Do a lot of Facebook fans, Twitter followers and email subscribers equate to more business for your company?

Marketing experts from across the country will gather in Greensboro next week to discuss that subject, among others, at the 2011 Marketing Summit for Today’s World.

Speakers include Jeff Rohrs, vice president of marketing at email marketing software company ExactTarget, who will present on the critical differences within email, Facebook and Twitter audiences.

“It’s not a question of ‘Will Facebook kill email?’ or ‘Will Twitter kill Facebook?’” Rohrs said. “It’s not rock paper scissors. It’s much more kind of a collective view, and the consumers who use all three use them for very different purposes.”

Of the U.S. population currently connected to the Internet, more than 95 percent have email, Rohrs said. Just over 70 percent have Facebook accounts, and 19 percent have Twitter accounts (though only nine percent are active on the microblogging site).

Rohrs said his presentation will focus on the importance of building and maintaining online audiences so companies can market to and activate those audiences in a meaningful way.

Other speakers include former marketing executive Marilyn Carpenter, who will present on the best ways for companies to thrive online while still creating value for customers. David Grayson, vice president of sales for mobile news network LSN Mobile, will discuss mobile marketing solutions for companies.

The marketing summit will be held Thursday, April 14 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Greensboro Coliseum/Special Events Center.

Sponsors for the event include Greensboro-based trade show design firm Apple Rock Displays and Greensboro-based web marketing firm BEM Interactive.

Social media management tools that let you post, tweet, and monitor multiple profiles are nothing new, but the TweetRoost product being launched next week aims to help companies do a better job of remembering it all.

The first product from MediaRoost emphasizes tracking, sorting, and saving the messages a company broadcasts, as well its mentions by other Twitter users, Mark Krieger, president and chief architect, said in an interview. Krieger and co-founder Fred Pack previously started another company, UniPress, and sold the firm and its FootPrints service desk product to Numara Software in 2006.

“We not only want to do the typical things for the marketing department, but also put in enough features, based on our experience with enterprise-level technology, that we can also have the service desk kind of functionality in TweetRoost,” Krieger said. In addition to broadcasting to multiple profiles and monitoring social media mentions, TweetRoost users can assign follow up tasks for sales leads, service inquiries, and complaints that demand a response, and those assignments can be fed into sales, service, and project management tools such as Salesforce.com, ZenDesk, and BaseCamp, for starters.

TweetRoost might seem late to the social media management party dominated by players like HootSuite and TweetDeck. Krieger said ExactTarget’s CoTweet is probably a closer competitor, and he also mentioned MediaFunnel.

Still, Krieger said he believes these products are missing “a few high-level features” that TweetRoost provides. In particular, the way TweetRoost saves both outgoing and incoming tweets for follow up is significant because Twitter feeds and searches are so ephemeral, he said. “If you want to see how you answered something a month ago or a year ago, good luck finding that on Twitter,” he said.

With TweetRoost, you get your own copy of all that data, and you can see it organized into threaded conversations rather than just a stream of time-based posts. Combined with the ability to annotate archived posts and assign them for follow-up, TweetRoost can help companies manage their Twitter presence in a much more organized way, he said.

TweetRoost Pro is $14.95 per user per month and can be used to manage up to 25 Twitter accounts, with multi-user features like the ability to assign incoming tweets to different users for follow up. The free edition is for a single user (so features like assigning tweets to someone else aren’t even relevant) and is limited to managing three Twitter accounts. Other features reserved for TweetRoost Pro include ongoing monitoring for search keywords, archiving of incoming tweets, and integration with Salesforce.com, ZenDesk, and BaseCamp.

Krieger said he has no immediate plans to extend the product to also cover Facebook and other social media sites, although the company name MediaRoost was chosen to provide that flexibility for the future.

“We’ve looked at both Facebook and LinkedIn and, technically, it’s a relatively easy thing for us to do. But strategically a lot of the benefit of the feature set we provide is already in Facebook — they have the ability to have multiple administrators” for a Facebook page, he said. For the same reason, he thinks many of his competitors say they support multiple social media sites, but put most of the emphasis on Twitter because that’s where the need is greatest, he said.

The 25-bed acute care hospital will use Prognosis ChartAccess Comprehensive EHR to move toward a number of goals such as improving clinical care, meeting the government’s meaningful use requirements, and enhancing community health through participation in a growing Texas Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO).

“Like all other providers, we want to improve care and at the same time meet the government’s requirements for the incentive payments that are associated with the HITECH provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,” said Hamlin Memorial Hospital chief executive Jim Barnett. “To do so, we realized that we not only needed to get a system up and running quickly but we needed a solution that our doctors and nurses would really want to use on a daily basis.”

ChartAccess is a shared web-native EHR system, delivered via a “cloud computing” model, where the software applications are made available as a service over an encrypted health information network. The EHR provides clinicians with a complete view of patient data to support optimal and safe clinical care. Users access the system by using a standard operating system and a secure browser.

“The physicians and nurses really like the system and feel that it is much easier to use and understand than some of the other solutions that we looked at,” Barnett said. “You could tell that whoever designed the system had knowledge of exactly how a hospital works and exactly how nurses and physicians want to enter notes into medical charts. It’s just very intuitive. Some of the other systems we looked at felt like they were designed by people who didn’t know anything about medicine.  They looked like they were designed by accountants.”

The software also includes iPhone and iPad applications that make it possible to view patient rounding lists, process orders and access results at the point of care.

“We have made a concerted effort to provide the functionality that truly serves the people that use our solution,” said Prognosis chief executive Ramsey Evans.  “That’s why all of our development efforts always have been, and always will be, keenly focused on the nurses and the physicians who are using our technology at the point of care.”

Under the RHIO, all participating hospitals dial into one centralized solution remotely. The EHR is integrated with billing, laboratory, pharmacy, radiology and other ancillary systems at the various hospitals, which allows it to serve as a data repository for all clinical information. As a result, the solution provides a continuum of care for patients as they receive services across the entire region.

“Because we can so easily share information, providers across the region will be fully informed at the point of care each and every time they are treating a patient,” Barnett said.  “That just takes the value of an EHR solution and multiplies it exponentially.”

The RHIO initially was established with funding from the Texas Department of Rural Affairs (TDRA).

“Implementing electronic records is a huge challenge for any hospital,” said Dave Darnell, senior program administrator at TDRA. “We realized, however, that rural hospitals are especially hard pressed when it comes to pulling all of the resources together to successfully move to electronic records. By supporting this innovative RHIO, we are truly helping to improve care for the rural population in Texas.”

Prognosis Health Information Systems Inc. of Houston markets ChartAccess, a certified Comprehensive EHR. Designed to be fully operational in less than six months at a predictable, affordable cost, the solution enables hospitals to meet meaningful use and improve patient outcomes by leveraging built-in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) milestone and quality measure tracking functionality.

 

There is a tremendous opportunity in healthcare technology for VARs and MSPs. With federal stimulus available to medical professionals implementing electronic medical records (EMR) and a wealth of technology and compliance consulting opportunities, solution providers that are equipped to offer these services are experiencing great success. Here’s how to get started.

The momentum resulting from financial incentives may be a key driver, but it is also opening the door to a number of complementary and crucial business services for this market. In either case, savvy solution providers (including our channel partners) are spending the time required to understand the complete organizational needs of these clients, and working with them to implement the best mix of infrastructure and business systems to accomplish their goals. They’ve discovered success requires more than just selling healthcare technology; it demands the delivery of complete business solutions for customers that need IT support.

Life or Death

Besides the critical nature of their operations, each is required to meet a myriad of local, state and federal regulations. These vary from region to region, but the most demanding requirements come from the federal HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) rules.   More so today, HIPAA has become stricter and affects virtually every procedure carried out in medical facilities, including long-term privacy and security of patient records. Each medical facility (physician offices, clinics and hospitals) must follow HIPAA’s prescribed guidelines to protect health information, so VARs and MSPs who understand those requirements—and offer effective solutions that address them—have the greatest chance of success with a healthcare IT practice.

So here is where it gets interesting

The HIPAA rules include security measures intended to ensure patient information is available to authorized personnel—at all times. Contingency plans must include a way for authorized healthcare personnel to access patient medical records in the event of an emergency; including fires, natural disasters, and system failures.

HIPAA also requires that medical facilities create and maintain detailed disaster recovery plans that guarantee that file restoration process; identifying vulnerabilities in their network and defining the steps needed to restore the patient records in an adequate amount of time. That plan must contain a checklist of the medical facility’s critical data and business systems, the method for restoring any data loss during an emergency, and the time frame to restore essential operations.

Selecting an online backup system is critical

The regulations call for exact copies of patient information to be stored in a separate storage system or facility, but accessible and retrievable at all times. HIPAA also requires healthcare facilities to back up their data real-time and continuously. These data storage plans work in combination with your clients’ disaster recovery procedures, ensuring their patients’ irreplaceable medical files are safe AND secure. Additionally because patients care greatly data security of their medical information and files, compliance and backup measures being taken becomes a large competitive advantage.

Assuring clients of backup and retrieval

Getting medical information to a hospital could literally be a matter of life or death. That’s why an effective offsite backup solution is required for your healthcare IT practice, to ensure ALL of your clients’ patient data is available whenever it’s needed.

The first step

Finding the right online backup service for your medical office and other healthcare customers is to select one that is SAS 70 compliant. Audits of this standard evaluate the controls in place for a service organization, including the logical, network, and transmission security of the offering. The measures for SAS 70 are more comprehensive than the security standards for HIPAA, ensuring that your healthcare clients will be adequately protected when you implement these solutions. Vendors that adhere to the service standard audits provide an extra level of insurance for your healthcare clients.

Note: MSPs and VARs also need to make sure their vendor partner retains exact copies of the information uploaded to their online systems, with continuous access and retrievability of all data. Other features to consider for HIPAA compliance include real-time and continuous backup to ensure all patient and business critical information is captured and retained. That provides security for the patients, medical practices, and providers.

Healthcare IT presents a significant business opportunity for the channel, but only if MSPs and VARs build a comprehensive portfolio of services that meet the specific needs of this market. The implementation of EMR systems may be the first step into doctors’ office, but the success of your practice will require you to become a valued partner for all their business solutions.

Ted Roller is VP of channel development Intronis. Monthly guest blogs such as this one are part of The VAR Guy’s annual sponsorship program.

 

In the distribution market, rivals Ingram Micro and Synnex are preparing some cloud channel partner updates for VARs and managed services providers. The latest moves will likely surface at two separate conferences the week of April 10 in Boston (Synnex Varnex) and Chicago (Ingram Micro VTN). So what’s on tap? I expected plenty of updates from Ingram Micro VP of Managed Services and Cloud Computing Renee Bergeron (pictured) and Synnex Senior VP Robert Stegner. Here’s a preview.

So far, Ingram’s game plan has been pretty easy to follow. The Synnex gameplan, meanwhile, combines some publicly confirmed moves with some silent efforts.

Let’s start with Ingram. The distributor spent most of 2008 through mid-2010 promoting Ingram Micro Seismic, a business unit that helps to transform VARs into MSPs with recurring revenue business models. Some of the Seismic efforts include SaaS and cloud applications, such as hosted Exchange powered by Intermedia.

By June 2010, then Ingram VP Justin Crotty launched the first Ingram Cloud Summit to coincide with Ingram’s annual Seismic partner gathering. Soon after, Crotty joined NetEnrich. His Ingram replacement, VP Renee Bergeron, gained both managed services and cloud computing in her title. The Ingram Micro Cloud portal debuted in November 2010, and it started to show some momentum in January 2011. By February 2011, Bergeron positioned Ingram Micro as the leading cloud aggregator for the channel.

No doubt, Bergeron will update that strategy during the Ingram Micro VTN conference in Chicago. I certainly understand how VARs and MSPs potentially benefit from Ingram Micro Cloud; the portal is basically an online database of SaaS and cloud options for channel partners. But I wonder: Can Ingram Micro really make a living aggregating third-party SaaS offerings? I’ll ask Bergeron for her perspectives in Chicago.

Synnex: Sort of Keeping a Secret?

Meanwhile, the Synnex cloud and managed services strategy has achieved some key recent milestones — though Synnex has yet to officially discuss some of the efforts with the media.

Amy Luby, formerly CEO of MSP Services Network, has spent more than a year helping Synnex to revise and update its managed services portfolio for channel partners. One of the major milestones occurred in December 2011, when Synnex shifted from IT Control Suite to the Level Platforms managed services software portfolio. Around the same time, Synnex started working far more closely with Reflexion (anti-spam and e-mail security) and Intronis (online backup). And Synnex apparently started rolling out a so-called one million freemium node strategy to selected MSPs and VARs, sources say.

But that’s only part of the story. By February 2011, Synnex named Rob Moyer VP of Cloud Computing Program, according to Moyer’s LinkedIn profile. Moyer had previous channel experience at Microsoft, Wyse and Ingram Micro. It’s a safe bet Moyer has been working closely with Synnex Senior VP Robert Stegner on the distributor’s cloud strategy.

Executive Backing

Ingram Micro CEO Gregory Spierkel and Synnex CEO Kevin Murai are expected to attend their respective partner conferences next week. Both executives have been careful not to hype cloud computing — even as they assign R&D dollars to the cloud market.

Within the distribution market, I think Ingram Micro has been the most vocal cloud computing advocate to date. But I suspect Synnex will have some surprises in store for the Varnex conference.

The distribution dialog certainly won’t end there. On April 20, Arrow ECS is expected to update its Arrow Fusion Cloud Services initiative during an Arrow forum in Atlanta, Ga.

Bengaluru, Karnataka, April 6, 2011 /India PRwire/ — Acronis, a leading provider of easy-to-use backup, recovery and security solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments, today announced the appointment of Robert Yang as Vice President of Sales for Asia. Robert’s responsibilities will include overseeing business directions and go-to-market strategies, as well as maintaining Acronis’ strong presence in the SMB marketplace across Asia region.

Robert brings with him more than 20 years of experience in the United States and Asia Pacific region, with excellent track record in cultivating sales, strategising channel developments and growing market shares across verticals in high growth organisations such as Teleplan, Hitachi Data Systems and Seagate.

‘I am joining Acronis at the strategic intersection where it is expanding the capabilities of its backup and recovery solutions as a leading provider for the SMB markets. I’m looking forward to working with the local expert teams and channels to continue to create compelling business value and find better and faster ways to deliver our solutions to our customers.’ Robert Yang said.

In announcing Robert Yang’s appointment, Bill Taylor-Mountford, President for Acronis APAC said: ‘There are very significant opportunities for Acronis in this region and Robert is an excellent and welcome addition to the team. With his extensive experience in the storage business and travels around the APAC region, Acronis will consolidate our leadership position with SMBs in this region and seize upstream opportunities.’

Robert has a degree in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from the Cornell University and is certified in Six Sigma with a Brown Belt.

About Acronis

Acronis is a leading provider of easy-to-use backup, recovery and security solutions for physical, virtual and cloud environments. Its patented disk imaging technology enables corporations, SMBs and consumers to protect their digital assets. With Acronis’ disaster recovery, deployment and migration software, users protect their digital information, maintain business continuity and reduce downtime. Acronis software is sold in more than 90 countries and available in 14 languages. For additional information, please visit http://www.acronis.com.sg/. Follow Acronis on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acronis