Remember Napster? The music industry was forever changed with a simple online sharing program. The doom and gloom predicted never really materialized. However, the model for doing business changed and like any technology, continues to evolve. Today, the digital music industry is moving away from purchasing music to renting access to music. Whether it’s a subscription fee to Rhapsody or listening to a few commercials for online dating using the free version of Pandora, or my new favorite, Slacker Radio, your listening experience is quite different than it was 11 years ago when the iTunes store opened for business.

To some, this disruption was a smack in the head. To others, just another fad of the moment. For Apple, it was an opportunity to earn huge profits while reshaping music listening habits forever. We no longer had to buy an entire CD for one song. What Steve Jobs and Apple saw as an opportunity, the music industry viewed as a threat. History is littered with similar stories, but there is no better example of missing the boat than the music industry’s complete denial of the mp3 technological disruption and what it meant to their business model.

I have no idea what the next huge life changing disruption is going to be. We are in the age of Social Media. Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube, Living Social … the list goes on. Every facet of your life is tied to the social sphere. Your entire personal and business life is available for all to see and is documented every step of the way. It is moving faster and faster every day with no end in sight.

Last week while attending the Sales & Marketing Executives International Baltimore breakfast event, it became clear to me that you don’t need some big disruption splashed all over the evening news to help you drive your business to the top. Tom Loveland, founder and CEO of Mind Over Machines, was the speaker and the title of his presentation was “Sex Sells…So Does Data.” The entire discussion was wrapped around harnessing the power of data and what that means to an organization and its clients.

Data is everywhere. It’s in our current back office systems, on the internet or available for purchase. It’s glaring us in the face on the social networks. Harnessing the power of data is disruptive enough to give you a significant competitive advantage in whatever business you are in. The folks who figure out business growth doesn’t necessarily have to come from that next great product but harnessing the information available and using it to provide better service at a higher value for a reasonable price will be the big winners.

Countless examples of entrepreneurial companies using data to create a better product or provide a valued service were cited. The one that really brought it home for me was PSA Insurance and Financial Services. PSA provides a wide variety of products and services including Risk Management, Wealth Management and Employee Benefits. Because of the diverse nature of the products, information regarding clients lived in disparate systems. There was no clean way to get a three dimensional view of a specific client.  Like most companies, PSA worked through this challenge via email, spreadsheets and meetings. Inevitably, things fell through the cracks.

Somewhere along the line they decided to address their problems through the efforts of Marketing and IT. Why mention Marketing in a data discussion? Because no group of non IT people really understands the power of data and how it can drive business better than good marketing people. Additionally, I suspect there were some costs associated with bringing information from multiple systems together in a technology that can be used across the entire organization. If you are going to spend the money you need to provide the ROI.  Once the self imposed data barriers were lifted, PSA experienced revenue growth, increased customer satisfaction rates and increased cross promotional sales and selling opportunities.  They are now able to provide a better customer experience while driving revenue through what has proven to be a successful differentiator. I would suggest Tom Loveland change his presentation title to “Data is Sexy.”

As the public demand for mobile printing solution continues to grow, manufacturers are putting effort in developing solutions that “just work.” When attaching to your company network with and iOS device (iPhone/iPad) or other handheld, it only seems right that you would be presented with options to print. Right? There are many solutions out there and all have different features but newer Ricoh devices such as the MP-C3502 coupled with the EFI E-3300 Fiery can help you accomplish this goal.

Fiery is partnered with just about every major MFP/Printer manufacturer and offers high quality external and embedded print controllers. These controllers offer fast processing of print jobs while producing images of significantly better quality than standard print controllers. Our previous blogs have mentioned Fiery enabled Canon devices that have the ability to enable mobile printing either out of the box or with a simple software patch. At that time Ricoh Fiery’s were restricted but now are able to offer this integrated mobile printing solution without configuration.

The new Ricoh solution relies on exactly the same technology as the Canon devices sold by Advance. Bonjour is the group of protocols and services used to enable the latest mobile printing solutions on these devices and yes, for those using Mac’s or iTunes you have seen that term before. You may have heard of the term Zero Configuration Networking or Zeroconf and this is exactly what Bonjour is, or Apple’s flavor of Zeroconf. Once your mobile device is on the local network it can easily locate other devices using Bonjour and determine its functions without hardly any interaction from the user. Having the option to print from your mobile device is a must in today’s business world and Advance can help offer the correct solution. Contact Advance to see how we can help integrate mobile into your environment.

There are many reasons to partner with Advance – The Document Specialists for your document output needs. One key differentiator of Advance is the fact that we provide our clients with no cost, ongoing hardware training for the life of their equipment. This is just one example of how working with Advance is an unmatched experience, compared to getting what could be the exact same product from another vendor. Because the machines we sell are not unique to us, we are committed to making sure our clients get the highest level of value, including the best service in the industry.

You might have a product right now where you could say “I know there is a lot more that this machine can do, we just don’t know how to do it.” With a team of dedicated, full time trainers, Advance wants to make sure that our customers never feel that way. We believe that a product supported by outstanding service will perform in an outstanding manner. Conversely, that same product backed by a fair service organization would leave that product to perform in an average manner, at best.

At Advance, we understand that knowing a particular machine’s capabilities can dramatically improve the productivity and efficiency of our client’s critical business processes. Therefore, our hardware training team continues to develop their expertise on the machines that we sell through our ongoing hands-on classes at Advance. Our trainers also attend sessions provided by the manufacturers we represent, and they have access to exclusive dealer support websites for further reference. They can even recreate our customer’s operating environments in our showrooms, to help them develop any needed solutions. This allows them to share information with the rest of our Advance team, as well as, with any clients who might benefit from their improved workflow ideas. Through years of experience, our trainers have documented much of their research in an internal knowledge base on our Intranet.

At Advance, we believe that in order to get the most out of technology, you must have ongoing training. We want our clients to have great affection for our output solutions. Yes, it’s true. We’ve even had customers name our machines like pets, because they were so important to the workflow in their office.

While other companies may provide some basic form of initial training when a new machine is delivered, what happens when the people who were trained are no longer with that company? Even if they are still there, did they learn everything they needed during that first overview? Or, what happens three years after installation when the business has a completely different way of doing things?

Here at Advance, we understand that over time, there can be some knowledge lost. It could be from a change in users, or even from selective listening during the initial training. That is why we not only offer training as part of our installation process, but we also provide follow up, onsite training for our clients, whenever they need us. In fact, our training team now proactively reaches out to our customer base every 18 months to see if our services could benefit them. With technology changing every day, you can rest assured that with Advance, you will always have the support you need to keep your office running smoothly.

If you would like to learn more about Advance, the latest in document output technology, or to meet with a member of our training team, give us a call or stop by one of our showrooms. It will be easy to see what sets us apart. “We Live and Breathe This Stuff.”

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Remember when you were a kid and your parents told you not to take toys to school with you, but you did it anyway? Today as adults, we continue to bring our toys to work…but instead of bringing a favorite action figure (or babydoll- for the ladies), we are bringing our smart phones and mobile devices to work and it’s a good thing! Bring your own device, or “BYOD” is a philosophy that is quickly spreading in healthcare. The reason we want to bring these devices into the office is because they’ve become our personal problem solvers and integrate our personal lives with our work.

The use of mobile devices is becoming increasingly popular in healthcare, as practices begin to embrace technology. It’s known that mobile devices can interact with EHRs and can put your practice in the palm of our hand. But wouldn’t it be nice if you could print from your mobile devices? Now you can, thanks to a new feature called PrintMe Mobile, which enables any mobile device to print to any printer. That’s right, no matter what the brand.

If so many people are bringing their smart phones and tablets to work, why not utilize them? Here are three reasons to consider PrintMe Mobile for your office.

1. Productivity- Handle tasks with ease, without having to jump through hoops to print a document from your phone. Mobile devices are great for turning a “to do list” into a “done list”. Quickly maneuver through projects, without having to finagle a way to print.

2. Convenience- Any mobile device, can print to any printer. Print with ease from the devices that you use the most.

3. Simple Install- Though this sounds like an IT nightmare, setup is a snap. Takes 15 minutes from download to first mobile print output.

Remember that technology is intended to speed things up, not slow you down. Make sure your EHR vendor has the right tools to put your practice on top and the technology to keep you there. For more information email me at seans@advancestuff.com  or Follow me on Twitter @HealthCareSean. You can also set up an in-house demo at our Cockeysville headquarters. Just bring your mobile devices with you to try it out.

Having just come back from a conference in Washington, D.C. examining enhancing your customer relationships, I had to share a few thoughts I came away with. The conference was Cloudforce, an event designed by the crew at Salesforce.com. In the coming week, I’ll be posting a video blog from the event. In today’s fast paced, highly focused business world, having access to customer data is imperative. It improves relationships and can give a business deeper insight into what their customers might need to enhance their own business.

Inside many organizations, you’ll find incomplete customer databases either from input errors, records that have not been updated, and sometimes, duplicated efforts throughout different departments attempting to manage customer data in their own way outside of a designated database.  Whose job is it to track and clean this data? We’ve all heard it…”Garbage in, garbage out.”

So what does that mean? Well, the more clean and updated information you have on your customers, the better equipped you’ll be to offer them the information that relates to them instead of your blanketed monthly email blast covering all two dozen product offerings of your company. They don’t really care about that. They’ll check out before they read your introductory paragraph unless you grab their attention with things that are relevant to them. This is where knowing your customer is vital.

One of the key takeaways from Cloudforce is that the social enterprise is shaping the future. What is the social enterprise and what on earth does it have to do with customer data? It’s the ability to bridge the gap between your internal sales and customer service people and your customer base. It’s the new way we’re learning, connecting, and communicating on a social platform. We’re educating ourselves through social media, our connections, friends, and those we follow on Twitter. We’re sharing our opinions about what we like and dislike with the world. We can chat with anyone, anywhere, in the world, anytime—global thought sharing. It’s not just about sharing on Facebook what we did over the weekend anymore, it’s about sharing what speaks to us in all aspects of our lives–professional and  personal. Harnessing the business aspects of what we and our customers share is becoming a key element to more effective marketing. It’s a social revolution that’s alive and living in the Cloud. It’s a mobile, on the go, way of life, and it’s all being driven through social media. Imagine how targeted your message could be if it were geared towards only the customers who were interested in a certain aspect of your company.

How would you know if they were interested? If they completed an online web form or called you, that’s a dead giveaway. But what if they were playing hard to get? How would you know? If you had the right tools in place, you’d have a social relationship with them. What do I mean by social relationship? Simply put, you connect with your customers on the social platforms and immerse yourself in their online community. You wrap your message to them around what they post, like, comment on, and are able to give them only the information they want to hear. This sort of interaction happens every day to you and to me. You shop on Amazon and they come up with suggestions for what you might like to buy based upon what you’re clicking on within their site.

Social isn’t much different. You know that someone is tweeting about how to fix a paper jam and voila…you can tweet them back a how-to video about how to clear the jam. Now THAT’S relevant to them. You’re the hero and the recipient can fix their paper jam without waiting for a service technician. Next time they have a problem relating to a copier, they’ll remember that you were there when they needed you most. Maybe they’ll even buy something from you because you’re their social buddy. You are also an expert on copiers in their eyes as well because after the video jamming incident, you tweeted out a couple other tips—like how to print from your mobile device to a networked copier, or the security features on the copier/ multifunctional printer (MFP). The possibilities are there and so is the social relationship.

Social data can also help fill in the blanks for you. So can the data all over your company that exists in multiple databases across departments.  A good CRM (customer relationship management) can help pull it all together AND also connect it with their social profile. Now, that’s what I call a complete customer profile. The next time you’re on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, look just a tiny bit deeper into those articles your connections are posting and think about how important it may be to understand why that article was shared, posted or tweeted. You might start to see a bigger picture and pattern in your social connections’ actions.

I recently stumbled across a Linked-In discussion “EHR Not Reducing Healthcare Costs – Do You Agree?” in the MedicExchange group that I am a part of. As I began reading some of the comments, It was clear that there are still a lot of skeptics when it comes to cost savings and EHR. It became apparent to me that many physicians and healthcare specialists are missing the big picture. The savings may not be instantly evident, but without question, over time EHR’s will save healthcare and individual practices money. My answer to the discussion question is absolutely NOT. EHR will save money in two ways: First: Savings from inefficiencies in the office; and second: reduction of duplicate tests, scans, etc.

1. Savings From Inefficiencies in the Office

This is where the small, individual practices will see the savings. As I discussed in my last blog, “Writing A Script May Not Always Be The Best Medicine,” without EHRs several tedious and time consuming processes hinder workflow efficiencies. Something like a medication recall could take hours, maybe even days to straighten out manually. Whether it becomes the responsibility of your staff or if you shoulder it yourself, the time and energy you spend on manual processes is money lost. That’s time that you could be seeing other patients or preparing for the day ahead, and time that your staff could be running the office and not searching through charts. Why not optimize your practice and streamline those tedious chores with EHR? Two simple principles apply here: 1.) A more efficient records system will generate more revenue, and  2.) time lost is money lost.

2. Reduction of Duplicate Scans, Tests, etc.

Over time, as more physicians get on board with EHR, healthcare will see a reduction of duplicate scans and tests. Over testing is costing healthcare an estimated $210 billion a year. One of the most frequent reasons for ordering tests is defensive medicine, which is the fear of being sued by patients for not ordering a test. EHRs enable physicians to view patient histories, including tests that have already been ordered by other physicians, and to determine the best course of action, without ordering unnecessary tests.

How many patients do you know that hop from doctor to doctor? Especially when they are told something they don’t want to hear. I personally know an elderly gentleman, who is extremely stubborn. He has a bad back and insists on having surgery. So he will hop from doc to doc, getting MRI’s and X-rays along the way from each physician, until he finds one that says what he wants to hear. He has dozens of scans that are ultimately the same, just ordered by different physicians. Had these physicians he visited been onboard with EHR, thousands of dollars could have been saved by retrieving previous scans; instead of ordering new ones each time.

One member of the discussion brought up an excellent point: “The intention of a practice adopting EHR is not to reduce healthcare costs, but to reduce clinical errors and expedite patient care.” He is absolutely right! In actuality, EHR will save healthcare money, but let’s not forget the real reasons why adoption is so important – improving your practice and improving patient care.

Bottom line: we need to reengineer our thinking regarding healthcare. We need to view healthcare beyond the address of a small local practice and think national. EHR’s will save healthcare money, but it requires participation from physicians nationwide. I encourage physicians to start looking into EHR now, if they have not already. Stimulus monies are still available. Why not get paid to better your practice, provide better care for your patients and help improve communication within healthcare nationwide?

For more information please contact me at seans@advancestuff.com and Follow me on Twitter @HealthCareSean

As an avid supporter of the local legal community, Advance – The Document Specialists recently participated as a vendor in the Baltimore County Bar Association’s technology fair in Towson. The main focus of the event was a presentation given by Maryland District Court’s Chief Judge Ben Clyburn, about the Maryland Judiciary’s upcoming transition to an electronic case management system. In the future, Maryland Electronic Courts (MDEC) will electronically accept, maintain and share documents, while allowing new services to the Bar such as e-filing, e-service for secondary pleadings and electronic court document access, among others. In listening to Judge Clyburn describe the past and current phases of this ongoing initiative, I couldn’t help but smile, as it unfolded like a typical “document management” project. The type of project that Advance has been helping its clients with for over a decade. While MDEC is obviously designed solely for the legal community, Advance has been helping businesses in every industry by providing customized systems to fit their specific organization’s workflow needs.

So, why convert to electronic document management? No, it’s not just about going “green.” It’s about solving important issues. For the Maryland Judiciary, the goal of MDEC is to increase access to justice and public safety, and to improve the fair and efficient administration of justice. Judge Clyburn told a story of a colleague who issued a bench warrant calling for someone’s immediate arrest, but because of the current inefficient paper processes, the delay in the transfer of information to the sheriff allowed that person to commit a murder. Judge Clyburn envisions a very different outcome in the future. “This is going to save lives,” he stated, referring to the many benefits of the new electronic case management system.

While most of the systems that we provide here at Advance – The Document Specialists don’t address issues associated with life and death, they certainly do solve our client’s critical business challenges. The benefits of our document management solutions include productivity improvements, customer service improvements, workflow improvements, regulatory compliance/security improvements, reduced waste and cost savings. One of the most notable cost savings of MDEC may be from the current spending on paper document storage space, which is in the millions of dollars.

Today, MDEC is still in the planning phase. However, a pilot program for testing is scheduled to launch in Anne Arundel County in the upcoming year or so, with a potential statewide system roll out planned for approximately 2015. With any document management project, communication is a key component of creating a successful implementation and to addressing any change management concerns. Judge Clyburn asked that all attorneys who attended the technology fair get involved to help mold what the final system and structure will look like. For attorneys who want to learn more about Maryland Electronic Courts go to www.mdcourts.gov/mdec.

If your organization could benefit from an Advance certified document imaging architect evaluating your critical workflow processes, please give us a call. We would also welcome you to join us for one of our no cost document management workshops. To learn more, and sign up online, visit http://dm.advancestuff.com.

The emerging product line from Ricoh includes some pretty handy features as well as improvements to its Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) integration. They are focusing on making their already easy to use devices more user friendly and scan options easy to configure for administrators. Let’s think about how you first log into your computer each morning. Most people will respond that they enter a username and password of some sort. After logging into the domain, users are typically mapped to a set of “network drives” consisting of a home folder and various other shared network resources. In many cases, the home folder is being mapped by an LDAP attribute within the directory server on the domain.

With the new Ricoh product line, the login process works much in the same way, and with a little configuration, gives authenticated users access to their home folder located on the network. Previous Ricoh devices allowed for LDAP, or Windows Authentication, however, access to the user’s home folder was limited and required additional software. Now administrators need only enable LDAP authentication on the device, specify the home folder attribute, and ensure that the user’s home folder is configured properly in their directory server (whether it’s Active Directory, OpenLDAP, or another solution).

Administrators looking to minimize the amount of configuration on their multifunctional devices (MFDs) will love the new enhancements. Those in charge of managing current MFD fleets probably spend a good deal of time ensuring that address books containing email addresses and scan-to-folder destinations stay somewhat synchronized. It’s possible that all of those folder destinations point to each user’s home folder and authentication is completed via a proxy account. If that’s the case, enabling LDAP with home folders may be a better solution.

After a user successfully authenticates, they are automatically provided with the option to scan to their own email address and home folder. This process also eliminates the need for a proxy account as the authentication process relies on the logged in user and access permissions already established on the network. Users can also login to any supported device and are provided with identical options without manual address book management.

So whether you are an end user or an administrator, the new devices should help improve your workflow and provide additional management capabilities. Consult with Advance to see if your devices are supported and learn how to integrate this feature.