MAY 2015

The computing world is forever changing. Over the last 15 years, SaaS (software as a service) providers have offered the convenience of data backup for your cloud applications such as CRM systems, SalesForce, Google Apps and Microsoft 365. The business question is, if I’m already working with a SaaS provider and my data is already “in” the cloud, do I really need to back up my data to another cloud? After all, isn’t the SaaS provider doing that for me?

Well yes, and no. Yes, your data (one of your company’s most valuable assets) is being backed up by the service provider. And yes, it’s in the cloud. And yes, these providers have backups to their backups…but are they backing up your business-critical information? Can you guarantee that? And do you have access to it in a timely manner? The answer to these questions may be no. As a rule, SaaS providers do not open backups to customers nor do they make restoring critical data easy or intuitive. For example, SalesForce, the first commercially available SaaS application, does nightly customer backups. But if you need to recover your data, you have to go directly to SalesForce and pay a minimum of $10,000 then wait a few weeks for your data to be restored.

There’s no question that the results of data loss can be devastating to your company. But when it comes down to

it, it’s your company information and you need to take responsibility for safeguarding it. You need to have a strategy in place. Want to learn more about how to back up your cloud SAAS applications? Contact our office at 781-826-9665 or via e-mail at David@ACTSmartIT.com to discuss your particular situation and what solutions are available for you.

Do I Need to Back Up Data That’s Already In The Cloud?

2

From The Desk of

ACTSmart’s Year-To-Date Protection Stats for our “Total Control” clients

For more info about email security, archiving, and encryption go to GoAmerican.com/technology/reflexion

• 650,720 messages delivered successfully

• 2,948,651 messages blocked as spam

• 85,907 messages sent outbound

• 4,914 viruses blocked

• 51,534 messages blocked to unknown recipients

Looking back, April was a great month – NO SNOW - and my peas have finally broken ground. Summer isn’t far behind.

Pam and I enjoyed a full day at the South Shore District Dental meeting on April 10th and relished having lunch and chatting with so many local Dental Practices! The turnout was exceptional and the presentations were great.

On April 17th, NEDOM, the New England Dental Office Managers group’s new South Shore Chapter held their first meeting in our conference room. Pam Dembski-Hart presented on Dental OSHA and BORID Regulatory Compliance: What’s New? What’s Not! The seminar was very well attended and information eye opening and we look forward to hosting many more in the future.

Any Dental Office manager or front desk/admin team member can attend their first NEDOM presentation as our guest. Just register through Lexi@ACTSmartIT.com rather than through NEDOM’s website.

During the 3rd week of April, Pam and I were again in Nashville for our quarterly

Marketing & Technology meeting and we had the opportunity to meet “Mr. Wonderful”; Kevin O’Leary of ABC’s hit show, Shark Tank. Kevin shared many insights into the show and his personal business success with us. Friends have told me that we look alike and I never really saw it until we had our photo taken together – what do you think?

During our monthly team meeting, our team took CPR training and certification and all passed with flying colors. A special thanks to the team at Emergency Medical Teaching Services in Pembroke for providing the excellent training.

Lastly, this month’s newsletter is chock full of interesting information and articles presented by some very smart people. I hope that you and your team can benefit from at least one of these excellent articles.

Looking forward to the warm weather…

33

MAY 2015

Drug Pump’s Security Flaw Lets Hackers Raise Dose Limits

When Billy Rios needed emergency surgery last summer after cerebral spinal fluid began leaking through his nose, he was only partly focused on his life-threatening condition. That’s because Rios was distracted by the computerized drug-infusion pumps Stanford Medical Center used to administer medication to him and other patients. As a security researcher, Rios realized he’d purchased the same models of pumps months earlier on eBay in order to examine them for security flaws. As he watched the pump dose him with meds, all he could think about were the holes he’d found in one of the brands that made it susceptible to hacking.

The brand in question was the popular LifeCare PCA drug infusion pump sold by Hospira—an Illinois firm with more than 55,000 of the intravenous drug pumps in hospitals around the world. The pumps are touted for having extra safety measures that reduce medication errors and prevent patient harm and deaths.

But Rios found that the Hospira systems don’t use authentication for their internal drug libraries, which help set upper and lower boundaries for the dosages of various intravenous drugs that a pump can safely administer. As a result, anyone on the hospital’s network—including a patient in the hospital or a hacker accessing the pumps over the internet—can load a new drug library to the pumps that alters the limits, thereby potentially allowing the delivery of a deadly dosage. Rios did not find that a hacker could alter an actual drug dosage, but rather that they could change the allowable upper limit for a given drug, meaning that someone could then accidentally (or otherwise) set the pump to give too high or too low a dose. And according to Rios, additional research could yet uncover other vulnerabilities. Researchers examining different drug infusion pumps last year, for example, found that those pumps had a web interface that would allow attackers to access and alter dosages.

Dr. Robert Wachter, associate chair of UC San Francisco’s Department of Medicine, says the issue is less concerning than if the flaws Rios found allowed someone to alter drug dosages. But because the dosage boundaries in drug libraries are designed to prevent deaths and overdoses, which happen more often than patients think, raising the limit in a pump’s library means a hospital could fail to catch a dosage mistake and cause serious harm to patients.

“The risk from changing the bumpers—the high and low permissible doses—doesn’t seem to be very high,” Wachter says. “It’s probably not going to kill someone today. But in a big institution giving 100,000 medications over the course of a month, screwing around with those bumpers is going to cause harm at some point. That worries me. Anything like this at some point will kill someone.”

Wachter should know; his recently published book, Digital Doctor, focuses on the ways digital medical systems can go wrong. One excerpt published last week by Medium described an overdose scenario in which a nurse accidentally administered pills to a teenager that were 38 times his proper dosage, triggering a grand mal seizure.

4

If you have ever had an employee need harsh criticism, you know just how difficult a task it can be. Most people don’t like to dish out criticism, which is a good thing, but as entrepreneurs, there is sometimes no way around it. But there is a right way and a wrong way to give harsh criticism to employees. And your mission is to make doing it the right way a priority!

Criticism Challenge

If you give harsh criticism, or any criticism, in an appropriate manner, you will likely help create a better employee. Give it the wrong way, and you may see that employee retaliate or walk out the door. Neither of these are scenarios are what you probably want, so focus on learning how to effectively give criticism, so you avoid offending them.

Keep these tips in mind when it comes to giving harsh criticism to an employee:

1. Before you give the criticism, explain that you are sharing it with them because you care about them.

2. Pat on the back, kick on the ass, pat on the back. This is what I learned from my college lacrosse coach. Whenever he wanted to correct a mistake, he would first say what I did right (the pat on the back), then he would point out what I messed up on and needed to fix (the kick in the ass), and then he would tell me how well I was progressing and to keep pushing on (the pat on the back). This sandwiching technique works because it softens the criticism and leaves you inspired to fix it.

3. Never criticize the person, only criticize the act. You never want to make it personal. For example, don’t say something like “I don’t like it when you…” Instead, say “On those occasions when it is said…”

4. Always criticize privately. This is just a common courtesy. You wouldn’t want someone to criticize you in front of others. No matter how nice you try to do it, you will still put that person on defense and risk humiliating them, so it’s just best to avoid it all together.

5. Let them save face! This isn’t about them agreeing that they messed up; it’s about correcting the behavior (or at least that is what it should be about). If you attack them, they need to go on defense. And part of any good defense is justification to keep doing the behavior.

So give them an out, so they can have an “excuse” for the past behavior (save face), but they do not have an excuse to continue. A great way to help them save face is to say something like “I bet you are not even aware of this, since I used to do the same thing and did not even know.” If they acknowledge they were not aware, they have saved face. And now, since they are aware, they can’t continue with the behavior.

The Right Course

When giving an employee criticism is not done correctly, it can seem mean-spirited, feel like a personal attack, or just make them angry. When it is handled the right way, it can help improve situations and behavior, inspire change, and start a conversation about what is going on. It is important, as well, to make sure that when you give criticism, you aren’t just venting frustrations or trying to boost your ego, that it really is to improve a situation.

Even if you don’t have an employee right now that needs some criticism, you may in the future. It’s always a good idea to make sure you know the right way to handle the situation. That is part of what makes great leaders, well, great!

Mike Michalowicz is the author of "The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur,” “The Pumpkin Plan” and “Profit First.” He is an advocate of a business philosophy he calls “The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur,” believing the greatest business successes come from underfunded, inexperienced

entrepreneurs. www.ToiletPaperEntrepreneur.com.

The Criticism ChallengeBy Mike Michalowicz

Do you believe in love at �rst sight...or should I walk

by again?

5

MAY 2015

In the world of dating, a successful “pickup line” can make or break any chance of getting to strike up a conversation with someone you would like to meet. Below are a few examples of what some people thought were great "pickup lines."

“I'm not a photographer, but I can picture me and you together.”

“Can I have directions?” “To where?” “To your heart.”

“I thought happiness started with an H. Why does mine start with U?”

“Is there an airport nearby or is that just my heart taking off?”

“You're so beautiful that you made me forget my pickup line.”

You are probably wondering why I am addressing dating “pickup lines” in a business article. With profit margins being attacked from all angles, it is important for businesses today to do everything they can to take advantage of every consumer buying encounter. Probably one of the most famous business pickup lines, which added instant profits to their bottom line, was by the fast-food chain McDonald’s: “Would you like fries with that?” I have read where some experts have stated that McDonald’s added an additional $20 million in profits just by asking that one simple question.

Is your company leaving potential profits on the table, just waiting to be scooped up, if only your employees were trained in asking an additional, simple, not pushy question … that could possibly entice your customer to spend more money? I believe there are thousands of companies today doing just that. It is your job to exploit every sales channel to its fullest potential; but you need to do so by thinking like your customers. How would they like to be served better? What else could they possibly need, that they may have forgotten? Sometimes just planting the seed (suggestion) can lead to additional sales.

What else do your customers need? How can you best serve them? As long as your “pickup line” doesn’t alienate customers, you should take advantage of the current selling

transaction; the “pickup line” technique can add a considerable amount to your bottom line. I fly a lot, and in every Hudson Newsstand in the airports, they ask me if I want water, candy or gum when I am buying anything in there; they do it EVERY time. Southwest Airlines upsells better seating on planes so customers can get early boarding and be assured of overhead space for their bags. Waiters can ask if you want an appetizer, salad or bread with your meal … and then after your meal ask if you want another dessert, coffee or glass of wine.

The retail marketing giant Amazon says the cross-selling suggestions on its website account for 35% of its sales; they fully take advantage of every opportunity they can to sell more merchandise … DO YOU? If you want to add additional profits to your bottom line, start perfecting your “pickup lines.”

One thing is for certain … if you don’t ask for it, you certainly won’t get it.

Robert Stevenson is a highly sought after, internationally known speaker. He is the author of the best-selling books How to Soar Like an Eagle in a World Full of Turkeys and 52 Essential Habits for Success. Robert is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and is a former All-American Athlete. He started his first business at 24 and has owned several companies. Robert has international

sales experience dealing in over 20 countries and his client list reads like a Who’s Who in Business. He has shared the podium with such renowned names as Generals Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf, former President George H.W. Bush, Anthony Robbins and Steven Covey. www.robertstevenson.org

THE PICK-UP LINEby Robert Stevenson

6

Your “Established Website” Could Be Losing You CustomersRoland Lacey, MediaRight Technologies, www.MediaRight.net

Having an established business, meaning that you’ve been around for at least 10 years, is a good thing for a service-based business. And having a website domain that has been around for years is also a good thing for search engine results. But having an “established website” that hasn’t been updated in years is not a good thing and could be hurting your ability to be found by prospective customers.

One of the key indicators Google uses to determine which websites to rank at the top of search results is freshness. Their algorithm is designed to figure websites that are updated regularly are more valuable to the person doing the search than websites that have not been updated in years.

Earlier this year THE search guy at Google, Matt Cutts, released a video that made it clear that this was a factor. The key points from his video include:

• Older sites may have gotten stale if they aren’t regularly updated.

• Newer sites may provide visitors with a better user experience.

• Since user experience is what Google favors, those new sites may appear higher in Google searches.

Appearing as high up on a Google search as possible is

probably the most effective lead-generation strategy you can employ online. So when Google gives us some insights into their heavily-guarded search algorithm, we should listen.

Here are some things you can do to stay competitive:

• Freshen the look of your website. A new theme for a Wordpress-based site, especially a mobile-responsive theme, makes every page of your site look new and fresh to Google.

• Freshen the content on your website. One way I highly recommend to do that is to take a fresh look at the content of your website using the perspective of the potential customer needing to solve a problem. How can you make the copy more about THEM, and show you are the perfect choice for THEIR needs.

• Add a blog, or newsroom, to your website. Adopt Wordpress if you haven’t already. Then publish short article 2-4 times per month about a specific issue customers have that you resolve. Writing in this way will work the keywords that prospects care about, and search for, naturally into your website.

These three things will do wonders for Google seeing your website as a living resource. I’ve been designing websites for about as long as there have been websites. And I’ve focused on search engine results for my clients since there have been search engines. Google is where it’s at, and Google wants to see three things:

1. Websites that contain the phrases that people search for, including locations.

2. Websites that are updated regularly.3. Websites that have links from “Authority Sites” in their

niche.

If you were an early adopter and haven’t freshened up your website, Google has just made it clear you should to do so. Take a fresh look at your website, or have an expert like me give you an objective, informed opinion.

7

Payroll Best Practicesby Mitchell Zucker, ConnectPay Payroll Service

MAY 2015

If you haven’t reviewed your payroll processes lately, there have been numerous developments in the world of payroll over the last few years which you should consider implementing.

Here are a few mistakes which any small business can consider avoiding to save money, become more efficient, offer better benefits to employees and interact with their vendors more easily.

Payroll Frequency

State laws differ on payroll frequency rules. You should pay the least frequently you can in your state. For instance, here in Massachusetts, you are required to pay hourly employees no less frequently than bi-weekly (every other week, for a total of 26 pay periods per year). If you are currently paying weekly, this simple move can save you approximately 40% in direct cost savings, but also will cut your bookkeeping entries in half and decrease the amount of time which you spend on payroll saving you even more money.

Go Green

Getting ALL of your employees to accept their pay via direct deposit or other electronic delivery method will allow you to stop receiving printed reports and pay stubs. Here in MA, you may dictate that to employees. Although all payroll companies charge different amounts for courier delivery, so the savings will differ with each company, in our case you would save approximately 12% per year by simply going green!

Time and Attendance System

Solutions in this area have evolved tremendously in the last few years. If you currently use an integrated time clock from within practice management software, time cards for employees to punch, or using time sheets or spreadsheets, you have little ability to effectively and efficiently manage your labor costs. By implementing a newer system which is web based, mobile based, or even uses biometrics, any of which can be integrated with your payroll system, you will become significantly more efficient and eliminate opportunities for buddy punching and other employee time theft strategies. Further you will be able to better manage

overtime in your office and get better PPACA reporting to make sure you’re in compliance.

Paid Time Off Management

We often see our clients or prospects using paper requests and spreadsheets to manage their Paid Time Off programs. Newer systems allow you to make that process much more efficient by utilizing a Time and Attendance system to manage PTO/vacation requests. Employees can request time through the system, supervisors/owners can approve requests through the system, and new technology even allows you to utilize a calendaring system to make the process of scheduling much easier to manage.

Workers Compensation

This is an area many companies miss taking advantage of. With the help of a payroll company, you can significantly enhance your cash flow and make workers compensation an easier item to deal with. Rather than binding your insurance with a large down payment, payroll companies, such as ConnectPay, can help you to pay for it “as you go”. Key benefits are no down payment, 12 payments, and the annual audit is typically automated. A terrific efficiency and cash flow benefit. Speak with your insurance broker about it, or contact your payroll company to implement a pay as you go workers comp program.

401(K) Plan Management

Whereas most payroll companies want to directly sell you a 401(k) plan, you should never do that. The design is typically poor and the expenses typically very high. Some payroll companies, such as ConnectPay, in tandem with a seasoned retirement expert, will help you to implement a plan with better design, lower costs, and automated processes such as moving data to your TPA for testing purposes, automating the contribution process, receiving fiduciary responsibility, and more…

If you have any questions, or wish to receive a FREE review of your processes and methodologies in payroll, please contact me:

Mitch Zucker, ConnectPay Payroll Services www.ConnectPay.us.com • 774-218-9486

70 Corporate Park Drive, Suite 1225Pembroke, MA 02359-4953781.826.9665www.ACTSmartIT.com

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In This Issue...

Do I Need to Back Up Data That’s Already In The Cloud?

Your “Established Website” Could Be Losing You Customers

Drug Pump’s Security Flaw Lets Hackers Raise Dose Limits

Payroll Best Practices

The Criticism Challenge

The Pick-up Line