As a managed cloud services provider, we intend to share the basic education and benefits of the new Windows 365 enterprise cloud PC. This series is specific to the mortgage and lending industry on how we can leverage the benefits of Microsoft 365 to scale your operation without purchasing expensive computer hardware.
The Challenge
Traditionally firms would recruit a team of 20 loan officers, write a check for $30,000 to purchase computer hardware, and then have an IT team assemble and ship the equipment. If the loan officers leave, the firm has to pay for return shipping labels and has hours of work to retrieve the equipment. Once returned the IT team wipes and rebuilds the computers for another deployment, creating an endless cycle of admin work that cuts into profits and makes scaling that much harder.
The Solution
Thankfully new tools have become available in the Microsoft 365 small business suite, including the new Windows 365 enterprise cloud PC. This solution turns the $30,000 hardware investment into a $700 per month operational expense. When paired with Microsoft 365 apps for enterprise, power tools like AzureAD and Intune allow us to automate the onboarding of new loan officers. Automation strategies can include:
- Automatically installing OneDrive, Teams, Encompass, Adobe, and the Microsoft Office suite.
- Setting the default browser with favorites to commonly used websites.
- Saving training guides on the desktop.
In this model, all the cloud managed services provider needs to support is the loan officers ability to connect to the Cloud PC. And because the IT team can update Microsoft 365 remotely, the loan officer will always have the latest and greatest each time they connect to the Cloud PC.
The Loan Officer’s Experience
- Users goes to a website and logs in with their email and password.
- They are logged into their Cloud PC with up to 3 monitors.
- Once inside the cloud PC they can access all their tools and software.
Final Thoughts On Cloud PCs and Microsoft 365
When you look at the big picture there is no doubt that integrated cloud services like Microsoft 365 is a complete solution for your business. You can even make Microsoft Teams your phone system to further streamline your operation. And don’t forget, reporting services are one of the cloud characteristics that make Microsoft 365 for small business worth it. For example, you can run reports on Cloud PC, email, Teams, and phone call usage. This gives management data to analyze when discussing the right time to hire additional operations staff. It also gives sales leaders tools to identify winning behavior from your top sales associates and easy talking points when loan officers are not hitting their numbers.
