Productivity Software

Archive for February, 2011

There are many business scenarios that prompt companies to inquire into, and rollout, document management software solutions. Some companies are required by contract to implement a document management software solution to satisfy or serve a project for a particular client. Others are required to use a document management software application in order to comply with HIPPA, ISO 9000, or SOX. Unfortunately, one of the most common reason companies rollout a document management software solution is because of an extremely costly mistake that is determined to be due to outdated or inadequate document management tools.

In the last category, the client is usually managing documents in a Windows Explorer environment and maybe going as far as to attempt to track some indexed data in a separate spreadsheet. This approach, although sometimes effective with smaller businesses, becomes problematic once a company experiences growth or begins to handle multiple projects. Continuing this type of approach, once the level of documents, users or projects increases is no longer cost effective but an expensive accident waiting to happen. With increases in volume, clients experience an increase in tracking revisions, in the number of lost documents which is usually attributed to misplaced documents and loss of productivity with users spending excessive amounts of time looking for those documents

Many obvious problems are associated with this archaic document management approach. It is time consuming to search the spreadsheet and then navigate to the document you are trying to find. Also, once you find the document, there is no way to know if someone else has the document checked out. Even if you have a cell for tracking this, there is nothing to actually keep a person from taking the document. Think back to a time before electronic files when a “Librarian” would log documents in and out of a file room. There is no Librarian in Windows Explorer watching the users. Therefore, there is nothing to prevent two people from editing the same document simultaneously and someone’s edits are going to get overwritten as a result. The bigger problem comes when the file is ultimately distributed and no-one realizes it is the wrong file until it is too late.

Engineering construction companies have put the wrong drawings out for bid which resulted in construction immediately followed by demolition. Manufacturing companies have manufactured thousands of parts, even shipped them, before realizing the drawings they used to make the parts were not the current approved set. Companies have literally lost millions of dollars from distributing incorrect project documents. The price of a sound electronic document management software system can be a fraction of the cost compared to mistakes that come from poor tools. .

Imagine a company who has multiple projects going on and hundreds of people accessing documents across these projects. Regardless of the reasons a company decides to take the plunge into document management software, every company that acquires and implements professional document management software ends up obtaining benefits beyond their initial objectives. User friendliness and well thought out system implementations, with respect to your organizations business rules, can create uniformity in document storage, uniformity in how documents are revised and named, and speed up document retrieval exponentially. Clients can also benefit from immediate on-the fly reporting instead of spending hours generating reports manually.

Bret Lawson

Recently I read a news article that the official working hours in the Indian Information technology (IT) services companies have been increased by more than an hour from present 8 hours to more than 9 hours. It is also stated that some companies have gone extra mile and increased it to nine and half hours and the article says that this is all due to current economic downturn. And companies are squeezing the employee more by monitoring the amount of time spent for lunch break, coffee breaks and smoking. It is well said that “Desperate times call for desperate measures”.

Globally almost every company is affected due to this and are looking out for the ways to cut the costs and increase the revenues. The reason for increasing the number of working hours is by increasing that number by at least one hour per day, the companies gains extra 20-22 hours per month on a single employee for the same cost of the employee (read salary here). This not only increases the number of man hours but also decreases the number of employees needed to complete the same task for the company. From the employee’s point of view, it is very bad. If we consider a typical working day of a software company employee in India, it takes about 1-1.5 hours to reach office and same amount of time to reach home in the evening from office, and after considering the work time, he will be left with only 12 hours. Out of it, if we consider 8 hours for the sleep, he will be left with only 4 hours to spend at home or with family. This is not desirable as this will effect negatively on the productivity of the employee in the long term making him stressed out.

It is common to see the employees working long hours in almost all Indian software companies. They spend more time at work than with their families. Rather than focussing on short term gains, companies should focus on long term advantages because the dissatisfied and stressed out employees lose interest in the work and thus not willing to cooperate. This will lead to decreased productivity.  

It is a general notion that making the employee work more hours increases the productivity but it has no evidence and is nowhere proved either scientifically or by any other method and in my opinion, the productivity of an employee does not depend on how many hours he works but how much he/she enjoys his/her work. Maintaining a work-life balance is extremely important for both the employer and employee as this will help boost the productivity and thus helpful in the long term. Many companies boast about the ‘fun at work’ in their companies but most of the times the opposite thing reflects in their employees.

Instead of making the employees to work for more hours by rule, companies should look out for the ways to keep their employees happy so that they enjoy their work and willing to work more voluntarily and thus is more productive.

Also making the employees to work creatively helps to boost the productivity. This is possible by providing the right training and education to the employees in which they are interested in.

Do you think the way the companies are reacting to the economic slowdown is right? Let me know your thoughts on my blog.

Praveen Kumar Tumma

Real estate businesses big and small require quality organizational strategies in order to be successful.  That’s why realtors are turning to CRM real estate software to keep track of their contacts and clients.  CRM or customer relationship management software is designed to store information on both current and prospective clients in a very accessible manner in order to improve organization, marketing and services.  CRM real estate software such as RealtyWare is designed to provide such management abilities specifically to those in the real estate industry.

With the help of real estate software, realtors can quickly improve their productivity and their ability to manage customers and properties.  By using CRM software, realtors have the benefit of complete histories and activity tracking for each and every contact.  With freely definable multi-level groups, users can organize and categorize clients and properties in the manner of their choosing.  Real estate software also allows realtors to link properties directly with clients easily and efficiently.  Managing clients who have several contact numbers or who own several properties is also easy, as each client can be assigned multiple communication methods and properties without having to enter the same information over and over again.

By centralizing all the critical information that real estate professionals need regarding contacts, properties and future prospects, everything is instantly accessible.  Moreover, CRM real estate software allows realtors to create and maintain a clear picture of every aspect of their business.  In addition, many aspects are highly customizable, so realtors can organize information according to their preferences and can easily create convenient templates for a variety of tasks.  With such exceptional organizational potential and many customizable features, it’s no wonder that more and more realtors are turning to CRM real estate software to keep their businesses on track.

Mark Mathers

A challenge awaits the physician who has had enough of the frustrating inefficiencies, financial penalties, and antiquated practices associated with maintaining a paper-based medical office. So the decision is made to digitize the practice. Any initial enthusiasm quickly wanes once an initial search for medical software uncovers hundreds of products and vendors. It doesn’t take long before the 300 or so electronic medical records system screenshots and feature/benefit grids begin to look remarkably similar. The sheer number of vendors occupying the EMR (electronic medical records) market is unmanageable without a basic product assessment/elimination strategy.

For physician practices with limited time and resources, the selection process can appear overwhelming. Fortunately, physicians can begin to narrow down potential systems by eliminating uncertified products, as well as those built upon dated technology architectures.

• Eliminate products not certified by the CCHIT® (Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology).

By confining research only to CCHIT-certified EHR (electronic health record) products, a substantial number of systems are quickly eliminated. As of this writing, 53 ambulatory EHR systems have successfully met the 2007 standards, while only 18 have met the more rigorous 2008 criteria. Using CCHIT certification as an initial benchmark is prudent for a variety of reasons: The CCHIT is the leading Healthcare I.T. certification organization, and is publicly endorsed by the American Academy of Family Physicians; the American Academy of Pediatrics; the American College of Cardiology; and the American Medical Association, among others. In addition, a CCHIT Certified designation ensures that a product has met the basic requirements for functionality; interoperability; and security and privacy.

A 2008 CCHIT certification warrants the product’s utilization of standard formats enabling the exchange information with other systems – known as interoperability. The exchange of patient information on a regional or national level is the underpinning of a more efficient and less costly healthcare system. Future tax incentives and Medicare reimbursements may be tied not only to utilization of digital medical records in general – but specifically benefiting practices with CCHIT-certified EHR systems.

• Eliminate products that do not operate on a shared database for billing and patient charting.

As little as five years ago, “interfaced” practice management/billing and patient charting systems were the norm. Today, “interfaced” systems are technologically inferior to medical software that has been developed from the ground up by a single vendor, on a single platform, and utilizing a single database – described as ‘integrated’ or ‘unified’ electronic medical records and practice management systems.

Interfaced systems are still sold today, so it is a “buyers beware” market. In the past several years, there have been a number of mergers and acquisitions between vendors having market share in one side or the other (scheduling and billing or charting/EMR) but desired a comprehensive solution to offer physicians. As a result, there are products currently marketed as a “suite,” but were developed by disparate vendors on different platforms, tied together using a separate application. Although generally transparent to the practice, there may be questions of data integrity; patient safety (for example, a patient’s practice management/billing record does not match the clinical record and lab results get overlooked in the mess); and even the vendor’s long-term maintenance of the system.

Unfortunately, uncovering if a system is integrated or interfaced is not always straightforward and may require the buyer to conduct some detective work. The first step is to ask the vendor questions about the product’s history – which company developed it, does it utilize a common database, and is there a single login for billing and charting? Some interfaced systems require users to log in separately to access the practice management/billing and the clinical portions of the software.

Following the elimination of uncertified products with dated technology, the pool of suitable products begins to shrink and the specific needs of the practice should be defined and considered.

• Establish a Budget. Medical software systems vary widely in cost. By establishing a flexible budget early in the process, practices can avoid wasted time looking at systems that are too expensive or potentially not robust enough to meet the needs of the practice. Ask questions about ongoing maintenance costs and what the maintenance covers, just as a buyer would ask when making decision to purchase a car.
• Specialty-Specific Content. Not all EMRs accommodate all specialties – regardless of what the sales rep claims. For example, some leading vendors have well-developed content for family practice; ob/gyn; internal medicine; and ear, nose, and throat; but may not fare as well in specialties such as oncology or chiropractic. By asking the vendor to demonstrate the product’s performance in a specific specialty, the number of potential candidates will decrease.
• Scalability. Just as not all electronic medical records systems accommodate all specialties, most are geared toward a specific practice size – with features and cost typically reflecting the product’s expansion capacity. In general, if the practice expects to add providers or additional locations over time, it is important to start with a product that is stable and feature-rich enough to handle the workflow of a larger practice – even if the product’s features may not be fully leveraged early in the product’s lifecycle.

Finally, it is time to ask questions about the vendor’s service and support – the most ambiguous, but arguably most important aspect in the decision making process. After all, you can purchase an electronic medical records software system with every bell and whistle, but if the implementation is disorganized; the training inadequate; or the post-installation support lacking – productivity will drop; providers and staff will be frustrated; cash flow may be interrupted, or worse.

• Take stock of in-house I.T. (information technology) resources.

Does the practice have a staff I.T. department or a trusted medical office I.T. company? If not, it’s important to ensure that the software vendor offers I.T. services. Improperly installed hardware or inaccessible support personnel can have a detrimental effect on the success of the training and implementation.

Some smaller practices opt for a web-based installation to decrease the cost of hardware and eliminate the need to maintain servers and other equipment. Web-based installations are known as SaaS (Software as a Service) and are delivered by an ASP (Application Service Provider). The electronic medical record ASP hosts the software in a secured data center, and the end-user (the practice) simply accesses the system using a web browser. All that is required is a high-speed internet connection and a workstation. Access to the data is dependent upon the internet connection, so mission-critical applications are not appropriate in a SaaS environment under most circumstances.

The alternative to a web-based installation is Client/Server, requiring an onsite server and regular maintenance of the system by the vendor. Both types of installations have advantages and disadvantages, so it is important to discuss installation with potential vendors.

• Assess technological skills of clinicians and administrative staff. Ensure the vendor’s project planning and implementation staff can aid the practice in choosing who the functional area “champions” will be.

Training, EMR implementation, and “go-live” support expenditures account for a substantial portion of the total initial system cost, and careful planning is essential for a smooth implementation. The vendor should provide a project coordinator that will help the practice make critical decisions and schedule the project timeline. Most practices utilize a combination of web-based and on-site training prior to go-live (the days or weeks dedicated to using the new system). In addition, the vendor should provide onsite support for the practice during the go-live. The number of training days, go-live days, and the delivery (web-based or onsite) is determined by the size of the practice and the skill levels of the staff. Follow-up sessions to reinforce original training or introduce advanced concepts is important for continuity.

To keep costs down, some practices may utilize a heavier web-based training plan for the bulk of the staff with designated superusers who attend advanced training. For practices with less technologically savvy staff, more handholding through onsite training may be the best option. In addition to improperly installed I.T. (hardware, networking, security, workstations), insufficient training or post-implementation technical support are prominent failure points in medical software implementations.

• Who supports the practice following the go-live? The original training and implementation staff, or a separate call center?

Not only does unresponsive medical software technical support frustrate and discourage users, it fosters lost productivity when users struggle with denied claims; unanswered questions; or broken functionality. Still, large vendors often outsource support to overseas call centers – lowering vendor overhead at the expense of high-quality, timely, and knowledgeable support.

By asking relevant questions, evaluating the needs and culture of the practice, and systematically eliminating unsuitable products and vendors – practices can enjoy the host of current and future financial and patient safety benefits that an electronic health records system provides.

Andrea Schroeder

Modern call centres work 24/7 and are truly the manifestation of “busy” organization. At any given time of the day, agents are either tapping furiously at the computer keyboard or are talking to the customers. They don’t recognize the notion of off-business-hours. All this is achieved with the help of specially trained personnel and cutting edge call centre software.

In this article I will discuss the advantages of call centre software especially those which help manage the workforce such as call centre monitoring software, call centre scheduling software, etc

In general call centre software help call centres to efficiently manage routing of calls to the agents depending upon their expertise and capabilities, hold times, scheduling of employees, detailed reporting, etc. They help in improving customer service, cost efficiency of the operations and working efficiency of the agents, in short, raise the productivity levels of the call centre. They are also the key enabler of improvement in management and reporting.

Call centre monitoring software
This improvement in man-management and reporting is brought about with the help of call centre monitoring software which allow the managers to access each phone conversation and evaluate it in terms of quality and time management in real time and in recorded mode. They also help the management make sure that customers are getting best possible experience through the agents who should utilize their skills and tools, policies available to them to the optimum.

Call centre scheduling software
Call centre scheduling software helps determine the optimum number of staff required to manage the prevailing call turnover. This way the problem of over or under staffing does not arise and there is maximum utilization of the agents’ skills and productive time. This software also help call centres correctly plan and forecast their work time.

This software is particularly useful in determining how many people are waiting for a tech support person to answer the phone, how many agents are currently going through a call, call length of the every agent, how many calls each agent has taken for one hour and the total for the entire day.

All this data help managers to know the peak hours, number of calls each agent is taking per day, the most efficient agents, agents which are not so good and need to be replaced etc.

Before you finalize a call centre Software
Before zeroing on one of many such software available in the market you should take care of the following:

• Provider’s reputation, standing in the market and its past record which can be judged by speaking to the existing and past customers

• The software should not only cater to your current needs but also should be customizable and scalable according to the future needs and demands.

• Don’t go for the cheapest one available in order to cut costs. It can backfire badly costing you precious business.

• Don’t finalize before you have a demonstration so that you are sure that the features are exactly what you need for your own operations.

Kath Dawson

Numbers say more than words especially if we are considering business world and profit figures as a proof of being a successful business. GE’s numbers in the last two decades have been on the highest level since the foundation of the company. Jack Welch has been in charge of the company’s operations during all this time. Under his leadership GE has undergone numerous transformations that made it number in the field of their operations today. Welch is renowned as one of the best managers of the century for not only meeting the forecasted figures but for changing the minds of his employees and being the greatest inspiration for them.

His famous “hardware” reduction and remodeling took place almost immediately after he stepped into his CEO office. Taking into consideration economics’ recession and drastic restructuring of the company Welch met strong criticism of his politics, but GE’s future was the ultimate goal for his actions. The company was delayered and destaffed greatly. These were the first important steps on the path of accumulating potential and its distribution in the right direction. Instead of having seven layers in the company with hundreds of divisions and sectors with even more managers, Welch rebuilt GE So that there were only three layers underneath so that it was possible to directly communicate with each division and know each top manager. All of that was done for better control, free flowing communication and higher level of responsibility of everyone in the company.

The “software” component change was taking place after GE dramatic structural innovations. Welch knew that without inner understanding of every employee of the importance of maintaining productivity levels, there would be no change. “Work-outs” and “Best practices” were the first performance boosters implemented by Welch in late 80’s. The real difference was seen in a few years when productivity increased first by 2% and than by 4%. By integrating the efforts of employees on all levels and considering their suggestions, GE was able to reach such amazing results, especially taking into account the amount of money it saved-thus earned. “Best practices” was continuing to fight for higher productivity levels, as it brought the understanding that they needed better processes planning and better customer satisfaction, they also needed to develop friendly relationships with their suppliers. Those actions combined together led to higher productivity and realization of doing certain things wrong, which in turn made possible to make them right in the future.

It becomes clear that Welch had a new vision was his company by firstly implementing drastic changes in the skeleton on the firm and than the organs of the “body” were undergoing changes. Those changes were aimed at giving people tasks that would integrate knowledge and experience and desire of self-development. The combination of such techniques made GE one of the strongest companies in the world, one of the best employers. The power of being a great place to work at led GE to actually being number one, the task that Welch was pursuing since he became the CEO.

Integrate diversity, the so called “boundaryless” company was another challenge that Welch sought to overcome. The company’s employees did not have to look for advice or new technologies outside GE, it all was available in their own company. With this newly adopted system, the players of the team learned quickly from each other and cooperated successfully among each other. An integration model was developed on the basis of the hundreds of post-acquisition reviews in order to guide manager in any part of the company, who are responsible for integrating a newly acquired operation. Those activities could range from taking control of the account to realigning the organization.

Stretch programs- there was a unique way to set high goals and employees were inspired to be as good as it is possible or even better to achieve them. Managers were not responsible for those goals but those who got it done were greatly appreciated and awarded accordingly. This was the way Welch saw an open and trusting environment in the company which guaranteed as practice have proven to be the best performance accelerator and creativity source. The results of this system did not make the management wait too long. People with no boundaries to the excellence started aiming at the highest possible level of performance and let their imagination free. The differences in numbers were not about a few hundredth, but about whole numbers of 10 inventory turns, which seemed impossible till the system. The success of this newly originated system laid in “no-punish-failure”, where people were not afraid of being fired because of unachieved goals. Rather is was stated that they should be aiming at what they see as their best and thus they were driven by their own ambitions to get to the desired number but not work a sixty hour week for the sake of having this number written on their time sheets. Because this idea found such a great implementation in real business it is definitely a brilliant way to make people take interest in their work and perform on a better level.

Another great discovery in the business world of GE were service businesses that took GE’s view of what they do to a new level. No more they were just manufacturers of high quality equipment, they were the follow up services that took care of any difficulty a customer might face in the course of using their product. Multi-billion investments into services business equipment for monitoring Aircraft Engines while in flight or medical diagnosis in real time, led the company to having two thirds of their business in services rather than in manufacturing. This goal was a far fetched Welch’s dream and finally it came true in the late 90’s. With the integration of this new business line, GE made their customers almost fully dependable on them. This was a perfect strategic move, which gave the company much more power as their services were needed as much as their products and combined together they were the core of success. Value-added benefits that customers received from GE’s services were of great importance and provided both companies with strong partnership ties, on several levels. It not only caused profits for both parties but generated trusting and reliable conditions for cooperation.

Apart from high productivity, correct strategic politics and necessary employee satisfaction there is another essential factor in the core of every successful business. Product quality is blood of the company and if it is not clean, company cannot function properly. In 1995 the company’s survey showed that most employees were dissatisfied with the product quality they were making. When products and services were analyzed it turned out that GE was operating at a rate of ten thousand times the Six Sigma quality level. It meant a lot of money being lost and a lot of productivity as well. GE invested huge amount of money into educating its managers which was not optional as Welch wanted to have only the best people he could get. As a result in two years, GE’s performance was greater than expected. For instance their repair shops were operating three times faster than the shops of their immediate rivals. Also medical equipment showed tenfold increase in the products’ life the fact that in turn provided strong customer trust and loyalty toward GE products. The returns on the investment were well over the expected amount and meant that the investment was a very successful one.

Welch as a leader of a big multi-business company desired to see only highly professional people working in it. This was the goal of another project that also became a success. The new model of the company requited only those with highest standards and big dreams for the future. A player of the team which could not match the requirements of the “4E’s” was let free. The essence of GE was to take a lot from their employees but also to give a lot. Welch believed that such people ought to be paid well, loved and respected. They need to feel that they are the most recourse of the company, they need to be constantly educated and challenged. Jack Welch was such an employee himself and wanted to see the same attitude toward work and company from his team. Such philosophy was the secret of a huge success story called Jack Welch. His innovations and reforms were dramatic at times, but always proved to be the right thing. He took each of his business entities as a separate most important one and gave it the most attention, thus the GE empire is going to grow and develop in the future, in case of GE being guided by such leaders as Jack Welch.

Jeff Stats
http://www.articlesbase.com/college-and-university-articles/managing-the-multiline-business-corporate-leadership-125905.html

Do you really want to manually calculate the all the figures from sales, expenses, overhead, loans, outside revenue, deductions, employee data(wages, taxes, and benefits), equity, investments, etc?  Of course not, you want to spend time making sales and improving the company’s efficiency.

If that is your desire, then you want business accounting software to work for you.  It will automate menial tasks and give the ability to look at long and short-term statistics by generating multiple reports.

Automation is the key to productivity.  When data is calculated and completed with a touch of a button, your efforts can be directed to more important duties or more enjoyable activities.

Business accounting software is the perfect opportunity to some aspects of the business on autopilot.  The more autopilots running the company, the better.  This does not mean control is given up.  In fact, it gives more control and more freedom with options.

Autopilots should be simple to manipulate and customize.  Business accounting software is a prime example of this.  It allows the user to generate reports that show specific details of certain business finances.  These reports are done virtually instantaneous instead of manual processing time.

Even though you and your colleagues may be perfectly capable of doing the business accounting, that is not the point.  The point is time and energy.  Whatever the amount of time or energy that is saved by business accounting software is time and energy not used for boring adding and subtracting.

Maybe the company does not have many figures to work up, but five minutes here and seven minutes there adds up quickly.  You would be surprised to find just how much time is spent adding, subtracting, and writing down accounting information. 

Even if the business is small now, one of the company goals should be to grow and do more business.  Using business accounting software does not require any more time adding for gross or subtracting for net or comparing for cash flow.  Alternatively, if the calculations are done manually, there is almost an exponential increase in work for increase in business size.

Once a business accounting software program is purchased or obtained, it is yours forever.  No monthly or yearly fee, as with accounting staff.  Up-grades may be purchased and there may be newer versions available, but if the software still meets the accounting needs of business operations, then it can be used indefinitely.

So, if the company is planning to operate for a long time, business accounting software can save a vast amount of time and energy. It allows people in the company to avoid trivial and time intensive calculating and focus on processes to move the company forward.

Joe Coffee