Overcoming Fear Of The Cloud | Forbes.com 08/17/2010
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The benefits of Cloud computing and SaaS applications are many, but many business and IT people aren’t quite comfortable with the shift. The two things things I hear most often are fears about security, and fears of losing ‘control.’ A CIO wites about this at Forbes.com:
”The fear of control comes up most often with cloud based infrastructure. People are more comfortable ceding control of applications and using them on a Software-as-a-Service basis. End users, who are often the buyers of SaaS, never had control in the first place, so they do not feel they are missing out on anything. But even for SaaS, there is a loss of control that has been shown recently as Salesforce.com ( CRM – news – people ) announced its Chatter product. At companies all across the globe, a screen splashed up offering Chatter as an extension to the existing Salesforce.com application.
While we are used to seeing this on consumer software, it is another thing to see it in an enterprise application. IT staff were surprised when end-users with administrator privileges chose to install Chatter for hundreds or thousands of users. It is likely that SaaS vendors will market their products proactively without asking permission until users complain. This is a loss of control.”
EMR: What is the current status of “meaningful use”, and what does it mean for your practice? 08/03/2010
Posted by tbc4thaadsma in business intelligence, development, government, healthcare, ibm, managed services, microsoft, web.Tags: EMR, healthcare, IBM, Managed Services, Medical Records, microsoft
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Some improvements in the “meaningful use” final rule sought by the AMA were accepted, but the Association says many practices still face barriers to adoption.
By Chris Silva, amednews staff. Posted Aug. 2, 2010.
Washington — While the final rule determining what constitutes “meaningful use” of electronic medical records provides some needed leeway for physicians, barriers to EMR adoption and implementation remain for doctors, according to the American Medical Association.
The AMA said in a July 21 statement that it had helped effect some positive changes in the final rule, including a reduction in the total number of measures, from 25 to 20, that physicians have to meet in order to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid EMR bonuses in the first two years.
The minimum thresholds for meeting several measures also were reduced. For example, the requirement that a doctor use an EMR for computerized physician order entry of medication orders decreased. Instead of mandating that more than 80% of patients have at least one drug ordered through CPOE, the threshold will be more than 30% of patients. Thresholds also were reduced for transmitting electronic prescriptions and implementing clinical decision support tools.
EMR bonus program poses tight deadline for physicians
But the AMA says physicians still face several challenges in becoming compliant in time. There is no EMR system on the market now that offers the capabilities needed for physicians to become meaningful users. Federal officials expect such systems to become available this fall, which would give practices only a few months to install and test the technology before the Jan. 1, 2011, start date of the incentive program. Physicians who already have invested in EMRs now must upgrade their systems to meet certification criteria.
In addition, the total number of measures that physicians have to meet is still too high, the AMA says. The final rule divides the initial 25 meaningful use objectives into two categories: a core group of 15 objectives and a “menu set” of 10 objectives, from which they can choose any five to defer in 2011-12.
Also, some of the thresholds for meeting the objectives remain high, the AMA says. For example, one measure requires physicians to maintain an up-to-date problem list of current and active diagnoses for more than 80% of patients. In addition, there is no mechanism for physicians to appeal any decision made during the incentive program.
“The final requirements for the meaningful use of EHRs are an improvement over previous drafts, but challenges still remain that will make it difficult for physicians to meet the requirements — especially physicians in solo and small practices,” said AMA Board of Trustees member and Secretary Steven J. Stack, MD.
During a July 20 hearing, members of the House Ways and Means health subcommittee probed the administration’s progress so far in shaping an EMR incentive program that is user-friendly for physicians and hospitals, yet that also yields a maximum benefit for taxpayers and patients.
Some lawmakers expressed concern that the administration may have gone too far in watering down the requirements in its final rule. But officials said the changes to the final rule were necessary to ensure that doctors and hospitals do not become overwhelmed.
“We wanted to make it possible for a small rural practice to become a meaningful user just as much as a large urban practice,” said David Blumenthal, MD, the national health information technology coordinator. “It is not fair to hold accountable individual physicians who desperately want to become meaningful users.”
Eugene Heslin, MD, a family physician in Saugerties, N.Y., testified that EMRs can be an effective and vital tool for small practices, despite some of the barriers they may face during adoption.
Dr. Heslin explained how paperless records may have saved the life of one of his elderly patients. The patient showed up at an emergency department with shortness of breath and had given paramedics a list of medications that Dr. Heslin determined from his home computer were incorrect — it was actually a list for the patient’s wife. If the patient’s EMR had not been available to him at home, the outcome may have been a lot different, he said.
“Is meeting the criteria going to be easy for physicians and hospitals? Absolutely not,” said Dr. Heslin, who is head physician at Bridge Street Medical Group, a six-physician practice. “But they will help me persuade my colleagues that there is critical mass, it is doable at the community level, and that they need to move now along the same pathway to benefit patients and their community.”
The print version of this content appeared in the Aug. 9 issue of American Medical News.
Apple, Google, Linux Are in Microsoft’s Sights | eWeek 07/19/2010
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Interesting take on Microsoft’s recent surge, titled “The Empire Strikes Back” at eWeek. Here’s an excerpt:
“In a post titled “Microsoft by the Numbers,” Shaw, Microsoft’s top public relations official, delivers a strong example of what the term “PR” is really all about. Shaw’s post will be alternately scrutinized, analyzed, criticized and praised. And it will likely be used as slide show fodder by more than one news outlet (I must admit that I damn near did one myself!). But the bottom line is Shaw stood up and did his job. He did the hell out of his job.
He took some swipes that Microsoft has been reluctant to overtly take in the past. Sure, the company has made many of these points before, but it has done so a bit more passively. Or it has done it through proxies or with partners—as if to give the impression that the so-called heavy hand of the software giant was not behind the jab.
However, with his post, Shaw makes no pretense that anyone other than Microsoft is behind the message. And the message is: “We’re here. We’re Microsoft. We have the numbers to prove it. Get used to it.”
Citing what he referred to as “a few of my favorite numbers,” one of the first things Shaw did in his post was talk about the success of Windows 7. And he should. He listed 150,000,000 as the “Number of Windows 7 licenses sold, making Windows 7 by far the fastest growing operating system in history.”
That was potent, but perhaps his best stroke was ending with some revenue figures. Shaw simply said:
- $5.7 Billion: Apple net income for fiscal year ending Sep 2009
- $6.5 Billion: Google net income for fiscal year ending Dec 2009
- $14.5 Billion: Microsoft net income for fiscal year ending June 2009
Shaw calmly asserts a position that stands up to all the hype and furor over Apple’s cool and market cap, Google’s ascendance to supremacy, and trash talk that Ballmer’s no longer the guy, and he says: Look at the numbers.
This stance is long overdue from Microsoft. The company needs to fight back and be proactive amid the onslaught of smacktalk.”
Shaw also puts the iPad craze into perspective. He said: “1 million Projected iPad sales for 2010. 58 million Projected netbook sales in 2010. 355 million Projected PC sales in 2010.” And he noted that although less than 10 percent of the netbooks sold in the United States in 2008 were Windows based, by the end of 2009 96 percent of the netbooks sold in the United States were running Windows.”
via eWeek.
Please come to our Summer Picnic at i3 Business Solutions 06/22/2010
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When:
Tuesday, July 13 , from 11:30 am – 1:30 pm
Location:
945 Forest Hill SE, Suite B
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546
616-719-4100
Please join us for a Open House Picnic featuring our local Yesterdog hot dogs. Join us for some great food, vendor demonstrations, and see some of the cool stuff we are doing for our clients.
Our partner Compellent Technologies is our gold sponsor for this picnic. Compellent delivers the lowest total cost of ownership of network storage in the industry – slashing the time and cost up to 80%.
RSVP to Tracy Slaughter by July 6th
616-719-4144 or tslaughter@i3bus.com
We are located across from Forest Hill Foods at Forest Hill Ave and Cascade Road.
Microsoft Azure: 10K Customers and Counting | InternetNews.com 06/09/2010
Posted by thaadsma in SaaS, broadband, development, infrastructure, managed services, microsoft, virtualization, web services.add a comment
Not bad for something just outta beta:
“Microsoft’s Azure just came out of beta testing a few months ago, but the company has already signed up 10,000 paying customers to run their applications in the company’s Azure cloud, a company executive said.”
via Microsoft Azure: 10K Customers and Counting – InternetNews.com
Andy Kaiser reviews HTC Incredible | Digital Bits 06/09/2010
Posted by thaadsma in design, games, google, mobile web, user interfaces, web, web services.add a comment
i3 Business Solutions’ own Andy Kaiser has a great review up on this new Android smartphone.
In his words:
“Let’s move on to the fun parts about the HTC Incredible: just about everything.”
Read it all at Andy’s Digital Bits blog: HTC Incredible review.
HTC Incredible
PDF = Pretty Dangerous Format? The Rising Trend of PDF Attacks | Channel Insider 06/08/2010
Posted by thaadsma in design, security, user interfaces, web, web services.add a comment
Once upon a time, there was a real need for PDFs. And as a lowest common denominator kind of thing, PDFs still work as a quick & dirty way to “freeze” a document, print it, and/or email it off. But Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) monopoly is quickly becoming a security liability, as this slide show points out:
“Once considered one of the safest attachments around, the PDF format is becoming a fan favorite among cybercriminals lookingto spread their malcode, infect machines and beef up their botnets. We take a look new data that shows just how dangerous the PDF format has become, how hackers are using malicious PDFs to perpetrate attacks and what you can do to protect against them.”
And for a web geek’s perspective, click over to Jakob Nielsen’s PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption .
via Pretty Dangerous Format: The Rising Trend of PDF Attacks – Security news from Channel Insider.
Surprising truth about what motivates us | RSA Animate 05/17/2010
Posted by thaadsma in business intelligence, tangents, web.add a comment
Video is becoming a real option for organizations of all sizes to talk with customers on the Web. Here’s a clever use of whiteboarding animation used to enhance an audio-only presentation, making the concepts really compelling and coherent. It’s like a 10-minute version of those UPS whiteboard ads on TV.
Oh, and the subject matter is fascinating, too:
Motorola Taps GVSU for Smart Phone Research 05/14/2010
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Lots of interesting technology inititiaves around West Michigan:
“We’re connecting the dots on what’s already out there,” says Engelsma, associate professor in Grand Valley State University’s School of Computing, where he leads the mobile computing laboratory. He says the advent of apps running on smart phones that amount to personal computerin a person’s pocket can greatly enhance the efficiency of the market to reach consumers — and vice versa.
Engelsma, 43, and a team of three students — Alejandro Montoya, 28; Greg Zavitz, 19; and Joseph Roth, 20 — have begun working closely with researchers at Motorola to deploy an experimental application “in the wild” to study how emerging mobile technology can enhance retail loyalty, customer satisfaction, and leverage social persuasion. They hope to launch the app in a month or so.
“Because the smart phone knows where it is, everything that’s up in the clouds can be accessed real-time from anywhere in the world,” Engelsma says. “The consumer has a real-time consumer guide in their pocket at all times.”
Apps for mobile phones that help consumers do research while they are out shopping started to make strong inroads last year. After being loaded into smart phones such as the Motorola Droid or Apple iPhone, some apps can help shoppers find the best prices on goods depending on the location.”
The rebirth of Grand Rapids | CNN/Fortune 05/13/2010
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New & Improved! This excellent article (to be published in Fortune magazine on May 25) recognizes local leaders who helped re-invent downtown GR and redefine our economy around healthcare and education:
“It is not the kind of view you expect these days in downtrodden Michigan. From this rooftop plaza on the 17th floor of Bridgewater Place, evidence of urban renewal spreads in every direction. Directly to the south is the modern campus of Grand Valley State University, home to 11,000 students. Across the Grand River lies the sprawl of the redeveloped entertainment district, with its new arena and convention center, steps away from downtown business and government office buildings. Atop a hill to the east is the city’s crown jewel: a $1 billion (and growing) medical complex that includes a cancer research center, specialized treatment facilities, and a medical school.
This is Grand Rapids, a small city (pop. 200,000) in western Michigan with a redevelopment plan that has lessons for other cities looking to engineer new growth after the decline of old-economy industries. That this plan has taken hold in, of all places, the Rustbelt of Michigan makes it all the more remarkable. Two decades ago the city could have been headed the way of Flint, Pontiac, and, yes, Detroit. But instead its fortunes have steadily improved, thanks to a remarkable combination of business leadership, public-private cooperation, and the deep pockets of local philanthropists.
Full article with photos at Can Detroit learn from the rebirth of Grand Rapids? – May. 12, 2010.
HTG recognizes outstanding peer group | i3 05/05/2010
Posted by Connie Swanson in SaaS, government, healthcare, ibm, infrastructure, managed services, microsoft, security, web services.add a comment
i3 Business Solutions, LLC participates in an international peer group called Heartland Technology Group. Heartland Technology Group (HTG) is recognized as a leading peer group in the information technology industry. It is composed of 250 companies focused on small to mid-size business support. Ideas on management of people, process, performance and practice are the foundation for this industry initiative.
Kathy Labozzetta of i3 Business Solutions with HTG 5 Team
Our peer group, HTG5 was awarded member group of the year out of the 22 peer groups at this year’s conference. Participation in this collaborative effort enables us to quickly compare ourselves to others in the industry, validate our strategy and decision making and go to market quickly with leading solutions and best practices that are proven and reliable.
These solutions include:
- Virtualization
- Managed Service IT Support Offerings
- Backup and Recovery
- Storage Solutions
- Web Applications
- Microsoft Solutions
- Technology and Service Delivery Tools
- Product Offerings
- Input and Support from Key Industry Vendors
HTG differentiates itself from other industry groups by having a very open “Go Giver” philosophy for sharing of business ideas including open financials, sales, marketing and operational methodologies with common business financial benchmarks & metrics. Open discussion and action plans for development of people and work/life balance are also a focus.
How Facebook won the web? | CNN.com 04/23/2010
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Can one little button change everything?
“Facebook this week announced a new way to express your interests — a “Like” button that’s set to appear all around the web. Click the button, and the Web page is shared with your friends.
What’s more, every “Like” you submit ensures Facebook (and its partner sites) can deliver a more personalized experience to you.
It’s a simple yet powerful feature — one that delivers a significant blow to rival Twitter. Once the network effects take hold, it’s frankly hard to imagine how any company could unseat Facebook’s social networking dominance in the months to come. Without a counterattack, even Google may one day be dethroned.”
It’s sounds like a preposterous claim, until you remember what that simple little search engine with the funny name went on to accomplish in less than 10 years:
The little search engine that could
Is Email killing you, too? | Sentenc.es 04/08/2010
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Email chews up way too much time. It’s getting to be like the old Asian torture “Death by a Thousand Cuts.”
I ran across this great solution/technique for reclaiming my Inbox:
The Problem
E-mail takes too long to respond to, resulting in continuous inbox overflow for those who receive a lot of it.
The Solution
Treat all email responses like SMS text messages, using a set number of letters per response. Since it’s too hard to count letters, we count sentences instead.
three.sentenc.es is a personal policy that all email responses regardless of recipient or subject will be three sentences or less. It’s that simple.
And it is that simple. Three sentences. Or less.
My Father Is a Plasterman 03/12/2010
Posted by mritsema in web.Tags: Business, entrepreneurial, Leadership, Management
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This is a modified note that I sent to our i3 team. I hope that it provides some encouragement for your 2010 efforts and initiatives.
My Father is 82 years old. He’s a Plasterman – not was a Plasterman – but is a Plasterman. He’s an artist with plaster (in his hands – on his ‘hawk & trowel’) to repair or finish new construction work. He loves it. It’s part of who he is. He worked on the Grand Rapids Civic Auditorium during the Great Depression. He’s worked in almost every house in East Grand Rapids over the past 50 years. He put the Presidential seal on the ceiling of the Gerald R. Ford Museum here in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He’s helped build hundreds of houses in West Michigan – and he did a lot of the art work at Disney’s Epcot Center! He still does repair jobs all over West Michigan.
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- Henry & Arlynne Ritsema – My Father and Mother
35 years ago I worked for my Father. I mixed, hauled & shoveled mud – plaster. Being a laborer was tough, physical, dirty work – and my Father was demanding. Do it right, do it on time or you’ll hear about it.
The Plastermen would holler, “More mud on the board!” when they ran out of mud. That meant pick up the pace and get some plaster over here because we’re standing around losing money. Work faster, work harder, keep the Plastermen busy. Mix the mud, shovel the mud, wheelbarrow the mud. I remember hauling wheelbarrows of mud across 16′ x 12″ wooden planks to their destination. I remember losing – tipping – dumping entire loads on the ground. Sometimes the mud was too thick, sometimes the mud was too thin! I’d hear about that, too. “Too thick – more water! Too thin – less water!” came the short, terse, yet understanding commands.
I tried putting mud on the wall a number of times. Dad would let me put it on in the closets – ½ of the mud ended up on the floor. My Father ended up with about 1% on the floor. I was an amateur – not a pro-am – but an amateur. My Father was a pro. He still is. I learned a lot of life lessons. I learned that good old Dutch work ethic.
In my sales career over the last 30 years, and here at i3 Business Solutions, I say, “Throw some mud on the wall, some of it will stick.” By that I mean, take a risk – make a ‘cold’ phone call, schedule a tough meeting, deliver a proposal, ask for the order – but please take a risk and launch something over / at the wall! Do something. Nike – Just Do It! Get out of the closet! The worst a customer can do is say, “No.” And ‘no’ is Ok! If we get a ‘no’, then we can move on to find a ‘yes’. But ambiguity – no man’s land – hoping something will change accomplishes nothing!
That’s my request of each of us this year. Take a risk. Throw some mud at the wall. Suggest a new service or concept for yourself, your employer or a customer. Attempt something that stretches your abilities some. Grab a task that needs fixing , own it and haul it to the finish line. Collar yourself, your boss or significant other to push, cajole, require and implement a personal or organizational improvement.
Throw some mud at the wall.
Some of it will stick,
Michael Ritsemai3 Business Solutions, LLC
Theritzman
Twenty Trends For The 2010s | Digital Rules | Rich Karlgaard 01/27/2010
Posted by thaadsma in business intelligence, government, healthcare, tangents, web.add a comment
GR Press photo of Rich Karlgaard at Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, Jan 2009
Rich Karlgaard is the editor of Forbes, a prolific witer, and talks all over the country, and isn’t always right. However, he’s one of the brightest business leaders out there in the publishing world.
Last January he spoke at the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce annual lunch and went out on a limb by saying that already he saw signs of recovery from The Recession– when most everyone else was still in shock, fearful and reeling from the financial meltdown of the preceding months.
Rich has an intriguing list of predictions for the coming decade, and all are worthy of a read.
Me, I’m thinking over number 9:
“9. One Cloud Company Or Another Becomes the Most Valuable Company on Earth
“Moore’s Law continues at the pace of 2x every two years. Bandwidth improves 3x every two years. These trends predict ubiquitous cloud cover for planet earth. Who will own the giant fog machine? Google? Cisco? Microsoft? Amazon? Huawei?”
via Twenty Trends For The 2010s « Forbes.com: Digital Rules By Rich Karlgaard – Forbes.com.
New Year’s Resolutions – Goals & Priorities 12/26/2009
Posted by mritsema in web.Tags: Business, entrepreneurial, Leadership, Management, Productivity
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It’s that time of year. It’s the end of another year. I’m pondering my occasional or annual goal message. Will you sign up for the challenge?
Now, many of you know that I’m the ‘goal’ guy. Set ‘em & hit ‘em. If you don’t set ‘em, you won’t hit ‘em. This is a good time of year to reflect, assess, tweak the course or direction. You know, the old definition of insanity … is doing the same thing over again & hoping for a different result.
Not that there’s anything wrong with consistent, steady execution delivering consistent, steady results. Yes, I do think that’s the essence of life: embrace the day. Carpe’ Diem. Don’t get so lost in the future that you miss the wonder of each day. Oh, yes, that resonates with me. Sign me up for the wonder and awe of each day.
I think that we should each have written and specific goals for general areas of our life. In fact, if they’re not written and specific – then we still have the goals. They’re just mental and general. They’re essentially who we are. Nothing wrong with that. I think that written and specific goals deliver timely and measurable results.
So, I’m looking for goals in these areas of our life:
- Mental
- Spiritual
- Physical – health
- Financial – business
- Relational – emotional
- Service – giving
How am I going to grow mentally in a post structured educational world; how am I going to grow my relationship with God this year? How am I going to maintain or improve my physical well-being – my health; how am I going to improve my financial performance; how will I improve my relationship with myself and others; how will I stretch myself emotionally; how will I give to others this year – financially and physically?
Am I satisfied with everything in my life? Can I grow, mature, improve, move forward?
Well, I’m challenging all of us this year specifically in the mental & financial – business area. In a post college – “gettin’ to work everyday” world, what are you going to do this year to improve your person-hood? What are you going to do to grow, stretch, challenge yourself? Lebron James said about the whooping they put on Los Angeles last night in the NBA, “It wasn’t about sending a message to them, it was about sending a message to ourselves and seeing how we match up with the best …”
What message are you sending to yourself this year?
How about picking some mental, educational, business type goals like:
- How many books will you read this year – in what areas
- What certification will you pursue – which requires study and another … test
- What class will you attend with the completion award – like Toastmasters, Dale Carnegie, Chamber courses, etc.
- What personal goals will you set to drive up personal performance and earn more money
- How will you improve your net worth – by how many dollars – what %
- What daily or weekly activities will you change in order to change your results
- What reward will you assign to yourself that you’ll enjoy upon hitting your desired objectives?
That’s it. As we approach 2010, I am challenging each of us to reflect on ourselves and the last year. How am I going to turn the crank? What am I going to change in order to improve my results? What course correction will I make so that I hit my desired target?
How will I challenge myself to personal growth and improvement?
God bless your new year.
Michael Ritsema i3 Business Solutions, LLC