March 2018

Winter's last hurrah

While many parts of the USA are still experiencing major snowfalls, high winds, and flooding, here in Pennsylvania we starting to see many signs of spring and hope that winter has had its last hurrah.  March is always a transitional month for us.  This year we had planned to update to a digital voice system and new technology for our development and support teams.   We have started this process but there have been service delays because the devastating weather has caused personnel from some of the  companies involved to place a priority on recovering vital services for others.

Verizon was able to switch us back to our older phone system temporarily but this did not include our voice mail.   If you do not reach us directly by phone, we ask that you send an email to support@mainstreet-systems.com or via the contact form on our website:  www.mainstreetsystems.net

Reminder!   Our offices will be closed on Friday, March 30.   This is Good Friday, as well as the start of Passover.

New benefits included in your service agreement

Sadly there are some labs that still think the only reason for having a service agreement is trouble-shooting.  In reality, this is only one small part of having a strong support system for the software that is vital to your business and case management.   Information and communication technology are among the most dynamic, ever-advancing industries in the world. It becomes very important that the various components of your system are compatible with one another.  It is also very important to for your software to support compliance with government regulations and industry standards for patient safety, privacy and security.  

Each time we are in touch with you, we record notes to update your profile, history, and/or support logs in a database we call our License Manager.   The program includes advanced search capabilities so that we easily find solutions to issues and note your interests.   Three of the interests that have been increasing are these:

1. DDX (Digital Dental Exchange) capabilities to transfer prescriptions and digital files from dental office software directly into DQB
2. A less expensive way to have the DentalRx set of capabilities without incurring the costs and maintenance of a website
3. Authorization for access from other locations limited not just by function but also by information relevant to the location.
   

See the articles below for more details on each of these new benefits that will be included in your service agreement. 

Early spring specials

To coordinate with the new features in the April release, we are offering a 20% discount on a number of bundles that include the Images/Digital Files and/or Advanced Backup Protocol supplements.   For example, to upgrade from Starter to Standard DQB plus Images, the bundled license fee is reduced from $600 to $480.  A 2-user DQB Standard license plus Images is reduced from $1400 to $1120.   If you would like the complete list of bundled options, please call or send an email.  

To answer your questions....

Q: Do we have to set up items that are non-billable? 

A: No. In DQB, the items synchronized from QuickBooks are all initially set to billable.   If you wish to track tasks that are not billable for measuring technician productivity, analyzing costs or for monitoring work flow in the development of a case, you can set up items for this purpose and mark them as not billable in Basic Lists-Items.   Only those items that are marked as billable will be transferred from the case to the invoice.  

Typically, cases that are outsourced to other labs will include only billable items.   This is also often true for cases that are developed by one person with no others involved.

Q: For our backups, we have been using the backup option in the DQB menu, then directing the backup to a portable hard drive.  Is this sufficient....should we consider the new advanced backup protocol? 

A: This protocol is a major step forward in capabilities and choices for securing your vital information.    The features that would be most beneficial to labs are these:

• You can set up multiple backups for protection against a variety of vulnerabilities.  
• You can choose any combination of local, offsite and/or web-based services.  
• Backups can be automatic, on any schedules you choose.
• Various security measures such as encryption are available.  
• You can monitor the success of the backups, as well as the statistics such as the amount of space, the timings.
• You can have expert tech support to make sure your backups are set up properly, to take care of restoration if ever needed.
• You can use your service agreement time to make any adjustments as time goes by.
  
• There is only one fee for licensing, installation and setup.   There are no monthly or annual fees unless you request additional online storage space.

Yes, we would say this new protocol is worth the small amount of time and money involved.  The older backup methods will remain available.

Q: Can we come to your offices to meet you and discuss the DentaLab software when we are in the Philadelphia area? 

A: Yes, we very much welcome visitors.  Our training room is always ready for personal as well as online visits. Just let us know when you plan to be here.

We have been told that a Lab Day has been scheduled for the Convention Center in Philadelphia in early September 2018.   If there is sufficient interest from those planning to attend,  we can schedule sessions on the topics most relevant to you.   Let us know your plans.

DDX and ecosystems

When Intuit recruited us to develop DentaLab for QuickBooks, they were ahead of the industry in their quest to create an ecosystem of software applications that were designed to communicate with one another.   In the dental lab world, Henry Schein is now doing this with a number of dental-related applications.  We began development to interface their DDX (Digital Data Exchange) features with DQB case management last year but were perplexed when the communication string provided did not work.  For a number of months we put this project on the back burner as we developed other projects, but decided to give it one more try.   It turned out that the problem was simply that the master setting to enable DQB had not been turned on. 

A number of you have inquired about having the DDX submittal of prescriptions and digital files flow directly into the DQB case list and we are happy to let you know this will soon be available.   It will be very similar to the DentalRx workflow, but DDX will in the Entry By field for each case rather than DRX.  You will be able to use this Entry By DDX criteria with the Find feature of the case list to isolate the DDX cases for review and fine-tuning.  

Introducing DentalRx Direct

To date we have offered DentalRx in two ways.   The first and most highly customized has been to incorporate the link to DentalRx in an already existing website.  The second has been to build a new modern website with essential features and the link.  

Now advances in technology allow us to offer a third way that we have named DentalRx Direct.   This has all the same features and security as the first two but does not require that you incur the expense of building and maintaining a website. It will, however, require that we setup internet services and security on your system and that you keep your system up to date by having a service agreement.  Here are some of the  primary benefits of this service:

• The dental office can submit prescriptions directly into the case records in DQB.   The entry-by field will have DRX so that you can use the Find feature of the case list to list and review the new cases.
• Digital files and documents can also be transmitted directly into the Images supplement of DQB.
• For physical cases, the prescription can be printed to accompany other case materials.
  
• The dental office can then look up both current and history cases.
• Preferences, pick up requests and other communications can also be transmitted to DQB. 
• Workflow is enhanced, remakes are reduced by having more complete, easily read submittals.

This version has built-in customization choices such as presentation colors and the ability to turn off features, but will not be as customizable as the website versions.   We will, however, be open to suggestions for new features and enhancements as we have always been for the DentaLab systems. 

More details and a slideshow on DentalRx are available on our website:  www.mainstreetsystems.net

Special desktop authorizations

For both QuickBooks and DQB, the user roles and security features have focused on application areas and menu choices.   With the new special desktop authorization feature coming with the April release, we are enhancing security even further through special desktop authorizations in the standard version of DQB.  These will not only limit access by function but also restrict the information to only the records relevant to the authorized person or location.   Based on the requests we have received from labs, the first two authorizations will be desktops for:

Rep:  The rep field in each QuickBooks customer record can represent a person or organization, typically focused on sales, marketing, business development or financial matters.   You can designate a special desktop for each authorized rep that will include:

• Customer Center
• Sales Analysis by Rep 

Selection of customers will be limited to those with a matching rep field.

Work Center:   A DQB work center can be assigned to in-house departments as well as each outsource point or auxiliary lab.  The special desktop for each authorized work center will include:

• Cases by Scheduled Date             -
• Master Schedule
• Mark Completed Items
• Production Analysis

Selection of case items will be limited to those with a matching work center field.

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