Lately there has been a trend among companies, no matter what size and maturity, toward the use of so-called “virtual” teams. Driven perhaps by rising office and energy costs, maturity of computing and network technologies, talent scarcity, or simply the opportunity to realize increased efficiency,  this has resulted in the adoption of flexible work arrangements for some employees including flexible time and working from home – or even from remote locations in different time zones.

Along with this trend has come the need to support this new way of working. A wealth of options exists—from virtual team spaces and online collaborative tools to more advanced communication devices such as smartphones and tablets. Here are a few examples.

For teams working at the same time but from different locations:

• Conferencing applications—via telephone or video
• Shared workspaces and whiteboards
• Instant messaging
• Wireless communication devices

For teams working at different times but in the same place:

• Team rooms
• Intranets

For teams working at different times and from different places:

• Extranets
• Virtual Private Networks
• E-mail/Groupware
• Message boards
• Blogs and knowledgebase tools

With the right tools, work can happen any time and from any place. Interested? Get in touch with us and find out more.

You’re probably aware of the benefits of a client-server network—but are you prepared to handle the maintenance? If not, you may want to consider Managed Services.

According to a Forbes study, client-server networks help small businesses extend their geographic reach, find new customers, and increase revenues while maintaining or decreasing costs—and as a result, employees at small businesses using client-server networks perform 20 percent more revenue-producing tasks.

However, installing and maintaining such a network isn’t easy. It requires you to stay on top of the latest technology, monitor backups, and troubleshoot problems.

The traditional method of installing and maintaining a client-server network is to hire a staff of IT professionals to do the work, but this may not be realistic for small or even mid-sized businesses not be able to afford a dedicated IT staff.

Outsourcing may be a cost-effective way to solve this problem. If you want to outsource, you could hire an IT company to set up your client-server network, then wait for the network to break down before calling the IT company to perform the repair.

Or, you could consider Managed Services. With Managed Services, an IT company monitors your network to ensure performance and troubleshoot problems before they get out of hand. And in the unlikely event that something goes wrong, you’ll have qualified professionals on call to come to the rescue. Moreover, your support costs should be approximately the same as if you were paying for reactive support—but your network’s performance and reliability will be significantly higher.

So why spend time and money running a network when both can be better spent running your business? Consider Managed Services for you client-server network maintenance.

First, let’s review business continuity planning, which is simply the creation and validation of a plan for how your business will recover critical activities after an extended disruption, such as a disaster.

Business impact analysis is one of the first steps in creating a business continuity plan in that it simply seeks to identify your business’s exposure to a sudden disruption of critical activities.

How do you conduct a business impact analysis? Many resources, including templates, are available. Let’s review the basic steps.

First, when looking at your firm’s activities and the cost of their loss during a business disruption, you’ll want to be sure you consider both financial costs and non-financial costs (such as customer service, supplier confidence, and market perception). Be sure to consider a number of possible scenarios. For example, what if your building is completely destroyed? What if some key personnel are not available? What if the disruption occurs during a peak period for your business?

Second, you’ll decide what’s critical and what’s not. An activity is probably critical if (a) its functionality is required by law, or (b) you consider its disruption unacceptable.

Third, for each critical activity, you’ll then assign two values: a recovery point objective, which is the acceptable amount of data that will be recovered, and a recovery time objective, which is the acceptable amount of time to restore the activity.

You may want to perform a business impact analysis before you create a business continuity plan—and your IT infrastructure will play a big role in both. Is your data backed up? How often? Give us a call and let us help guide you through answering these questions and developing a plan for your critical business needs.

“Small and mid-sized businesses…will be increasingly interested in the productivity gains made possible by advanced technology,” said Raymond Boggs, vice president of SMB research at IDC. “New mobile communications solutions, videoconferencing, and online resources will be especially attractive, as will alternative approaches to technology acquisition and deployment.”

The reason, says IDC, is that these advanced technologies can help reduce costs and provide growing businesses with an important competitive edge.

One way to gain access to these advanced IT technologies is through Managed Services, which offers smaller companies access to and quick deployment of affordable best-of-breed technologies. Managed Services is cost-effective because it offers companies a way to make use of precious capital by fulfilling their IT needs on a pay-per-use basis.

Who can benefit from Managed Services?

• Smaller companies that don’t employ dedicated IT staff but want to take advantage of the latest developments in security, backups, messaging, and business communications.

• Mid-size companies with some in-house IT staff that want to see productivity gains among by eliminating problems and downtime.

Contact us for more information about how our Managed Services can increase your productivity while saving your money.

So the next time you dispose of a copy machine, if you’re not sure what’s stored on it and how to get it off – give us a call to help out.

To see the news report, watch this video.

Most physicians know by now that “meaningful users” of “certified EHR technology” are eligible to receive up to $44,000 over a five-year period. Since the government has recently solidified what meaningful use means, it’s imperative that you not wait until the last minute to get started.

According to the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the longer you wait to purchase and implement an EHR, the greater the risk that you may not be eligible to receive maximum incentive funds. That’s because 70% of the funding comes in the first two years—and moving to a new system takes time.

While 2011 may seem far off, poor planning and training can lead to unwelcome results—so implement your EHR today.

However, when it comes to IT services, chances are a bit more investment may actually save money in the long run, since many technologies make operations more efficient and increase of productivity.

An article from Inc. Technology shares 10 very helpful tips on how investing in certain technologies can help your business better weather the recession. The article lists specific technology investments worth forking out money for, including Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), Web conferencing, and Virtualization Software among others. There are also many practical tips on making IT work more cost effectively.

To find out more, read the article here:

http://technology.inc.com/managing/articles/200803/moneysaving.html

The idea behind Tablet PCs is not new. The concept of carrying keyboard-less and mouse-free PCs using a stylus or touchscreen has been around since the early 90s. What the iPad has done, however, is bring back interest in the device – so much so that other manufacturers such as HP, Dell and Asus are introducing their own versions. More importantly, the iPad has increased interest in using tablets for business. Here are some reasons why:

1. Versatility and ease of use. The nice thing about tablets is their size, which is smaller than laptops, but supposedly more intuitive and easier to use than netbooks. They can be used for data entry, as a communication device, remote data access device, or presentation tool – as well as an ebook reader or a device to access documents from cloud services such as Google Apps.
2. Power and portability. Devices on the market today or coming soon also feature longer battery life, and are designed for mobility. For people in the field such as sales or support personnel, the device makes a viable alternative for all-day computing on the go.
3. Apps designed for mobility. While it’s too early to tell, the iPad could usher in new types of applications specifically designed for the tablet’s form and mobility. As an example, Apple promised to release a new set of apps specifically designed for the iPad, such as Keynote and Numbers. Even IBM is getting into the game with an announcement that it will develop apps for the platform soon. Microsoft of course has its Windows for TabletPCs.

Are you interested in tablet devices? Will you use it for your business? Want advice? Contact us – we can provide insight and advice.

Physicians can easily spends hundreds of hours ensuring that their EMR works they way should. But what happens when these modifications are made to proprietary systems? They may not be transferrable to other applications.

And if that’s not a problem, what if you want to make a change down the road? Many doctors find the EMR they first selected isn’t the one they want for the longer term. In fact, some industry data suggests that there’s a nationwide de-installation rate of 30 to 40 percent. If this happens to you and your data is “locked in” to your first EMR, you’ll have to recreate everything.

The solution is a Microsoft-based EMR. Not only is it built on a robust system that offers stability and security, it will also protect your time and resource investment by ensuring you can move your data when and if you need to.

Where can you find a Microsoft-based EMR? It’s not easy. Today, hundreds of EMR providers tout an array of products with many features—but most are built using proprietary technology.

The answer: Microsoft-based gloEMR from gloStream.

To learn more about gloStream EMR software and our guarantees, call us at (877) 456-3671 or send an email to info@glostream.com.

The traditional backup process is done to tape – which has a number of limitations including high cost (particularly as capacity increases), difficult upgrades, degradation over time, and slow backup and restoration.
Over the past three to five years, there has been a transition to hard-disk-based backup solutions that generally offer the ability to easily increase capacity as well as backup and restore much faster.

Whichever solution you use, there are many risks to your data.

Traditional backup processes capture only one snapshot of your information per day. So if your backup is scheduled to take place at 12 a.m., you risk losing the entire following day’s work in the case of a disaster.

The backup process traditionally involves significant manual labor. Someone has to ensure that the correct media is in the drive. Someone has to look at the results of the backup to ensure that it is complete (and ideally perform periodic data restorations). Then, when the backup is complete, someone has to take it offsite for safekeeping.

While some businesses have the capabilities to perform all of these backup-related tasks, many others don’t—and therefore have no idea if their backups will be there when needed.

How can you make your backup system better?

• First, you should be absolutely sure that every bit of your data is backed up multiple times per day.

• Second, the human element should be completely eliminated from the equation.

• Third, restoration should be quick and flexible, so you can bring back any part of your data or all of it, depending on your needs.

• Finally, the impact on your business should be minimal. In fact, you should be unaware that a backup is even in progress.

We can help you set up and maintain a backup solution perfect for your needs. Contact us for more information.

With Managed Services, an IT consultant constantly manages your network, typically from afar. In other words, someone will prevent many IT problems—and fix those that do occur before they disrupt your operations.

Despite this benefit, many companies still consider Managed Services an unnecessary expense because it typically involves a monthly or yearly fee. But there are many ways that such a model can actually lower your IT costs.

• Lower overhead. It can be expensive to hire and train IT staff. In fact, staffing is often the largest portion of a company’s IT budget. You can eliminate much of that expense with Managed Services, which provide you with high-quality IT staff at a fraction of the cost.

• Increased cost predictability. The cost of responding to an IT problem is usually an unplanned expense—and often a significant one. With Managed Services, you prevent problems, so you can better predict (and therefore manage) IT costs.

• A better business model. Additionally, Managed Services provide an efficient business model. There’s less IT down time, which means employees are less frustrated and customers are always served. That increases employee retention and helps you create long-term business relationships—which in turn can increase your revenue.

Contact us today for more information about our Managed Services.

Here’s a solution. FormSpring provides free and paid website data collection services that eliminate the need for additional programming or the purchase of additional software.

If your website includes contact or event registration forms, surveys, and the like, FormSpring provides services ranging from a basic free option to more feature-intensive offerings with custom made forms based on your unique requirements. There’s no long-term registration contract, and you may cancel at any time. FormSpring also offers a 30-day money back guarantee.

It’s worth noting that the data is stored on FormSpring’s servers, so if you have special compliance requirements for privacy or security you might want to check to ensure you remain compliant.

Overall, FormSpring is a very useful website for companies or groups that need a hassle-free way to collect data through their website. Check out their free version of the plan or use the 30-day money back guarantee to explore whether FormSpring meets your data collection needs.

SaaS stands for Software as a Service, which refers to any licensed software being “rented” to a company by another company on an as-needed basis.

To illustrate, let’s say Company A is in need of licensed software, but only for a specific period of time because of a one-time client or project. Company B, as the SaaS provider, rents out the use of the software  to Company A for the time Company A needs to use it – weekly, monthly, and so on. (Company B is specially licensed to do this, of course.)

The term became popular near the end of 2000, but the service started in 1998 with a website called siteeasy.com. The concept has become increasingly popular because the legal alternative to rent/outsource the use of the software spares the expense and hassle of procuring software licenses.

As with other outsourced services, the hardware used for SaaS are remotely located and hosted, and accessed through the internet by the subscriber. Virtually all kinds of software can be used through a SaaS service, and availability of the software depends on the subscriber.

There’s vast potential in the use of the internet and web-based services such as SaaS, but the nature of the remote hosting service is not for everyone. If you’d like to learn more about the pros and cons in relation to your business model, we’d be happy to discuss a possible SaaS road map with you.

One example of this is the emergence of cloud computing services. In essence, this is the outsourcing of an organization’s IT services to a different company. Everything is managed through the Internet – through “the cloud”, hence the term.

There are three things that make cloud computing services different from usual hosting services:

• The company only pays for the resources they use.
• Subscribers can adjust the amount of service they get based on their need.
• The service is completely managed by the service provider.

Cloud computing services also include providing virtual data storage – meaning you store your data off site on the cloud service provider’s secure servers. You can, however, still access your data through the Internet.

There are both private and public cloud services. A public cloud service is available to everyone on the Internet, while private services are only available to specific clientèle. Some cloud services use public clouds to provide private service, making them a virtual private cloud computing service.

The increasing use of the web in our personal and social lives as well as in business gives the trend of cloud computing services vast potential. However, this service is not for everyone – for instance, if you have reservations about keeping sensitive information in a location outside your organization, you might want to pass.

Want to learn the pros and cons of cloud computing services for your business model? Give us a call – we’d be happy to discuss a possible cloud computing road map with you.

A balanced architecture model combines three essential elements that help doctors practice medicine electronically, but on their own terms:

• The doctor dashboard: a home screen from which each section of the patient’s medical chart can be accessed with one click.

• Discreet data elements: Values that can be chosen from a list, such as a drop-down menu.

• Free flow text: the ability to input information by typing text into a Word document, using voice recognition technology, or using Microsoft drawing tools (for example, to highlight a portion of an x-ray).

The combination of these elements creates unprecedented flexibility in an EMR that allows doctors to drastically increase efficiency – and therefore productivity.

For example, doctors can quickly check boxes to indicate a patient’s complaint and current medication. All of that data can then be augmented with dictation that reveals the doctor’s findings and instructions.

For more information, read our balanced architecture white paper “Increasing Efficiency and Productivity in the Modern Day Medical Practice“

As you probably know, health care professionals can receive incentive payments for implementing an electronic health record (EHR), but they must demonstrate meaningful use of the EHR. What that means, exactly, has been unclear until now.

As eagerly as you’ve likely been anticipating the proposed regulation, chances are you don’t want to read that much “legalese”. So below we’ve listed the basic “Stage 1” criteria as we understand it. You can review a more thorough explanation of these criteria here.

• Use Computer Provider Order Entry (CPOE)
• Implement drug-drug, drug-allergy, drug-formulary checks
• Maintain an up-to-date list of current diagnoses
• Transmit prescriptions electronically
• Maintain an active medication list
• Maintain an active medication allergy list
• Record demographics
• Record and chart changes in vital signs
• Record smoking status
• Incorporate clinical lab-test results
• Generate lists of patients by specific conditions to use for quality improvement.
• Report ambulatory quality measures to CMS or the state
• Send reminders to patients for preventive and follow-up care
• Implement certain clinical decision support rules
• Check insurance eligibility electronically
• Submit insurance claims electronically
• Provide patients with an electronic copy of their health information
• Provide patients with timely electronic access to their health information
• Provide clinical summaries to patients for each office visit
• Exchange key clinical information among providers electronically
• Perform medication reconciliation at encounters
• Provide a summary of care record for each transition of care
• Submit electronic data to immunization registries
• Provide data to public health agencies
• Protect health information

As a small business owner, you should have three goals when it comes to disaster planning: ensuring that you never lose critical data, minimizing downtime, and recovering as quickly as possible in the event of a disaster.

Those actions fall into three different categories: backups, disaster recovery, and business continuity.

What’s the difference?

• Backing up is the process of safeguarding your data by copying it to a safe medium for recovery in the event of loss.

• Disaster recovery is the process of restoring operations that are critical to your business after a disaster occurs.

• Business continuity is the creation of a plan that details how your organization will recover and restore interrupted functions after a disaster.

Business continuity is the most comprehensive of these three functions, because it involves much more than just a discussion of IT issues – it’s a detailed action plan. Certainly, you need to consider how you protect your IT infrastructure and data, but you also need to consider what you and your employees should do if a disaster occurs. Do your employees know where to meet in the event of a building evacuation? Do you have a plan for reaching out to all employees and their emergency contacts to communicate critical information? Do you have a way to communicate to customers when and how you’ll resume providing products or services? What will you do if one of your major suppliers experiences a disaster?

It’s hard to underestimate the importance of these three plans, but many small and medium businesses do. That’s because when most people think of disaster, they think of floods, earthquakes, and fires. They may even consider equipment failures. But there are human-induced disasters as well—for example, disgruntled or incompetent employees who delete critical information, or hackers. It could easily happen to you.

Perhaps you have a backup system in place. Maybe you even have backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity plans. But because business goals and environments change, any plan needs to be re-evaluated from time to time to make sure it’s still meeting all of your needs. We can help you evaluate your current plans, or sort through the options if you don’t yet have plans. Contact us for today for details.

Related articles:

• Counterfeit reports climb (robbiz1978.blogspot.com)
• Microsoft launches attack on pirates, counterfeiters (seattlepi.com)
• Microsoft Links Malware Rates To Pirated Windows (news.slashdot.org)

Case in point: A recent study shows physicians are more likely to report drug side effects through an EHR than they are through traditional paper reporting.

To conduct the study, Pfizer surveyed 300 physicians, two-thirds of whom utilized an EHR and one-third of whom used a paper-based system.

Half of all respondents said they would be more likely to report drug data using an EHR. That’s because an EHR is a much more convenient and efficient way of reporting. Paper-based reporting an adverse drug event could take up to 40 minutes to complete; EHR reporting takes minutes.

Moreover, 60 percent of respondents think the use of EHR will improve patient care. That’s because EHR reporting of adverse drug effects could increase the FDA’s product safety profiles.

Although the study confirmed a common barrier to EHR adoption is cost, the federal government is offering up to $44,000 in incentive payments to physicians who prove “meaningful use” of an EHR—and those who start early stand to benefit the most.

Contact us for more information.

Related article:

Study shows ehrs may increase physician drug safety reporting

Are you using the web for your business? Concerned about the security of your data and information? Contact us and see how we can help.

Related articles:

• Web application security is growing problem for enterprises (infoworld.com)
• Firefox flaws make up 44% of all browser bugs? (theregister.co.uk)
• Vulnerabilities Whitehat Security (ecombizcenter.blogspot.com)

Meaningful use refers to the way documentation and data exchange can enhance efficiency and quality among providers, payers, and patients. As a result, meaningful use is not about products, but about processes. It’s about how data flows through an entire system of stakeholders. Thus, it can be argued that vendors should not be making claims about meaningful use.

Certification, on the other hand, refers to a product’s features—something a vendor can make claims about.

The problem is, we don’t yet have final certification criteria.  The certification process will be defined in a December 2009 “notice of proposed rulemaking” (NPRM). However, a period of comment will follow, so we won’t have the final definition until the spring. As a result, we’d argue that it’s too early for any vendor to claim its product will meet all certification criteria.

So, what should you look for in a EHR today? Until certification is defined, a vendor can claim that its product conforms with the latest Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) criteria—the best indicator of functionality we have at the moment. And, a vendor can promise that it will modify its product to meet certification standards when they are released—which allows you to purchase an EHR today and begin reaping the benefits sooner.

Keep these things in mind as you decide which EHR to use.

Related articles: Certification versus meaningful use

Here are a few things you’ll love about Windows 7:

1. Faster boot up times

Vista was plagued with slow boot times, owing to its demand for high-end hardware in order to function smoothly. Windows 7, on the other hand, does more with less.

2. Lighter spec requirements

Speaking of hardware requirements and more for less, Windows 7 needs less power from your rig to function properly. This means that even hardware systems with bareback specs can run Windows 7 decently.

3. A new taskbar

The new taskbar is a combination of the old taskbar and the quick-launch icons of previous instalments. Frequently used programs are pinned as icons onto the taskbar, and can be used as both a launcher and as a preview for any running windows under that program.

4. File organization

The file system in Windows 7 is more unified now, and enables you to group similar programs together regardless of which hard disk it lives on.

5. Less nagging

One of the most annoying features of Windows Vista was the perpetual reminders about this and that mundane task. Windows 7 lets you configure the warnings to pop up only for issues you feel are important. UAC (User Account Control) also adopts this principle, eliminating that annoying Vista permissions window that popped up even for the most ordinary procedure.

If you’re using an older computer running Windows XP, we suggest you first head over to Microsoft’s Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. After downloading the free tool, run it to scan your PC for potential issues with your hardware, devices, and installed programs. The tool will recommend actions you should take before you upgrade.
If your PC is running Windows Vista without problems, chances are it’s ready to run Windows 7. If you bought your copy of Vista or a PC running Vista after June 26, 2009, you might be qualified for a special upgrade offer to Windows 7, so make Microsoft’s official Windows 7 Upgrade and Migration page your first stop to find out.
Once you’re ready to take the plunge, get ready to do some homework first. Just like Vista, Windows 7 comes in different editions. Weigh your options and find out which edition is right for you. Also, PC World has put together a nice article on the five things you should know before upgrading to Windows 7 from XP. For a more detailed guide, visit Engadget blog’s excellent post on how to install Windows 7 and live to tell about it.

If you find the process too complicated, don’t have the time, or if you’re thinking of upgrading many computers, why not contact us? We can help you sort out your options and ensure a smooth upgrade.

Related articles:

• Seven things to know about Windows 7 (cnn.com)
• 27 Takes on Windows 7 [Roundups] (gizmodo.com)
• Windows 7 Launch, what the Experts say + Microsoft store grand opening. (domkop.co.za)