February 2013

Thinking About Spring

Ever since Hurricane Sandy kicked off our winter season leaving us without power and round the clock cold, all of us here on the east coast of the USA have been more than ready for spring.  We will be having at least one group training session here in Pennsylvania this spring and want to gauge your interest.  Let us know if you would like to come and if so, some of the possible dates in April or May that would be good for you. 

Our Special Offers for March

Until March 31, 2013, these will be our special offers:

1) If you purchase a license to the standard DQB version or two additional users at $600, you will have a choice of a 50% discount on one of the $400 supplements such as image scanning or notifications or free tuition for the spring group training session.

2) Those licensing the starter DQB version at $400 will be offered free tuition at the spring group training session.  

To Answer Your Questions

Q:  With the image scanning supplement, can we store other digital documents sent to us by the dental office in addition to the ones we scan ourselves? Can we link these to the case record?

A: The answer to both questions is yes, you can.   The Images tab in Case Entry has been designed for the popular graphic format known as JPEG.   Most image scanners can create this format.   You willl see an extension of .JPG for these.   If the dental office sends JPEG images, browse to them and associate them with the case in the Images tab.   If either you create or the dental office sends other digital formats, typically identified with extensions such as .DOC, .DOCX, .XLS, .STL, .BMP, you can go to the Documents tab in Case Entry to store and associate with the case for fast easy lookup. 

Q:  For which carriers does DQB provide web links to track shipments?

A: From the case entry screen, there are links to the worldwide FedEx and UPS, then for the USA the USPS postal service, and for Australia EX and TOLL to the Australian Post.  In QC and Ship, you can also key or scan a barcode for the tracking numbers for these services.

This has become a very popular well-liked feature that has generated even more requests for automatic transfers of shipment numbers and expansion to the notifications supplement.   We are open to your suggestions on this topic.  

If You Value Your Core Business Information - Protect It

There is always a balance to be struck between touting your business information and protecting your business from harm.  On one hand, you may want to post on your website or in your advertisements some of the great kudos you have received from your customers.  To confirm that these are real and valid, you need to divulge the names of those who honored you with testimonials.   On the other hand, you need to be cognizant that there are others who may want to capture your customers lists and information on the services and prices you are providing to them.  This could be your competitors, the hackers, and others who find a way to profit by selling it.

Although the Internet provides many wonderful ways to communicate, it continues to be unregulated.  Be very wary of entrusting your core information to it.  Instead, when it can be beneficial to you, your customer or your vendor, provide access to only what is necessary and to those who are known and authorized.  If possible,  encrypt your transmissions.

Be mindful also of other ways you need to protect your information from harm.   This includes providing for both local and distant backups should you experience disaster from weather, fire, water, or destructive acts. Also take care to setup authorization codes for access that meet the new standards for strong, not easily-guessed passwords.   Then, either on schedule or when appropriate, change these codes. 

If you would like to discuss or review your specific security measures, please give us a call.  

Building Better Service Models

Although January and February are typically among the slower business months each year, we have been heartened by the huge upswing in custom requests from our customers.   And we have taken note that the one thing they all have in common is that they are striving to build even better service models for their customers.

Some of these have been small in scope, such as adding a customized checklist to each work ticket to assure that each technician is accountable for the quality of his or her work.   Others have been larger, such as new crosschecks to assure that the packaging of cases is accurate and timely, sending notifications that include shipment tracking numbers and web links so that the dental offices can track the return of their cases, adding even more to the materials disclosure features, adding features to their websites to provide an information portal on new services as well as the cases specific to the dental office.   The list goes on and on....we have been very busy!

We are pleased to see this new level of energy. 

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