10 Steps Healthcare Facilities Should Take to Ensure the Security of ePHI When Employees Use Smartphones

It’s estimated that 74 percent of hospital workers use tablets or other mobile devices to collect and share information about patients.¹ And although smartphones and other mobile devices can provide many benefits in the healthcare setting, using them also presents a number of risks.

Unless they are used safely, electronic Protected Health Information (ePHI) can be exposed, and malware and viruses can enter a facility’s IT network. Without adequate safeguards in place, this can lead to costly HIPAA violations.

Hospitals, medical clinics and healthcare entities must comply with HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules to protect and secure patients’ information, even when using mobile devices like a smartphone.

Banning smartphones isn’t the answer. When a patient is in pain, every minute counts. If there isn’t an order for pain medication in the patient’s record, a nurse must consult with their physician. In this instance, using a mobile phone can speed up the process. However, this, and other smartphone communications must be handled in a secure manner to protect the healthcare facility’s IT systems, and safeguard patient privacy.

Smartphone Data Breaches and HIPAA/HITECH

CIOs and technology professionals in healthcare facilities are concerned that the increase in smartphone usage increases the chances of security breaches where ePHI is revealed. The HIPAA Privacy Rule mandates that covered entities “reasonably safeguard” PHI from any intentional or unintentional use or disclosure that is in violation of the rule’s standards. It also outlines provisions for ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of PHI that is transferred or held in electronic form.

Covered entities include not only healthcare facilities but individual providers.

The HIPAA Security Rule outlines provisions for ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of PHI that is transferred or held in electronic form.

HIPAA concerns include:

• Theft or loss of a smartphone that has PHI on it.
• Staff or volunteers taking and distributing unauthorized photos.
• Staff revealing PHI on social network pages—for example, by posting text or photos that could be classified as individually identifiable health information.
• Unauthorized individuals accessing the healthcare facility’s systems.
• Staff or physicians forwarding an unencrypted email that contains PHI from their organizational account to a personal account that does not have reasonable safeguards to protect PHI.

Data breaches involving patient information can lead to costly fines and settlements–and even criminal penalties. And the health information privacy laws and regulations in some states are even more extensive than federal HIPAA regulations.

Under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act of 2009, breaches of unsecured PHI must be reported to the affected individual, to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and in certain cases, to the media. Both HIPAA and HITECH emphasize the importance of privacy and security with the use of ePHI when using smartphones and mobile devices.

Improper Smartphone Use Can Spread Viruses and Malware.

“Security of Mobile Computing Devices in the Healthcare Environment,” (by the HIMSS Mobile Security Work Group) warned that “as the popularity of mobile computing devices increases, so too does the possibility that someone will create malware that is intended to impact its use or compromise patient data.”

When used in a healthcare (or any) environment, smartphones should be routinely updated with the latest antivirus software and malware protection. This is not always an easy task and should be handled by a certified, IT expert (Managed Service Provider).

And because caregivers and providers are the first lines of defense, they must undergo Security Awareness Training to be educated about unsafe practices, such as opening suspicious attachments or clicking on questionable links.

Without a clear understanding regarding safety when using smartphones, and the potential negative effects (security breaches), users may ignore a healthcare facility’s security policies. This emphasizes the need for user education about the risks and consequences of not following security policies.

10 Steps Healthcare Facilities Should Take to Ensure Data Security When Employees Use Smartphones:

1. Devise and implement policies to control who can view and access smartphone data.
2. Assess the content of email messages and file attachments to automatically identify ePHI.
3. Make sure caregivers use two-factor authentication and digitally signed documents so only authorized users can access and transfer ePHI.
4. Disable SMS (Short Message Service) preview on smartphones. This prevents others from viewing text messages without authority.
5. Disable speech recognition features like Siri, Cortana or other personal assistants. If not, unauthorized users can gain access to software on smartphones.
6. Use strong passwords that are hard to guess. They should contain at least six characters with a combination of both upper and lower-case letters, with at least one number and one keyboard character.
7. Change passwords often and at least quarterly.
8. Set smartphones for automatic logoff. If the phone is lost or stolen the culprit would need the password to open it.
9. Set smartphones to limit the number of unsuccessful login attempts.
10. If a violation is detected:

• Stop and quarantine the interaction.
• Remove the attachment from the email.
• Return a message to the original sender.
• Notify a manager.
• Retract the information.
• Re-route and encrypt* the email for secure delivery.

*There are a number of ways to encrypt data in transit. Two include using a virtual private network (VPN) or a secure browser connection. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has several Special Publications regarding encryption processes for data in motion, including SP 800-52 [PDF – 3.2 MB] and SP 800-77 [PDF – 255 KB]. SP 800-52 has information about transport layer security (TLS). (Contact your IT Managed Service Provider for more information.)

Mobile Device Management

Some mobile devices have a remote disabling and wiping feature built in. Remote wiping is a security feature that enables you to remotely erase the data on your smartphone if it’s lost or stolen. When you enable it, you have the ability to permanently delete data stored on your phone.

When using smartphones in a healthcare setting, it’s imperative that your IT Provider implements and deploys a professional Mobile Device Management (MDM) Solution.

A Professional MDM Solution Protects ePHI with:

• The ability to locate, lock and wipe ePHI from a stolen or lost smartphone or mobile device.
• Continuous remote monitoring and management of all authorized mobile devices.
• Secure passcode implementation and enforced encryption.

As you can see, using smartphones always presents a number of risks, especially in a healthcare environment. And, unless you adequately safeguard patient data stored or in transit, unauthorized access to the healthcare facility’s systems could occur leading to ePHI breaches and HIPAA/HITECH violations. Executives and administrators should take necessary steps to prevent this by working with IT professionals who are certified in the latest security solutions.

Dementia and Alzheimer’s are scary for both patients and caregivers. Right now, there is no cure. Scientists are trying to find ways of prolonging patient’s lives and delaying the onset of the disease. IT Technicians are finding ways to make lives better and caring for patients easier. Some remarkable work is doing things for these individuals that has never been seen or done before.

First, A Word About The Disease

According to Alzheimer’s International, nearly 44 million people worldwide have Alzheimer’s or related dementia. More than 5 million American’s are living with it, and Between 2017 and 2025 every state is expected to see at least a 14% rise in the prevalence of Alzheimer’s. Those statistics are startling, especially since Alzheimer’s disease is irreversible.

Accounting for around 70 perfect of dementia cases, Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common cause of dementia, a group of brain disorders that results in the loss of intellectual and social skills. These changes are severe enough to interfere with day-to-day life. It progressively destroys the brain and ruins memory and thinking skills, and eventually the ability to carry out the simplest tasks.

A Few Other Statistics

• In 2017, Alzheimer’s cost the United States $259 billion.
• By 2050, costs associated with dementia could be as much as $1.1 trillion.
• The global cost of Alzheimer’s and dementia is estimated to be $605 billion.
• Alzheimer’s is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States.
• Between 2017 and 2025 every state is expected to see at least a 14% rise in the prevalence of Alzheimer’s.
• By 2050, it’s estimated there will be as many as 16 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s.
• Every 66 seconds someone in the United States develops Alzheimer’s.
• 1 in 3 seniors dies with some form of dementia.

Technology at its Finest

Because of these sad stats and high numbers, IT experts have come up with some amazing devices that use modern technology to aid in the care of people suffering from memory problems. Here’s a look at a few of the latest innovations.

Clocks

Clocks precisely intended for those with Alzheimer’s and dementia can help ease the stress associated with day to day life. Someone who has dementia may confuse night and day so an easy to read clock can help them to better tell the time.

Medication Management

Medication management technology created high tech automated pill dispensers which beep and open to remind caregivers and those with dementia to take their medicine. Vibrating alarms on a watch have also been fashioned to remind when it’s time for a pill. This technology serves the busy caregiver well by helping them not to forget medication time as well.

Video Monitoring

Video monitoring technology supports both care recipient and caregiver, by allowing both people more freedom. The patient doesn’t feel watched constantly because loved one can spend a little time away, and loved ones get the comfort of being able to see their family even when they’re not in the same house.

GPS Location and Tracking Devices

People with Alzheimer’s or dementia may wander. Tracking devices can be worn by the person in some way and have alert systems that let a caregiver know if their loved one has left a certain area. This type of technology can also alert emergency personnel to aid in a quick recovery.

Picture Phones

Picture phones are specifically designed for people who cannot remember phone numbers. These phones have large numbers and are pre-programmable with frequently called phone numbers. Some of the phones come with clear buttons where photos can be placed so that the person can just push the button associated with the photos to call their loved one quickly.

Electrical Use Monitoring

This device monitors a patient’s use of electrical appliances. It plugs into a wall outlet or power strip and will alert caregivers if their commonly used appliances have not been turned on or off.

Wearable Cameras

Wearable cameras and augmented reality glasses could be the next big thing in helping patients. These devices can take hundreds of pictures every day from the user’s point of view logging their lives in this way.

A Village of Care

In Kitchener, Ontario, something wonderful is happening. Facilities have been designed to be less institutional-looking, friendlier and homier. “Schlegel Villages” is one of the first of its kind and is improving the quality of life for the people that live there.

One problem they deal with though is when at-risk seniors become confused and attempt to leave. According to Schlegel’s IT director, Chris Carde, “Some seniors with certain types of mental illness can remember the door-lock code to get out but can’t remember anything else. A confused senior wandering out into a southern Ontario winter can be a serious, even fatal, incident”.

Schlegel Villages is also implementing an e-health system to replace paper charts at its care facilities. Carde states, “Nurses would have to write down a patient’s vital signs, then enter them into a desktop computer some distance away. The new system, which will use iPads and iPad minis to enter health information directly into the database, is being greeted warmly by clinicians”.

Thinking Outside of the Box

A German senior center applied the idea of using fake bus stops to keep Alzheimer’s disease patients from wandering off. Because their short-term memory is not intact, but their long-term memory works fine, they know what the bus stop sign means, and they stop. It is a huge success in Germany, now they want to bring it to several clinics in North America.

A Final Word

Thanks to these researchers and IT innovators, the future is much brighter for patients with memory diseases and their families and care providers. This is just the beginning when it comes to making life easier. Information Technology has only just begun to scratch the surface of what can be done to help in the fight against dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Believe it or not, your medical record has the potential to be sold for thousands of dollars. And due to the digitization of health records, it’s now more prone to theft.

As more patient health records have gone digital over the years, they’ve become vulnerable to hackers—and far more valuable than credit-card data or other forms of confidential data.

Why? Because they contain insurance information that poachers can use for fraudulent billing and illegal prescriptions. These thieves can falsify insurance claims and collect checks and obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in free care on someone else’s insurance.

The healthcare industry wasn’t prepared for this, and they are trying to play catch up to secure protected health information (PHI):

“The U.S. has a huge shortage of highly qualified cybersecurity people across all industries,” says Rod Piechowski, a senior director at the Healthcare Information & Management Systems Society, or HIMSS, a Chicago-based nonprofit with more than 50,000 members. “Being late to the game, health care just can’t compete.”

Health IT professionals, although they are in great demand, haven’t been able to play a major role in employer’s’ software procurement decisions. This is unlike banking and the financial industry where their option is regularly solicited before a major IT system is implemented. And until recently cybersecurity wasn’t prioritized in healthcare the way it has been in financial services. The result is that IT professionals had no influence when it came to software security standards for medical care, and now they’re having to oversee systems that are difficult to safeguard.

If your PHI is breached, hackers have the information they need to blackmail you for the rest of your life. That’s because your EHR contains information like conditions you suffer from such as depression, anxiety or other psychological conditions, sexually transmitted diseases, or heart conditions. If released to the public, these might be an embarrassment to you or even keep you from obtaining a particular position.

How Bad Is It?

EHRs (electronic health records) are being used by over 96 percent of critical-care facilities, and 83 percent of all hospitals. While the digitization of health records enables easy access to patients’ information, if not properly safeguarded they’re also available to hackers. This poses a real threat to patient privacy.

In the year 2016, there were 450 data breaches where 27 million EHRs were affected. Of these, 120 came from the outside, while 200 (more than 65%) came from the inside.

In 2017, there were 477 healthcare breaches reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) or the media, which affected a total of 5.579 million patient records.

With major hospitals and healthcare organizations paying higher fines for lost patient data, the challenges of maintaining EHR security remains a huge concern. And because of this, the benefits of using them must be weighed against the risks of theft and misuse.

Presence Health in Chicago was fined USD475,000 by the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) because they didn’t report a 2013 breach in a timely manner. Advocate Health Care had to pay HHS a whopping USD5.5 million for a breach of patient privacy–the most ever by a single entity.

Compounding the issue, now physicians who are frustrated with the bogged down systems try to design their own workarounds to speed up processing of healthcare data. These ad hoc “shadow IT” systems are insecure and rely on unencrypted data and personal emails. It’s only a matter of time before a sophisticated hacker breaks in to steal their data.

How do hackers obtain medical records?

One of the ways they do this is through spoofing where the facility is fooled into thinking that the person accessing the information is legitimate. Plus, Microsoft researchers warn that many types of databases used for electronic medical records are vulnerable to leaking information despite the use of encryption.

Hospitals and healthcare organization use methods like data encryption and the scrambling of PHI (de-identification) to disguise data so hackers can’t read it.  However, the hackers simply steal the data and replace the encryption keys with their own to demand ransoms to unlock the data. This is called ransomware, and it’s very effective against healthcare facilities and hospitals that need ready access to patient data for their everyday operations.

Who are these hackers?

They’re not who you think they are. When we think of hackers, in our mind’s eye they are guys in hoodies working on computers in their parents’ basements. What’s hard to believe is that most attacks and data breaches don’t come from external hackers, but from the inside of an organization, where doctors, nurses or accounting personnel are negligent, abuse the system as disgruntled employees, or steal patient data for financial gain. In 2017, employee error affected 785,281 patient records and insider-wrongdoing affected 893,978.

One Promising Solution

Robert Lord, a former analytics systems designer, joined forces with Nick Culbertson, a former Special Forces operator when they were students at the John Hopkins University of Medicine. They created an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system to combat hacking of EHRs. They co-founded a cybersecurity company Protenus, to help the healthcare industry use artificial intelligence to prevent the theft of Protected Health Information and Electronic Health Records.

Lord explains:

“Your EHR contains all of your demographic information–names, historical information of where you live, where you worked, the names and ages of your relatives, financial information like credit cards and bank numbers…The medical record is the most comprehensive record about the identity of a person that exists today. We recognize that EHRs are living documents, so we’ve built an AI that is able to monitor how individuals interact with the EHR and associated systems, building a unique profile of every workforce member’s clinical and administrative workflow.”

The folks at Protenus are working on a solution that can tell the difference between routine access to EHRs or possible illegal attempts to retrieve this data. They do this by detecting unusual patterns and anomalies using AI that are then escalated to security officers. Over time, the solutions get “smarter” and learn exponentially as the customer base grows.

We’re Behind the 8 Ball When It Comes to Protecting EHRs.

Health care has lagged far behind banking and other industries when it comes to implementing security protocols. Until EHR records were mandated by Obamacare, many healthcare providers still used paper, faxes and handwritten charts. And once EHRs were finally implemented, the hackers were already a step ahead, and the medical industry is still scrambling to find ways to protect them.

Cybersecurity experts tell us that the seriousness of this can’t be overstated. The frequency of threats has taken off in the past 10 years as EHR data is increasingly networked between healthcare entities. And as we continue to struggle to secure our EHRs, increasingly savvy thieves are finding more ways to steal them.

An efficient and secure running IT system is essential for any organization, and especially so for today’s law practices. Your work relies on secure and ready access to your data when you’re in the office, courtroom or when on the road. You need the ability to interface your Line of Business applications with other IT solutions you and your staff depend on each day. In order to remain competitive, you must use the most advanced legal technology solutions available and use them to your best advantage. And, any form of downtime is totally unacceptable because can cost you your clients. For all this, you need a Technology Solutions Provider who can build an IT infrastructure from the ground up to meet your high-security, high-availability, high-efficiency requirements.

The Seven IT Headaches All Lawyers Face Today (And Their Remedies)

Technology challenges can lead to significant IT headaches, especially for small and medium-sized firms that manage their own infrastructure. They often “tag” the one employee who knows the most about technology. But today, it’s impossible for a non-professional to provide the 24/7 IT support, expertise and defense-in-depth protection required today.

Even law firms with a professional IT employee struggle with their changing and increasing technology demands and the need for 24/7 IT remote management. IT headaches in the legal industry vary. But the common factor is that they are pervasive and never-ending unless they are prevented by qualified Legal IT experts.

Headache #1 – Cybersecurity

Client confidentiality is a priority for every law firm. And without the proper IT management, your data can be at great risk.

Many lawyers aren’t aware that their critical data is at risk. The chance that data is breached has increased as attorneys, and their employees use mobile devices and email outside the office. They don’t realize that at a moment’s notice their IT system could be hacked, and confidential information stolen.

Cybercriminals have discovered new, creative ways to steal data. Hackers are increasingly targeting law firms to steal clients’ confidential data. Additionally, unethical competitors engage in illegal eDiscovery to harm a competing law firm, or to win a lawsuit.

Many say, “This only happens to larger legal organizations, not small ones like mine, right? Wrong–Small and mid-sized law firms are a more attractive target for hackers because they typically don’t have the right security solutions in place, nor do they train their employees to recognize phishing and ransomware threats like their larger counterparts do.

Building a cybersecurity infrastructure today can be a daunting task with all the attack vectors in play. The most important challenge comes from the requirement to protect clients’ private information. Client confidentiality is at the top of every attorney’s mind, and without the right IT management, this confidentiality can be breached. Cybersecurity should be the primary concern for litigation attorneys who handle confidential electronically stored information.

“To maintain the required level of competence, a lawyer should develop and maintain a facility with technology relevant to the nature and area of the lawyer’s practice and responsibilities. A lawyer should understand the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology, recognizing the lawyer’s duty to protect confidential information.”

Law firms must prevent:

• Unauthorized access to both their wired and wireless networks.
• Malware from corrupting their network.
• Their employees from clicking on malicious links or unknowingly revealing confidential information to a hacker.
• The disclosure of electronically transmitted communications.
• Data loss from both manmade attempts or natural disasters.

Law firms must ensure:

• Data is encrypted and safeguarded.
• Compliance with legal, regulatory and confidentiality requirements when using technology.
• Files are properly backed up both onsite and offsite, and that they are easily recoverable.
• A secure email-archiving and retention strategy for both data at rest and in transit.
• Cybersecurity is confirmed with regular Vulnerability and Risk Assessments.

The situation demands a defense-in-depth security plan that employs multiple security measures to protect confidential data. Defense-in-depth security was originally conceived by the NSA to provide a comprehensive approach for cybersecurity.

By using multiple layers of automated and remote security solutions, where the outer layers provide a first line of defense, and deeper more concentrated layers stop anything that gets through, lawyers can stop worrying about cyber threats and concentrate on their work at hand. And, as each law firm is unique, this protection requires an IT professional with the knowledge and expertise to find the right combination of security techniques and solutions.

The Remedy: The answer is to rely on a Technology Solutions Provider who will avert security risks and compliance issues that can cost you in legal liabilities, regulatory penalties, and your good reputation.

Headache #2 – Downtime

Every hour lost to downtime means lost billable hours. Time is money when it comes to law practices. Downtime due to power failures, ransomware, natural disasters and more mean your firm is paralyzed and unable to operate.

The increasing digitization of information over the last 20 years has increased productivity for law firms. When IT runs as it should, it helps you save time, and work more efficiently. However, this also means that when it doesn’t, and you’re faced with downtime that your clients, who are used to your efficiency, don’t understand and become angered when their cases come to a standstill.

This causes headaches for you, your employees and your clients. It’s critical that you recover as quickly as possible. When your IT goes down, even for a few hours during a workday, you lose billable hours, lose the ability to send and receive emails, and risk damaging your firm’s reputation.

It doesn’t matter how long downtime persists. It’s unacceptable in any case because it’s preventable. You can mitigate the risk of downtime by having the right technology in place.

The Remedy: Preventive IT measures are key to protecting your confidential data. With the right enterprise cloud backup and recovery system, and the services and support from a Technology Solutions Provider, your firm will benefit from complete system monitoring, secured servers, safeguarded data and upwards of a 99% guaranteed uptime.

Headache #3 – Inefficient IT Performance

In today’s digital world, a slow-performing IT system is like a wound that can drain the life’s blood out of your law firm. You can’t afford to wait this out and hope that things will improve. Time is money, and inefficient IT solutions are not only frustrating, but they can also impede your ability to meet your clients’ demands.

Increased IT performance is one of the biggest benefits of outsourcing your IT service and support. Often, an in-house technical staff creates new problems by overcomplicating basic configurations, because they lack the skill and experience required.

The Remedy: A Technology Solutions Provider offers a higher level of expertise and establishes a highly performing IT system to keep your law firm up and running.

Plus:

• You’ll save money. Unlike with in-house staff, you won’t have to provide benefits like healthcare coverage, sick and vacation days and workman’s compensation.
• You’ll have 24/7 Live Help Desk Support, to ensure your issues are resolved quickly, and your IT systems stay up and running at all times.
• You’ll save time with the resources to start new IT solutions quickly as opposed to waiting for in-house techs who will need to be trained.

Headache #4 – Poor Integration of Line of Business Solutions

You need your Line of Business (LOB) applications to complete your responsibilities each day for Practice Management, Document Management, Time & Billing, and Legal Document Generation.

Applications like:

• PCLaw
• Prolaw
• Juris
• Clio
• Timeslips
• Amicus
• Abacus
• Tabs3 / Practice Master
• Timeslips
• ProDocs

You also need these applications to integrate with popular software programs like Microsoft Office. And when they don’t run as expected, this can cause major headaches.

The Remedy: This requires assistance from a Technology Solution Provider with expertise in legal IT programs.

Headache # 5 How to Maintain Client Confidentiality While Using the Cloud.

Attorneys are using the Cloud in their law practices. However, this can present significant challenges when it comes to their ethical and legal obligations to maintain client confidentiality.

Your law firm can benefit immensely from cloud computing services. However, it’s important to fulfill all of your legal and ethical duties to your clients.

As an attorney, you are subject to ethical rules that make it difficult to use certain types of cloud services. But how do you know what ethical rules apply to your law firm when it comes to using the Cloud? Plus, these ethical rules vary from one jurisdiction to another. If you have firms in multiple locations, how do you manage this?

The more questions you have about cloud solutions, the greater the potential for more headaches:

Confidentiality & Integrity?

Does cloud computing threaten the confidentiality or integrity of your data? Most ethical rules contain a duty of confidentiality and competence.

Third Party Providers?

If you’re assigning responsibilities to the third-party cloud provider, you must make a reasonable effort to ensure that their conduct is compatible with your legal and ethical obligations. Most ethical rules maintain that you must supervise third parties.

Communicating with Clients about Cloud Services?

Must you ask each of your clients if you can store their data in a third party’s cloud? Most ethical rules contain a duty to seek consent for decisions regarding clients’ data.

Safeguarding of Data?

How do you know that your cloud provider can ensure the proper safeguarding of your clients’ files and documents? Are you liable if they don’t? After all, it’s your responsibility to safeguard your clients’ property.

But, cloud computing provides many benefits for the small law practice. You don’t want to miss out on these:

Low Cost

Most enterprise cloud-based services can be obtained at a very reasonable cost. Law firms typically find that it’s less expensive to use these services than running and maintaining their own servers. With cloud computing, you don’t have to pay for your additional servers and hardware.

Less Maintenance

Enterprise cloud services often include maintenance in their offerings. As an attorney, your workday is too busy to worry about updating programs and patching software. The right cloud provider will automatically install all updates for you.

Greater Accessibility

With cloud computing, you and your authorized employees can access your data from any computer, in any location where you have internet access. If you need to work long hours outside the office, you can still access the IT resources you need remotely.

More Flexibility

Cloud computing services are often sold on a subscription and month-to-month basis. They are based on the number of users who access the solution. If your workload increases, you can up the number of subscriptions. If it declines, you can reduce them. on demand.

Security

Most cloud providers employ sophisticated security measures, so you don’t need to worry about client confidentiality. Also, their staff is trained and experienced in the implementation of security measures that align with current security risks.

Cloud computing offers many benefits for your law firm. Don’t let the potential risks stop you from experiencing those benefits. But you must mitigate your risks.

Review the ethical rules that apply to your jurisdiction and determine what type of cloud services would be best for your law firm.

• Make sure you’re clear about the particular service you’re planning to purchase.
• Where are the servers located?
• How will the servers be used to process your data?
• Make sure the service is reliable and secure.

If you’re ready to purchase cloud computing services be sure to review the proposed contract carefully.

Pay attention to the disclaimers of liability, intellectual property, confidentiality, and security provisions. Also, does the service provider have a robust disaster recovery plan in place? It’s critical to ensure that the cloud service provides alternative access to data in the event of a service outage.

The top two important risks to consider include:

Security Breaches

Does the cloud provider protect your data from unauthorized access or modification? Make sure you’re informed about any security breaches that affect your data. Discuss compensation in case a security breach is caused by the cloud provider.

Data Ownership

Read the contract and look for clauses that might give the cloud provider ownership of data stored in the Cloud. Make sure the contract acknowledges that your data is owned by your law firm.

The Cloud provider may offer recommendations for security measures. Your staff must understand these security measures and sign a written agreement to comply with them, such as the prohibition of shared passwords.

The Remedy: Ask Technology Solutions Provider to address these concerns and help you choose the right cloud solutions for your law firm.  

Law firms that want to compete in today’s technology-driven environment must depend on reliable, up-to-date hardware and software solutions. But, with the complexities and rapid changes in IT today, they’re realizing the need to also outsource IT services to experts like Technology Solution Providers, so they can focus on their core competencies, and benefit from increased security, innovation, cost savings, efficiency, and productivity.

Headache # 6– How to Keep Up with Ever-Changing Legal Technology Solutions

The digitization of legal documents and the use of use of electronic word processing, databases, and research software has gone mainstream today. Most law practices now manage case files by electronic means and rely on software programs to search, edit, track, archive and distribute documents.

From legal technology in the courtroom, in corporate environments, for paralegals, for electronic discovery, to BYOD solutions, and even for Artificial Intelligence, all of these enable you and your employees to do your job more efficiently.

But these technologies are ever-changing and evolving. How are you supposed to know which ones to use, which will provide the most benefits, and how to find the time to train your employees to use them properly and securely? How can you keep up?

The Remedy: Choose a Technology Solutions Provider who is adept at keeping up with today’s legal technology solutions and can help you select which are best for your unique requirements.

Technology helps today’s lawyer carry out essential tasks, exercise professional judgment, engage with and represent clients, provide advice and settle key commercial dealings. Those who view technology as an opportunity—rather than a threat—will prosper, and more easily reap the rewards from their efforts. Those who don’t will fall behind the competition.

Headache # 7– Lack of IT Talent

Even if you wanted to hire a full-time IT staff, the talent pool is quickly shrinking if you run a small practice. Even your larger competitors are having difficulty finding the IT talent they need to compete.

Most techs in the workplace lack the breadth and depth of knowledge and experience to stay up to date on today’s ever-changing technology resources. Plus, your law firm has very specific requirements when it comes to IT.

You need the expertise of an IT professional who understands your needs, work processes, regulations, the applications you use, and your unique technology challenges. One who knows the complexities you face and can help you improve the way you use technology by:

• Automating routine legal transactions,
• Assuring you can share and store documents securely,
• Optimizing your work processes,
• Deploying mobility solutions that keep data secure, and
• Helping you capitalize on tools like electronic data discovery.

The Remedy: The only way to get this kind of IT talent is with a Service Level Agreement from a Technology Solutions Provider who specializes in Legal IT Services.

In Conclusion

Today’s law firms are moving to a Managed Services Model where their Technology Solutions Providers have the expertise and credentials to provide the proactive support they require to keep their IT systems secure and running at peak performance. When they do, they no longer suffer from the IT headaches that can put them at a competitive disadvantage.

Technology Solution Providers are helping law firms use technology efficiently and safely. The result? – Increased value from your technology assets, and no IT headaches for both you and your clients.

Orbitz has disclosed that a recent data breach could have exposed extensive information of up to 880,000 of their customers.

It’s so often these days that hacks hit big-name companies that consumers are becoming numb to it. The latest to get hacked? Orbitz.

The travel booking company recently announced that they may have been hacked, possibly compromising the personal information of approximately 880,000 users. The breach could have included their date of birth, gender, and credit card info, exposing those using the platform between January and June of 2016, and October and December of 2017.

“We determined on March 1, 2018, that there was evidence suggesting that an attacker may have accessed personal information stored on this consumer and business partner platform,” said Orbitz in a statement. “We took immediate steps to investigate the incident and enhance security and monitoring of the affected platform. To date, we do not have direct evidence that this personal information was actually taken from the platform. We deeply regret the incident, and we are committed to doing everything we can to maintain the trust of our customers and partners.”

Whereas Orbitz is big enough to handle the damage control for an incident like this, what about you and your business? Cybercriminals are often just as likely to target small organizations as they are large ones, particularly because of the lack of cybersecurity measures.

Are you prepared to defend your business? If you’re not sure, keep these tips in mind:

Stay informed about phishing and spoofing techniques. Regular security awareness training should be a top priority for your organization.

Stop and think before you click a link. Don’t click on links from random emails or text messages. Hover your mouse arrow over a link to see who sent it. Most phishing emails begin with “Dear Customer”, so watch out for these. Verify the website’s phone number before placing any calls. Remember, a secure website always starts with “https”.

Never divulge personal information requested by email. Phishing attempts try to send you to a webpage to enter your financial or personal information. If you suspect this, give the company a call. Never send sensitive information in an email to anyone.

Be skeptical of messages that contain an urgent call to action:

• With an immediate need to address a problem that requires you to verify information.
• That urgently asks for your help.
• Asking you to donate to a charitable cause.
• Indicating you are a “Winner” in a lottery or other contest, or that you’ve inherited money from a deceased relative.

Consider installing an anti-phishing toolbar and security tools. Some Internet browsers offer free, anti-phishing toolbars that can run quick checks on the sites you visit. If a malicious site shows up, the toolbar will alert you.

Never download files from suspicious emails or websites. Double check the website URL for legitimacy by typing the actual address into your Web browser. Check the site’s security certificate. Also, beware of pop-ups as they may be phishing attempts.

Block pop-ups via your browser settings. You can allow them on a case-by-case basis if you decide to.

Most importantly? Be sure you’re working with a trusted, reliable cybersecurity service provider. We have the industry experience and expertise needed to keep you and your business secure against today’s cyber threats.

Many cities and countries around the world are having problems with distracted driving accidents. During 2016, Great Britain recorded 1,445 fatal crashes where one or more people were killed. One study completed in the town of St. Albans found that one in six drivers were engaged in some type of activity that took their focus away from driving.

In the United States, approximately nine people are killed on average each day due to distracted drivers. Another 1,000 people are injured with millions of dollars in property damage. In Toronto, there were about 7,500 distracted driving accidents during 2016. Of those, there were eight fatalities and 2,642 injuries with thousands of dollars in property damage.

In spite of public awareness campaigns, drivers continue to ignore these statistics. People tend to think that bad things only happen to others, so they go ahead and text or talk while driving. This has become such a problem that cities around the world have changed their distracted driving laws, increasing penalties and fines. Ontario is one those areas that have recently increased the penalties and fines for those caught.

What is Considered Distracted Driving?

Many people connect distracted driving with texting while driving. In fact, distracted driving covers any activity that causes the driver to divert their attention away from the roads and traffic. Studies have found that younger drivers are more likely to ignore laws and put everyone on the road at risk. Distracted driving includes:

• Eating while driving
• Changing the radio
• Watching any type of media
• Talking or texting while driving
• Reading
• Looking at a map
• Smoking
• Any activity that diverts the driver’s attention

Most cities are seeing a big rise in the number of tickets issued for distracted driving each year. Lawmakers feel that these penalties and fines will eventually cause drivers to realize that times have changed. Drivers must give their full attention to the road and avoid losing focus. Lives are at stake.

A Major Factor

One of the major factors that make distracted driving so deadly is speed. A car traveling at 60mph moves at 88 feet per second. Using simple math, we can see that if you turn your attention away from the road for only three seconds, your car will have traveled 264 feet. A football field measures 360 feet so you will have traveled approximately three-fourths the length of a football field, just to put things in perspective. That’s a great distance when you consider that there are autos moving at similar speeds all around you and on both sides of the road. If each driver looked away from their driving for three seconds, there would be dozens of crashes with multiple fatalities.

The truth is that each driver feels that they’re probably the only one on the road who is looking away for a few seconds. Surely with all the other drivers paying attention, there’s no need to worry – they’ll see you and take action in time to avoid an accident. This can be a deadly assumption.

An average vehicle weighs around 3,500 pounds, making it a very dangerous weapon in the wrong hands. Though more experienced drivers are less likely to be guilty of distracted driving, the truth is that everyone occasionally feels that a text message or phone call is important enough to take the risk.

This type of thinking has become an epidemic in Ontario, England, America and many other countries. For these reasons, legislatures and lawmakers have been forced to increase the penalties for these crimes.

Changes in Ontario’s Laws

New laws have recently taken effect in Ontario that increases the fines and penalties for failing to give your undivided attention to the road. Fines for a first offense can be as much as $490 with three demerit points on your license. If you decide to fight the ticket and lose, you could pay up to $1,000 in fines. If you’re a new driver with very little driving experience, you could lose your license for 30 days. With each conviction, novice drivers will have their license suspended for longer periods of time, up to 90 days. After that, a novice driver’s license could be revoked completely.

When is it Safe to Use the Phone?

Many drivers have had questions about these new laws. In Ontario, it’s not uncommon to see drivers pull off to the shoulder in order to take an important phone call. But is this legal? Or it is dangerous as well? Each city has its own unique laws when it comes to these types of issues. In Ontario, the law states that a driver may pull off the road to a safe location and take a phone call.

In some cases, moving to the shoulder of the road is not deemed safe. There may be workers there making road repairs. The shoulder of the road often has gravel, which can fly up and crack a windshield. Since each case is a bit different, it’s up to the driver to ensure that they are pulling off and re-entering the highway in a safe fashion. If a traffic officer feels that a driver has not pulled off the road in a safe manner, the driver may receive a traffic citation for this. At the end of the day, the traffic officer’s job is to make sure that all drivers are protected. Everyone wants to get home safely to their family each day and it simply is not worth it to put anyone in danger over a text message or phone call.

Tips for Avoiding Fines

We all want to get to our destination safely so what is the standard these days for using a phone while driving? According to the new laws in Ontario, drivers can use hands-free devices (Bluetooth) to talk on the phone while driving. However, you cannot pause to dial a number or answer a call unless you can do so using voice commands.

Most experts recommend turning your phone off while driving. That way, you will not be tempted to answer a call or text message. If you are leaving on a long trip, then email all your friends and tell them that you will be driving and will not be able to return calls until you stop for service or food.

Safe Driving Tips

Always be mindful if on the road with cyclists, emergency vehicles or buses. Pay special attention to the road, your driving and other drivers. Remember that although you may not be breaking the law, there are others on the road who are. There may be a teenager who wants to talk to his girlfriend while driving to school. These drivers present a special danger due to their limited experience behind the wheel.

There may be drivers who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol. This condition has been shown to slow a driver’s reflexes. Sometimes drivers are worried about being late, so they try to speed, take shortcuts or make erratic movements. When you put all these different drivers on the road at the same time, it can be dangerous.  It’s a good idea to bear these things in mind before getting behind the wheel.

Here’s Some Up-to-Date Info That Should Be of “Interest”!

Accounting software is much-needed tool today. Gone are the days of manually writing down copious amounts of figures in heavy, dusty logbooks, or using calculators to add up debits and credits. Our computers do this for us now. Accounting software makes the process of bookkeeping more efficient and accurate.

What else is different than in years past? Today’s newest accounting solutions are now cloud-based, and they provide many advantages.

No more shelling out a large amount of cash to purchase expensive business accounting software. Instead, you can pay for a web-based accounting service via a convenient subscription.

Online accounting services are used via the Internet rather than being installed on your organization’s computers. They allow you to access the information you need through an Internet browser like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or Safari. You can access the service from anywhere you have an internet connection, and it will always look like the same wherever you use it.

Plus, you won’t have to worry about technology requirements, if you have the right operating system, backing up your accounting data, installing updates or dealing with maintenance issues. You get all this and more handled for you–And all for a convenient monthly or annual fee.

Just like any accounting software, cloud-based accounting services allow you to perform all the accounting tasks your business needs, and they include features you’re familiar with like an online general ledger, invoicing and accounts receivable capabilities, purchase histories, business inventories and much more.

And, because upgrades and data backup are managed by the accounting service vendor, cloud-based accounting services are an attractive option for small businesses.

Although these new solutions are cloud-based, you can still buy desktop accounting software if you wish. But due to their popularity, most small businesses are now using online accounting services. Because of their anywhere availability via the Internet, crunching numbers is now much easier than ever before.

What Do Online the Different Accounting Services Have in Common?

Each solution is different, but they all have the following features in common.

They are available via a subscription. Accounting software has always been expensive and needs to be updated every year. With the online version, you pay for only as many users as you need, and you can pay on a monthly or annual basis. Many offer a free trial that converts when you sign up for a service. They cost anywhere from $5 to $70 a month depending on what you require. You won’t be locked into a contract, and all the upgrades are provided. Another plus is that your data will automatically be backed up to a secure cloud.

They’re easy to navigate. Online accounting services try to make your job less taxing with intuitive, easy-to-navigate platforms where you can easily find the features you want. Toolbars, drop-down lists, fill-in-the-blank fields, buttons and icons, all help you enter the numbers for whatever calculations and financial forms you require.

They use language that you’re familiar with. Although we still refer to terms like credits, debits, and chart of accounts, online accounting solutions only use arcane financial language when absolutely needed. The developers are trying to use every-day language whenever possible. However, although centuries old, double-entry accounting is a process we all need to use, and it’s here to stay, the developers let the “wizards” handle the complex processes behind the scenes.

They provide mobile versions. If you’re on the road, traveling for business meetings, or even need to do a little work when you’re on vacation, you can access your web-based accounting services securely from your mobile devices.

You have the choice of different levels of service. Some of the best cloud-based accounting solutions provide more than one level of service at different prices. This way you can purchase just what you need and nothing more. If you need to switch to a different level, most allow you to do this easily.

You can integrate them with other solutions. As your business grows, you may find that you need to use a variety of cloud-based financial management solutions. In this case, many of the best cloud-based accounting solutions allow you to connect to other services that you may already be using.

Dashboards. Interactive home pages or dashboards will help you keep track of your finances by flagging tasks that need attention and providing visuals like graphs and charts to give you a high-level view of where you stand. They summarize data like income, expenses and cash flow in easy-to-read images, so you and your team can more easily comprehend data and can make decisions about what to do.

Which Solution is the Best for Your Business?

So, how do you decide which online accounting solution is best for your small business? You might not be able to find a perfect match, but because they are flexible and provided on a monthly basis, you can find the best one for you and tweak it along the way.

As mentioned, many offer a free trial, so you can “road test” them. Give them a try and consider the following questions when you do:

• Can you import your existing data?
• Are the tasks you perform most often supported? (recordkeeping, billing, purchasing, etc.)
• Do you like the interface? Is it easy to navigate?
• Will it support the number of users you need?
• Are there any restrictions on actions you’ll need to take?
• Is it customizable?
• Is it scalable?
• What is the quality of the mobile application?
• Are add-ons supported?
• Do they provide a help desk or support solutions?
• Is the subscription fee something that your budget will allow?

While you’re at it, we did some homework for you. Below are some of the top online accounting services for small businesses.

Consider these and take advantage of the free trials they offer. Don’t worry if these might not work for you five years from now. Assess them based on your needs for the upcoming year.

Remember, you aren’t purchasing the product. Instead, you’re signing up for a subscription that you can change or upgrade/downgrade as you need. In other words, you aren’t stuck with these like you are with regular accounting software programs.

• Freshbooks
• Zoho
• Intuit
• Xero
• GoDaddy
• Wave
• QuickBooks
• Oneup
• Kashoo
• Sage
• MYOB
• Alignbooks
• Kashflow
• CloudbusinessLLC
• Panhandle

No matter which online accounting solution you choose, you’ll have peace of mind because you won’t have to worry about security. Online accounting services have stringent security requirements to ensure that your data is safely protected from hackers and any kind of loss. Even if your physical office is destroyed, or an employee accidentally deletes information, your online accounting service will be able to retrieve your data for you.

In this age of information, it’s challenging to maintain compliance with so much data stored on many different devices. Most companies these days have remote workers, employees in various departments, third-party vendors, management, employees working in other countries, and more. These people have laptops at home and at work, smartphones, and tablet computers. All this information must be structured in a way that it can be stored or accessed successfully whenever needed. This is a massive task that seems impossible, yet with enterprise content management programs, it’s suddenly doable.

Information Overload

Americans are now overwhelmed with the massive amounts of data that exist in their world. But it’s not enough to have a world full of information available; you must know how to use it to achieve your business goals while adhering to compliance regulations. Though there are many ways to handle these tasks, the key is creating a system that’s user-friendly but safe from hackers. Compliance is all about protecting everyone’s data from the world’s cyber thieves.

Losing Control of Compliance

With so many different methods of storing and maintaining data, it’s easy to lose control of compliance issues. This is a problem for every business owner, large and small. Enterprise organizations are easily the most vulnerable simply for the sheer volume of data they must maintain. Our age of information can loom out of control with the simple act of one employee losing a computer. Suddenly, hundreds of records are at risk and the company is struggling to find out what information has been lost. These types of events occur much more often than most CEOs want to admit.

How ECMs Help

Enterprise content management systems can create a safe method of handling and control all this important data. A few of the solutions include:

• Optimizing workflows using multifunction devices to reduce the number of machines and interfaces
• Improving the security of all documentation
• Ensuring ongoing compliance with industry requirements
• Ensuring the best performance of hardware and software
• Minimizing downtime to cut overall costs
• Implementing green strategies with rules-based printing and cartridge recycling

The latest ECMs utilize additional resources to better manage conference rooms, mail rooms, help desks, procurement and many other areas where productivity can be radically affected. There’s much more to managing content than meets the eye.

Controlling the Data Flow

If you’re running a large business with hundreds or even thousands of employees, these types of issues can be extremely hard to control. Every company needs to achieve an optimal level of productivity. However, a healthy level of compliance has become an important factor in this mix. There’s just too much at stake these days if the personal information of millions of consumers is compromised.

In addition to your company’s internal rules and requirements, you may be forced to observe regulations from:

• The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
• The Affordable Care Act (ACA)
• The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)
• The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)

Audits Can Be Stressful and Expensive

Imagine the IRS showing up at your door and demanding your documentation to prove compliance in some or all of these areas. Where do you even begin? Your employees might have to sort through several data systems, search file cabinets, and reign in multiple records from dozens of computers and other devices. This scenario can be a nightmare that no one wants to endure. Missing paperwork and costly errors are just the beginning.

That’s why so many large companies are moving over to enterprise content management systems. These systems provide an efficient method of storing, tracking and managing large volumes of data. Everything is located in a single repository. This makes it far easier to locate important documents that prove compliance. Plus, important documents are protected from intrusion.

Easing the burden of complying with today’s wide range of regulations can give your company leaders peace of mind. It’s a real confidence boost for the stockholders as well. Using advanced robust technology, your organization can move forward more efficiently with a higher level of security.

Easy Search & Collaboration

The best enterprise content management systems are cost-effective, secure and easy for everyone to use. They support all common platforms and databases. Information should be easy to search with programs that seamlessly send a document to the scanner or printer. Most teams need to be able to collaborate in real and virtual meeting rooms. It can be very helpful to be able to find a document, then edit it live together with other teams. This helps everyone stay informed and up-to-date. Transparency in document editing is also important, especially in the event of an audit.

Maintenance & Certification

Another important element, various filters can determine when regular maintenance on the equipment or data is necessary. Alerts are sent out to the correct employees when they need new certifications. These seemingly small tasks keep things flowing and people on track. Once new certifications are obtained, copies are stored with their expiration dates. These documents are fairly easy for auditors to check and this makes everyone’s life a little simpler.

Greater Security

In the past few years, everyone has been shaken by the enormous number of identities stolen in various data breaches. Security is paramount on everyone’s mind. Rules-based settings can be employed to allow access only to those with proper authorization. When you’re dealing with financial data and health records, you simply can’t be too careful. This data should be available whenever needed but safe from hackers. Many enterprise customers are moving to ECMs simply to improve their security. This has rapidly become an important part of doing business.

Proper Archival Procedures

The government requires certain tax forms to be on file for specific lengths of time. However, most documents will eventually need to be archived. The Department of Labor and IRS have many such requirements. Employees can become confused about the requirements resulting in significant fines. A good enterprise content management system eliminates these worries with automatic purge and archive features. Settings can be altered to meet any specific or preferred criteria.

Growing for the Future

With all these things in mind, search for an enterprise content management system that will grow with your company. In the future, compliance may become even more critical. Companies will certainly continue to expand all over the globe, making compliance even more difficult. If your company incorporates a good ECM from the beginning, these issues can be dealt with as you go along, avoiding any abrupt changes to your daily operations.

Microsoft Outlook is a professional email and calendar program that’s been used by businesses for over 15 years. It’s had many iterations over the years, but with 2016, and its integration with Office 365, Microsoft has taken Outlook to the next level. Today, small and medium-sized businesses that couldn’t afford the enterprise-level application can now benefit from Outlook 2016.

The following are 3 ways to help you use Outlook 2016 more efficiently.

1. Keyboard Shortcuts

Using keyboard shortcuts in Outlook on Windows will help you work more efficiently. It’s also handy for those who have mobility or vision disabilities because using keyboard shortcuts can often be easier than using a touchscreen or mouse. Here are some popular keyboard shortcuts you should try.

And there are more. Here are popular keyboard shortcuts for NAVIGATION:

When searching, try these handy keyboard shortcuts:

 

To create an item or a file keep these shortcuts in mind.

Shortcuts in Mail.

To see more Outlook 2016 Shortcuts go here.

2. Use Quick Steps

Right-click any email, choose Quick Steps and choose from the list.

We’re going to choose Team Email. The first time we use this, Outlook asks you to name your team and enter their email addresses.

Then create a Keyboard Shortcut for this. So, the next time you hit Control Shift 1, an email to your entire team can be composed.

You can also create new Quick Step. Simply choose Create New Quick Step.

Here are some other Quick Steps to try: ¹

• Move to Folder: This is essentially the same as Move To.
• Categorize & Move: This moves the selected message to a specific folder, marks the message as read, and assigns a category color and name to the message.
• Flag & Move: This moves the selected message to a specific folder, marks the message as read, and assigns a flag to the message.
• New Email To: This opens a New Message form with the To field already filled out with a particular recipient.
• Forward To: This is essentially the same as To Manager.
• New Meeting: If you often send meeting invites to the same group of people, use this Quick Step to open a New Meeting form with the To field already filled in with the invitees.
• Custom: This opens the Edit Quick Step dialog box so that you can create your own custom Quick Step.

3. Use Conditional Formatting

This is used to change the look of a particular email. You do this in the View Menu.

Here, we just click on Conditional Formatting and create an email called Microsoft.

Next, we choose a condition, where the word Microsoft appears anywhere in an email.

Then, we ask it to appear in a bold red font.

Now, any new email we receive with the word Microsoft in it will show up in red. This is a great way for us to recognize the importance of an email. You may want to do this for any email with your boss’s name in it!

And, there are more ways you can get the most from Outlook 2016. Here are a few ideas:

EMAIL

• Change the color and contrast of Outlook: You can also use a picture or color as the background, add a text watermark to your emails.
• Customize emails with the fonts you prefer: Change the default font for various email messages you send, or a particular font for messages that you forward or reply to.
• Create signatures for your different email accounts: Create personalized signatures for your email messages: include text, images, your electronic business card, a logo, or even an image of your handwritten signature. Signatures can be added automatically to all outgoing messages, or you can choose which messages should use a particular signature.
• Setup sound alerts when new emails come in: A sound can play when a new email message arrives. The default sound is a short .wav audio file, but you can change it to any .wav file of your choice.
• Establish tracking options with delivery receipts: A delivery receipt confirms delivery of your email message to the recipient’s mailbox.
• Use Outlook’s templates for your messages or create your own: Use email templates to send messages that include information that rarely changes from message to message. You can also insert icons, photos, and tables into your messages.
• Embed voting buttons in your email to survey your recipients about a particular topic (such as, “When’s the best date and time for a meeting?”): Voting buttons are an excellent way to poll people, especially when communicating with large groups.
• Use Quickparts to insert a standard set of words you often use: Use the Quick Parts Gallery to create, store, and locate content, including AutoText, document properties such as title and author, and fields.
• Clutter: This is where you can place low priority emails you want to read later. Clutter helps you filter these low-priority emails saving time for your most important messages. Office 2016 remembers “Clutter” emails if you want.  If Clutter isn’t for you, you can TURN IT OFF.
• Create folders and subfolders: You can base these on topics, senders, organizations, projects, etc.—Whatever works for you and organize your emails under the subjects you choose. Use folders in Outlook to move email messages, add a folder to your Favorites, and set a rule to move specific emails out of your inbox.

CALENDAR

Outlook 2016 calendars have all the tools and functionality you’ve relied on in the past, with improved features to help you manage your time. 

• Set up multiple calendars (e.g., personal, business, health, etc.).
• Create appointments quickly and share them with your contacts.
• Scheduling assistant lets you access others’ calendars that you’re authorized to view (and vice versa).
• Set reminders, reoccurring appointments/meetings, alerts, and more.
• View your calendar by day, week, month, and year.

CONTACTS

• You can also import contacts to Outlook from other email providers using the Outlook Import/Export wizard. Import a CSV file, Excel spreadsheet, or vCard.
• Your contacts are linked to your email accounts, so you can simply key a name in the “To” field, and your contact’s email address will appear.
• Set permission for a particular contact (delegate) to view your emails while you’re on vacation. Plus, you can give this person access to your calendar, tasks, and so on, as appropriate. One delegate can take care of your email, another your tasks, etc.

TOOLS

• Always know how much space is left in your account.
• Notify those emailing you that you aren’t available during a particular period with Out of Office. You set up a special message you want others to see.
• Even set up different messages for people inside or outside your organization. (Outlook will remind you that the “Out of Office” message is turned on, so you don’t forget when you return.)
• As mentioned above, similar to having an assistant help you manage your incoming paper mail, you can use Microsoft Outlook to allow a delegate, to receive and respond to e-mail messages and meeting requests and responses on your behalf.
• You can also grant additional permissions that allow your delegate to read, create, or have more control over items in your Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox—And, set more than one delegate and permissions for various tasks.

TASKS

Outlook 2016’s task management helps you accomplish to-dos faster and easier.

• Categorize your tasks with color codes.
• Ping reminders for tasks.
• Check-off tasks when complete.
• Create tasks for others as well. Outlook integrates tasks with your emails so that you can assign a task to a recipient.  The task will show up on their task list.

To learn more about how you can get the most from Outlook 2016 contact us.

If You Want to Be First on Google Searches, Be Sure to Employ Best Practices for Mobile-First Indexing

On March 26th, 2018, Google announced that after over 18 months of testing they will now begin migrating sites that follow best practices for their mobile-first indexing. This means that Google will now use the mobile version of content to index and rank all websites. Before now, they used the desktop version of a webpage’s content to evaluate how relevant it is to users’ Google searches.

NOTE: You won’t have to change anything if you have a responsive site or a dynamic serving site where the main content and markup is the same in both. However, if your site configurations are different on your mobile and desktop site, you should make some changes to your site. You can check the structured markup across your desktop and mobile versions by typing their URLs into the Structured Data Testing Tool and comparing them.

We’ve been getting a lot of questions about this, so we’re providing some answers for you below.

Why is Google doing this?

Today, most of us search on Google using our mobile devices. Yet, their ranking system is still based on the desktop versions of websites. This creates issues if the mobile pages contain less data than the desktop pages. In this case, the Google algorithms can’t properly evaluate the actual page that’s seen by the mobile device user.

So, to make their results more accurate, Google started experimenting with their index mobile first initiative. And now that it’s been launched, it will be the primary way Google will search for content, show snippets and rank pages.

How does this work?

Google’s Googlebots (or crawlers) search and index web pages. Crawlers are robots or spiders that automatically locate and read websites by “crawling” from one link to another.

Last summer (June 2017) Google advised website owners to switch their m-dot domains to “responsive” before the Mobile-First Indexing launch. If you didn’t do this, then Google will fully index your m-dot content and URLs. This means that the migration for your site will take longer than it should because Google will have to update the content on your pages.

If you have separate desktop and mobile content for your website, this means that you have a dynamic-serving or separate m-dot site specifically designed for mobile devices.

It’s good to have an m-dot site because you can use it to enhance the mobile experience on your site without compromising your desktop or mobile experience.

Ensure you follow Google’s best practices if you want your sites to rank well now with their mobile-first indexing.

Should our mobile content be different than our desktop content? No. It should be the same. And don’t limit it either. This could cause your ranking to decline. If your mobile site contains less content than your desktop site, it’s time to update it. Plus, be sure you include all of your photos, images, and videos in their original indexable and crawlable formats.

What about the structured data? Should we include it on both of our mobile and desktop versions? Yes. The URLs in the structured data on the mobile versions should be updated to the mobile URLs. If you use Data Highlighter for this be sure to check your dashboard regularly for any extraction errors.

How about the metadata? Do we need it on both versions? Definitely. Make sure that titles and meta descriptions are identical across both versions of your site.

Things that you should verify to meet Google’s new Mobile-First Indexing:

• Verify both your mobile and desktop sites in Google’s Search Console. Now that Google has switched over to mobile-first indexing your sites may have experienced a data shift.
• Make sure your mobile site’s hreflang points to the mobile URL and the desktop hreflang points to the desktop URL.
• Make sure your website server has enough capacity for the potential increased crawl rate on your mobile version.
• Use the robots.txt testing tool to be sure that the Googlebot can access your mobile version.
• Be sure that your robots.txt directives work properly on both your mobile and desktop sites.
• Ensure that you have the correct rel=canonical and rel=link elements between your mobile and desktop versions. However, Google says that you shouldn’t have to make changes to your canonical links because they will continue to use them as guides for users who search on either on desktop or mobile sites.
• If you add structured data to your mobile site, don’t add a lot of markups that aren’t relevant to the information.

The Finer Details

• To allow or block Google’s crawlers from accessing any of your content, be sure to specify Googlebot as the user-agent.
• To block pages from Google, blocking the user-agent Googlebot will also block all Google’s other user-agents.
• You can also get more fine-grained control, like having all of your pages show up in Google Search, but not the images in your personal directory. You can use robots.txt to disallow the user-agent Googlebot-image from crawling the files in your personal directory (while allowing Googlebot to crawl all files). Go here for more details on how to do this and for other examples.

Three important points to remember:

1. If you only verified your desktop site in Search Console, you must do so for your mobile version as well.
2.  If you only have a desktop site, Google will continue to index your desktop site but use the mobile agent to do so. This should be fine.
3. If you are still in the process of constructing your mobile version, it’s better to keep using the functional desktop site rather than trusting an incomplete mobile version of the site until it’s ready to launch.

To Summarize:

Google’s ranking, indexing and crawling systems used to use desktop versions of a page’s content. Now, because this may cause problems for mobile searchers they’ll be using the mobile version of a page instead. Google will be showing the mobile version of pages in their Search results and Google cached pages. You should also expect to see increased crawl rates from the Smartphone Googlebot.

You don’t have to worry too much because Google will always present the URL that is most appropriate no matter if it’s a mobile or desktop URL. While their index will be built from mobile documents, they say they will continue to build a great search experience for all users, whether they come from mobile or desktop devices.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. Or you can always contact Google via their Webmaster Forum.