by Felicien | Feb 11, 2019 | Education
Hiring an IT consultant is a proven method of boosting small to midsize businesses beyond their current capabilities. Rather than hiring full-time employees or tying up internal resources, businesses can allow an IT consultant to do some of the heavy lifting. That’s not to suggest that hiring an IT consultant does not have some pitfalls. Here are some of the most common errors that local businesses can avoid when hiring an IT consultant.
Rushing the Process
Hiring an IT consultant should be something that a business carefully plans for, rather than trying to pick one in an “emergency” situation. Take your time and conduct a proper candidate search. Vet IT consultants the same way that you would when hiring for an important management position.
Not Hiring an IT Consultant
A surprising number of businesses start the process of researching IT consultant firms and then decide they can do it all in-house. Contracting with an IT consultant is about business growth. Shuffling the routine tasks that an IT firm can handle off to internal employees can drain morale and waste the talents of staff who are better-suited to other aspects of the business.
Failing to Assess Business Needs
“Why are we hiring an IT consulting company?” needs to be a question that local businesses ask before signing a contract. Any IT consultant that a business is considering should be able to help assess any IT difficulties it has and provide an honest assessment of its plan to fix any issues or improve them. This will help a business to avoid paying for unnecessary services. Another great question to ask is, “What is your exit strategy in the event that we outgrow the need for your services?”
Not Protecting Intellectual Property
When a business does hire an IT consultant firm, it essentially hands it “the keys to the kingdom.” An IT consultant will have logins and passwords to virtually every aspect of the business. This is why the protection of the company’s intellectual property should be of paramount importance in the hiring process. If a substandard and unethical IT firm ends up in a dispute with the business, its entire network could be held hostage. Establish clear and firm rules regarding the handling of intellectual property, just as you would with any other outside contractor.
Not Having a Detailed Contract
A detailed contract that both the business and the IT consultant agree upon is vitally important. The contract can cover costs, number of hours of weekly or monthly service provided, goals and milestones to meet, deadlines, expectations if goals or deadlines are not met, annual price increases, and who pays for unforeseen outside services when they arise. Getting all of the expectations laid out ahead of time can lead to a successful business relationship with an IT consulting firm.
Not Choosing the Right IT Consultant
The world of IT consultant firms is expansive and yet there is a lot of specialization within the field. It’s not a field where “one size fits all”local businesses. Make sure that the IT firm you sign a contract with has the specific skills required to meet the specific needs of your business. If you’re hiring an IT consultant on a temporary basis, the problem they’re trying to fix will be resolved that much faster if they have the right skills for the job.
Not Interviewing Multiple Consultants
Talk with multiple IT consultants before selecting one. Treat the process just as you would when hiring for an important full-time position. A business should take the time to interview multiple candidates before making a selection. Is the IT consultant you’re hiring the right one to meet your business needs? This is an important business relationship and it should be approached as such.
Forgetting about IT Training
The regular full-time employees of a local business are the ones who will be using the resources and solutions provided by an IT consultant. Do they know how to use the solutions that are being provided? Before hiring a consultant, ensure that they agree to provide regular training for your staff on how to use any new or improved systems.
These are some of the most common errors that local businesses can make when it’s time to expand by hiring an IT consultant. A business can benefit tremendously when it hires the right IT consulting firm and has clear goals and expectations going into the relationship.
by Felicien | Feb 8, 2019 | Education
If you own or manage a company and are considering outsourcing your IT services, you’re on your way to markedly reduced expenditures and greatly improved cybersecurity and technology.
Still wondering about the benefits of outsourcing IT? Not sure how to go about hiring a managed IT service provider?
We’ve got you covered. Let’s start with what IT services are and why you need them.
What are IT services?
When it comes to virtually any type of business in the world, technology is a critical part of operations.
First, you must be online with a top-quality website and a consistent social media presence. Next, you need technology for your employees and daily operations: computers, printers, copiers, adequate data storage and backup, unique software programs, and more. Finally, everything must be protected with excellent cybersecurity.
All of these things encompass your business’s IT services or information technology services.
Why should you outsource IT?
Most businessmen and women start their businesses with the mind that they can do anything they set their mind to.
While this is an excellent mentality to have and provides the necessary motivation to start a booming business, it’s also important to know when to ask for help. Nowhere is this more pertinent than with information technology, or IT.
Unless you are specifically in the business of providing information technology yourself, this means you’ll have to have a strong team of IT specialists on your side.
In-house IT departments are generally only a viable option for expansive businesses who will have enough work for the IT staff to do on a daily basis. Therefore, the better solution for most companies is to hire a managed service provider or MSP.
These companies provide all different levels of IT support to their customers (businesses and organizations like yours). Their main goals are to make your life easier and to help your business grow and thrive.
What are the benefits of outsourcing IT?
1. You’ll have access to the best talent pool and technology.
Professional IT companies handle technology all day. All specialists working at MSPs are trained in their specific area of tech, and they stay updated on the latest in cybersecurity, technological hardware and software advances, updates to data cabling practices, and more. Moreover, whenever you need updated software or hardware, MSPs know the most effective and affordable options.
2. You can choose your level of service.
Most MSPs offer different tiers of service. You choose your level of service and pay a flat, monthly, quarterly, or yearly fee for them to provide whatever services are in that tier. Sometimes, businesses simply hire MSPs to be “on-call” when they need them. MSPs cater to you.
Because of this, you can basically pay for exactly what your business needs. If you own a large business and constantly need IT service assistance, choose a more hands-on level of service. If you only occasionally need help with an IT problem and generally just need someone to help you hook up new computers, networks, or equipment from time to time, choose a lower tier of service. You can also change levels of service, based on your changing needs.
3. You’ll reduce costs across the board.
MSPs only work when you need them, so you’re paying for what you need and not for downtime.
It can be expensive to hire, train, and consistently employ an in-house IT team. Moreover, in small and mid-sized businesses, these staff members generally have a lot of downtime. Hiring an MSP makes more fiscal sense in the long run, and you’ll undoubtedly get better service.
4. You won’t have to micro-manage an IT team.
MSPs take care of you; that’s their job. Unfortunately, in many cases involving an in-house IT department, it’s the manager or director who is taking care of the tech team and micro-managing their day-to-day tasks. This leaves little time to actually run the business.
The whole point of hiring an MSP is to lessen your workload and anxiety. You should be able to hand over the “tech reigns” to an MSP and let them keep your business in a continuous flow of utility, without hitch or interruption. This is what they’re trained to do without your involvement.
5. You’ll improve your compliance.
Meeting compliance is a major pain point in many industries. Government rules and other regulations are complicated and always changing. An MSP can take on this burden for you and set you up with the software you’ll need for perfect compliance and greatly improved risk management.
6. You can stop worrying about security risks.
A large part of an MSP’s role is to be aware of current cybersecurity threats. With many businesses and organizations, personal and private data is being stored. In the event of a security breach, this data could be stolen, destroyed, held for ransom, or otherwise tampered with.
If it is employee data, a breach like this could mean loss of faith in the company and even lawsuits. The same goes for loss of client and customer data — or patient data in the case of health care providers. In these situations, whole businesses can collapse.
Fortunately, cybersecurity is best handled by professional MSPs. These experts know the current strategies hackers are using to obtain login information and sensitive data. They will construct a thick barrier between you and any potential threats. Moreover, they’ll be monitoring your security 24/7, so if something does happen, they can nip it in the bud as soon as possible.
Should you simply manage IT yourself?
We don’t recommend that. Again, entrepreneurs and leaders in business are unique creatures in that they genuinely feel that they can accomplish anything they set their minds to. We’ve already covered why this is absolutely excellent for getting great business ideas, bringing them to fruition, and creating businesses that thrive and grow. But at certain times, it is critical that you release the mentality that you should handle it all.
As an owner or manager, you simply don’t have time, and your talents and abilities should be put to better use than managing IT. While we will assert time and again that information technology is absolutely essential to your business, it is crucial that you find the best-managed service provider to assist you in handling your IT. Do what you’re best at and leave the IT to MSPs.
How do you find an IT services company?
There are high-end, professional managed service providers all over the nation, so simply search for MSPs in your area. Many urban areas will have a long list of MSPs, but they’ll cover a big swath of rural towns in their service area. Once you find a few MSPs that you like the look of, set up appointments with each one to find an MSP that meets your unique needs.
by Felicien | Feb 8, 2019 | Education
PowerPoint is a slideshow presentation program that is part of the Microsoft 365 office suite of tools. Now, PowerPoint makes it easy to create professional, engaging presentations right on an iPad Pro. PowerPoint for iPad is finally powerful enough so users can confidently leave their personal computer at the office and take their iPad Pro on the road to create, edit and present their PowerPoint slides.
One of the newest and most creative features of Microsoft Powerpoint on the iPad (This feature is available to Microsoft Office 365 subscribers on Windows and iOS) is the Ink Feature. This convenient and easy to use tool allows users to actually write, draw, scribble and sketch right on the screen with a finger, digital pen, or mouse. Shape recognition is part of the PowerPoint for iPad program and makes it easy to convert what is handwritten in free-form ink to Microsoft Office shapes, graphics and professional fonts. For example, if you need to create an Infographic presentation slide that combines text, graphics, and shapes, simply design it free-form on the iPad screen and then after a few clicks, it will automatically transform into a visually stunning slide. Here’s how:
1. From the toolbar, select Draw.
2. Select a pen. There are a variety of sizes and colors including the standard black, red, blue, or green, or for something more custom, select the available color wheel.
3. Create a sketch with a finger, digital pencil or mouse.
When ready to convert sketches, there is a Lasso Select tool so users can highlight everything on the slide or portions of the slide they want professionally converted. Here’s how:
1. Go to the Draw tab on the top toolbar and select Ink to Shape.
2. Drag a digital pen or finger around what content you’d like to be converted. A faded and dashed area will appear while dragging.
3. As each conversion option is clicked, a preview of how it will look appears. Tap on the one preferred. When completed, users can edit the text and other images as needed.
4. Select the Ink to Shape again to stop converting shapes.
Erasing images is as easy as drawing them. Here’s how:
1. Select the Draw tab from the toolbar.
2. Select the Eraser tool.
3. Using the digital pencil, draw over the top of any drawn image or mark. Note: Tapping a single line will erase an entire line.
View this informational video showing some of the features of Microsoft PowerPoint for iPad.
by Felicien | Feb 7, 2019 | Education
When people go to their doctors, they assume their information is protected. They freely and willingly provide personal information, like social security numbers. Their primary concern is their health and so they literally trust their lives in the hands of medical professionals and providers. This assumption that patient data is protected may be derived from the assumption that medical facilities are all aligned and in compliance with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA). Everyone signs the HIPAA forms and so everyone assumes — even without thinking it — that they are protected and that the medical facility and/or medical providers are in compliance. Indeed, medical providers may believe they are in compliance and their patient data is protected until it happens: the data breach. Instantly, hundreds and thousands and even millions of patients’ information is compromised. Not to mention: the medical entity where the breach occurred may be held liable for it.
Breach of Patient Data Already Making Waves in 2019: The Example of Valley Hope Association
Just recently, a data breach was investigated and confirmed at Valley Hope Association. It’s a Kansas-based nonprofit organization that treats patients with drug and alcohol addictions. They have 16 facilities located in seven states:
Arizona
Colorado
Kansas
Missouri
Nebraska
Oklahoma
Texas.
Patients number in the thousands across these seven states. As of the last week of January 2019, the organization has been notifying these patients — former and current — that there was a data breach and their information may have been accessed.
It all started in October 2018. An employee’s email account had suspicious activity. The investigation commenced with this employee’s email account. On November 23, 2018, it was confirmed: a cybercriminal hacked into the employee’s email account, and from there, was able to access patient information. The information compromised includes:
Social security numbers
Dates of birth
Financial account information
Patient claim or billing information
Driver’s license or state identification card numbers
Health insurance
Medical records
Medications, and
More.
These kinds of breaches are the beginning of identity theft. When it happens in medical facilities, it is all the more stressful because these are patients dealing with health issues. Identity theft is not a matter they want to deal with on top of their health issues. Following the breach, Valley Hope has taken two steps:
It has provided its patients with free credit monitoring and identity protection services; and
It has added additional security measures designed to secure patient data.
Unfortunately, the Valley Hope Association’s breach of patient data is not an isolated event. Many other medical facilities across the country have experienced data breaches. Examples of patient data breaches that occurred in 2018 include:
Catawba Valley patient records were breached by three phishing hacks.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) confirmed 75,000 people were affected by a data breach in the ACA portal.
Minnesota Department of Human Services was the victim of two phishing attacks affecting 21,000 patient records.
Fetal Diagnostic Institute in Hawaii was the victim of ransomware attacks resulting in data breaches of 40,800 patient records.
Legacy Health, an Oregon-based health system, experienced phishing attacks that led to 38,000 patient record breaches.
Augusta University Health confirmed in 2018 that 417,000 patient records had been breached.
UnityPoint Health experienced two large data breaches in 2018, exposing 1.4 million patient accounts to hackers.
LabCorp confirmed millions of records have been compromised and are at risk due to the hacking that forced a network shutdown.
A Missouri-based Blue Spring Family Care facility was the victim of ransomware malware, which put 45,000 patient records at risk.
Banner Health breach in Arizona compromised around 3.7 million patient records.
These are just a few of the many security breaches of patient data that occurred in 2018. As can be understood from these examples, healthcare is a lucrative target for hackers, and as technology advances, so do the hackers’ capabilities. That’s why it is imperative that medical facilities, providers, and professionals take steps to ensure their outsourced IT services providers offer all the latest technology to secure patient information.
What does HIPAA say about patient data protection, responsibility, and consequences?
The HIPAA Privacy Rule sets out to protect “individually identifiable health information” in the possession of a covered entity or its business association regardless if this health information is in electronic or paper form or transmitted orally. Covered entities include:
Health plans
Health care clearinghouses
Health care providers “who electronically transmit any health information in connection with transactions for which the [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)] has adopted standards.”
The individually identifiable health information is known as protected health information or PHI. According to HHS, PHI includes demographic information relating to:
“an individual’s past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition
the provision of health care to the individual, or
the past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care to the individual, and that identifies the individual or for which there is a reasonable basis to believe can be used to identify the individual. Protected health information includes many common identifiers (e.g., name, address, birth date, Social Security Number) when they can be associated with the health information listed above.”
Covered entities must take measures to protect PHI. Traditionally, a covered entity breached HIPAA regulations when PHI was accessed by an unauthorized person due to unsecured PHI. When this happens, the covered entity is responsible for a breach in HIPAA regulations. But this responsibility is not as straightforward when the breach is made by ransomware or other malware activity. If the covered entity is found to be in violation of HIPAA due to these data breaches, then heavy financial fines may be imposed along with other required corrective action. Depending on the size of the entity and the amount of the fine and other imposed penalties, a data breach could be detrimental not only to the patients whose information was compromised but to the survival and existence of the facility, provider, or professional.
What can medical facilities do to safeguard their patient data?
Medical facilities or any covered entity and their business associates have options when safeguarding their patient data. These options should be interpreted into a plan of action.
First and foremost, these facilities must comply with HIPAA regulations.
Second, they must comply with HIPAA regulations by ensuring they are using the most advanced technologies to safeguard patient data. New technologies develop on a regular basis. You should hire an IT team or outsource your IT needs to an IT services provider who regularly keeps up to date with advancements in technology and consistently implements the technology into their services. If you hire such a team, you can rest assured that data is being protected to the best of technologies’ capabilities.
Third, covered entities and their business associates must thoroughly vet their IT Team and/or third-party IT services provider. There have been cases in 2018 where breaches were made by tech vendors and other third-party IT services providers, e.g., the case of MedCall Advisors in North Carolina.
Fourth, policies and procedures should be in place to ensure that on an ongoing basis, best practices are honored to safeguard PHI. These policies and procedures should apply to all staff, employees, medical professionals, and the IT team — even if IT services are outsourced.
Ultimately the responsibility comes down to the party in possession of the patient data and covered by HIPAA regulations. Don’t let what happened to Valley Hope Association happen to you. Start the new year off right: make sure your PHI is secure and safe.
by Felicien | Feb 6, 2019 | Education
What Can You Use Personalized PowerPoint Photo Calendars for?
A personalized photo calendar is a great way to provide loved ones with updated family pictures during holidays and birthdays. You can print them out on regular paper or cardstock, or send your projects to family and friends digitally. It’s simple to complete in Microsoft PowerPoint, even if you don’t consider yourself the artsy type. It’s also a fun project to show off pictures of employees or coworkers?
What Are the Steps to Create a Microsoft PowerPoint Photo Calendar?
Find a template. To do this, you can open PowerPoint, search for “photo calendar,” and click on the magnifying glass icon to start the search.
Choose any template and select Create.
To replace the default pictures with your photos, right-click on one of the images. Then, select Change Picture > From a file, browse for a picture you want to include, and click on Insert.
You can replace the other stock photos by repeating this step.
You can change photos you’ve added in the same way.
To save your file, select File > Save As > OneDrive – Personal, name it and save.
This example saves it to the cloud.
How Can You Share Your Calendar?
To share your calendar, print it or send the PowerPoint file (.ppt) via email or message to your family and friends. When you do this in PowerPoint Online, you can do it with the file still open and the file is automatically saved for you prior to sending.
What’s the Process to Print the Personalized PowerPoint?
To print your personalized calendar, simply press Ctrl+P. When the Print dialog opens, click the link to open the PDF version of your personalized photo calendar. Then, you use the PDF program’s Print command for optimal results.
