You become who you hire
could not be more true than when it comes to hiring your Chief Information Officer (CIO). Recently, I listened to a CIO of a multi-million dollar organization present on his progress during his first ten months; and I thought we could all pick up good ideas from his actions. The organization completely revitalized it's IT, and the way it works, just by hiring one person.

First, the CIO reduced the risks and hassle of e-mail outages by moving the organization’s Microsoft Exchange server to a well-known national e-mail management firm. This firm provides professional 24/7 service, reliability, and much higher level of security. Using an outside service also provides a fixed contract cost with no worries of unexpected, expensive in house equipment failures. Another great feature of this move? It was all nearly invisible to users because the look and procedures didn’t change and at all. Today’s e-mail is as important to business as voice telephone service, perhaps more. If you are a smaller organization, you should consider Google apps or one of the other low cost e-mail services.

The CIO protected the company's data and intellectual property by moving the firewall to an outside private professional provider. High-level protection from malware, viruses, hacking, and alike is becoming more expensive and difficult for the small to medium sized organization. Moving to a professional firewall provider, in this case one that protects large school systems on a national basis, means they will enjoy economies of scale and they will receive very high levels of protection for their intellectual property.

To make better decisions and be more efficient, the CIO replaced a thirty-five year accounting software system with Microsoft’s Great Plains (GP) ERP system that was compatible with many of the other software and processes in the oganization. Microsoft GP software was selected in part because it’s similarity to Microsoft Excel, which makes training and adoption easier for Excel users. Specifically, GP is integrated with their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and Microsoft Office 365 applications. CRM software has a much higher probability of use and return on investment when it’s used with compatible accounting and ERP software. This way the CRM software pulls data such as contact and historical information from the accounting or ERP system avoiding duplication of data entry and providing real time information.

Microsoft Office 365 is a subscription service, which automatically installs changes, fixes bugs, and updates ensuring maximum compatibility with other Microsoft solutions. And it includes an excellent e-mail service as well. All at fixed low monthly cost.

Listening to the CIO present, I was struck with just how a few changes made can make a huge impact in efficiency and cost savings. In this marketplace, these changes can not only save money with reimbursement cutbacks, but can save time, which allows you to focus on the thing that matters most to you — patient care.

If you have questions, contact your supplier or Applied at:
med@applied-inc.com

by DAVE MARQUARD, MBA, BS, Owner, CEO
David J. Marquard II is the owner and CEO of Applied Home Healthcare Equipment, LLC.
He has 34 years of experience in the home respiratory industry. Marquard holds a number of patents for home respiratory equipment and is the author of several videos, workbooks and courses on compressed medical gases, regulatory requirements and safety. He has been a seminar speaker at national industry events since 1981.