Episode #18 – Joan Kreidle, Project Manager at RSA Corp, explains how Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) helps to cut costs by streamlining business processes through the management of internal and external resources.

Episode #16 – Holly Gunn, Marketing Manager at RSA Corp, reminds businesses of the importance of social media, not just for finding prospects, but for building your brand, driving website traffic, and establishing and nurturing business relationships.

Episode #15 – Jeremy Ross, Services Manager at RSA Corp, discusses how successful businesses are properly supported by technology. He explains how to reduce support and hardware costs, what the benefits are from leveraging software as a service, and how businesses can utilize technology to increase productivity.

Specialty healthcare management service companies, such as imaging, hospice, and surgicare clinics, aim to reduce the cost of health care while improving the quality of care.  However, garnering referral relationships with physicians is highly competitive.  Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems serve an increasingly important function to these emerging healthcare businesses.

How can they best leverage the benefits of CRM?

The healthcare industry is currently shifting toward this more patient-centric delivery model. While large hospitals and medical centers are trying to follow this trend, these new specialty clinics have certain advantages over the hospitals that appear to be quite attractive to patients. Specialty clinics often provide high quality of care for less overall cost because of efficiencies and economy of scale.

Specialty healthcare management service companies, which also include emergicare, endoscopy, oncology, sleep centers, and other laboratory services, operate from smaller clinics that are in close proximity to their patients’ homes and offices. Not only do these clinics reduce patients’ travel time, but they offer the same high quality care of a large hospital by combining physicians, business administration, diagnostic services and medical billing with the latest technologies.

Furthermore, these specialty healthcare businesses allow physicians greater access to the data generated from these services, and thus improves the quality of care for the patients.  The specialty healthcare management service companies strive to help physicians diagnose and treat patients’ conditions faster while providing a higher standard of care with a more direct hands-on approach.  Offering these services at nearby clinics decreases confusion, minimizes wait time and frustration for both the patient and the physician and can significantly improve the patient’s attitude toward their treatment.  Moreover, through competition, they are able to offer these services at lower costs, benefiting both insurance carriers and patients.

As specialty clinics grow, they add sales and marketing staff who reach out to more and more physicians. This growth, and the challenges associated with growth, is generally what leads companies to need a CRM system.  CRM systems’ functionality includes sales lead management, customer interaction management and customer data management.

CRM systems, once integrated, typically provide a quick return on investment (ROI) and help this new breed of healthcare service company, whether they have a small or large sales force, to effectively develop, manage and measure their sales force and marketing strategies in order to increase sales.  CRM systems quickly generate customer and lead lists, qualify leads, and manage marketing campaigns, marketing information and direct mail and email.  Additionally, CRM systems provide the capability to integrate into the company’s financials and provide an excellent platform for business analytics, executive decision management and business intelligence.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM™ and Microsoft Outlook with Business Contact Manager™ provide an excellent platform to meet the challenges associated with a growing Healthcare Management Services Company.  Its easy integration, with Microsoft Exchange™, Microsoft Outlook™ and Internet ready PDAs such as the iPhone™ or Blackberry™, makes it an excellent product for these companies to effectively manage and grow their businesses.  Microsoft has designed the Dynamics CRM™ products to be easy to use, easy to customize and very price competitive.  The Microsoft Dynamics CRM™ solution can be delivered in a variety of ways such as a hosted solution, direct ownership or Software as a Service (SaaS).

Episode #4 – Holly Gunn, Marketing Manager at RSA Corp, discusses the importance of showing existing clients that they are valued and appreciated. She also shares how RSA Corp shows their client appreciation through direct mail, social media and free giveaways.

Episode #1 – Holly Gunn, marketing manager at RSA Corp, introduces the history of the company and talks about what makes it different from other staffing firms and IT service providers. She also discuss future trends for the technology, small business and staffing industries.

Business continuity is the investment made by a business to be proactive in avoiding the risks associated with a disaster. Typically, this investment is an operating expense that serves as an insurance policy on an ongoing basis.

Disaster recovery is the plan associated with the reaction that follows a catastrophic event that disrupts the productivity of a business. This type of investment is more difficult to manage because it’s a “in the event of” plan that can easily fall through the cracks if not kept up with.

The two most important aspects of a DR plan involve sound, comprehensive planning and regular testing intervals that ensure the overall effectiveness of the plan. The most effective strategy is to give ample attention to both – mitigate risks as much as possible and have a solid plan to address the unforeseen.

Why is it so important to prepare for disaster now when Hurricane season is months away?

Given the geographic area that we live in, hurricanes stay top-of-mind when businesses think of a “disaster.” The truth of the matter is, several events occur each year within the walls of a business that could potentially serve as a disaster:

o Loss of mission critical data

o Power or hardware failures

o Disgruntled employees

o The list goes on…

The most important question to ask is whether or not your business can survive in the event of the unknown – and not knowing the answer to that question is just as dangerous.

Business continuity is too expensive for SMBs. What options do I have?

This is a common misperception among small to mid-sized businesses for a variety of reasons. The first is the lack of knowledge in terms of what options are available. The second is the possible impact on the business by failing to implement a proper plan.

Technology has evolved over the years to the point that what was once extremely expensive to purchase and manage is now far more simplified and cost-effective. In addition, several of the products and services associated with BC and DR have become commoditized, which drives down cost and creates a more affordable solution set for business owners.

Learn more about these cost-effective solutions in other blog articles.

Colocation – Disaster Recovery Toolkit: Business Must Go On…DR & Colocation

Online backup solutions – Disaster Recovery Toolkit: Knock, Knock. Who’s There? Your Data

Email Continuity – Disaster Recovery Toolkit: Can your Email Server Weather the Storm?

Most companies lack good visibility into their spending.  Visibility into your spending gives your company a competitive edge by providing insight on how to manage and maximize cash flow, manage and forecast business costs, and monitor supplier performance. Studies show that only 4% of companies have a real-time look into their spending, and 69% have limited to no visibility.

Best-in-class companies utilize sound invoices and payment principles to define…

· Invoice handling and payment process
· The automation levels and integration of systems
· The costs and cycle time to process invoices
· The visibility or access to the invoice and payment data

The primary culprit is the intensive paperwork and labor invoice processing companies face to ensure an invoice is recorded accurately, approved and paid in a timely manner.  Take an in-depth look at invoice processing to reduce the manual processing of handling the paper invoice.  Whether the company is small or large, significant improvement within the invoice process is evident through an electronic paperless solution.

Implementing an electronic paperless solution provides significant process improvements and monetary savings.

Several benefits include:

· Reduced time to post to the general ledger
· More timely recognition of costs
· A lower internal cost to process and approve invoices
· Recorded audit trail to identify billing errors, fraud and abuse

The more the invoice cycle time is minimized, the quicker the company can respond to understanding spending trends and managing the cash flow of the business.  Knowing and having real-time spending visibility is one attribute to sound money management of the business.  It is a must have in a 24/7 business world to gain the upper edge with competitors.