Next time you go to the hospital or doctor’s office, you may find the staff using a computer instead of pen and paper. Do not be upset, because the work they are doing is the first of several steps in a nationwide plan to enhance the process of healthcare by improving patient safety, reducing cost, and providing tools to you to help manage your care. E-prescribing is one of those steps.

Why Change

It is estimated that over 4 billion prescriptions will be written in 2010 alone—constituting one of the largest paper based processes in the United States. From those prescriptions, there will be over 150,000 errors that lead to roughly 7,000 deaths. These errors are due in large part to illegible handwriting or missed drug interactions. E-prescribing is a logical solution that is looking to dramatically reduce these errors.

Benefits of E-prescribing

The benefits of E-prescribing can be categorized into two areas, namely Consumer and Provider. Let’s take a looks at both:

Consumer benefits:

• Convenience: It is estimated that 4 out of 5 patients walking into a doctor’s office will leave with a prescription in hand. Consumers must then travel to pharmacies, drop off the paper slip, then wait (or come back) to pick up their prescription. With E-prescribing, the prescription is send electronically over a secure network to the patients preferred pharmacy—over 97% of chain pharmacies already participate.
• Improved Medication Safety: Electronic prescribing has the potential to dramatically lower medication errors. By eliminating handwriting, pharmacies are able to better understand the prescription and thus dispense it to consumers with greater accuracy.
• No Cost to Consumer: since E-prescribing has significant benefits at the provider level, installation charges will be absorbed by pharmacies and providers. This is great news for patients, and will aid in speeding along the adoption rate.

Provider Benefits:

• Convenience: While it may take more initial time to enter medical and prescription information into an EMR (Electronic Medical Record), quick follow up access should pay large long term dividends to most providers. As an added benefit, most E-prescribing systems can access a patient’s insurance plan information. This means physicians can prescribe medications that are covered by the insurance carrier—thus avoiding pharmacy delays and calls.
• Streamlined process: E-prescribing streamlines the communication process between the hospital /doctor’s office and the pharmacy. This ultimately saves time by reducing phone calls from the pharmacy and the patient. Plus the provider can answer questions electronically for better record keeping
• Improved Safety: No hospital or practice wants to make a mistake with a prescription. E-prescribing has built in medicine interaction software that helps find potential problems before the doctor sends the prescription—as well as making sure it is legible. Also, when E-prescribing is combined with EMR software, the patient’s full medical history is available during the exam.

Background

If you own a business; no doubt you have embraced computer technology as part of your daily routine. Computers contribute in areas such as: computerized quotes, office documents, billing software, Customer retention software, online meetings, and calendaring events—to name just a few. These advancements have lead companies to shift away from paper storage to electronic data storage as their primary solution. Electronic storage is inexpensive, easily accessible and seemingly limitless. But where is all of that data stored and how secure is that storage? Offsite data protection has been created to fill the need of securing vital electronic information.

How does it work?

To start, let’s talk about how data is typically stored at a company’s location. Most likely, your company has a computer that serves as a central repository for vital information. This device is the central hub for sharing information within your organization and is called a SERVER. Each morning users (employees) log onto this server, and as they work, data is shared and stored on this central computer. Some Servers come with built in redundancy called RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks). A Raid configuration is nothing more than several separate internal hard drives that act in unison to reduce the risk of data loss if one hard drive should fail. Such redundancy will help a business recover data should there be a hard drive failure. It is important to note that this failsafe does not count as a backup solution—since an electrical spike, virus, or numerous other disasters could render both drives unusable.

As a first line of defense most companies have adopted an external hard drive or tape as a backup of the server’s information. This external device is then carried offsite each day as part of the business’s disaster recovery plan. This works well as long as the employee manually carries the backup offsite each and every business day. Unfortunately the facts state otherwise.

The facts*

The truth is that 55% of small businesses rate themselves as having a “fair” or “poor” disaster recovery plan for their electronic data, 30% admit they have no formal daily routine for their backup procedures, and 13% admit that even when they perform a backup, they never remove the backed up device off the companies site. Such inconsistencies can represent untold hours of data recovery time should a disaster occur—or worse yet, totally unrecoverable data.

Enter off-site back up

Offsite backup is a cost effective way to help ensure correct daily backups of a company’s critical data. Instead of making a copy on site, a business hires an outside vendor to act as their offsite storage location. Critical data is sent daily via a secure internet connection to a remote storage facility. As an added precaution, these venders typically use several separate locations to store your company’s data. Best of all, the cost for such a solution is pro-rated according to the amount of information you send—most small businesses can expect to pay under $100 per month for up to 20GB of offsite storage. Plus, the offsite partner can help with replacing the data to the server should disaster strike. Using this solution also frees company employees from the burden of maintaining and transporting external devices offsite.

5 basic storage tips:

• Never store critical data locally on a desktop or laptop computer without having a backup solution
• Make sure to have redundancy built into the main storage center (i.e. RAID configuration)
• Review (or develop) a Disaster Recovery Plan at least once per year.
• Have at least 2 backups of the company’s critical data (no, RAID doesn’t count).
• Consider replacing dated onsite backups with an offsite backup solution—better yet, have both and keep the external backup onsite.

*Imation data storage user survey 2004

Simple really, VoIP (or Voice over Internet Protocol) allows you to combine voice, data and video into one easy to manage package. By using the internet to send and receive voice information, small businesses are discovering that VoIP is a cost effective way to increase functionality with their phone system. In fact most mid-sized businesses can expect to see up to a 40% savings on their phone bill by switching to a VoIP system*.

Past and Present

VoIP is not new, in fact it has been around since the 1970’s, but limiting broadband connections kept it in the background until recently. In order for VoIP to function correctly, 64 to 100 kbps is needed per phone line—certainly not available by the dial up connections of the 1980’s. But today with our high speed broadband connections, VoIP is finding new life as a strong business tool that can unify business connections with their customers. Features such as video conferencing and advanced call menus become seamlessly integrated solutions that are fully scalable as your company grows. In fact take a look at some of the call features that are already part of most VoIP installations:

Call features

Automated Attendant, Blacklists, Blind Transfer, Call Detail Records, Call Forward on Busy, Call forward on No Answer, Call Forward Variable, Call Monitoring, Call Parking, Call Queuing, Call Recording, Call Routing (DID & ANI), Call Snooping, Call Transfer, Call Waiting, Caller ID, Caller ID Blocking, Caller ID on Call Waiting, Calling Cards, Conference Bridging, Dial by Name, Direct Inward System Access, Do Not Disturb, Interactive Directory Listing, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), Local and Remote Call Agents’ Music On Hold, and much more.

VoIP for You

One of the core concerns with VoIP centers around the loss of internet connection—lose the internet, lose your phone system. This is an excellent point and one not to be overlooked. However, with analog to digital cards from companies such as Sangoma (www.sangoma.com), installers can build in redundancy by integrating analog phone lines as a backup solution. These analog lines act as a failsafe should internet connections go down—and can also be used for direct fax lines.

*VoIP News 2009

The story of Big Bob

Meet Big Bob Brody. Bob has owned Big Bob’s Discount Flooring (BBDF) for 4 years now and is known as an honest, knowledgeable businessman to his local customers. When it comes to flooring, Bob can explain advantages and disadvantages between most any floor covering. In a nutshell, Bob knows flooring.

Bob is looking to increase business and that means marketing—something Bob doesn’t know. He does know that he needs a website because that’s what everyone told him he needs. Unfortunately, he doesn’t really understand how a website can help BBDF to grow, so his site is mainly comprised of a few static pages that show what his company sells, as well as a picture of Bob with his favorite dog “Bark”. Bob also knows that in business, he needs business cards.

Let’s take a look at Big Bob’s business card:

Bob needs some help

For many small business owners, Bob’s marketing frustrations are all too familiar. What they don’t realize is that in business, people judge them by their website as well as their email name. While bark&me@yahoo.com may be a perfectly acceptable email name for Bob’s personal email, it lacks the professionalism needed in the business world.

Change that email

The good news is that Big Bob has the ability to change his email for little or no cost. When you register your domain name with places such as GoDaddy, Host Monster, or Register.com (to name a few), you can also have your email included for very little extra cost. And if even small costs seem too high, companies such as Google will let you host your email for free.

Here is how it works for Google Apps:

Say you own a web site domain name like BBDF.com that you paid for at a domain hosting company. With a Google Apps account associated with this domain, you can create up to 50 users (in the free plan) in Google Apps, like Bob.brody@BBDF.com, Sales@BBDF.com, and chris.smith@BBDF.com. Each employee gets his or her own email account, calendar (for sharing amongst the group), instant messenger account on Google Talk, and Google Docs account for sharing and collaborating on office documents like spreadsheets, Word documents, and slide shows—all for free.

Now before you begin to believe that Google Apps is world’s greatest invention, remember that Google’s free plan has no real tech support and if their servers goes down, you’re down as well. For this reason as a company grows to over 10 computers, they should consider adopting an in-house exchange server to host their email. But for now, Bob is thrilled to have his companies email changed to reflect his domain name.

So let’s take a look at Bob’s new business cards:

Moving Forward

Bob has seen the light and is now moving forward with changing his website to be more interactive for his customers. In the future, his contracting clients will be able to search, compare, and purchase floor coverings right through Bob’s website. Looks like BBDF is on the right path for success.

SaaS has several characteristics that set it apart from other services:

1. SaaS allows the access and use of commercially available software through a remote, network, or internet connection. This means that the software is not installed in the subscriber’s computer, but rather on the SaaS provider’s server. This also makes the software accessible to the subscriber regardless of his or her location.
2. SaaS provides commercially available software, not custom made software, meaning that a particular software service is made available to multiple clients, so customization is limited to only what the software or SaaS provider allows.
3. The SaaS provider shoulders the responsibility of updating the software, and subscribers can request updates, upgrades, and additional features.

Regarding implementation, SaaS architecture is classified into four “maturity” levels based on factors such as configurability, multi-tenant efficiency, and scalability.

1. Level 1 is the “ad-hoc/custom” level, in which a modified version of a particular piece of software is offered to subscribers, which is then run on the provider’s host server. This level is requires the lowest maintenance.
2. The second level offers more customization and allows subscribers to configure the metadata of a program. This then allows a customized version of the same software, based on the needs of the subscriber.
3. Multi-tenant efficiency is added to the third maturity level, which means that the SaaS servers are made more conducive for subscribers to use separate instances of a single application.
4. The fourth and most “mature” SaaS architecture offers all four factors, with the service reaching optimum efficiency.

Considering SaaS for your business? Let us help you sort through the details.

Microsoft recently released a number of security bulletins and patches addressing vulnerabilities in Windows and Office that are of high risk to users. It’s widely believed that many will be exploited by hackers within the next 30 days. One of them could potentially allow hackers or malware authors to easily compromise systems by tricking users to download malicious AVI-formatted files. Others require nothing more than just visiting a website. Another specifically targets Powerpoint Viewer 2003, and opening a malicious .ppt file could affect your system.

This latest round of patches and vulnerability updates is really nothing new – although the sheer number made public in one day is notable. This highlights the need for a comprehensive security policy, because vulnerabilities do exist in even the most mundane or old versions of software. Customers under our Managed Services plan can rest easy since we monitor and update their computers as soon as these patches and advisories are released. Find out more about what we do to make your systems safe and secure. Contact us today.

Related links:

• Patch Tuesday: Microsoft plugs critical Windows worm holes (zdnet)
• Researchers warn of likely attacks against Windows, PowerPoint (computerworld)
• Microsoft delivers huge Windows security update (computerworld)

A malicious piece of software making the rounds of news websites this week is believed to be behind the compromise of over 75,000 systems in over 2,500 international organizations – many of which are government agencies and large Fortune 500 companies.

Called the Knebner botnet after the name in the email used to register the initial domain used in the campaign to propagate the malware, the software infects computers and captures user login access to online financial services such as Paypal and online banks, social networking websites such as Facebook, and email. Infected computers can be centrally controlled from a master computer, which presumably harvests the data captured for nefarious means.

The Knebner botnet itself is not new. It’s based on the ZeuS botnet, and has gained prominence lately because it’s slipped under the radar of so many organizations. However, there are ways to prevent compromises from botnets – one of which is to have a proactive security system and policy in place. Our Managed Security customers have this assurance in place since we continuously protect their system from botnets and other malware. If you’re not sure that you’re protected, talk to us today.

Related articles:

• Kneber botnet described as ‘massive’ and ‘worldwide’ (inquisitr.com)
• Kneber attack resurrects notorious Zeus Trojan, say experts (guardian.co.uk)
• Malicious Software Infects Corporate Computers (nytimes.com)

For businesses of all types and size, managing data online is critical to the smooth operation of a website. However, incorporating data collection programs can be time consuming, especially if any of your data is “time bound” – meaning it’s only valid and useful during a specific period of time.

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.

The growing reach and power of the internet has changed the way people do business, with more and more web-based services popping up. One of these is SaaS.

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.

Most small and medium businesses can’t afford the luxury of a qualified IT administrator, let alone an entire IT department. If you’re in this position, how do you maintain the information technology infrastructure that’s critical to your organization?

One option is Managed Services, in which you outsource this role to an IT expert called a “managed services provider,” which will typically offer on-site or remote network and security monitoring, data backup and technical support.

Because the Managed Services model allow a business to focus on its core competencies, it is increasing in popularity—but sometimes it’s hard to separate the real benefit from the hype.

What’s the value to you?

• Peace of mind. Your managed services provider will monitor your IT infrastructure and prevent or resolve any problems—a sharp diversion from the traditional “fix it when it breaks” model of IT management.

• Simplicity. Your managed services provider will provide many of its services remotely, via the Internet, instead of through on-site visits. This reduces time and cost.

• Constant support. You don’t have to worry about support; your  managed services provider will offer the assistance you need, when you need it.

• Affordability. Managed services providers typically offer several price structures, including a per-month fee—which is much lower than the cost of building an in-house IT support department.

• Accountability. Have you ever tried to resolve an IT problem only to find that one vendor blames it on another who blames it on another? With managed services, you don’t have to go to multiple vendors to figure out why your network is down or you’ve experienced a security breach. You’ll have one point of contact: your managed services provider.

Want to learn more about how Managed Services can give you dependable IT with predictable costs? Give us a call.