Business, economic development - the unofficial Chamber of Commerce

It is hard to imagine anyone in today’s age of computers not being able to
scan a document, let alone know what to do with it once it is scanned. Yet,
there are countless services offering to do just that–scan, upload and make
your file as you want. Whether you want it simply stored on your computer,
changed into a PDF, converted into c.d. form or simply sent out as an email, these services will do it. The question is: are they actually needed? Do you have to have someone else scan and create your documents?

The answer is both yes and no, and below we will offer the advantages and disadvantages of using such services.

Why To Use It:

Most companies suffer from poor storage. They have row after row of filing cabinets, all stuffed with documents and important papers. What most services will do is offer to convert all of these into computer files, saving you the time of 1) having to scan all the papers yourself or 2) continually rummaging through the cabinets in hopes to find what you are looking for. They will go through your mountain of paper and organize them on the computer. This can save you a great deal of time both now and later. Now since you don’t have to spend your time organizing, as opposed to focusing on current projects. Later since you won’t have to try and find what you need in a messy file cabinet.

Another reason to use a document scanning service is the quality. These companies guarantee that you will have perfectly scanned and organized files. They will do whatever you need to be done, so you won’t have to waste your time guessing against a piece of equipment that you swear hates you since it never seems to work.

Why Not To Use It:

Ultimately, most–if not all–office workers know how to scan. It’s routine. To pay someone else to do it can seem wasteful and, since the prices can be expensive, it can also seem foolish. Scanning and organizing are traits that any worker should have, and employers may hesitate to send for someone else to do what is, essentially, your job.

Also, since the prices can be expensive, it has to be viewed from an objective point: is it better to spend the money and save some time, or just have a worker come in an extra day? Employers may look toward the latter.

Is It Worth It:

Depending on your situation, document scanning services can either seem very appealing or very pointless. If you are unfamiliar with how to fully use your computer (perhaps you can scan but the rest is just guesswork), then using a service might be an excellent way to learn and get yourself organized. If you are competent with scanning, however, you may see this as a waste of money and time. It all comes down to how much faith you have in your skills and how much money you are willing to spend.

Richard Cussons is a prolific and diverse writer. You will find out more about scanning services at the Document Scanning Advice website.

The most important part of software development is the testing. Before you implement new software into a system you must be sure it won’t crash and that the proper bug checking has been done. Testing ensures that your system is running properly and efficiently and meeting all the requirements you have of it. To fully ensure that your system is free of defects, testing should follow a system test plan and must be thorough and complete. All too often people rush to implement a new program and then spend hours repairing the system losing many hours of productivity. The experts prevent this by using a system test plan. Basically, a system test plan is a systematic approach to testing a system whether it is a machine or software. The plan contains a detailed understanding of what the eventual workflow will be. This will help keep the project on schedule and make the integration of the new system as smooth as possible. We wouldn’t build a house without blueprints nor should we run a new system without having created a proper system test plan.
Creating and running effective tests requires time and resources. These are not assets most businesses have in abundance. What are the options? Do the job in house and stress out your IT group and possibly lose a lot of hours of productivity or spend a small fortune and hire a software development company to build you a system test plan and help you implement it. Typically I have found that the best solution is to turn it over to the pros. Find a company that delivers full-featured testing services. A company I consulted tried to implement a new system using GPS to track their delivery vehicles. They like most small business lacked the technical skills to implement or repair their system but also lacked a lot of extra funds. The result was the loss of many hours and temporary black outs that prevent the recording of new deliveries. Business was at a stand still. You often don’t go amiss spending a little extra in order to be careful. Before you blindly implement a new system at least consult a software development company and have them create a system test plan. Let’s look at some benefits of using a testing solutions professional.
Before you can begin developing an effective system test plan, you need to know where you are starting from. Many companies jump into a completely new system without really examining the existing one. In some cases they could have tweaked a few things and improved the efficiency and performance of their system to a satisfactory level. A testing solutions professional can deliver quality assurance assessments which evaluate your current processes. This will create a detailed map of where the current system is dropping the ball and exactly where the new system can improve performance. These professional consultants will analyze the data, make recommendations for improvements, and even assist in the development of a system test plan. This way you are not left on your own to execute the testing. This is a solid cost effective alternative to having a big firm come in and overrun your IT services while still maintaining the proper safety.

A system test plan is the smartest thing a business owner can do when implementing a new system. Don’t blindly rush into the process. Make sure you know the current status of your system and where the hang ups are. Be sure to look over the recommendations made by the consultants and see if they will create the desired improvements. Allowing professionals to support and to monitor the testing of a new system will speed up the process and keep your business running smoothly.

Mark Keller is an Account Specialist for 10x Marketing, an internet marketing company. Learn how a system test plan can help your business check out Aculis at http://www.aculis.com/testing/system_test_plan.html.

Why Paper to CAD Conversions?

In today’s high tech world one needs to save time, to utilize it for better resources.

In the present era of computers, managing your Paper documents can really be easy. All your architectural, mechanical or engineering drawings or Drafting can easily be converted into digital format.

With the help of CAD, computer aided design; one can address all issues regarding 2D, 3D drawings, raster image scanning.

CAD can convert manual paper drawings into digital format. You just need to lay confidence in the present technology & see what all wonders can be done.

CAD conversion are useful to many industries as they convert paper to digital format. With CAD, existing manual hardcopy drawings get easily converted into Electronic CAD files. These become professional record drawings.

Paper to CAD Conversion offers various benefits as converted drawings give more professional look to your work

All kinds of Engineering Drawings, Mechanical Drawings, Architectural Drawings, and Scanning of Documents can be done with computer aided design.

CAD has found its application in various industries including architectural, engineering and in building industry.

So, utilize this service, to cut down on your paper documents. As this will give an edge to your business over others.

Webmaster -http://www.bluentcad.com

Where is Microsoft Office today?

Today Microsoft Office has evolved from a group of private productivity products to a more complete and integrated system. Building on the well-known tools that a lot of people are familiar with already, the Microsoft Office System includes servers, services, programs and solutions meant to work as one to help deal with a broad range of business dilemmas.

What’s my benefit for getting Microsoft Office?

A Microsoft Office System gives you a building block for solutions that helps:

It gives business users enhanced access to data, and therefore they can get better insight and take actions that are more valuable. And it improves an organizations capability to expect, handle, and react to changes in the market. Further it is allowing teams and organizations to work jointly with swiftness and quickness. And finally, the most important, it improves individual efficiency and enables more business users to contribute in the all the time more challenging environment around them.

What is Microsoft Office?

The servers, services, programs and solutions, which put together, forms the Microsoft Office System, are:

Office Editions is the successor to Microsoft Office XP, and the foundation of the Microsoft Office System.

Microsoft Office Access is the Office database management program, and offers an enhanced ease of use and an extended ability to export, import, and work with XML data files.

Microsoft Office Excel is the Office spreadsheet program, and includes support for XML plus features that make it easier to analyze and share information.

Microsoft Office FrontPage is the Office Web site creation and management program, which delivers powerful features plus controls to help you design superior Web sites.

Microsoft Office InfoPath is the Office information gathering as well as management program, which streamline the process of gathering information.

Microsoft Office OneNote is the Office note-taking plus management program, which enables you to organize, capture and reuse notes on a laptop or desktop computer.

Microsoft Office Outlook, which is the Office personal information manager plus communication program, provides a integrated place to manage calendars, e-mail, contacts and other personal or team information.

Microsoft Office PowerPoint is the Office presentation graphics program, which allows you to produce an impact in person or online.

Microsoft Office Project enables organizations to line up business initiatives, resources and projects for improved business results.

Microsoft Office Publisher is the Office business publishing plus marketing materials program, which makes it easier than ever to produce, design, and publish expert marketing and communication materials.

Microsoft Office Visio is the Office business plus technical diagramming program, which helps you transform ideas plus conventional business data into diagrams.

And finally Microsoft Office Word is the Office word processor.

Final word about Microsoft Office.

As you see, Microsoft Office covers it all. Try it out. See if you or your business can benefit from this fantastic office tool. Give it a go and see for your self.

Huge amount of Microsoft Office quality information at this website – Go there. http://www.microsoftoffice.infostairs.com

MS Excel can be customized in a way that suits a user to achieve his goal. It is extensively used in financial organizations. The features of MS Excel are as follows:

Workbooks: A document in MS Excel is called a workbook. Each workbook contains sixteen worksheets by default. A user can change this number by resetting the default options. Worksheets within workbooks make it easy to bind files of related information. When a user opens a workbook, he can use all the worksheets to perform a task. To create a workbook, a user will have to select the New command from the File menu. To open an existing workbook, a user will have to select the Open option from the File menu. A user can insert a worksheet between two worksheets by choosing the Worksheet option from the Insert menu.

Using keyboard: The following table provides different keyboard shortcuts for selecting a row, column, current cell, worksheet, etc.

A user can perform various kinds of entries in a cell. He can enter text, number, data, and time in a cell. He can also enter some special characters such as $ % + - / ( ). He can also enter date and time in a cell. He can select different formats for date and time according to his own requirements.

Entering Data in Series: A user can fill a range of cells either with the same value or with the series of values. This can be done using the Autofill handle (small square on the bottom-right corner of the active cell).

Cell References: MS Excel provides three types of cell references: relative, absolute, and mixed. Relative references refer to the cell relative to the given position. Absolute references refer to the specific cell irrespective of the position of the formula. The ‘$’ sign is used to denote an absolute reference. Mixed references are a combination of both relative and absolute references. It has one absolute co-ordinate and one relative co-ordinate. $CI and C$1 are both examples of mixed references.

MS Excel allows fast searching and instant replacing of data. To search or replace the data entered by a user, he can use the Find or Replace command from the Edit menu.

Inserting or Deleting Rows and Columns:

MS Excel provides the facility to insert rows or columns into the existing worksheet. Inserting a row of data shifts the rest of the rows down and removes the last row of the worksheet. Similarly, inserting a column shifts the rest of the columns to the right and deletes the rightmost column. This occurs because the total number of rows and columns remain the same in any case.

MS Excel provides several formatting features that enhance the appearance of the data, which is presented in the worksheets. Some of them are described as follows: MS Excel allows setting up a page before printing. To set up a page, a user will have to open the File menu and click on the Page Setup. The Page Setup dialog box will appear that will allow the user to set the paper size, orientation of the data, scaling of the area, set the left, right, bottom, and top margin, set the header and the footer, etc.

MS Excel provides the autofit selection that adjusts the width of the column according to the widest entry in that column. A user can hide or unhide certain rows or columns. He can also provide the default column standard width.

MS Excel allows a user to align the characters in different ways by using the Alignment tab page of the Format Cells dialog box. The dialog box provides a number of alignment options.

Horizontal Alignment options:

General: The text is left aligned and the numbers are right aligned. This is the default status.
Left: Aligns the contents to the left of the cell.
Center: Aligns the cell contents to the center of the cell.
Right: Aligns the contents to the right of the cell.
Fill: Fills the selected cells with the single character.
Justify: This option is selected with multiple lines of text as it wraps the contents from left to right.

Vertical Alignment options:

Top: Aligns the text at the top of the cell.
Center: Places the text in the center of the cell.
Bottom: Aligns the text on the bottom of the cell.
Justify: Wraps the text from top to bottom.

MS Excel provides a facility of viewing the same worksheet simultaneously in more than one window. This is accomplished by selecting the New Window command in the Windows menu. A user can also create more than one window to arrange the workspace to promptly access the information needed. Using MS Excel, a window can be arranged in different ways by using the Arrange command from the Windows menu.

If a user wants to move between different windows, he can do so by pressing Ctrl+F6 to go to the next window or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+F6 to go to the previous window. He can temporarily hide or unhide windows by choosing the Hide command in Window menu to hide the active window or by choosing the Unhide command in the Window menu to unhide the hidden window.

When a user works on a very large worksheet with row and column headings, the row headings scroll off to the left when he moves towards the right. Similarly, when he moves down to see the data, the column headings scroll up. To overcome this problem, he can split the active window into two, with row or column headings in one window and the data on the other window.

Controls: The controls are the special objects, which enhance user interface and facilitate user input. MS Excel provides several custom controls such as list boxes, check boxes, and dialog boxes, etc. A large number of toolbars are found in the View menu. Users can add a toolbar or a number of toolbars into the working document depending upon the work involved and use different controls in their documents.

Functions and formulas: The built-in formulas are called functions. MS Excel provides analyzing data and manipulating text by using different functions. Users can easily calculate percentage, interest, average, etc. by using built-in functions. This can be done either by typing in the function-based formulas or by using function wizards. Formulas are widely used in simple computing (such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) and advanced computing. They provide the power to analyze data extensively.

Auto-calculation: MS Excel spreadsheet allows a user to automatically recalculate the whole worksheet every time a change is made in a single cell. There are basically two kinds of recalculations.

Automatic: In this type of calculation, the change in the value of the cell automatically recalculates the whole worksheet.

Manual: In this type of calculation, the recalculation of the complete worksheet is performed by pressing the F9 key. This option can be selected on the Calculation tab page of the Options dialog box, which is opened by choosing Options from the Tools menu.

Charts: One of the most important features of MS Excel is a chart. MS Excel allows users to view data entered as tables in a graphical form as charts, which helps a user to easily understand, analyze, and compare data. Excel allows its users to create either two-dimensional charts or three-dimensional charts. A user can enhance the chart by adding chart items, such as data labels, a legend, titles, text, and gridlines. He can also do formatting on these items by using colors, alignment, fonts, and other formatting attributes. MS Excel also allows users to view charts along with the data by using embedded charts. These charts are included in the worksheet and can be copied, moved, and resized in the same way as can be done with any other graphical object.

Database: Data are raw facts, information is processed data, and a database is an organized collection of information. Every organization heavily depends upon databases to store, retrieve, and maintain different kinds of data. MS Excel provides all this in the form of its database feature. In MS Excel, database can be created in two ways:
Enter the data in the form of table in the worksheet.

Use the Data Form command
Records can be inserted, deleted, and sorted by using the Data menu.

With the above-described features of MS Excel, users can perform almost all the operations they want in a very efficient and easy way. Its advanced features have made it the first choice for professionals working in a financial organization to perform their lengthy tasks in an easy way and in a quick manner. Therefore, MS Excel has become the most preferred choice for most of the users as well as professionals throughout the world.

About the Author:

uCertify was formed in 1996 with an aim to offer high quality educational training software and services in the field of information technology to its customers. uCertify provides exam preparation solutions for the certification exams of Microsoft, CIW, CompTIA, Oracle, Sun and other leading IT vendors. To know more about uCertify, please visit www.ucertify.com/

WithEvents and Handles clause requires form us to declare the object variable and the event handler as we write our code, so linkage is created upon compilation. On the other hand, with AddHandler and RemoveHandler, linkage is created and removed at runtime, which is more flexible.

Let’s assume that we want to load several MDI child forms, allowing each of them to be loaded only once, and of course to know when one of the child forms is closed. Since we have several forms to load we would like to use the AddHandler and RemoveHandler keywords so we can be flexible and write the minimal code we can.

Let’s get dirty.

1. In each MDI child form we have to declare a public event.
Public Event FormClosed(ByVal f As Form)

2. In each MDI child form we have to use the Form_Closed method which handles the MyBase.Closed class and raise the FormClosed event.

Private Sub Form1_Closed(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
Handles MyBase.Closed
RaiseEvent FormClosed(Me)
End Sub

3. On our MDI form we need to declare two member variables. The first’s of type Form and the second’s type is ArrayList.
Private m_f(0) as Form
Private m_sLoadedChildForms As New ArrayList

4. We need to implement a method the will search the MDI child forms that are loaded. We’ll also use this method when we unload the MDI child forms.

Private Function SearchChildForm(ByVal strSearchForm As String, _Optional ByVal idxEventHandler As Long = -1) As Long
Dim i As Long = 0
For i = 0 To m_sLoadedForms.Count - 1
If m_sLoadedForms.Item(i) = strSearchForm Then
Dim j As Long = 0
For j = m_f.GetLowerBound(0) To m_f.GetUpperBound(0)
If m_f(j).Name = strSearchForm Then idxEventHandler = j
Next j
Return i
End If
Next
Return -1
End Function

5. We need to implement a method to load the mdi child forms and use the SearchChildForm method in order not to load the same mdi child form second time.

Private Sub LoadChildForms(ByVal f As Form)
If m_f.GetUpperBound(0) > 0 Then
ReDim Preserve m_f(m_f.GetUpperBound(0) + 1)
End If
m_f(m_f.GetUpperBound(0)) = f I
f Not SearchChildForm(m_f(m_f.GetUpperBound(0)).Name()) >= 0 Then
m_f(m_f.GetUpperBound(0)).MdiParent = Me
AddHandler m_f(m_f.GetUpperBound(0)).Closed, _
AddressOf UnloadChildForm
m_f(m_f.GetUpperBound(0)).Show()
m_sLoadedChildForms.Add(m_f(m_f.GetUpperBound(0)).Name)
Else
If m_f.GetUpperBound(0) > 0 Then
ReDim Preserve m_f(m_f.GetUpperBound(0) - 1)
End If
End If
End Sub

6. At last we need to implement a method to take out our mdi child form from the array list so we can load it again if we want.

Private Sub UnloadForm(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
Dim i As Long
Dim s As String = sender.GetType().Name
Dim IndexForEventHandler = -1
i = SearchChildForm(s, IndexForEventHandler)
If i >= 0 Then m_sLoadedForms.RemoveAt(i)
If IndexForEventHandler >= 0 Then
RemoveHandler m_f(IndexForEventHandler).Closed, AddressOf UnloadForm
m_f(IndexForEventHandler) = Nothing
End If
End Sub

Thomas is an experienced Visual Basic developer, with expertise of 7+ years developing financial applications. His main IT skills are VB, SQL, Crystal Reports - should you need a VB developer for your projects feel free to contact Thomas through his personal website at www.Kaloyani.com or through www.VBprofs.com

Considering whether or not your software company should hire a dedicated team of testers? Here are the Top 5 Wrong Reasons why you shouldn’t.

We Have a Beta Program
Some people feel that the best way to debug a system is to ship it to your customers and wait for trouble tickets. I don’t know how things work in your industry, but as far as I’m concerned, finding new customers is hard enough. I definitely don’t want to make matters worse by shipping them buggy software.

I’ve spent the last 5 years in the telecommunications industry where the standard for reliability is 5-9. If I even suggested to my customers that my software was in its Beta phase, they’d hang up on me immediately. I’m positive the same is true in any industry.

Imagine if I published articles that were not only full of grammatical errors but also missed a complete sentence here and there. Would you bother sending me an email to inform me that my articles are defective? Would you recommend my newsletter to your peers? I didn’t think so! So imagine how your customers feel when mission critical software breaks and crashes on them.

Developers Will Get Lazy
Some managers feel that developers will get lazy if they know someone else is responsible for testing their code. Developers are either lazy or they’re not. Someone who takes pride in his work will rigorously test his code regardless of whether or not you have a dedicated team of testers.

If your developers are lazy, don’t blame your testers. Blame the developers! Not hiring a team of dedicated testers won’t improve the situation. It’ll actually make the problem worse because your sloppy developer’s code will find itself in your customer’s hand instead of your testers’ lab.

We Can’t Afford Testers
If you can afford testing, then you can afford testers. Basic economics – and common sense – prove that it’s more economical and efficient to hire specialists than generalists, as long as you can keep the specialists busy.

If it takes you 50 person-months to develop software, you will (statistically speaking) spend 25 person-months testing and validating it. Which do you think is more economical? Assigning 25 person-months of testing to developers or testers?

As explained in Quality is Job #1, one of my previous articles which lists reasons why software companies should hire a dedicated team of testers, professional QA people are more efficient at verifying software than developers are. It’s their job! Keep the 1:3 ratio in mind and hire 1 tester for every 3 developers, even if it means getting rid of your bottom-of-the-barrel developers to maintain a balanced human capital budget.

Testers Find Too Many Bugs
This excuse sounds more absurd than it actually is. I agree that in some cases testers report bugs that are valueless. Enter non-ASCII characters in one field, ASCII in another, stick a screwdriver in your CD-R drive, do the hokey pokey and hit the Enter key, and the system will return an error. Who cares? No customer will ever come across this scenario in a live deployment. (Actually, if I showed you some of the defects our customers are entering in our trouble ticketing system, you’d be surprised!!!)

If you think your testers are really finding too many insignificant bugs, give them guidance. Don’t ridicule their effort or disregard their problem reports. Explain the use cases you’re trying to satisfy and the known (and acceptable) limitations of the system.

We Can’t Find/Keep Any Good Testers
I truly sympathize with those who bring up this point because it’s true. Good testers are really hard to find and the first-class ones often apply to transfer to your product development team. Still, this is not a reason to give up on hiring a dedicated team of testers.

Here are 3 suggestions to keep your testers on your QA team for as long as possible:

• When hiring testers, look for people who have previously held a QA role for at least a year. Beware of new graduates and others who will accept any position to get a foot your organization’s door. Chances are more likely that they will ask for a transfer as soon as their probation period is over.
• Offer your testers a competitive salary. Some companies tend to pay their testers way less than their developers. As a result, testers request a transfer simply because they’d like to earn more money, and you can’t blame them. Level your pay scales and you’ll give them one more reason to stay on your QA team.
• Allow testers to develop their technical skills. Give them the opportunity to write automated test scripts, install and configure test networks, and take design/development courses. Providing these extra benefits will entice your testers to stay in their role for a longer period. And when they do decide they want to move to your development team, they’re going to be better prepared.

Conclusion
After reading dozens of opinions on the subject, I’m still convinced that having a dedicated team of testers is well worth the investment. You can disagree with me, but if you do, make sure it’s for the right reasons.

Luc Richard holds an MBA with a major in high technology. For the past 10 years, he’s been managing the development of software applications. He is the founder of The Project Mangler (http://www.projectmangler.com), an online resource that publishes free articles, stories, and other ready-to-use tools to help developers, team leaders and managers deliver software projects on time, according to specs, and within budget.

New features can benefit you with a more efficient practice, lower costs, and increased cash flow.

Medical Billing Software and Physician’s Practice Management Systems are the best tools you can use to improve the financial well being of your practice. Using one can help you to gain full control over your finances, and grow your business. Cutting-edge medical billing technology can significantly reduce time and costs spent processing claims. Not only will you have a better grasp of the health of your practice, you can watch your receivables increase and your payables decrease.

In the past couple of years, new features have began to emerge to increase your operational efficiency. Spurred on by the HIPAA regulations mandating electronic file transfer standards such as X12, and the growth and maturing of the internet, new features are now available to help your business.

Recent advancements include:

1. instant access from anywhere, even away from the office
2. manage multiple offices and functions from one database
3. enhanced scanning - electronically file all claims; even those needing supporting documentation attached.
4. rules engines to identify errors before submitting the claim
5. increased security to comply with new HIPAA standards
6. electronic patient statements
7. electronic remittance advice

Stay Connected

With the maturing of the internet, new technology supporting the ASP (Application Service Providers) architecture allows access to your data including data entry from anywhere with a internet connection. This flexibility is a true benefit to multi-office practices and billing services. Multiple offices can now share the same database without the need for specialized networking or wide area networks. The cost savings in communication expenses alone can be enormous. Billing services can benefit by allowing limited access to their clients. This can instill a higher level of comfort for the client. This access can allow give a billing service a competitive advantage by providing value added services such as scheduling, super bill printing, and patient lookup.

Built in Efficiencies

Leveraging newer technology such as EOB and insurance card scanning, electronic patient statements, and electronic remittance can cut time spent on billing chores by up to 30%. This can allow more time for focus on patients and collections.

Reduced paper handling

Newer systems provide insurance payer rules so that users can immediately identify and correct claim errors that would delay payment of claims. Some systems will submit all your claims on your behalf including paper claims. Carriers can respond immediately so you get faster payouts, most within 14 days. Practice Management Systems can also reduce staff workload by outsourcing the print and mail functions of processing patient claims and statements.

When supporting documentation is needed in order for a claim to be paid, some systems can attach scanned letters of medical necessity, accident reports, referral authorizations, worker’s compensation documents, and most importantly EOBs. This eliminates the need to photocopy paperwork and perform chart pulls later if there are any questions on the claims.

Increased Security:

When using the internet, many users are concerned about security. A well established vendor addresses these concerns on multiple levels. Just like banking at an ATM, all data is encrypted during transmission and is protected by a user name and password. Furthermore, with most ASP vendors, all data and servers are backed up by expert IT staff at the data center. Many ASp vendors offer redundant HIPAA-compliant servers, with backups in different locations to ensure data recovery in case of disaster.

Conclusion

What is becoming standard in ASP-based medical billing software is subscription style pricing, and low upfront cost which cover implementation and professional fees.

If your business is looking to upgrade the medical billing software, examine the new features listed to see if they will offer you cost savings and increased efficiency. If so, insist on the new features in your next system. The cost savings can easily justify the upgrade.

Lori Anderson is an independent consultant with LAtech working with AntekHealthware on their DAQbilling Medical Billing Software and LabDAQ Laboratory Information System projects.

MySQL is a database system used on the web. Basically, a MySQL database allows you to create a relational database structure on a web-server somewhere in order to store data or automate procedures. If you think of it in comparison to Microsoft Access, MySQL is what holds all of your tables, PHP acts as your queries (among other things), and your forms are basically web pages with fields in them. With all of this combined, you can create truly spectacular projects on the web.

MySQL is also open source in that it’s free and falls under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Chances are, if you are getting your own web-page or already have one – your host supports MySQL and PHP. They are generally associated with (though not limited to) Unix/Linux based servers. If by chance you are considering getting your own page and want MySQL and PHP support, check out Dreamhost – I’ve been using them for years and they absolutely can’t be beat.

Interacting with a MySQL database is a little weird as you don’t have the tried and true WYSIWYG interface that something as easy as Microsoft Access affords. When creating tables, you’ll either have to create them by using SQL Statements, or by using another open-source tool available online called PHPMyAdmin. PHPMyAdmin gives you an easy-to-use interface that allows you to create tables and run queries by filling in a little bit of information and then having the tables created for you. This is good if you’re either lazy, or don’t feel like bothering with big and complicated SQL Statements.

In comparing MySQL to Access you’re going to have a truckload of differences. While MySQL isn’t exactly tough to tackle (once the tables are created – you’re pretty much done with it), it’s capabilities extend far beyond that of Microsoft Access when dealing with speed and reliability. It’s simply a better system – and it should be. Microsoft Access (as much as I love it) is only a desktop database system. And while a limit of 10-20 concurrent Microsoft Access users is fine for most small organizations – when you’ve got a webpage getting 10,000 hits a day you’ll need something that can handle all of those queries efficiently.

MySQL tables also have the luxury of using “real” data types – not those little fluffy ones you see in Microsoft Access. Need a text field that can hold over four billion characters? Not a problem, just use the LongText data type. Want the field to hold that many characters and be case-sensitive? Easy, just use the LongBlob data type. Need to store numbers from 0 to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 (for those of you who are curious, that would be over 18 Quintillion), then use the BigInt data type. Indeed, 18 quintillion is a big integer.

As you can see, the limitations of Access fall well within the capabilities of MySQL. This is one of the many reasons that huge webpages use MySQL to handle their millions of daily hits. Well, that, and it’s free!

David Badurina, President of Blue Moose Technology, LLC, is a relational database design expert. David’s unique ability to explain virtually any technical concept has allowed him to work with companies such as AMD, Motorola, the American Heart Association, and countless small businesses. Learn more about database design right now at http://www.bluemoosetech.com

Employing the use of a call center can boost your business. If you are a one-person operation, a call center will give your customers the impression they are dealing with a multi-staffed business.

One of the advantages of a call center is you may operate a business in different time zones in the United States and foreign countries, and have an on call staff ready to represent your company round the clock at a rate cheaper than you could afford to hire even a single employee full time! Since most call centers have working operators round the clock, including weekends, you gain a round the clock workforce at a fraction of the price.

Years ago, a call center would have been out of the reach of the small business person. But today due to the healthy competition, the use of a call center is within the budget of even the sole proprietor working out of his or her home.

Besides fair pricing, you also want to locate a call center with competent professional operators, as well as run by management that is responsive to any issues you may encounter when using their call center services.

Unfortunately, other than word of mouth, it is often difficult to get a fair assessment of any call center’s reliability and professionalism other than using their services. Because of that, it is the smart business move to seek a call center that does not require any long term contracts.

If you are not able to get firsthand recommendations of a call center’s services, then your next step is to locate a call center with reasonable rates, with a short term or even no contract requirement, at the best reduced rates, and give them a try.

Beware of any call center that requires a large deposit to set up your account. If you are a one-person operation and seek the services of a call center to handle the inbound orders of your website, if you have a simple checkout system, question any call center that requires a $1000 plus deposit just to get your account setup.

There are some services in existence that will try to charge you an exorbitant setup fee even if you decide to test them out for a month. A high deposit requirement should be a red flag to you that something is wrong, and that this service is attempting to make a fast profit off of you with no justification. Forget using such a service and continue on your search of finding a reasonably priced call center service right for your company.

Often you will find better pricing deals from call center services online than from call centers in your local area. An online search for call center pricing should bring up several call center services for you to price compare.

Some of the pricier call centers will not list their prices. Since there are many different services available to you through the internet, it is suggested you search through at least the first eight pages of your search results to find call centers with the best pricing. You may not have to search that far before you locate one or two good ones to test out.

Once you have settled on a call center to evaluate, you need to pay attention to how your calls are handled in order to properly evaluate the quality of the call center and if you should continue with their services. The reason this is so essential is studies have shown that customers will cease purchasing or using a company’s products or services based on a poor call center experience.

Remember, a call center operator is your company’s representative, for good or bad. You must quickly ascertain if it is for the bad. If a reasonable complaint process with that call center’s management will not satisfactorily correct that problem, then you need to discontinue using that call center’s services.

The question is how do you monitor the quality of the call center operators, short of listening in? There is no other way, but to listen in.

Fortunately, there are third party telephone services you can locate online that offer toll free numbers with the feature of call recording at an affordable price. Call recording capabilities lets you monitor all conversations between your customer and the call center’s operators. Since many call centers allow you to forward the phone number of your choice to their call answering system, this allows you to make use of an outside toll free number that has call recording where you can listen in and determine the level of professionalism of the call center employees.

If you utilize the call recording feature, you may be in for the shock of your life, as some operators, when they believe they are not monitored, may make promises about your products or derogatory statements you would never tolerate, and never would have heard if you had not recorded the call. That is why it is mandatory you use a type of call recording in your initial evaluation of the call center service you choose.

Keeping these factors in mind, and following these evaluation steps, should help you to find a call center solution with a service level that enhances your company.

Grant Davis is a freelance writer and has worked in a variety of fields, including teaching. Feel free to use the above article, as long nothing is changed, the bio remains, all hyper links remain as is and the rel=”nofollow” tag is not added to any links.