Managed Tech Services, Band-Aids and Cyber terrorism
“Computers have gotten a lot more complicated. I know a lot about computers, but it got to the point where the staff would interrupt [me] about four times per day with something that wasn’t working, and they wanted me to come and fix it. They kept asking ‘Why does this keep happening?’ and I had no answer for them.”
That’s how Morgan Emery, DDS, described the information technology (IT) situation at Smile Station Dental in Ballwin, MO before they chose Anderson Technologies’ Managed Tech Services for IT. As a small business owner and one of the principals at Smile Station, Morgan knows she can end up wearing many hats. From Dentist to Sales Manager to HR to Director of IT, handling so much can be daunting.
Computer and network instability, technology upgrades, changing HIPAA regulations, and the increasing demands of small business ownership led Smile Station to Anderson Technologies’ Managed Services offerings. By standardizing the management of their computer infrastructure, Anderson Technologies eliminated uncertainty, implemented real solutions, and dramatically improved the reliability and uptime of their network and computer systems.
As a first step, Anderson Technologies conducted an extensive Network Stabilization effort and discovered some big gaps in the support and service Smile Station had been receiving. In the past, whenever there was an issue, their existing support company would send new hardware rather than address the actual problem. They repeatedly replaced failed server hard drives and reloaded software multiple times without properly identifying and fixing the root cause of the problem. These “solutions” never addressed frequently-occurring malfunctions, did not permanently resolve issues, and resulted in a lot of down time, wasted money, and fruitless effort.
“It’s different because when [Anderson Technologies] comes in,” Morgan explained, “they truly FIX the problem. It’s a long-term fix. It’s not a Band-Aid fix where they just slap more wires on it. They actually take the time to look at it and figure out what the actual issue is and correct the issue rather than just the symptoms of the issue. That’s a big difference from what the other companies I’ve seen do.”
In addition to the server and workstation issues, Anderson Technologies also discussed network security vulnerabilities with Smile Station. “We now have increased security. They put in a hardware firewall, which makes me feel better because there’s a lot of information in here. HIPAA is getting stricter, and there’s a lot more cyber terrorism than there used to be. There are reported incidents of dentists being targeted, so in order to prevent us from being one of them, that was one of the components [they] recommended.” With so many hats to wear, Morgan found Anderson Technologies provides peace of mind in a constantly shifting electronic landscape.
If you are a small business owner fed up with IT companies that slap Band-Aids on problems instead of truly resolving them and are tired of battling glitch after glitch, give us a call: 314.394.3001.
