infrastructures as needed. From there, SD-WAN allows them to quickly scale (greater or smaller) as business growth demands.

5. Scalability

As your business grows, your network will need to keep up. WAN bandwidth requirements can escalate quickly. Never has it been easier for an accountancy firm to add a new domestic or global location to the network. Often, these networks can be online within days using zero-touch configuration.

SD-WAN can work over existing network connectivity, enabling you to get new offices and branches up and running quickly. You can do so using whichever type of branch connectivity is available, whether broadband or even MPLS. 

6. Simplicity

SD-WAN simplifies the deployment and management of networking services while maintaining high levels of flexibility and cost-effectiveness. While your accountancy branches may vary in size and complexity, managing them, even remotely, remains simplified.

SD-WAN not only simplifies monitoring as well as deployment and operations. With it, you can enable application acceleration and network upgrades with no downtime. The network operates with aggregates of multiple network paths that include Internet, wireless, and MPLS technologies, yet provides control from a single location. 

The benefits that come along with this are automatic fail-over and dynamic path selection. Altogether, such simplicity of control leads to improved efficiencies and overall enhanced end-user experience. 

7. Ease of Provisioning

As mentioned, SD-WAN allows new sites to be provisioned quickly and set up using zero-touch provisioning. SD-WAN’s centralised management and configuration templates ensure that these provisions deploy ‘right first time’.

Using such templates reduces the time required to install secure communication services. With SD-WAN, secure connectivity is achieved in minutes rather than days or weeks. Teams can establish services from messaging to video collaboration and file sharing for a new site almost instantly. 

8. Reduced Data Complexity

While SD-WAN handles multiple, complex systems and applications, yet lowers the overall complexity of WAN services. Technology continually evolves, and SD-WAN due to its dynamic and straightforward nature is quickly and easily able to adapt, especially when compared to traditional WAN services.

WAN infrastructure is simplified, which enables IT to off-load non-critical business apps, automate monitoring tasks, and manage network traffic through the SD-WAN centralised controller. All these features free up IT resources as well as enhance security within the local and remote LAN.

9. Enhanced Security Features

SD-WAN’s robust cloud-enabled architecture enables it to maintain secure data communication because it deploys an additional security overlay to a provider-independent infrastructure. This security layer accommodates an accounting firm’s need to secure its clients’ private information and adhere to relevant compliance and regulatory requirements.

SD-WAN also allows crystal clear application data visibility of site-to-site, data centre, and SaaS/Cloud-based applications then apply network-wide security policies and cloud security services wherever appropriate. This extends the WAN perimeter from the cloud to the local branch. Standard IPsec encryption provides end-to-end security from branches to data centres.

10. Centralised Management

SD-WAN’s network management is entirely centralised. Using the SD-WAN portal, your IT team can create templates that allow you to replicate routing policies and other configuration throughout an accounting firm’s entire network, at each location, including home offices for remote employees. 

Aside from making setup a smooth process, SD-WAN centralises config changes and effortlessly pushes updates across the entire network. In addition to updates, SD-WANs simplify network automation through web-based consoles, which helps network administrators detect network changes and execute necessary new configurations or modifications. 

Through these same consoles, administrators can also configure and deploy hybrid WAN links when needed, regardless of the type of connectivity that is in use.

Conclusion

The benefits of SD-WAN are numerous, and accountancy firms that still rely on legacy WAN services should begin the transition. The Securus Secure SD-WAN platform is a secure, dynamic, cloud-based infrastructure that enhances performance, fortifies security, and increases agility, all the while lowering operating costs.

SD-WAN adapts to cloud applications seamlessly and offers organisations consistently high performance, visibility, and centralised control over the entire network using zero-touch deployment and single-console control centres. 

Finally, SD-WAN is easily scalable and enables your network to expand along with your business. Accountants, supporting personnel, and accounting firm network administrators all benefit from these dynamic and cost-effective features. Please get in touch to discuss your networking requirements in more detail. We offer a completely free consultation with one of our technology experts to fully go over your precise needs.

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