You Will Love These Top Apps for Educators

Education Applications

Education Applications

Today’s digital-savvy educators do more than simply lecture their class. They’re creating interactive quizzes and gathering real-time feedback via an app. They’re assigning projects to students, while students complete and submit their homework digitally. They’re instantly sharing feedback with parents and students — and they’re finding new ways to engage with the world around them through the tool that students are most attuned to: their phones. Here are a few of the top apps for educators that will help keep peace in the classroom, finally memorize the periodic table or safely and securely communicate in groups.

Top Classroom Management Apps for Teachers

Is your classroom out of control, or are you just looking for a simpler way to slog through your daily tasks and assignments? Going digital may be exactly what you need to reduce your frustration — and your work levels — on a daily basis, while giving you more time for meaningful interaction with students.

  • TooNoisy is the perfect app for teachers who prefer their classroom a little on the quieter side! This straightforward noise level meter helps determine when the noise level is getting out of control and provides a fun visual interface that children will love. If things really get out of hand, the app also offers an audio feedback option — also known as an alarm — to cut through the racket and get the room back on track.
  • ClassDojo is billed as a classroom community that allows teachers to provide real-time feedback to both students and parents through a friendly, interactive interface. Ideal for elementary-aged children and younger, ClassDojo helps reinforce positive classroom behavior in students while providing a secure and private notification and communication platform between parents and educators.
  • Google Classroom is the product of collaboration between Google and teachers to create a streamlined, easy-to-use, multi-device tool that allowed educators to manage coursework digitally. The workflow is completely paperless, from the teacher creating the classes and assignments to students completing their courses and submitting final work for a grade.
  • Skyward is a grade and contact management app that is utilized by many public school districts to allow students, teachers and parents to have a holistic view of the student’s activities. This includes everything from grades on individual assignments to the ability to update parent contact information or push messages to parents. On the backend, Skyward also includes finance and HR suites that help power schools and municipalities.

Top Apps for Teacher (and Coach!) Communication

Communication between parents, teachers and students is a topic that is challenging on all fronts. Teachers need to limit the access of parents and students, or they will be overwhelmed with communication requests on a variety of different channels. Parents need to be able to relay questions or last-minute information to teachers in a way that can be acknowledged. In a world where after-school tutoring is still present but definitely shrinking, students need to ask questions of teachers in a way that’s secure and doesn’t release the personal contact information of either party. These apps are meant to keep everyone’s communication on track while protecting children and tracking communication.

  • The Remind app does exactly that: “reminds” users that there’s a way to stay in touch, engaged and share resources between parents, teachers and young learners. You can quickly create a classroom and assign a unique code, which can then be provided to parents and children so they can download the app and get started. You can schedule messages for later delivery, send visual messages and receive direct feedback and messages securely.
  • GroupMe is a great option for any sport or social activity where you need to share information with a group of individuals at once. You can create groups on the fly, sharing images, high-resolution video and provides a free and convenient option for group messaging. What’s better is that users aren’t required to have a chat option installed on their phones to use the app.
  • TeamSnap is for all the coaches who would love to get rid of their clipboards, spreadsheets and marked-up calendars. This sports team management and communication app allow you to follow over 100 different sports. With an install base of 15 million users, you can bet that the tool is useful. It also allows a way to communicate with groups and individuals in real time via chat or push messaging.

Applications for schools

Top Educational Apps

There are so many opportunities for education in the digital sector. From AI to flashcards, real-time digital quizzes and more — there’s never been a better time to be an educational technologist than today.

  • Socrative is a quizzing app that allows you to customize questions to determine if your students are understanding the information that you’re teaching. Teachers can design and release a quiz to her students while getting real-time feedback. Quizzes are even sharable between teachers, allowing you to integrate this type of learning easily into the classroom.
  • StudyBlue allows teachers or students to create mobile flashcards, quizzes or study guides — and you can even select a setup that another student or teacher has already created. Flashcards have been an exceptional learning model for many years, but StudyBlue introduces this concept to the digital generation.
  • Khan Academy is an always-free model that provides instructional videos, a personalized learning dashboard and practice exercises to individuals wishing to learn hundreds of different topics from art history to computer programming, science and economics.
  • Duolingo provides learners of all ages with one-on-one, interactive training in languages that they crave. Based on real-life learning techniques, Duolingo offers students the ability to correct their pronunciation and memorization in many popular languages including Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Dutch and Portuguese. You can even learn Klingon!

Learning doesn’t have to be expensive, and most if not all of these apps are completely free. Teachers will appreciate having world-class tools at their fingertips that will help them speak in the digital language of their student population.

Cyber Security Advice: 6 Crucial Strategies

Computer Security Tips

Computer Security Tips

Cyber security is more important than ever before. The news is full of stories of leaks and breaches large and small. Some of these result from sophisticated, targeted hacks, and others occur thanks to enterprising hackers taking advantage of security holes in insecure or out-of-date software.

At the end of the day, though, just about every organization has the same weak link: its employees. The finest security tools are no match for bad (or just naïve) behavior from your employees. With that in mind, today we’ll review 6 strategies and tips crucial to improving your employees’ cyber security behavior.

1. Use Long, Complex Passwords

People tend to be lazy. It’s a part of human nature. If your IT policies allow people to set their passwords to “password” or “12345”, you can be assured some of your employees will do just that. Short, simple, easy-to-guess passwords are a security threat to your business. Not only can passwords like these be easily guessed by a human, they take next to no time to be brute forced by hacking tools.

Encourage (or, better, require) your employees to use long, complex passwords. A phrase that’s memorable to the employee is a good start. Add in some complex characters (symbols, mix of capital and lowercase) to increase the complexity further.

2. Understand That Everyone Can Be Targeted

Don’t think of cyber crimes in the same way people used to think about military conflict: as something that occurs between large entities with high-powered offensive and defensive capabilities. Yes, it’s the Targets and Experians of the world that make the national news when they are breached, but those high-profile cases are the exception, not the rule.

Smaller hackers aren’t going after hard targets, like governments or Wall Street. They’re going after soft targets: small and medium businesses that think they “can’t afford” good cyber security. In other words, they’re going after you.

3. Don’t Go Swimming and You Won’t Get Phished

One of the best tools hackers use is phishing. Phishing starts with your employees receiving a fake email. It could look like a legit business message or like a message from a vendor or service that you’re already using (like Microsoft Office 365). In other cases it looks interesting, tantalizing, or even salacious. These emails will contain a link or an attachment and will encourage users to click the link and log in or to open the attachment.

But the links and attachments aren’t what they appear to be. Once users do those actions, their credentials or devices are compromised.

Our best advice here is don’t go swimming so you won’t get phished. Don’t click on suspicious links, no matter how interesting they look. Don’t open attachments from unfamiliar accounts. If the email looks to be from a legit service (like Office 365), navigate to that service manually instead of by clicking the link. Lastly, if you’re not sure about an email, check with your IT group before continuing.

Computer Network Security

4. Consider the Security of the Network You’re Using

One of the advantages of cloud services is the ability to access many work systems from anywhere. As more and more firms move to cloud software and cloud services, those firms’ users need to stay up to date on security best practices. Employees dealing with sensitive company information or accessing customer data should only do so on secure networks. Public computers, free Wi-Fi at the corner café, and your cousin’s open Wi-Fi network are all examples of insecure network environments. Save the sensitive stuff for a more secure environment like the office.

5. Be Physically Aware

Many cyber attacks are perpetrated through actual, physical access to systems. Employees can be shockingly careless with company tech. If you walk away from your computer, phone, or tablet — even just for a second — lock the device. This is true even in your own cubicle or office. You never know when a disgruntled coworker might attempt to compromise something while posing as you.

Also, make sure employees understand that devices can be compromised by anything that’s plugged into them. Computers can be compromised by plugging in a flash drive or SD card that’s infected with malware. Be sure you trust the source of any external device that’s coming into your company.

6. Beware Social Engineering

Employees also need to watch out for social engineering schemes. These are similar to phishing schemes, but instead of stealing credentials using a fake form or website, thieves convince employees to hand credentials over outright. Don’t be afraid to hang up on (or stop emailing with) someone claiming to be from an important vendor (we’ll use Microsoft again). If anyone is asking an employee to supply credentials or to take actions on your computer or network, that’s a huge red flag. Legitimate vendor contacts likely wouldn’t need the employee to do this for them. Employees can call back directly using a number they know is legitimate. If the concern is real, the real support team will know about it.

Conclusion

These 6 strategies will help your employees resist cyber intrusions, but there is so much more for your team to know. For more comprehensive help with your cyber security strategy, contact us today.

What Changes Can We Expect From New Apple Software?

Apple Australia

Apple Australia

The 2019 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in California has come to a close, and we’ve learned everything there is to know about the new software updates to expect from one of our favorite technology companies.

Say goodbye to the iTunes app.

If you’ve ever been frustrated by iTunes’ inability to successfully organise your music, television shows, movies, podcasts, and other media in a coherent way (or to retain your Apple ID password for more than a day), it’s time to rejoice.

iTunes is being dismantled.

What was once a Frankenstein-like amalgamation of all media rolled into one complicated program will now be three programs. Those used to working with iPads and iPhones won’t have much to adjust to. This is how their devices have been running for some time. But as soon as desktop users upgrade their devices to MacOS Catalina, they’ll see their iTunes icon disappear, and their media will be segmented into three apps: Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and Apple TV.

Privacy improves on the iPhone.

As always, privacy is an extremely important aspect of Apple’s software upgrades. Today, more than ever, users are demanding better privacy all-around, and Apple is delivering, especially in regard to iPhone’s location controls.

First, it’s no longer a given that background apps will have the ability to track your phone using Bluetooth and/or Wi-Fi connections. Furthermore, if you want an app to track you in the background, this permission can be opted into on a day-by-day basis instead of having to give a flat yes or no. Of course, it’s possible for apps to still track you while the app is open.

iPhone’s photos app gets better … again.

Always on the lookout for better ways to organise your media, Apple’s come up with yet another spin on optimal photo arrangement within the Photos app. Mostly, they’re looking to provide better “glimpses” of recent events or highlights you’ve photographed.

With the new updates, you’ll be able to view your favorite snapshots and videos from a recent trip or event for reminiscing or sharing with others. Live photos and auto-play videos offer additional upgrades for camera-loving iPhone users.

Tap into your dark side with iPhone’s new dark mode.

See apps in their darker alter-egos and give your screen-drenched eyes a break. For those addicted to in-bed iPhone browsing at night or in the early hours of the morning, iPhone’s new dark mode makes it all a bit easier and clearer.

Sidecar lets you use your iPad as a secondary Mac display.

Graphic designers and those who work with their iPads as graphics tablets will love this one. iPads can now be connected by cable or wirelessly to your Mac for simultaneous use as a secondary screen.

Secondary screens can be extremely helpful for working on large projects or multitasking with a few programs at once. For those uninterested in investing in an additional monitor, Sidecar is a new feature that allows you to wirelessly connect your iPad screen to your Mac while still allowing Apple Pencil use.

iPadOS is the bigger, better operating system for iPad.

Speaking of iPads, Apple hopes to increase its use as touchscreen Macs with its bigger, better iPadOS. With the new software, users finally get support for using external drives and mice, and there’s even been an application for storing files added in. You will also be able to open multiple windows of the same app, use unique gestures for basic tasks, and go straight to websites in the desktop version instead of that pesky mobile version.

Get Ready for Changes to Your Devices

Whenever big upgrades come to your regularly-used devices, it’s best to brush up on the changes you can expect beforehand.

Automatic updates can be useful; however, the changes revealed may throw your routines off-course or even set your business back a few days if you’re not ready. Furthermore, you risk not knowing what updates will actually be useful to you if you’re unaware of what updates to expect.

iOS 13 has been released for select developers and will be broadly available later in June. The new iPadOS is set to be released in July of 2019. Another iOS 13 update is planned for release later in the fall of 2019; this will include updates such as dark mode for iPhone.

City Government In Florida Must Pay $600K To Hackers

Ransomware Riviera Beach

Ransomware Riviera Beach

The small city of Riviera Beach, Florida, north of West Palm Beach is the latest government to be crippled by a ransomware attack. Their data was encrypted by hackers so they couldn’t access it. This has paralyzed the City’s computer systems.

In an attempt to retrieve their data, the City of Riviera Beach paid the hackers nearly $600,000 (65 Bitcoin). Hackers demand Bitcoin because it’s a hard-to-trace digital currency. The City Council hopes to regain access to their encrypted data, although there’s no guarantee that this will happen.

Rose Anne Brown, a city spokeswoman for the 35,000 person city, said that Riviera Beach was working with law enforcement and security consultants. In the meantime, unless they had a secure cloud-based backup solution, all they can do is wait to see if their data will be released.

What Is Ransomware?

When ransomware infects your computer or mobile device, your organization’s operations can come to a grinding halt. You’ll be denied access to your computer and may even lose your data. Ransomware attacks have cost U.S. businesses millions of dollars in losses.

Ransomware attacks are on the rise. Attacks on business targets have seen a substantial increase in the first quarter of 2019, up by 195% since the last quarter of 2018. And for governments and organizations that are victimized, the consequences can be paralyzing and destructive.

Fast Facts:

  • Ransomware is the most malicious and frequently used form of malware today.
  • There’s more than one type of ransomware.
  • It’s important to know what to do if you experience a ransomware attack.
  • The best way to protect your organization from ransomware is to prevent it from landing on your computers in the first place.
  • Always back up your data so you can restore it in the event of an attack.

Ransomware blocks access to your data and demands payment through an anonymous system like Bitcoin to restore access. The criminals who distribute and operate these attacks are making millions of dollars. They extort money from you in exchange for a promise to unlock your computer. But this doesn’t always happen. The FBI doesn’t support paying a ransom in response to a ransomware attack.

What Can You Do To Protect Your Organization From Ransomware?

The best way to protect your organization from ransomware is to prevent it from landing on your computers in the first place.

Ransomware Attack In Florida

If you experienced a ransomware attack, this means that it got through all your anti-virus software and security on your machine(s). Unfortunately, because ransomware performs multi-layered attacks, there’s no one security feature today that can protect against every threat. However, we can provide advice on the most current and effective protection.

The best security software is made up of layers that protect specific areas, and where each layer communicates with another for the best protection possible.

The first layer of protection is for your email where spam typically enters. Securing your email with the right program allows you to scan every email for malicious files before you or other users open them.

We can also offer a compatible sandboxing program so you can open attachments in a secure environment where they can be analyzed for ransomware.

Always backup your data so we can restore it for you in the event of an attack.

To protect yourself and your business from ransomware attacks, you must perform secure backups. This requires backups that occur in real time, daily and weekly. These backups must be isolated from your network to ensure they can’t be compromised by a ransomware attack.

We can provide a secure cloud backup so you can always access and recover your data from wherever you have an internet connection. We will need these backup files to restore your data. In most cases, we can erase the hard drive, reinstall the operating system and restore your machine with the backup copy.

We can also educate your staff about the threats and prevention of ransomware attacks. We’ll train your personnel with simulation tools to help them recognize malicious IT threats of any kind. By doing this, you’ll reduce the odds of falling victim to a ransomware attack.

Tech Competence and Attorneys: New Changes You Need To Know About

IT Services Law Firms

If you are a lawyer or if you are hiring a lawyer, technology competence, often shortened to tech competence, is a term that you should be aware of. Recently, changes have been recommended in regards to tech competence and attorneys. Here is everything that you need to know about this topic.

Law Firm IT Support

What is Tech Competence?

Lawyers have always had a duty to be competent in the areas of law they practice. However, in 2012, the American Bar Association made a change to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. The change being made was to make it clear that attorneys need to take steps to be competent in regards to technology. This change stated the lawyers need to stay competent in regards to the benefits and risks associated with technology that is relevant to their firm and line of work. Each state was free to adopt or reject this change, and to date, 36 states have adopted this change.

What New Changes Have Been Recommended in Regards to Tech Competence?

A committee met and issued a report in February of 2019 that recommended revisions be made to the current Rules of Professional Conduct in regards to technology. The changes that the committee recommended making were designed to make it clear that it is an attorney’s job and legal responsibility to ensure that they are competently representing their client. The changes that are being recommended to ensure that law firms and lawyers understand that this duty reaches into the technology that they use. The committee wanted to make it clear that it is a lawyer’s duty to ensure that client information is confidential, and as such, they are responsible for protecting against unauthorized access. Unauthorized access can occur if a database gets hacked or emails are intercepted.

The committee designed with making changes issued its report in February of 2019. The public was given the opportunity to comment and provide feedback through April 19, 2019. Currently, the recommendation is being reviewed by the D.C. Bar Board of Governors. Ultimately, they will decide if the recommendations should be passed on to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, who ultimately sets the rules of practice within the District of Columbia.

IT Services Law Firms

How Can Your Law Firm Ensure You Are Meeting the New Guidelines?

While the changes in regards to tech competence and lawyers have not yet been approved, it is expected that it will be. It is also expected that many of the 36 states who adopted the tech competence changes will follow the District of Columbia’s lead and adopted these rules. As such, you may find yourself wondering what this means for you as a law firm, lawyer or individual or business looking to hire a law firm. If you are a lawyer or law firm, you need to ensure that you are taking steps to protect any personal client information. You need to ensure your website is secure, that you are sending all confidential emails in an encrypted manner, and take steps to ensure your cloud is secure. As a client, you want to ask law firms what steps they have taken to ensure the technology they use is secure.

As technology advances, new changes will likely be made to tech competence and the way it impacts attorneys and law firms. Being proactive and ensuring the technology you use is secure is the best way to meet your requirements under the new guidelines.

The #1 Security Threat to Local Small Businesses

Unsecured Data

Unsecured Data

There are many types of risk in business: the risk that a new competitor will come on the market and steal market share, the risk that top staff members will jump ship for a better offer . . . but are you considering the significant risk that is associated with a cyber attack? A recent report by IBM shows that more than 77 percent of companies don’t have a cybersecurity response plan in place, a dangerous proposition when you consider that 60% of businesses that suffer a cyber attack fail within 6 months. These are pretty terrifying statistics for small to mid-size business owners, especially in specific verticals that require the capture and storage of sensitive customer data such as health and financial information.

See why unsecured data is the #1 security threat to local small businesses.

(Response) Time is Money

When your business is able to react quickly to a malware or ransomware attack, you significantly raise the likelihood that you will be able to bounce back to full operations before your business is devastated by the impact. The response time that your technology team and business leaders are able to command could easily be a make-or-break moment, as cyber attacks can cost organizations thousands of dollars a minute in reduced productivity, losses of sales, compliance charges and more. Knowing that you have a comprehensive cybersecurity response strategy in place can help your business make the best of a bad situation and achieve the proper resilience that you need.

Ditch That False Sense of Security

You might think that your business is too small to be of interest to cybercriminals. Those hackers are going after the big haul, right?!? Turns out, the majority of cyber attacks are being committed against smaller organizations, because there is a perception that infiltration will be easier and criminals will be able to easily make off with your valuable customer data. Brokers on the dark web are willing to pay a significant fee for each stolen record, complete with a tiered pricing scale for financial data that is based on the size of the bank account. It’s crucial that businesses do not have a false sense of security, but proactively put plans in place that will help reduce the risk associated with a cyber attack.

Cyber Criminal Stealing Data

Put Staff Members on Lockdown

Increase the security requirements for passwords, and require them to be reset on a regular basis. Invest in ongoing training for staff members that will help them understand everything from the potential of phishing attacks to why it’s important to stay away from specific activities online. Create security policies and put strategies in place to ensure that they are followed — and regularly reviewed and updated by cybersecurity experts. Actively engage white-hat hackers to look for holes in your current data security and then quickly put a remediation plan in place. While staff members may feel as though they are being placed on a type of lockdown, it’s imperative that information technology professionals effectively communicate the severity of the issue that is facing businesses today. When employees understand the damage that can be accidentally done to the organization, they are much more likely to be an active member of the solution instead of a part of the problem.

Creating a secure environment for your business data requires the proactive involvement of business and technology professionals alike. Just as you wouldn’t leave customer credit card information lying around the office or on a printer, you can also educate staff members that using an easily-guessed password is the digital equivalent of those poor security practices.

Spoofing & Hacking: What’s The Difference?

Spoofing and Hacking

Hacking and Spoofing

Most people know not to open email attachments from senders that they do not know. Unfortunately, it is not just attachments from strangers that you have to be on the lookout for. It happens quite often that people will get emails that seem to be from known senders that have malicious attachments, or that ask for confidential information. If you get such an email—or if someone gets such an email that appears to be from you but that you did not send—does that mean that your email has been hacked? Not necessarily.

Hacking and spoofing are two methods that bad actors use to manipulate individuals and businesses into doing things that are against their best interests. Hacking and spoofing can appear to be the same at first glance but are actually quite different. The risks of hacking, especially for businesses, are much greater than those posed by spoofing. Neither is desirable, but you want to know the differences between the two so that you and your employees can identify potential compromises to your email accounts.

Hacking vs Spoofing—What You Need to Know

What does it mean when your email account has been hacked?

A hacked email account is something you should be very concerned with. Being hacked means that a bad actor has managed to gain full access to your email account—which could mean that they have access to more than just your email account. There are a variety of ways to hack an email account, including:

  • Guessing your email password (seems unlikely, but you would be surprised how simple many email passwords are, such as birthdays, anniversary dates, and other information easily obtained on social media)
  • Answering your security questions correctly
  • You entered it into a website or form (it may have been a phony website, one that offered you a free gift, or a site you visited from a link in an email)
  • You used the same password on a different site and the site used it to access your email
  • You have a spyware program on your computer that recorded you typing in your password and sent it to a hacker
  • Viruses, malware or other undesirable software is on your computer and allowed a hacker to get your email password

If your email account has been hacked it means you need to take immediate steps to correct the situation. The risks to your system and your company information vary based on the way that the email password was obtained. A hacker guessing the password is much less problematic than having viruses, spyware or malware on your computer. A guessed password simply needs to be changed, whereas an infected computer needs to be cleaned up before more compromises occur that may be even more damaging to your business.

Even if the hacker guessed the password, there is a real risk that he or she could use the email account to access other information or accounts. If you suspect your email account has been hacked you need to take immediate steps to remedy the situation, including:

  • Check your recent email activity to see if anything was sent that you were not aware of
  • Change your password
  • Use different passwords for every account
  • Start using a password manager to generate random, complex passwords
  • Update your system to the latest OS and update your security software
  • Run your antivirus and malware detection programs

Spoofing and Hacking

What does it mean when your email account has been spoofed?

Although spoofing can look a lot like hacking, it is actually something completely different. When your email has been spoofed, it means that someone sent an email that appeared to be from your email account but was not actually from your account. You can think of it as someone sending a letter and putting your return address on the envelope. Doing this is not too complicated with the right software. The bad actor does not need access to your email account to spoof your account.

Your account is safe even if you have been spoofed. However, having your account spoofed can be quite concerning, especially in a business setting. A bad actor could spoof your email and send a message to an employee asking for sensitive company information. There are a few things you can do to help prevent spoofing of your email address, including:

  • Do not share your email address with anyone who does not need it for business purposes
  • Do not allow employees to share your email address

Improving Business Email Security

For more information about improving email security for your business, please contact our IT services team.

What Is Technology Competence

According to the LawSites blog, as of this writing, there are 36 states that have adopted the ABA’s updated Model Rule 1.1, which states that lawyers should maintain technology competence. The rule is purposefully vague to allow for the constant changes in technology that the legal industry is encountering. Unfortunately, the vagueness can create some anxiety for lawyers who want to meet the requirements of the rule. What does the ABA mean by “technology competence”, and how can lawyers achieve competence?

Lawyers discussing Technology Compentence

To better understand the expectations of the ABA and the states embracing its rules, it is necessary to take a closer look at how technology has impacted legal representation and ways that it can improve a lawyer’s practice.

Your main goal as a lawyer has always been to represent your client to the best of your ability. It was once enough to be knowledgeable in your legal area to ensure competent representation, but skilled representation today also means being able to use technology to improve efficiency, security and ideally the results you get for clients.

Technology Competence—The Basics

Update to ABA Model Rule 1.1

To get a grasp on what technology competence means for you and your practice, it is helpful to read the updated ABA rules:

Maintaining Competence

To maintain the requisite knowledge and skill, a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology, engage in continuing study and education and comply with all continuing legal education requirements to which the lawyer is subject.

As you can see, the rule is not terribly specific about what it means to be competent in technology for a lawyer. It states that you should, “…keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology…” However, if you consider what the relevant technologies are in law—and their benefits and risks—you can get a clearer idea of how to approach tech in your own practice.

Relevant Technology in Law

There are some technologies that are quite relevant to the practice of law and are being used by lawyers across the country and the globe. These include:

Electronic Discovery

Discovery has always been the backbone of case building, but electronic tools have increased the power and efficiency of the discovery process in numerous ways. These tools allow for more comprehensive preservation of information, more thorough review of information and faster production of information. Failing to leverage electronic tools in the discovery process is doing clients a disservice.

Law Firm Technology Competence in USA

Internet Investigations

You do not have to be a professional internet investigator to get a lot of benefit out of internet searches. Just being able to do simple internet searches for information can make the investigation process faster and more thorough than it otherwise would be. There are also numerous tools available online for conducting investigations.

Cyber Security

Considering that most of the information you obtain for clients and from clients will be digital, it is incredibly important that you take basic cyber security measures to protect that information. From hackers looking to blackmail victims to government agencies reviewing every bit of information they can get their hands on, there is a multitude of actors who can target your data and compromise your practice.

Understanding the Technology Used by Clients

The clients you represent are using technology in a myriad of ways. You need to have a basic understanding—or possibly a much more in-depth understanding—of what tech they are using and how they use it. That means educating yourself not only on legal tech but also on any tech pertinent to your clients and their legal needs.

Courtroom Technology

There are a variety of tech tools that can make you more effective in the courtroom. They can help you better organize, present and explain information to your audience. Every little advantage you can get can make a difference when presenting your case.

Legal Technologies that Make Business Easier and More Efficient

Many legal technology tools are fairly mundane, but that does not make them any less useful. You can leverage them to provide your legal services with less work on your end. File sharing, automated document assembly and electronic court scheduling are all useful.

Using Technology to Better Serve Your Clients

Your ability to serve your clients is improved in many different ways through technology competence. While it may take time and effort to improve your competency, the benefits of doing so can be significant for both your clients and your practice.

To learn more about legal technologies that might benefit your firm, please contact our managed IT services team.

EHR Vendor Consolidation and Its Effects on Ambulatory Health Services

EHR Software

An uptick of vendor consolidation in the Ambulatory electronic health records industry has been a cause for concern for many small and medium practices recently. The main cause for concern lies in the preparation and costs associated with integrating their patient health records into new programs that are made necessary with vendor acquisition, especially if the acquisition has forced a phase-out of their current EHR program.

EHR Software

According to KLAS Research, an Orem, Utah based IT Review Firm, EHR vendors have dropped from 1000 plus companies 10 years ago, to roughly 400 companies in total. Some of the larger companies responsible for merging and acquiring in the Ambulatory EHR market are Cerner, McKesson, Allscripts, Epic, and eClinicalWorks. Many see the opportunity for innovation, but these mergers have also created a unique set of challenges for small practices, Specialists and Outpatient Facilities. With these practices being reliant on the need to efficiently organize patient data as well as cross-share information to several labs, pharmacies, and other facilities in their networks, EHR has now become a necessary tool.

Market dynamics and technology advancements have proved that the move to electronic medical records systems is inevitable, but services once offered at low or no cost, now come with a monthly price tag. Service level changes, training costs, technology implementation, and practice continuity also serve as impact areas that Physicians should be prepared to address if migration to another system is required.

What About Technical Support?

Comprehensive Databases, such as Ambulatory EHR, will make technical support an important concern, not only for maintenance, but for any issues that may arise affecting day to day business. Will mergers cause reduced levels of tech support? Some physicians seem to think so. Practices reliant on specialized support options will now have to contend with an influx of other consumers operating on the same system, increasing help wait time and support availability. Frustration at rising costs, service level changes, and the elimination of special features in existing EHRs, have physicians worried that they will no longer be able to cater to their specific practice needs.

Ambulatory EHR Tech Support

How to Prepare for Health IT Innovation

Ideally, Practices that are already utilizing EHR systems offered by the bigger players in the market have no cause for concern. For those practices that do find themselves needing to integrate into a new EHR system, preparation is key in order to avoid any potential negative impacts. The most important way to ensure a smooth transition is the current data organization. Physicians should understand where and how their data is organized, what format it is in, and the steps it would take to transfer it to another system. Current vendor communication and a review of contracts can also provide insight into costs and procedures of data migration, as well as a list of replacement vendors that would be best suited to practice needs if a switch needs to be made.

The Ambulatory EHR market will continue to make strides in innovation and technology advancement. Most of these changes are positive, like the introduction of Patient Portals, where data collection, tracking, and cross sharing have become streamlined and consumer friendly. Small Practices can avoid any potential negative impacts by simply understanding the data they collect, how to transfer it if they need to merge into another system, and by preparing a solid transition plan.

Cutting These Two Corners Could Lead to Business Disaster

Cost Cutting Technology

Cost-cutting measures are not unusual for organizations as they traverse the standard lifecycle of products and services. What you decide to cut during the lean times can have just as much impact as to where investments go when your business is flush with cash. Some organizations start their cuts in advertising and marketing but eventually make their way to technology projects. Managing expenses and balancing them with the associated risks is a critical task in organizations, but there are two places where the risk simply isn’t worth the savings in expense reductions: cybersecurity and proactive support for your business technology. Reducing your funds in these two vital areas could cause a negative impact on the organization that has a ripple effect felt for years to come. Here’s why these are the two places that you should never cut corners in your business.

Protecting Your Organization’s Business Systems and Data

Cybersecurity is a broad term that refers to a range of activities including hardware protection, software patches, password requirements, staff training, server maintenance, cloud-based controls and more. There is no simple definition of what can be included in cybersecurity and business requirements change on a fairly regular basis. This alone makes it difficult to set a budget and stick with it — or reduce it over time. The ever-changing nature of threats that can effectively cripple an organization in a very short period of time means that your business will need to continually invest in learning and growth opportunities to reduce the risk to your organization.

Data protection is another facet of cybersecurity that demands consideration. From the 2018 GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) to more recent requirements in various states, data privacy and compliance has come to the forefront of the security conversation. Businesses must first wrangle and then protect sensitive personal, health and financial data — not to mention securing their business systems from infiltration by hackers. Skimping on these critical tasks or attempting to do them in-house with limited resources can open your organization to significant fines if you’re found to be non-compliant with global or state-supported regulations.

Smoothing the Cost of Technology

It’s always tempting to cut out what could essentially be considered insurance: the ongoing maintenance and support of your technology hardware and software. When your business reverts to paying only for systems that are broken and unable to be used, you’re left with a hodgepodge of user complaints due to slowdowns that aren’t “bad enough” to be sent out for repair. Plus, you’re looking at a hefty fee for getting any break-fix work done quickly — and forget about being able to budget effectively by guessing what could potentially require repair or replacement during the year.

Proactive maintenance of your business systems allows business users to maintain a high level of productivity while also factoring your technology costs at a reasonable level throughout the year. It can be extremely challenging when you’ve exhausted your budget for break-fix support for the year, only to find that it’s only the beginning of the third quarter. In that case, you’re either siphoning funds from other crucial projects or trying to limp through the remainder of the year until you can reset your budget and resolve outstanding problems. Investing in proactive maintenance means you don’t have to question whether a fix is “important enough” to be resolved as long as the issue is within your service threshold.

Protecting your business from unnecessary risk can feel like a full-time job for busy technology leaders. Fortunately, IT managed services providers are able to help with both proactive maintenance and providing the high level of cybersecurity expertise that is needed to help protect your business from both current and emerging threats.