June 2013

Collabradabra!

We are borrowing this neat slogan from the Logmein team who provide us with several great collaboration tools:  Logmein for support and training, join.me for interactive webinars, and Cubby for internet storage.   We began with Logmein, which provides a way to take a look (with authorization) at another computer and actually work on it from a remote location just as though you were there.  Sometimes we are asked to help with installations, check whether setups are correct, track down error messages. When customers prefer or already have it installed, we also use Teamviewer for the same purposes.

For webinars, our first choice has been join.me.   This provides a way to take a look at our training and development systems from one or more locations while we talk over internet-based telephone connections.   We have used this service for collaboration when designing new systems or features, for showing progress at stages during the development process, and for reviewing already completed programs.   This has provided a great way to review and/or train on the various features and supplements of DentaLab for QuickBooks, DentalRx and DQB Tablet Workflow.

When the parties involved in a collaborative effort are not available at the same time,  Cubby provides a way to store documents that can be accessed by those authorized to share at any time.

Logmein provides free versions of all their products with the hope that you will like them,  find them useful and then move on to the paid versions, which are very affordable.  We want to support their efforts and have elected to do this.  

We know that labs tend to be very busy places, but we recommend that from time to time you will schedule a little time for more collaboration on  the software that supports so many of your business efforts.    With some guidance from us and then experience in collaboration, you may find yourself much more comfortable to continue on with your customers and other vendors.   

Upcoming Schedules for June and early July

As we continue to be one of the few that have programmers on staff and offer customization for dental lab software, we have been very busy with both custom projects and being responsive to your requests for the standard version of DentaLab for QuickBooks.

Most of the to-do list for DQB Release 1.35 has been completed, but we are still working on the new invoice history features.  This has been a large project, in the works for many months and requiring extensive testing.  DQB 1.35 is scheduled for release in July.

We will be closed on Thursday, July 4, for the USA Independence Day and Welcome America celebrations in historic Philadelphia where it all began. 

Early Summer Specials

For the remainder of June through July 12, we are offering these early summer specials:

For these specials,  we will focus on our most popular supplement Image Scanning.  The standard license fee for this supplement is $400 (USD), but during this speical,  we will offer a 20% discount to bring the fee down to $320 (USD). 

If you have been licensed for DQB Starter and want to implement image scanning, you will need to update to the standard version.   The standard fee for this update is $200, but we will also offer a 20% discount on this.   The combined total for the update to standard plus image scanning would be $480 (USD). 

This supplement has added a number of new features over the years.  In addition to scanning prescriptions and other case documents, it can also associate electronic images sent by the dental offices with the lab case as well as other documents for easy convenient access.   In addition to the traditional TWAIN protocol, it can handle the newer WIA (Windows Image Acquisition).   Once stored and indexed to the case, images can be viewed, printed, emailed, used in collaborative activities.   Images sent via DentalRx can also be linked to the case.  With this supplement, you can also view case images with the DQB Tablet Workflow App.  

To Answer Your Questions

Q:  Can we prevent display of the dashboards on some of our client workstations?

A:  Yes.  Access to the dashboards is governed by the Windows User Account Controls (UAC) that are setup for user id's and passwords to the Windows desktop.  While a workstation is logged in using the UAC, the person with DQB manager-level authority would go to the DQB Options/Dashboard Settings and turn off (uncheck) the option to view the dashboard, then login to DQB at a lower-level of authority.    This will prevent those who login with the same UAC from having the dashboards displayed when they launch DQB. 

Q:  We like the tablet workflow app and would like to see even greater use of tablets in our lab....do you have more apps planned for this?

A:  As always, we will respond to your suggestions on ways to provide software support that will benefit your operation.   Since we sent out the flyer last month on the tablet workflow app, we have had several suggestions.  The first one planned will be to provide a variety of ways to look up the status of cases using a tablet.   We will include the standards such as doctor and patient, doctor and request date, case number, pan code.   We will add ship method and ship date for delivery services.  

Retaining and Gaining Business

Until an opportunity to retain or gain business presents itself with strings attached, many do not realize the importance of having really good software support.  Each year we receive a number of calls that are the result of dental practices offering work to the lab but with conditions attached.  Very often, these conditions involve information, pricing, and work specifications.  We are asked is this available in QuickBooks or DQB or can it be added?   Here are a few samples from our list:

• A long-standing high volume customer is offered substantial price breaks by an ofshore lab.  The customer says they would prefer to keep it local, but asks if the lab can  meet them part way on the pricing in exchange for a commitment to continue sending all of their work to the lab.  The lab owner needs to review the costs of producing the work, perhaps exporting to a spreadsheet or using the DQB product costing supplement to see what is feasible for the next step in the negotiations.
• A corporate group of dental clinics tells the lab owner that to do business with them, the lab must provide email notifications in a specific format.  The lab owner can say yes, knowing the DQB email notifications supplement can do the job and the customer's reports can be customized.
• Through DQB, the lab has been offering online tracking of their cases sent via UPS and Fedex.  Now another carrier is offering excellent pricing and services for specific georgraphical areas and the lab would like to add this alternative method of shipping and reduce their shipping charges to customers in those areas.  The lab coordinates with Mainstreet Systems to add this capability for their customers.
• The dental practice would like a special report generated each month on their cases and have it sent via email.  The lab discusses this with their software support team at Mainstreet and finds that one of the standard reports with just a few changes will do the job.   They can say yes to provide a service that is a big plus for retaining this customer. 
  
• The lab has an offering that they feel will be useful to many dental offices in addition to those that have been recently active in sending work.  Coordinating with their support team, they find that the customer activity option can tell them which customers have not been recently active and then plan to create mailings to send these inactive customers special product flyers.  
  

The combination of already proven software that is very capable, reliable and affordable with the possibility of small customizations to meet customer requests can be a very powerful tool in securing both existing and new business.

Tucking in Some Training

Time for training is typically a challenge for most labs.  We offer a wide variety of ways to learn--audio tutorials, hands-on trial periods, blogs, white papers, user guides, group training, in-lab training, responding to questions on forums, email and telephone guidance.  One of the most effective for those who learn best through visual presentations is a personal interactive webinar limited in time and scope.  We do these by having you tune in to our training system and talking to us via the phone. 

Whenever you would like to tuck in a little training, give us a call and we will discuss which one or combinations of these venues will work best for you. 

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