Technology Services are an investment, not an unecessary expense for a company…

Technology Services are critically important to the success or failure of an organization!

The current economic climate has led to the closure and/or consolidation of thousands of companies in recent years. Companies continue to scale down operating expenses and reduce unjustified “fluff” as they ride out the remainder of the economic storm.  Across industries, particularly with Small Businesses, technology infrastructure and services (Desktops, Servers, Software Application Management, Remote Monitoring, Managed Services, IT Solutions, Data Storage and Disaster Prevention) continues to be viewed by some as expense “fluff”.  However, implementing the right technology solution can actually enable staff workload to be downsized, enable future growth of business in remote offices and increase the profitability of a company, rather than drain the operating budget! Ensure that your organization will thrive by investing in Technology Support Services. Don’t view Technology Support as an expense, but rather as an investment into the long-term success of your company. The necessity for business productivity is not an expense to cut. The right Technology Solutions Provider can access the needs of a company and identify a more cost effective approach that meets the needs of a company. This inevitably will reduce the “fluff”. Processes can be streamlined and a more efficient way to perform daily tasks will be revealed. This would decrease work hours for assigned tasks and enable staff to be more productive. Increased productivity typically generates more revenue, thus the outcome is mutually beneficial.

The correct Technology Solution may also allow for future growth of your company within other geographical locations. Remote offices can access and share files with the main office. This functionality will allow for new sales opportunities and provide a company with additional growth!

Service Providers such as Medical and Dental Practices often have a tough time justifying technology expenses. Ironically, with the recent added EHR or EMR requirements, if a medical or dental practice was to experience a Network Failure, the consequences could be catastrophic. A small investment in Technology Infrastructure and Maintenance can save thousands of dollars each day that an office is not operating at full-capacity.

We must ask this question…How much money would YOUR company lose if your office network was down or if your company data was lost and unrecoverable? What value do you place on intellectual property and client contact information? What monetary fines would be imposed upon your company by Federal or State Regulating Entities for technical non-compliance?

If you want to ensure that your company is properly equipped with a technology solution that meets the needs and goals and compliance requirements of your organization, contact the infrastructure specialists at Orange County Computer and a member of our team will be happy to help. Contact us to schedule a complimentary Network Evaluation or Compliance Assessment today at 949-699-6619. We are happy to help!

Healthcare IT: Top 5 reasons why Providers are not ready for meaningful use

Survey: Top 5 reasons providers not ready for meaningful use

December 13, 2010 | Molly Merrill, Associate Editor

NEW YORK – About 90 percent of healthcare providers that purchased electronic medical records technology are off track to meet their meaningful use implementation goals, according to the 2011 Black Book Ranking’s user survey.

Black Book Rankings is a division of the market research firm Brown-Wilson Group. Its user survey ranks the top EMR vendors for 2011 based on key performance indicators including meaningful use.

As a subset of the 2011 Black Book Ranking’s Electronic Health Record (EMR) User Survey, nearly 4000 healthcare leaders responded on several commonly discussed EMR issues. Despite the technology’s escalating adoption rate, the survey found that only one in 10 users foresees achieving the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 requirements for stimulus funding by this spring.

“Over four hundred Electronic Health Records (EHR) system developers have emerged in the market over the past year and, as in most fast adoption environments, not all vendors equally service and support their new clients,” said Kevin Parker, lead EHR researcher for Black Book Rankings.

“The customers of only a handful of high performance EHR vendors expressed high confidence in meeting the demonstration of meaningful use deadlines,” adds Parker. “The perception of an effective technology partner is highly dependent on the quality of EHR vendor support through a several month implementation.”

 EHR users surveyed indicated the following as the top five reasons they are losing implementation traction:

1. A lack of substantive support from their EHR vendor (93 percent);
2. Delayed implementation due to the cost of additional support from EHR vendor/consultants (89 percent);
3. A hurried selection of an EHR vendor has resulted in negative consequences (82 percent);
4. Lack available and/or trained staff to properly implement an EHR (77 percent); and
5. They are unprepared and underfunded to rectify difficult system interfaces (69 percent).

“User experience is the only accurate way to assess future performance for prospective EHR buyers,” said Parker. “The top performing vendors have demonstrated, as a qualified group, their ability to satisfy client expectations higher than the entire field of competing EHR vendors. This will be evidenced in the meaningful use success rates of 2011 by their collective clients.”