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A painful example of how NOT to do customer experience

...and some lessons you can apply to your business

(5 min)

Ouch!  That was painful to read.

I woke up this morning to an article that was rather unflattering written about another service provider in our space.  I wouldn’t call them a competitor since we really have different focuses to our business models, but enough of our business overlaps that turning their lesson into one we can learn from internally inspired me to sit down and write this.

First off, before I point out the lessons from this scathing article, I do want to acknowledge that being a technical solutions provider is hard work.  There’s always more work than you can get done, and staffing, training and retaining top quality help-desk agents is difficult.  Not to mention that with COVID, the scale of understandable absences, the unprecedented refactor of the new work-from-home standard, and the great resignation, have all added up to make this a VERY rough patch for all companies.  Effortless has not been immune to these factors either, so as a side-note, I’m incredibly proud of how our company has come together over the last two years, learned, grown and improved during this time.  Go team! 

So what is customer experience, and why should you be paying attention?

How NOT to do customer experience.

Although I won’t throw shade and refer to them by name, I do encourage you to read the article for context so you can understand what having a focus on customer experience means, and why it is so important.  You’ll learn that it wasn’t a single failure or a poor customer service experience.  It was a series of sequential failures.  Let’s start by clearing up a common misnomer.

While customer service is a part of customer experience, they are not the same.  Customer service is a department or stage in your customer’s lifecycle.  It is a subset of customer experience.  You can have an outstanding customer service department and get raving customer service surveys because that particular agent did their job well and the customer appreciated THAT particular interaction.  However, that same customer might be frustrated with your company because they had to call in the first place, or because it was their 5th call in two weeks.  In fact, some companies spend a lot of money investing in customer service exactly because their customer experience is so bad.  As the example in the article demonstrates, while the customer service might have gone down in quality as new, less experienced agents took over through attrition or were overwhelmed with workload from the lay-off, customer service couldn’t fix the technical issue of not being able to confirm the customer when the account was cancelled, or the bad company policies that caused the situation to escalate in the first place.  They certainly had nothing to do with the lost emails, or the inability of the company to admit any fault.

So what is customer experience if it’s not customer service?

Jeoffrey Bean & Sean Van Tyne, two luminaries in the space, wrote the best intro to customer experience I’ve found called, The Customer Experience Revolution.  They define the customer experience as the sum of all interactions a person has with a company.  It’s how they: first hear about you, engage with sales & marketing, receive support after they’re a customer, and talk about you after being a customer.  I encourage you to consider picking up their book and tuning into this new discipline.  Your business probably has quite a few low hanging fruit “A-Ha’s” that could lead to significant ROI.

Customer experience can be your greatest marketing tool… or NOT.

The goal of customer experience is to turn happy clients into advocates that do your marketing for you!  But as this article so painfully demonstrates, not paying attention to your customer experience can also turn clients into vocal critics.  I understand that companies have contracts to enforce relationships — especially if the initial upfront effort of onboarding that client was being recouped over the life of the contract. it’s another thing when you really mess up, don’t take accountability and then hide behind a contract.  Remember this was a sequence of events that escalated, so this *could* have been caught along the way and remedied.  I’d be willing to bet that the cost of the remainder of that contract is way less than the bad publicity that article will cost them.  I mean… do right by your customers, but especially avoid pissing customers off so much that they write an article about you and describe your business as a roach motel.  OUCH.  Also note that this customer WAS an active advocate that soured into a vocal critic – and one with a pretty big megaphone to boot.  Double OUCH!  

Customer experience done right can mean so much word-of-mouth referrals that your demand outpaces your capacity and you’re forced to choose which clients you WANT to work with, or raise your prices to balance your demand.  Nice problem to have.

Customer experience is about delivering on your promises to earn trust.

Be honest.  Mistakes happen.  Owning up to them shows that you’re committed to transparency and earns trust.  While it may cost you something in the short term, it usually pays dividends in the long run.  Its also a cultural thing. If your company isn’t trust-worthy with your clients, then how do your employees interpret that?  Will it cause them to question: “Is the company being trustworthy with me?” Or worse… lead to active disengagement where employees do just enough to collect a check and not get fired because you lost THEIR trust too.

You also can’t learn from mistakes you don’t think you have.  If nobody wants to step up and admit they messed up and take accountability, then nothing changes.  Own it.  Learn from it and improve from it. 

Great customer experience starts with a great employee experience.

I hear all the time that it’s tough to find quality people these days, but then those same companies just treat their employees like a number; and then wonder why they have such high turn-over!  Hire people who care and are passionate about helping people.  So many parts of the story in the article could have been solved by someone pausing to say: “Hey, this is an unfortunate circumstance. I’m so sorry about it, and though my policy states XYZ, I’m going to go above and beyond and see to it that this gets resolved.” 

In short, customer experience is a practice of feedback and continuous improvement across your customer’s entire lifecycle, and it’s relevant to EVERY business.  Done right, it will differentiate your business, lead to organic growth and allow you to command a premium.  Done wrong, it can sink a business.  Just ask Blockbuster about how valuable customer experience is…

If you want to learn more about our focus on customer experience and how we make IT effortless, stay tuned…

If you want to see it first-hand, give us a shout.  We’d love to talk with you about your business.

EOY-party-2020

Effortless Office Virtual End-of-Year Party

Our goal is to make IT Effortless.  After a very, shall we say, unique year of 2020, we have put in a lot of hard work toward achieving that goal.  We wanted to bring 2020 to a successful end with a celebration… but a company dinner was out of the question, and a holiday zoom party didn’t really inspire excitement… so what to do?

Well, we did what we do best, used IT to solve real business problems like:  how to enable our teams to tell stories and laugh together; create memories through unexpected connections; and engage in conversations that would foster our company culture… all in an exciting and memorable way.

Friday, the Effortless Office family successfully navigated that new way of bonding… through VR. To celebrate the hard work from each department, and announce awards for 2020, we had attendees hop on an Oculus, and explore a private, End-of-Year, party space together. By shooting hoops, playing trivia games and laughing at goofy virtual glitches – the team enjoyed trying something new and got to share in numerous real, meaningful conversations that nourished our remote company culture. A big congratulations to our award winners, and a special mention to Mark Gavin for receiving Employee of the Year.

If you want to hear more about our company’s virtual holiday party, reach out, we’d love to share our experience

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6 Things to Know About Compliance

Compliance is a hot topic as businesses race to move to the cloud.

Here are six things you shouldn’t ignore about compliance.

1. Compliance doesn’t apply to large organizations.

With the changes occurring in the world, laws and regulations can even put small companies at risk. No matter what industry you operate in or what size business you have, if you accept card payments and process, transmit and store cardholder data, you must host your data securely with a hosting provider that is PCI compliant.

2. Compliance failure can put you out of business.

Around 67% of the cost comes in the first year, around 22% comes in the next 12 to 24 months, and the final 11% comes more than two years later.

3. Weak credential polices make you high risk.

80% of today’s data breaches are caused by default, weak, stolen, or otherwise compromised credentials. 

4. Proper compliance training for your employees is key.

Investment in staff takes many forms, and training is just one of them, but regrettable, this is one area that is all too often first in line for budget cuts whenever a firm is looking to make economic efficiencies.

5. Electronic protected health information is everywhere!

The top two security threats that most  worry healthcare IT professionals are: employee-owned mobile devices being used to access ePHI (76%), and any mobile devices accessing ePHI without the proper security installed (72%).

6. Cyber coverage doesn’t completely cover you.

Paper records are covered, like those (old) employment applications, personnel and customer files, credit cards receipts (with carbons) that are used if systems go down, etc.

So, it’s not just a laptop that goes missing with data, or a hack that can be covered, but what about that storage unit full of old company files that was long forgotten, then sold at auction. Where are the records now… somewhere? The policy could respond to cover defense costs, damages, etc. related to that loss too.

 

About Effortless Office:

Effortless Office is a Hybrid Managed Services Provider that delivers and fully supports secure cloud products and services giving customers a single solution provider for entire IT environments.

 

SOURCES

  1. https://smallbiztrends.com/2013/05/the-complete-history-of-social-media-infographic.html

  2. https://www.csoonline.com/article/3434601/what-is-the-cost-of-a-data-breach.html

  3. https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2020/05/27/debunking-the-myth-that-greater-compliance-makes-it-more-secure/#4bce4795d7f7

  4. https://www.skillcast.com/blog/top-10-compliance-challenges-2020

  5. https://cdn2.esetstatic.com/eset/US/resources/docs/white-papers/State_of_Healthcare_Cybersecurity_Study.pdf

  6. https://www.embroker.com/blog/5-cyber-insurance-coverage-misconceptions/

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Debunking 5 Myths Surrounding the Cloud and Healthcare

Debunking 5 Myths Surrounding the Cloud and Healthcare

Businesses across every industry are experiencing significant benefits from migrating to the cloud – including cost savings, scalability, and reduced pressure on IT teams. The healthcare industry in particular has seen great leaps using cloud computing – indeed, the global healthcare cloud computing market is expected to exceed more than $11 billion by 2022 according to Market Research Engine. But the cloud and healthcare has also seen its fair share of bumps in the road as far as adoption goes. Compliance and regulatory issues surrounding patient data require caution, but healthcare organizations may be taking a bigger risk by not implementing cloud out of such caution.

Take a look at five common myths related to the cloud and healthcare:

Myth #1: The cloud is not secure enough for healthcare organizations. Not only is the cloud secure, but it’s often more secure than on-premise solutions. (And if an organization is looking at desktop as a service specifically, that solution far surpasses on-premise in terms of security.) A cloud provider staffs its data center with armed guards and equips it with tools like security cameras, perimeter controls, multiple power grids, and biometric authentication. It’s not likely that healthcare organizations can practice the same level of security and breach prevention that a cloud provider offers.

Myth #2: Cloud infrastructures are all the same. Sure, the cloud infrastructure consists of network, storage, and compute, but there’s a lot of variation within this framework. Your infrastructure should be designed for your specific needs. It should be highly redundant and secure, and it should support the burstability that is necessary in healthcare during a surge of use. It also needs a high level of monitoring and logging to identify any anomalies in user activity.

Myth #3: Data stored in the cloud is more vulnerable to an attack. Quite the opposite: Data in the cloud may be more secure than data in on-premise servers because it has been encrypted and secured. It’s critical to talk with your cloud provider about the depth of its security policy and whether it meshes well with that of your healthcare organization.

Myth #4: Data stored in a public cloud is accessible to other healthcare providers using the same cloud. If your data is encrypted, other healthcare providers should not be able to access it, but it’s important to talk through this issue with the cloud provider. The shared model of public cloud makes it easy to access innovations and features, but it does require you to do a bit more digging to be sure that your data is encrypted and secured. Private clouds do not allow for this issue.

This also goes back to the point that cloud providers spend more time and resources on security than any healthcare organization could, so healthcare operations in the cloud are better guaranteed to ensure compliance. 

Myth #5: Once data is in the cloud, healthcare providers lose visibility and control. The best way to address this area is to make sure that you extend the same controls you already use into the cloud. This means that your authentication protocols, user management and access management are extended into your cloud solutions. Make sure that you choose a cloud provider that ensures you have an auditable chain of custody for data.

If you still have questions about how cloud solutions could help your healthcare organization achieve business objectives, or if there are a few more myths we need to debunk, contact us at Effortless. You can also take a look at this free download for more information about the cloud and healthcare.

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How to Sell Security to a CISO

How to Sell Security to a CISO

We had the pleasure of sitting in on a speaker session by Levi’s CISO, Steve Zalewski, who gave a unique and inside view of the real life of someone in his role. If you’re interested in learning more about this role and want to be better equipped to sell to a CISO, keep reading to find out the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Selling Security to the CISO

When it comes to selling technology solutions to a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), many salespeople may not realize what they’re doing wrong in the pitching process. For Zalewski, the wrong pitch is bent on politeness and doesn’t cut to the chase. He said, “Please don’t be polite with me. Perhaps you come from telecom and are used to working with IT organizations – but you are likely not used to reaching into the security department at an organization trying to sell security. You’re pushing a rock up the hill if you lead with politeness. We need to get past the polite part. Be upfront: What is it that you want to ask?”.

How you approach a CISO will impact his/her decision to either stick with you or move on. Therefore, it’s crucial to understand what a CISO is looking for and what he/she needs in order to make a successful sale. For Zalewski, that’s a direct, upfront approach because he doesn’t have time for more than one potential vendor call a week.

CISOs are protectors of the environment who are often stressed and overwhelmed by the number of technology options and solutions they’re considering or looking to implement. Therefore, for vendors who want to sell security to a CISO, there are a few crucial things that they must know:

Don’t throw tools at them: CISOs already have a lot on their plate. They don’t need vendors to throw tools at every problem they have. Instead, you have to find the metrics of the business in order to really figure out what the CISO needs and how to reach him/her.

Step up your game: If you’re selling security, you must understand it and be an expert. You must know your subject matter such as who you’re going to attack, and position yourself against the bad guys.

Make your business propositions resonate: As a vendor, it’s more than making your technical proposition resonate. You must be able to communicate why and how security services can help CISOs mitigate risks and translate business value.

When approaching CISOs, advisors must know the difference between security and protection: In order to deliver what the CISO needs, vendors must know the difference between these two elements of a solution. As protectors of their brand, CISOs are already forced to look at potential threats to their company. “For me, it’s a junior person who is simply talking in terms of ‘security’. Really it is ‘are we protected? Are we safe?’ That is what needs to be addressed” said Zalewski. And as a result, the head of information security needs trusted advisors who will understand those risks and offer the right solutions to keep them protected.

Address visibility: “Often the greatest threat is between the keyboard and the screen,” said Ivan Paynter, National Cyber Security Specialist at Intelisys. To this, Zalewski agreed and added that the bad guys are constantly doing “social engineering and will find a way past you. You will click. You are human.” Addressing the need for visibility into the network, and into what the users are doing, is speaking the language of the CISO.

Talk in terms of risk: As Zalewski said, “My job is to protect the brand. We are the Coca-Cola of jeans. Instead of talking technology, you might want to talk in terms of the risk for various scenarios so that if these events occur, you are able to get through it. When you get to the CEO, the board, and executive level, you have to talk about risk – business risk.”

In summary, when presenting security solutions to the C-level, and specifically the chief of information security, you must be able to communicate in a way that convinces them of your security knowledge and expertise. CISOs would much rather have vendors and salespeople shift from an IT perspective to a business perspective when selling them security services.

If you found this recap useful and would like to learn more about how you can address the needs of the CISO, reach out to us at Effortless today.

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How DaaS Addresses the Dark Side of Working from Home

How DaaS Addresses the Dark Side of Working from Home

It’s probably not surprising that remote workers outperform office workers in several key areas. Studies have shown that people working remotely are more productive, better at collaborating, and more present than their office-bound counterparts. In fact, 65% of workers say working remotely would boost their productivity. This is doubly true with the amount of time some workers spend just getting to and from the office. According to a report by Apartment List, the number of people who travel more than 90 minutes to work each way has increased by more than 31% since 2005. In contrast, the number of Americans who work from home has increased by 76% in the same period of time.

TJ Galati, CIO and thought leader who virtualized his entire company and workforce with the Effortless Suite, told Effortless, “There are many benefits to utilizing a remote workforce that companies are just starting to figure out. A few of my favorites are:

  • Less cost. (Rent, desks, ergo keyboards, coffee, etc.)

  • Better quality of life for employees. (No commute, time with family, flex time, etc.)

  • Bigger employee pool. (Instead of finding the best local person, now you find just the best person.)”

Enabling remote work is “truly transformative for companies who have not yet ventured to think that way,” said Galati. There is, however, a dark side to working from home. You’ve probably seen the YouTube video where a serious BBC video interview is interrupted by a silly child walking into the room followed by a baby in a walker. But children interrupting video conferences is on the lighter side of some of the issues that can come up for remote workers. Problems related to security, internet connectivity, and general communications often arise. This is where Desktop as a Service (DaaS) is an ideal solution when it comes to supporting remote workers. Here are some of the pain points of remote workers, and how DaaS relieves them:

Security Woes

There are a number of ways that remote workers have the potential to create security vulnerabilities:

  • Unsecured devices left open in the home or in public spaces

  • Lack of endpoint security

  • Sensitive data physically leaving the company premises

With DaaS, the desktop and its assets are kept in the cloud, away from any vulnerable endpoints. Devices used by remote workers merely become access points for the desktop, rather than the desktop itself.

Internet Issues

Even the most well-equipped remote worker can run into problems with internet connectivity, whether it be a slow connection or one that is unreliable. Remote workers without access to cloud-based solutions like DaaS are left without IT support when they need it most. A good DaaS provider offers round-the-clock support, so if things go wrong, your remote workers aren’t left without a connection.

Communication

This may seem like a given, but it’s important that remote workers have proper communication channels set up in order to do their jobs. DaaS allows workers to retain the full functionality of their work computers no matter where they go, and on any device. Remote employees can access all the communication, conferencing, and collaboration tools they need, as long as they have an internet connection.

If your remote staff is experiencing the darker side of working from home, or worse, unable to do so because you lack the technical means, Effortless can help. With Effortless Desktop, your staff can be powered by a remote desktop that is secure, lightning-fast, and accessible from any device with an internet connection. If you’re ready to build the perfect desktop and access it on any device, contact Effortless. We’ll help you solve any issues being faced by your remote employees.

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Effortless Achieves Corporate Sustainability by Operating in Switch Data Centers

Effortless Achieves Corporate Sustainability by Operating in Switch Data Centers

Switch’s 100 Percent Renewably Powered Facilities Help Reduce the Effortless Carbon Footprint

Effortless, a business cloud services provider that delivers maximum security and uptime to its clients, today announced it has achieved a green milestone by operating within Switch. Switch (NYSE: SWCH), is the global technology infrastructure corporation that develops hyperscale data center ecosystems for elite colocation, enterprise hybrid cloud and connectivity solutions. Effortless benefits directly by operating in Switch’s data centers because Switch utilizes 100 percent renewable energy to power its operations, allowing Effortless to achieve its corporate sustainability objectives.

Switch’s advanced power and cooling technologies, remarkable PUE ratings, and high-density rack configurations allow Effortless to fit its IT equipment into a smaller footprint, thus dramatically reducing energy consumption. Running its data in Switch data centers, enables Effortless to reduce its carbon footprint and overall environmental impact.

Switch’s accomplishment of becoming the first multi-tenant colocation operator in the world to receive all A grades in sustainability from Greenpeace 2017 Clicking Clean Report also attracted Effortless to Switch.

“Effortless shares Switch’s commitment to clean energy as part of our culture of sustainability, said Effortless CEO Ben Gayheart. “The opportunity to run our gear inside the most sustainable technology ecosystem results in significant power efficiencies for our operations and extended lifespan on our equipment. We are proud to join the hundreds of world-leading corporations, government agencies, and innovative companies that comprise the Switch ecosystem.”

About Effortless Office

Effortless is a business cloud services provider that offers an all-in-one, highly compliant cloud environment including solutions for cyber security, virtual desktops, disaster recovery, servers, compliance, Wi-Fi, infrastructure, email, and helpdesk. As more than just a vendor, Effortless partners with clients to improve operations, efficiency, and mobility with its “as-a-service” model. Effortless delivers and fully supports a secure ecosystem of complementary cloud products and services giving customers a single solution provider for entire IT environments.

To learn more about Effortless’ efforts toward sustainability as a business cloud services provider, contact Effortless today.

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Protect Against Healthcare Data Breaches and Safeguard the Reputation of Your Organization

Protect Against Healthcare Data Breaches and Safeguard the Reputation of Your Organization

If you’re in the healthcare industry, you already understand the importance of safeguarding your healthcare data. However, are you doing everything you can to combat breaches?

The costs associated with healthcare data breaches should be enough of an incentive to get most organizations up to speed on their security plans. Ponemon’s Cost of Data Breach report shows that for every patient’s record that is breached, it costs the organization $408. And now that thousands, if not more, patient records can be breached in seconds with electronic files, this fine can quickly become millions of dollars.  To avoid the cost of compromised data, here are a few areas that are key to consider for your security strategy:

Fast Action

The average time it takes healthcare providers to discover a breach is nearly 200 days. After it’s discovered, the average time it takes to get it contained is another 60-plus days according to the report by Ponemon.

By putting monitoring tools in place, you can keep a closer eye on traffic and red flag suspicious activity. This can significantly reduce any damage that might occur when your system is compromised.

Variation in Breaches

While the average cost of a breach in healthcare is $408 per patient record, the type of attack can also influence what a fine will run. For example, human errors will cost you almost $128 per compromised record. If you have a system glitch, the cost is close to $131. If you have malicious activity going on within your organization, that can lead to a cost of almost $157 per compromised patient record.

Ransomware attacks can be particularly damaging to an organization. Some organizations have had to completely rebuild their systems after such an attack, costing millions of dollars.

Reputations Take a Hit

While the fines might sting, worse is the damage an attack can cause to the reputation of an organization. Others will hold you accountable, which means you will probably notice strained relationships with your vendors, and certainly with your patients who are now more susceptible to identity theft after their information has been compromised. Persistent negative media exposure is never a good thing. 

Protection Devices

Automated security technology has stepped up in a big way to offer added protection to your healthcare data. The report from Ponemon says that for those institutions that have them in place, they’re reducing their over breach costs by $1.5 million. And cloud has emerged as one such solution that has helped businesses find security where legacy hardware failed before. 

Every good strategy has an incident response team in place, and a solid plan from which to work. Every employee knows exactly what steps to take in the event of a security breach, and they jump on the issue immediately to remediate losses. This means there is less down time, less damage, and it all results in fewer fines and less harm to the organization’s reputation.

Even with the right cloud technology, dangerous hackers honing in on your organization will be inevitable. Getting operations back quickly and safely, is key. Additional to the right technology, a stable provider can help you navigate this tricky world of cyber security, healthcare data breaches. Third-party security experts and cloud service providers are in the trenches of the latest security trends and solutions to proactively.

About Effortless

Effortless is a business cloud services provider that offers an all-in-one, managed cloud environment including solutions for security, virtual desktops, disaster recovery, servers, compliance, managed network infrastructure (next gen firewall, switches, Wi-Fi), email, and helpdesk. Effortless partners with clients to improve operations, efficiency, and mobility with its “as-a-service” model and dedicated account management. Effortless delivers and fully supports a secure ecosystem of complementary cloud products and services giving customers a single solution provider for entire IT environments.

Contact Effortless for more information or to schedule an interview.

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Determining the Cost Savings of DaaS

Determining the Cost Savings of DaaS

When you purchase a laptop or desktop computer for an employee, it’s discouragingly out of date within just a few months, and it progressively slows and becomes buggier as it ages. That’s just one of the reasons why many enterprises are turning to Desktop as a Service (DaaS) as a way to reduce the overall cost of computing. The cost savings of DaaS come in a variety of forms:

Minimal initial investment: While you might pay at least several hundred dollars for that laptop, the initial capital investment for DaaS is low or non-existent. Instead of utilizing your servers, DaaS simply needs an internet connection to access the computing power of the business cloud services provider you’re working with.

Instead of using a computer that gets slower as it ages, your performance will simply depend on the speed of your internet connection and the reliability of that provider.

Updates and maintenance are handled by the provider: The cost savings of DaaS are increased by the ability of IT to completely step away from the update process. The business cloud services provider handles all updates, and there’s no interruption to work. Many end users won’t realize there’s an update happening.

The handling of maintenance by the provider also reduces the burden on your IT team. That way, instead of focusing on keeping the lights on, the IT professionals in your organization can focus on the innovation and strategic measures associated with digital transformation and creating a better customer experience. Their time is better spent on helping to drive objectives that allow you to outpace competitors and create new revenue streams.

You’ll also save in terms of cooling, hosting and powering an infrastructure, since the cloud provider handles all of this.

Improved productivity: When a member of your team is on a business trip or even just out of the office for a day, it can create a bottleneck on any projects they’re involved in. With DaaS, employees can access systems no matter where they are, and no matter the time of day, as long as they have an internet connection and a valid log-in. The employee is no longer tied to their physical computer. The cost savings of DaaS aren’t just about the monthly invoice; long-term implications are more broad and difficult to measure, but you’ll see a difference.

Security savings: One of the cost savings of DaaS is related to improved security. The cost of a breach can be staggering, and it often occurs due to outdated patches or updates that were not completed correctly. Making sure all vulnerabilities are secure due to patches and updates on a traditional on-premise system is nearly impossible, but with DaaS, it’s all handled automatically by the provider.

If you would like to know more about the broader list of benefits that DaaS offers in an IT setting like yours, contact us at Effortless. We deliver maximum security, maintain excellent uptime rates and can help you escape the cycle of outdated desktops.

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Making the Most of Cloud Technology and Healthcare for Compliance

Making the Most of Cloud Technology and Healthcare for Compliance

For a long time, it seemed that cloud technology and healthcare were ill-suited for one another because of the demands of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The ability to secure data as it traveled to and from the cloud seemed too tall a task. But, ironically, as the complexities of HIPAA increased, cloud solutions have seemed to become more necessary.

Consider this: when HIPAA was signed into law over 20 years ago, it contained only 337 words. In 2002, the verbose document grew to over 100,000 words, and it is currently up to more than 500 pages – creating widespread confusion and complexity for managing patient information. Later, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HI-TECH) Act came along in an effort to put teeth to HIPAA. This act requires healthcare organizations to self-report a breach and comes with up to a $1.5 million fine.

As compliance complexity grows, organizations need cloud technology and healthcare to work together to make meeting regulation requirements more feasible. Here are a few ways that cloud solutions aid healthcare organizations:

Improved communication between doctors and patients: In a cloud solution, patients and their physicians can access the same records and communicate with an informed perspective. Access to records also eliminates the likelihood of duplicate entries, and both patients and doctors can share records with other providers while adhering to HIPAA regulations.

Enhanced collaboration: When healthcare providers need to coordinate patient care, cloud solutions make it possible to do so, regardless of geographical considerations. Providers can compare data and make predictions based on access to records.

Scalability: Data storage needs are growing in every industry, but healthcare has a unique need for a scalable solution. Physicians must keep records for at least 10 years after a patient’s last visit and up to the age of 19 for minors. Cloud-based infrastructure grows as the practice requires more storage capacity.

Better data recovery: Healthcare organizations may be targeted by ransomware, which demands money in exchange for the return of stolen data. Cloud computing combined with Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) allows recovery time to be at or near zero.

Better security overall: Security is often a concern mentioned when it comes to cloud technology and healthcare, but when you consider that paper records can be lost with no trace, cloud solutions seem much more secure. Cloud solutions employ tools like end-to-end data encryption, multi-level authentication and monitoring of user activity to prevent and identify, then isolate, a potential threat.

It’s important to note that according to HIPAA regulations, a business cloud services provider is considered a business associate and must meet compliance requirements. Even so, be sure you have a clear understanding of how your cloud provider’s security policies line up with your own.

To learn more about how cloud technology and healthcare team up for better management of HIPAA regulations, contact us at Effortless.

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