One issue that’s gaining steam, especially with SMEs, is business continuity planning. Many companies are starting to develop plans so that they can continue to operate through both problems large and small. If you’re one such company, and are stuck at the point where you need to choose between software and templates, we have some advice for you.

The decision between templates and software can be a tough one to make, as whichever one you choose, you’ll be using and relying on for a long time. To help you we’ve covered some pros and cons on both choices:

Using Software If you choose to go with a software program, you will be walked through the whole process allowing you to develop a useable plan. Another benefit of using software is that you’ll be able to develop reports if needs be.

The drawbacks of using software include cost, inflexibility and learning time. For the most part, business continuity planning software is not cheap, and at times can be inflexible due to limits within the program. If you have a niche need, the software may not cover it. In addition, as with mastering any program, the learning curve can be quite steep.

In general, using software would be advantageous for companies that have a bigger budget for the development of a continuity plan. Software is also a good bet if you don’t have staff who are experts in continuity planning, or if you operate in an industry where a continuity plan is necessary, e.g., companies working with healthcare insurance, or manufacturing companies that have introduced ISO 9000.

Using Templates If you feel that your company is not ready for software you can use templates to help you develop your plan. These solutions are mostly written plans that you adapt to meet your business needs. They’re useful if you’re just starting to do continuity planning, as they provide a normally solid foundation, and are generally a lot cheaper than software.

A limitation to using templates is that they can be a little too basic at times, and may not meet your needs. Granted, most plans will follow a basic structure and your developer will need to adapt some steps for your relevant region and industry.

As each industry is different, it’s hard to make a recommendation on what type of planning style companies should take. We recommend you take your time, do your due diligence and weigh out what’s best for your business. No matter which method you choose to go ahead with, ensure that it’s easy to implement, and that you’ll be able to teach your staff how to run the plan.

If you feel really lost or are not sure what to do, talking to professional consultants could go a long way in helping you develop a plan. If you’d like to learn more about business continuity planning please contact us - we are happy to help.

Most businesses have started to take social media seriously. They are spending time and effort developing their profiles and reaching out to customers. It makes sense for a business to have an online presence beyond their website. Are you taking advantage of all the available options the Internet has to offer? If not, it may be time to start.

Social media, once called a fad, has become the norm and is going to be with us for some time. A large number of companies already have an online presence, and are taking advantage of the benefits that social media can bring. Here are a number of things you can do to get your social media adventures underway.

Be Clear on Social Media It’s important that before you start looking into the different forms of social media that are out there, you are clear on what social media is, and what it isn’t. Social media is a way to meet people, and share content and ideas with them. For companies it’s a form of non-traditional marketing - think of it as soft marketing - it’s not meant to be the place where you flog your products, rather a place to develop interest in your company, so people will want to do business with you. By using social media you can show people who your company is, and connect with them on a more personal level. If you are clear on what social media is from the beginning, there’s a higher chance that you’ll be successful when you develop your online presence.

Before You Launch Into Social Media There are a number of things that your company needs to have either already done, or considered, before you jump in:

• Have a website: It’s a good idea to have a solid website with information about your company, contact information, products and services. Most potential customers will look at your website after looking searching for you online, and before they choose to do business with you, so your website needs to provide the relevant information they are looking for. If you don’t have a website, or feel yours is lacking, it’s easier than ever to get a professional looking site. With a quick search you will be able to find some competent designers.
• Get educated: It will be beneficial to educate yourself on current trends regarding social media. This can be done by simply going to social media websites, taking the free introduction tours and reading blogs related to the sites. Beyond that you should also research your competitors’ websites and Internet presence. Observe what content they have online, and more importantly: what they don’t have. It will also help to connect with and observe industry experts, see what they post online, and note the style and tone they use. This will help provide you with a sound knowledge base from which you can then create a more effective online presence.
• Set goals: As with any step in business, you should have a plan with realistic goals. Aim for results that are achievable for your company. If you’re a small, local IT company that focuses on providing support for banks, don’t expect to have the same massive hype that Microsoft and Apple do. Clearly set objectives and review periodically.
• Develop a focus: In real life, you can’t be all things to all people. The same goes for social media. You need to develop a focus on what type of online content you would like to share. You should aim to create content that your customers will want to share with people.
• Stake a claim: You should to go to the main social media websites - Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube - and reserve your personal and business usernames. This is important because it will make you look more professional by having the same username across all sites, and users will be able to find you easier.
• Ask for help if you need it: While some companies make social media sound easy, it can be deceptively hard to master. If you feel lost, or are having a tough time with it, there are knowledgeable consultants out there who are happy to help.

Time to Get Social When you feel you know what direction you will take, it’s time to start developing your online profiles. It can be tough to decide which social media tools to utilize. Unfortunately there is no right answer. Most small businesses follow the crowd, and this means having pages on Facebook and Linkedin. This does not mean that you should join these networks simply because they have the most users. It is recommended that you follow what similar businesses or direct competitors are doing. If they are on one service but not another, do the same to begin with, but be on the lookout for new social media sites, or features being added to existing sites.

One Thing to Not Forget There is one really important thing we can share with businesses thinking of pursuing social media: it isn’t a turnkey operation. You can’t just, “set it and forget it.” To be successful, you need to be active by posting updates, news, and above all interacting with the people who reach out to you. After all, they are your customers. If you do establish your social presence but forget to keep it up to date, you will be the company that’s forgotten.

If you would like help with your social media strategy, please get in touch with us. We’d love to hear from you.

Businesses using electronic health records (EHRs) need to start their meaningful use process by July in order to get their attestation in by October 3, 2012 – the last day permitted to be able to file for Stage 1 in 2012.
Healthcare professionals can earn incentives of up to USD 63,750 for Medicaid and USD 44,000 for Medicare for meaningfully using a certified EHR, thanks to the ARRA federal government stimulus program.

Meaningful Use, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, consists of 25 criteria ranging from simple tasks (such as recording demographic data), to complex tasks (such as distributing clinical summaries to all patients seen in the office). A total of 20 criteria must be achieved: 15 Core measures are required, and from the other 10 Menu Set measures, 5 must be selected.

If you participate in the federal government’s CMS EHR incentive program, in order to earn your incentives, you’ll need to comply with the meaningful use criteria for 90 days in the initial qualifying payment year. Subsequent years (it is proposed) will require compliance for the entire year.

If you implemented an EHR in 2011, you’ll need to comply with the meaningful use criteria for 90 days prior to December 31, 2012. That means you’ll have to start by October 3, 2012.

Most healthcare practices will need a few months to become fully operational, and begin meeting all of the necessary criteria, so if you haven’t yet implemented an EHR, you’ll want to do so. The catch: the last day of the year, for these purposes, is considered October 3, 2012. (Don’t feel like you need to wait until July however, as the 90-day period can consist of any consecutive 90 days in a single calendar year.)

If you’d like to get started, or would like a consultative review contact us today. We have staff dedicated to helping you understand these issues and get you on the way to meaningful use.

For more information email – info@ccr1.com.

In this modern age, many businesses have become reliant on technological networks, with businesses big and small using some form of network in their day-to-day operations. But what happens when one of those networks goes down? Larger businesses will normally lose some profit, but will be able to recover. However, a network outage could be the death of a smaller business. 24/7 networking can help prevent this.

How can 24/7 network monitoring help your business, you ask? Through preventative operations. The main idea of network monitoring is to act as an “Early Warning System” to let managers and owners know of potential problems before they strike.

What Does Network Monitoring Monitor? There are a number of things you can monitor with Network Monitoring. The most popular areas include application and system performance, bandwidth usage, and server status. You can also set up monitoring of additional areas, for instance: server load, ink levels in printers, time left on software license agreements, which devices are connected to the network, their data usage, and more. This is all done 24/7.

The one thing Network Monitoring does not normally monitor is unauthorized access to networks. It can be set up to look for unauthorized access, but this is normally taken care of by another system.  

How Does Network Monitoring Help Me? Network Monitoring is a preventative system, intended to warn you about potential network problems so you can proactively seek solutions before a vital network goes down. This makes it, in a round-about way, a justifiable addition to business value since, when implemented right, there will be less network crashes—which means less or no profit loss.

What Should I Monitor? In an ideal world, you would monitor each and every network. Over time, you can get there, but if you’re like most Small Business owners or managers, you have neither the time nor the budget to implement a full system. As with most projects, it’s suggested that you implement a system like this in stages. The most common areas to start with are:

• Local Area Network (LAN) Data
• Internet data usage
• server status
• alerts to existing networks

If you’re unsure of where to start, try contacting a local Network Monitoring service, or hire a consultant to establish a system. If you would like to know more about 24/7 Network Monitoring, or other ways to improve business value, please contact us.

Business Intelligence (BI) is not a new idea; many large MNCs and enterprises have been using BI for many years. The only problem is that the practice of BI and the software used has been beyond reach for many SMEs due to cost and complexity. This is changing as more and more companies are offering BI solutions to SMEs. Are you thinking of implementing BI into your organization?

If you are looking into integrating Business Intelligence at your company, no matter what system you choose or the size of the project, there are a number of things you need to be aware of in order to make the implementation successful.

4 Things to Know before You Start Before you start any BI project, there are 4 key BI implementation areas that you and your company will need to be clear on:

1. Data or Information: In most SMEs there is a limited amount of data available, so you need to be sure where all the relevant data is located. This typically includes client and employee information kept on accounting systems, spreadsheets or contact manager databases, sales or business reports, industry and competitor information, and more.
2. Technology: A large number of BI programs require technical systems that are stable and have minimal downtime. It’s a good idea to ensure that your systems meet the requirements and are stable. As with any software, be sure to do your homework and pick a system that is reliable and compatible with your business. Don’t just pick the cheapest system – pick the system that best meets your needs.
3. Knowledge: Many SMEs have employees that wear more than one hat, and as such may not be experts in any one thing. It’s important that, when implementing BI, you have employees who understand it and the related systems. If you don’t, there are many qualified BI consultants out there you can turn to for help and training.
4. Communication: It’s crucial that you have constant communication with the employees involved in the implementation, and that you explain what BI is, the analytics used, how to interpret what the results mean, and the actions to take.

Your Criteria To Success Once you have picked a good system, there are a number of criteria you should aim for to ensure successful implementation:

• Align Business and Technical: It’s important that the business side of your company knows about the implementation and will actually use it. Both sides need to work together to ensure an aligned team.
• Piece by Piece: It’s a good idea to not implement BI across your whole organization in one go because that involves far too much work and complication. Instead, look at the areas of your organization that could benefit the most from BI and start there. For the majority of organizations, Customer Service and Sales are a good choice.
• Ease of Use: Chances are, your employees do different jobs and won’t concentrate solely on BI. Therefore, you might want to pick or develop a system that is easy to use. As a benchmark, pick a sales or business manager and, if possible, a business analyst, and see how long it takes them to learn the system. The bigger the gap between the learning time of these employees, the harder the system is to use.
• Flexibility: It’s common knowledge that your business is always changing. Therefore, It’s a good idea to ensure that the BI system you choose is flexible and can be quickly and easily adapted to meet changing needs. If you have a rigid system, it will be successful in the short term, but a nightmare or even a failure in the future.

With planning and patience, BI will bring about an improved business and bottom line. If you would like to learn more about BI or would like help implementing it please contact us.

Do you need to save money on your IT costs? If so, here are five things you can discuss with your IT provider: be practical, be creative, invest in training, consider enterprise-directed IT, and consider long-term costs and benefits. Below we discuss each in more detail.

1. Be practical. Extend the life of existing systems to help you get the most out of their value.

2. Be creative. Think outside the box. You might allow doctors and nurses to use their own smart phones and tablets on the job, foster development of your own apps, and leverage inexpensive cloud services, such as Google Apps.

3. Invest in training. It's easy to underestimate the cost savings associated with training—and the easier a system is to use, the less training you'll need to provide.

4. Consider enterprise-directed IT. Much of the technology that's interesting and cost effective right now isn't consumer directed – it's enterprise directed.

5. Consider long-term costs and benefits. With new technologies popping up left and right, choosing the right ones is critical. Those that protect against data breaches, for example, may be the most important given that a recent ID Experts and Ponemon Institute report found data breaches in U.S. healthcare organizations have cost providers more than $6 billion a year.
   

   Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

Hospitals that have implemented advanced electronic medical records (EMRs) enjoy a broad range of benefits when it comes to quality of care and operational efficiency, according to a new report—and it’s not a stretch to think the same is true for physicians who implement EMRs.

The February 2012 report from the HIMSS Analytics and The Advisory Board is based on the first survey to produce results from hospitals that have achieved Stage 6 or Stage 7 on HIMSS Analytics’ EMR Adoption Model (EMRAM), offering insight about the benefits that can accrue for those medical practices further along the development track.

Almost 80 percent of the respondents reported multiple benefits, the most common of which were adverse drug effect reduction (73 percent) and improvements in other patient safety indicators (58 percent). There were also a number of operational and administrative benefits, including reduction in order turnaround times (76 percent), decreased cost of paper forms (67 percent), improved charge capture (64 percent), decreased transcription costs (61 percent), improved documentation quality (55 percent), and improved coding quality (46 percent).

The conclusion: EMR implementation can have a significant change on the quality of your practice, especially as you reach later stages of development.

If you haven’t purchased your EMR yet, consider gloStream’s flagship EMR, gloEMR 6.0. Built on the Microsoft® Office platform, it’s one of the easiest-to-use EMRs on the market, and it can help your practice achieve any of the quality and efficiency benefits mentioned above.

An overview of the report is available here. Download the entire report here. Learn more about gloEMR here.

The thing about the social media boom is that so many people are thinking of ways to make it better and to put a unique twist on an otherwise used and reused concept. Pinterest is one of the few that have been successful at this – which means, like in any other social media platform, businesses stand to benefit provided they use it the right way.

What is Pinterest? In a nutshell, it's something like a social media scrapbook, album, and bulletin board combined. Each interest / theme has its own 'Pinboard' where you put photos, videos, or other media that interest you.

What makes Pinterest unique is its concept, which has been consistently growing in popularity, especially with female audiences. And while Facebook and Twitter are more open to overt advertising, Pinterest takes a more conservative stance. While advertising isn't exactly prohibited, the marketing should definitely be more subtle and more consistent with a personal Pinterest profile. Here are some basic tips that will help you utilize Pinterest to your advantage.

1. Understand your market. The first question you should ask yourself is if Pinterest is something worth your time investment. Since the majority of Pinterest users are female, ask yourself if your products and services appeal to them directly.

2. Invest time. As in many other social networking sites, you need to put a personal and human touch to your Pinterest profile and in the way you interact with your audience. Log in often, update regularly, and respond quickly to any kind of feedback. Let your audience know that you're there.

3. Use other social media to augment Pinterest. Since Pinterest is less known, use your other social media accounts to point people your way in Pinterest, such as Tweeting or updating your Facebook status with your most recent Pinterest profile update.

4. Talk about what you represent. As mentioned earlier, since Pinterest isn't big on overt advertising, you need to market yourself in a different way. Talk about what your brand is all about. What do you represent? What content can you provide that would inspire your audience to share on their own Pinboards? If you're a furniture company, for example, you can try giving some tips on basic interior design and picking the right furniture pieces for spaces, with pictures or videos. What's good about Pinterest is that it challenges you to be more creative, and thus, more appealing to potential clients.

If Pinterest interests you, give us a call so we can discuss how you can maximize this new social media platform for your business.

Disaster can strike at any time, and it can be as simple as a server or system crash, or as severe as the recent worldwide natural disasters. No matter what it is, the disaster will affect your company’s operations and potentially its bottom line, or worse — force you out of business. Are you prepared?

Most companies have at least basic protection from emergencies and disasters in place. The most common forms of protection are insurance, server and computer backup, and basic preparations as required by law. While these protective measures are considered adequate for most companies, there is still a chance a disaster will strike, leaving your company in the lurch.

In the recent months and years an increasing number of occurrences, such as the earthquake in Japan and flooding in Thailand, have caused widespread disruption to businesses. To counter this, two business initiatives have risen to the forefront: Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continuity Planning (BCP). In fact, these two terms have become common buzzwords, a quick internet search returns over 53 million hits on business continuity alone. The problem is that many professionals are unclear on what each really is. It’s important to be clear on each topic and the basic steps to take to be prepared for any disaster.

What is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)? BCP, first seen during the Y2K scare of the late 90s, is a plan that covers the way an organization prepares for and maintains all critical business functions. BC planning is comprised of activities that ensure maintenance, stability, and recoverability of service before, during, and after a disaster. The plan is typically set up on a day-to-day basis, and covers the whole organization.

It’s important to have a BCP for your organization because if something happens and you can’t deliver to your customers, they will go to another company.

What is Disaster Recovery? Disaster Recovery is considered a part of the overall continuity plan that focuses on the technical side of the business, including components such as data backup and recovery. Think of BCP as an umbrella and DR is under the umbrella — if you don’t have a disaster recovery plan, the overall umbrella is more or less useless.

What Should be in Your DR and BCP Plans? These plans both share a number of similarities, generally following the same steps involving the same elements. Both plans should include:

1. An operational plan for a number of disasters that could happen in your geographical area. The plans should cover occurrences as small as computer hardware errors and as large as massive natural disasters.
2. A succession plan for you or your top management.
3. Training for substitute employees on important tasks.
4. Cross training of your employees on the basics of different roles so they will be able to take over if need be.
5. A communication plan focused on different crises, including ways of communicating if networks are down.
6. Off-site meeting places for staff and managers.
7. A focus on safety. Foster partnerships and communication with local and emergency response services: Fire, Police, National Guard, Search and Rescue. Ideally, all employees should at least know basic first aid. If you have employees who are volunteer members of local Emergency Response Services, ask them to be responsible for teams.
8. Daily plans to backup your Enterprise systems, along with training and testing of recovery of systems.
9. Training and testing of all employees to practice recovery activities in situations as realistic as possible.

It’s important that you conduct regular tests of your systems and processes, and make changes as needed. Be aware that your business is always changing and so should your Business Continuity and Disaster Recover Plans.

With a carefully prepared and practiced plan, your business should be ready to face a variety of disasters with minimal downtime. If you would like to know more about Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery please contact us.

In many industries there is a fine line between profit and disaster. This is especially true for small businesses, where even a tiny mistake can can have big negative implications. Owners and managers need to ensure that their projects are living up to expectations in order to be successful and stay in business.

How many times have you started a project only to have it spiral out of control? Mistakes, delays, and other problems can be costly - both to you and your company. Here are some common reasons projects fail, and ideas to be aware of before you start your next big project.

No plan Possibly the biggest mistake any company can make is to not have a plan. A project without a plan is like a football team without a quarterback - it just won’t work. The most common plan used by businesses is a “project plan”: a plan that outlines your final goal, your plan to get there, and what resources are needed along the way. It is a good idea to involve all project team contributors in the planning phase. This will help encourage your team to stay on track.

Unrealistic budget An equally important mistake to avoid is having an unrealistic budget. All managers know they have to set and stick with a budget. However, few managers really know how to set a proper budget, and many projects end up being over budget. The easiest things you can do are:

• Determine the knowable costs. These can include software, parts, wages, fixed costs, etc. Be sure to include costs like shipping and tools needed for the project.
• Consider different parts of the project separately. Try to think which are more likely to have problems. Budget an extra percentage of the total costs based on how risky that aspect is.
• Look at budgets from similar past projects. These will help you judge whether you are on the right track.

Poorly defined expectations Many projects suffer from members not really understanding the expected outcome of efforts made. This could cause a decrease in morale among your employees. It’s best to review and update goals regularly, and tweak the scope or timelines as progress is made. It’s also equally important to involve employees in this process.

Scope creep While some change in the focus of the project can be good, beware of scope creep - uncontrolled or big changes to the original plan of the project. This can happen when the extent of the project is not properly defined or controlled. It is important that you clearly define the scope of the project with both yourself and your employees, and try to make as few changes as possible.

Poor communication This cannot be stressed enough: communication is very important. Many projects fail due to lack of good communication and interaction between the parties involved. We recommend that you stay in constant contact with all parties to ensure understanding of the project. Encourage an open communication environment where any employee can talk about anything and suggest ideas.

With good communication, a clear focus on the project and a solid plan your next IT project is on its way to be a successful one. For more information on project planning, please contact us.