The Datamax Thinking Blog

Whether they are complying with HIPAA or attesting to the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) under MACRA for positive incentives, healthcare professionals cannot avoid (and certainly cannot AFFORD to avoid) the Security Risk Analysis.

For many health organizations, the elephant in the waiting room is still seated there, anxiously anticipating when it might be acknowledged or tended to.

That elephant is the Security Risk Analysis (SRA). Originally mandated by HIPAA and subsequently further enforced by government programs such as Meaningful Use and now the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), the SRA is a vital component to both healthcare facilities’ ultimate livelihood and the confidential information of their clients.

How navigable is your paper trail right now? How well is it aligned with your overall business objectives? It may be time to identify both current inefficiencies and explore cost-effective, fully secure practices moving forward.

Have you ever followed your own paper trail? Where does it lead you?

Regardless of the size of your organization – a small work group up to a large enterprise - it has a unique paper trail based on your existing technology and individual departmental practices. Your routine document workflow, files and paper moving from desk to desk both manually and digitally, dictate the route of your trail. Your path can often be cluttered by manual, paper based processing, damaged by inadequate security measures or completely overgrown from simple negligence.

A successful Vertical Marketing plan requires education, in-depth collaboration and a discovery period of investigating the day-to-day workflow of a specific organization.

In business, sales representatives plant seeds all the time through their interactions with prospects and clients. But how committed they are to acquainting themselves with and nurturing these relations once planted, often determines ultimate long-term growth.

Consider Vertical Marketing the ultimate exercise in studying and tending to individual seeds, learning each nuance and developing growth consistently based on relevant client needs. It’s much more than canned brochures or pre-determined sales pitches. It’s a duel effort of zeroing in on a specific market’s shared challenges and objectives, and finding relative solutions that produce long-term results.

When it comes to managing a printing environment, many organizations find themselves without even a road map. Most companies don't realize how many documents are wasted daily – money literally thrown away. 

It comes up regularly on long car rides with my wife – what did we ever do pre-smartphone GPS? My answer: There was always, of course, the trusted Rand McNally map, along with the refined technique of folding it back adequately enough to fit back into your glove box. The Rand McNally, for me, is a sentimental relic from family vacations past.

Document automation and workflow solutions help organizations share information not only more efficiently, but with the confidence of enhanced security and the ease of quicker access.

With the emergence of wearable technology, we are quickly becoming a society of health trackers.

Apps, watches and other tracking devices play a growing role in our everyday life, as this technology counts our daily steps, sleeping hours and much, much more.  These wearables keep us keenly mindful of our daily movement during waking hours and our overall health, with more and more data available to track and share. 

The central objective of utilizing EDM is to make your overall business processes more efficient, and specifically to accelerate and properly secure the way you move documents across your office. 

In the months before they toe the starting line, many runners and endurance athletes mistakenly obsess over one attribute through their training plan - speed. However, to maintain top efficiency in their movements and to keep these movements sharp as possible, agility - a combination of speed, control and coordination – is a critical part of everyday training.

Agility is also the key, big picture component to proficient document workflow. It's not just how fast you operate - it's how coordinated and efficient those efforts are.

A Managed Network Services program fine tunes and establishes control over all the moving components of your network. 

Your business's network steadily hums along, serving its intended purpose with what seems like relative ease. That is, until an unexpected breakdown occurs and you begin to feel the weight of every IT issue bearing down on your office's productivity.

What seems effortless can quickly become overwhelming. What traditionally seemed like a routine method for handling IT could today be more a beast of burden for your business.

The burden of administrators handling an entire fleet can be significantly lifted by usability improvements and features that simply make doing their job more efficient.

Visiting a car dealership (even if today, most buyers’ research is done online beforehand), there’s multiple variables to consider. Beyond budget and leasing options, one must consider speed (that sleek, streamlined sports car), functionality (the gas-friendly cross-over with room for the dog), safety/security, as well as that inevitable drop in value with that vehicle moving forward.   

The same used to be said about copiers.

So, consider this bit of recent history ... 29% of IT professionals report their clients have encountered ransomware that specifically targeted Office 365.

I must say, I love history. For humanity's sake, I deeply hope it’s never rewritten.  I’m not entirely sure whether my interest lies in the fun and fascination of discovery, or the fear of repeating failures it documents.  One thing’s for sure, as summed up by Edmund Burke, “Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.”  

No doubt, a truth proven over and over again.

So here’s a bit of history (2,000 years in the making) every business should consider as it prepares to compete and/or to defend its resources — the focus of this blog.

Every business needs to be secure today. Data backup and disaster recovery are key tools to keep your office safe and in business.

If you’re reading this, you understand that your business or office depends on information technology (IT) to function.

As businesses of every size rely ever more on IT, there are two functions IT performs essential to a business’ ability to function:

1. a robust, secure data network
2. continued access to vital business information and documents

No network and no access to information equals no business.