Reimagining Business Collaboration
When all your employees are under the same roof, getting the group together to brainstorm ideas and solve big problems is an issue of packing all the people into the same conference room. But when your employees are spread across a city, country, or even the entire globe, how do you pull everyone together to collaborate? Technology has made the physical location of employees irrelevant to their productivity level—we can now access all corporate tools outside the office. But in the process of making it easier to recruit the best talent regardless of their proximity to the physical building that the company is housed in, we lost something that is inherent to the productivity of the entire workforce: the ability to work together as a single unit. ZAC, the newest member of the Zultys family of product, is a tool designed to help employees connect. By bringing all the functionality necessary to work together into a single application, you can put all your best brains into the same conference room—it just won’t be a physical room anymore. The possibilities are endless and the integration between the various methods of communication is infinite. A powerful team chat functionality hosts all the employees working on the same project in the same virtual conference room, and when conveying the ideas across with written correspondence becomes too difficult, getting all the employees together on a conference call doesn’t require trying to remember different phone numbers or emails to send the meeting invite to. All the contact info employees need is right there at their convenience, so that they can put their minds to use doing their job without wasting precious time on figuring out how to get in touch with their coworkers. Set up smaller collaboration hubs for more private conversation, accessible to only the people invited to this discussion, while more expansive projects can be discussed by huge groups. And on top of that, you still have access to all the call handling and call management functionality that have made Zultys Unified Communication Platform indispensable at corporations across the globe. ZAC specializes in enhancing productivity, by combining all methods of communication into a single application, one that is both intuitive and versatile and able to support the communication needs of any business. Technology is supposed to be making our lives easier, so make your business communication technology work for you! And ZAC is here to connect you and your employees together, to make tackling your hardest projects as easy as it would be if you were all sitting around that old conference room table. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you reimagine collaboration in your office! Source: Zultys Blog, Lina
A Smooth Transition Into Going Paperless
There are advantages to going department by department when you implement a document management system. Think of starting small as your “sandbox,” a development term for experimentation that confirms the direction you should be taking. Working through your first implementation project provides valuable information about priorities and processes that you can bring to your next one. Too much change at one time may initially overwhelm users. This is especially true if one person deals with multiple processes across departments. Your goals for the implementation give you an endpoint to reach for, but it can be more effective to take smaller, manageable steps toward that goal. Zero in on one department and go forward from there For most organizations, the accounting department offers a significant opportunity for savings of time and resources. Accounting still tends to be paper-centric. For example, processing incoming invoices is often done manually. This presents significant ROI potential because when you use document management to become more efficient at sending and collecting on invoices, it enables you to get paid more quickly. This results in improved cash flow. Automating these processes saves time as well and allows you to grow your business without adding staff. Document management ultimately works best when multiple departments are connected. Even when you start in one department, it’s important to create a plan to assess which other departments you will automate in the next project phase. Then you can develop a staggered implementation timeline for each department to “go live” while automating the next department is already underway. Find out why three DocuWare customers who implemented the solution in their accounting departments used the experience as a stepping stone for expanding the use of their document management systems. Please note that these are not our clients, but they use one of the document management systems that we use. Propel Schools bring high-performance educational options to their students Propel Schools operates 13 charter schools located in and around Pittsburgh. Today, Propel’s invoice approval workflow is fully automated. Staff at each school scans their documents into DocuWare. The Accounting Department accesses the documents online and performs a 3-way match. Then they quickly route the invoice out for approval. Automations save time in other ways as well. Accounting staff no longer call individual schools to track down invoices that were “lost” in someone’s in-basket. Efficiency is further improved because everyone involved in the workflow can view supporting documents online. In the past, all documentation was stored in physical files that were only accessible in the central business office. Propel’s new invoice approval process is transparent, so staff can easily determine which invoices are outstanding and track their status. With DocuWare in place, invoices never need to be recopied and resent; a quick email reminder is all it takes to move the process along. Approval time has dropped from up to two weeks to just a few days. “DocuWare is helping our business office run much smoother,” Business Manager Darryl Robinson says. “I love this program because it provides my staff with quick, easy access to the information we need and that makes our department look good,” The new electronic invoice approval workflow was so successful that Propel is planning to expand DocuWare to manage student and HR records. Document management is essential at Corestruc Corestruc is the flagship company of a conglomerate that includes eleven individual companies and 250 employees. All are active in the concrete, real estate and agricultural industries in South Africa and neighboring countries. Corestruc designs and manufactures pre-cast concrete structures that are used in public infrastructure and the private construction sector. A digital document management system helps coordinate all these corporate threads from their headquarters in Polokwane, located northeast of Johannesburg. Corestruc is benefiting from digitization, especially on the cost side. DocuWare not only significantly reduces processing times, but also improves the flow of information between administration and subsidiaries. As a result, only a fraction of the time is now spent between receipt of invoice and payment. Based on their positive experience, the company plans to use DocuWare in human resources as well. Shelter Products Automates Accounts Payable to Streamline Processes Headquartered in Milwaukie, Oregon, Shelter Products is a distributor of lumber, plywood and other building materials. With sales offices in six states, the company supplies premier building contractors across the country, specializing in just-in-time shipments for projects including multi-family housing, assisted living, hotels and motels. Installing DocuWare solved several industry-specific challenges. “In the construction business, our customers get a draw from their bank loans once a month,” IT director Colin McDonell explains. “Quick turn-around of invoices is critical. If we miss a cut-off by one day, we’re not getting paid for an additional 30 days.” The company has only a few days to take advantage of early payment discounts, and often missed that window due to lost or incorrectly routed paperwork. “We recently put in an automated invoice approval process that replaced the need for sign off on paper. Because we process 2,400 invoices a month, it was a pinch point,” McDonell says. Now invoices are approved within three hours, rather than possibly sitting on someone’s desk for a day or two. “DocuWare’s Workflow Manager has been transformational in the Shelter Products business. While not part of our initial evaluation, it has quickly become the key piece of the puzzle. After Accounts Payable, rolling it out to the Credit and Legal departments is the next step.” 4 Tips for department-by-department implementations Invite future users to your first training sessions: Once you’ve introduced the solution in one department, invite representatives from other departments to sit in on training. They’ll get first-hand experience with the solution. This will get them excited about how document management can positively impact their work lives. Hold a review and optimization workshop and invite business leaders from other departments to attend: Bring your existing users together to talk about what works and doesn’t, and how to apply these successes and challenges in the future. This workshop also serves as a showcase for other departments.
5 Easy To Avoid HIPAA Violations
Businesses that operate within the medical industry know all too well how important it is to follow all of the rules and guidelines concerning patient information and data. The penalties for HIPAA violations can be severe, ranging from several thousand dollars up to a million dollars or more. While some HIPAA violations are obvious, others may be easy to miss. In this article, we’ll take a look at five unexpected HIPAA violations that many small businesses do not know to look out for. 1) Data Forms on Your Website Forms on your website that users are able to fill out are a great way to collect data and generate leads. However, form data is typically not encrypted at rest and is also often sent via unencrypted email. If a user enters medical information into one of these forms, it could amount to a HIPAA violation for the website owner. The form doesn’t even have to ask for medical data directly – if a user inputs medical data into a blank textbox on the form the consequences are often the same. 2) Digital Copiers Many business owners are unaware that digital copiers store data. If you don’t take the time to secure your copier and/or wipe its data when you go to sell it, you could leave your business vulnerable to a HIPAA violation. 3) Phishing Emails All it takes is for one employee in your business to fall prey to a phishing email for your entire network to be exposed. While a breach in security resulting from a phishing scam can constitute a HIPAA violation, you can protect against these breaches by keeping your security software updated, making use of firewalls, and using strong passwords that you change frequently. 4) Improper Disposal of Records and Hard Drives Any record – digital or physical – that contains personal health information (PHI) must be wiped clean and/or destroyed before it can be disposed of. If this information is left in a trash can or left in a folder on an employee’s computer, it could fall into the wrong hands, leading to a very serious HIPAA violation. There are companies that provide hard drive destruction services and it is highly recommended you find a local provider and regularly shred your hard drives. They will actually come to your location and shred the drives in your presence and then give you a certificate of destruction. 5) Loss or Theft of Devices If a device containing PHI is lost or stolen, it could result in a stiff HIPAA violation for the business responsible for the device. This means that it is essential to encrypt all devices that store PHI and train your employees to report the loss or theft of their business devices immediately. It’s also important to train your employees not to use unencrypted personal devices for business purposes. Conclusion HIPAA violations can be a major blow for businesses, and they are often times difficult to protect against. If you would like to learn more about how we can help shield your business from HIPAA violations through strong, effective security, we invite you to contact us today. Boring Business Systems is an I.T. Support and Managed Services Provider serving the greater Tampa and Lakeland area. In addition to network support and desktop support, Boring also specializes in cybersecurity and works with many companies that are subject to HIPAA compliance.