Monat: August 2020

The best ideas for how to improve DELMIAworks comes from our customers. Our most recent release, DELMIAWorks 2020, reflects what they’ve asked for along with improvements we’re seeing are needed across our worldwide manufacturing customer base. Every DELMIAWorks customer has the opportunity to be a co-collaborator in creating new features, enhancements, and suggesting improvements on MyIQMS, where they can submit new ideas.

Based on customers’ requests, we’re augmenting the core of DELMIAWorks2020 with improvements to accounting, time-saving improvements to scheduling reports, cost analysis, customer pricing management, and more. We’ve also augmented the RealTime Production Work Center, Shop Floor User, RealTime Process Monitoring Work Center, and Advanced Warehouse Management Modules.

A few of the exciting new features in DELMIAWorks2020 update include:

• Inventory Activity Cost Journal (IACJ) enables customers to accelerate inventory reporting and achieve greater inventory transaction and accounting accuracy. IACJ generates financial entries based on real-time inventory transactions, automatically balancing inventory accounts using translog tables and recipe cards to generate journal information for greater efficiency and less latency.

• Customer Price Book and Pricing Management enhancements that streamline price maintenance and enable more efficient pricing strategies. Advanced filtering and Customer Price Book Maintenance is streamlined with configurable options customers can use to save time when managing prices and maintaining price lists.  

• Advanced Warehouse Management Systems (AWMS) new features to streamline Directed Pick Ticket Workflows. SQL Queries can now be customized to specific logic workflows customers prefer using for picking transaction rules. There are improvements to Distribution Routing Rules in the Customer Maintenance module that provide customers new options for customizing their shipping and distribution experience. 

• Right-To-Erasure (RTE) Tool is included in DELMIAWorks2020 in response to and in compliance with Article 17 of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). The RTE Tool enables searches of the database, based on personalized data subject information, and then allows the anonymization of any or all personalized information that is held in the system. GDPR is European legislation affecting all companies who hold personal data of European Data Subjects (otherwise known as individuals or persons). GDPR is legislation passed by the European Parliament / Council of 27th April 2016 under EU 2016/679. This legislation provides the ability to protect personalized data of persons or individuals who have entered into lawful obligations ‘lawful basis’, where such data is held, stored, save, or accessible with a system/computer media, but can be anonymized or deleted at the request of the data subject

• Improvements to RealTime Work Center and RealTime Monitoring that save valuable customer time and streamline Work Center performance. Based on customer feedback, Group Codes are now included so users can easily identify like types of inventory items as designated by the user-defined Group Code set under the Additional tab on the FG item Inventory record. RealTime Monitoring now supports Inspection Parts To Go, which displays the number of items to go before an inspection is due.

Conclusion

DELMIAWorks2020 addresses our customers’ requests for streamlining core aspects of their manufacturing operations, including inventory accounting, pricing, and warehouse management. We’ve also added a Right-To-Erasure (RTE) Tool, so every customer affected by Article 17 of GDPR can stay in compliance. Adding to our strengths in RealTime Monitoring, we’re introducing improvements to  RealTime Work Center and Inspections To Go logic, all based on customer’s requests and insights.

The post Our Customers And Their Collaboration With Us Defines DELMIAWorks2020 appeared first on IQMS Manufacturing Blog.

• Enterprises who are increasing the average number of endpoint security agents from 9.8 last year to 10.2 today aren’t achieving the endpoint resilience they need because more software agents create more conflicts, leaving each endpoint exposed to a potential breach.
• 1 in 3 enterprise devices is being used with a non-compliant VPN, further increasing the risk of a breach.
• 60% of breaches can be linked to a vulnerability where a patch was available, but not applied. Windows 10 devices in enterprises are, on average, 95 days behind on patches.

CIOs, CISOs and cybersecurity teams say autonomous endpoint security is the most challenging area they need to strengthen in their cybersecurity strategy today. Software agents degrade faster than expected and conflict with each other, leaving endpoints exposed. Absolute’s 2020 State of Endpoint Resilience Report quantifies the current state of autonomous endpoint security, the scope of challenges CISOs face today and how elusive endpoint resiliency is to achieve with software agents. It’s an insightful read if you’re interested in autonomous endpoint security.

Endpoint Security Leads CISOs’ Priorities In 2020

With their entire companies working remotely, CIOs and CISOs I’ve spoken with say autonomous endpoint security is now among their top three priorities today. Cutting through the endpoint software clutter and turning autonomous endpoint security into a strength is the goal. CISOs are getting frustrated with spending millions of dollars among themselves only to find out their endpoints are unprotected due to software conflicts and degradation.  Interested in learning more, I spoke with Steven Spadaccini, Vice President, Sales Engineering at Absolute Software and one of the most knowledgeable autonomous endpoint cybersecurity experts I’ve ever met. Our conversation delved into numerous cybersecurity challenges enterprise CIOs and CISOs are facing today. My interview with him is below:

The Seven Toughest Questions the C-Suite Is Asking About Endpoint Security

Louis: Thank you for your time today. I have seven questions from CIOs, CISOs and their teams regarding endpoint security. Let’s get started with their first one. What happens if an endpoint is compromised, how do you recover, encrypt, or delete its data?

Steven:  It’s a challenge using software agents, both security and/or management, to do this as each agents’ tools and features often conflict with each other, making a comprised endpoints’ condition worse while making it virtually impossible to recover, encrypt, delete and replace data. The most proven approach working for enterprises today is to pursue an endpoint resilience strategy. At the center of this strategy is creating a root of trust in the hardware and re-establishes communication and control of a device through an unbreakable digital tether. I’m defining Endpoint Resilience as an autonomous endpoint security strategy that ensures connectivity, visibility and control are achieved and maintained no matter what is happening at the OS or application level. Taking this approach empowers devices to recover automatically from any state to a secure operational state without user intervention. Trust is at the center of every endpoint discussion today as CIOs, CISOs and their teams want the assurance every endpoint will be able to heal itself and keep functioning

Louis: Do endpoint software security solutions fail when you lose access to the endpoint, or is the device still protected at the local level?

Steven: When they’re only protected by software agents, they fail all the time. What’s important for CISOs to think about today is how they can lead their organizations to excel at automated endpoint hygiene. It’s about achieving a stronger endpoint security posture in the face of growing threats. Losing access to an endpoint doesn’t have to end badly; you can still have options to protect every device. It’s time for enterprises to start taking a more resilient-driven mindset and strategy to protecting every endpoint – focus on eliminating dark endpoints. One of the most proven ways to do that is to have endpoint security embedded to the BIOS level every day. That way, each device is still protected to the local level. Using geolocation, it’s possible to “see” a device when it comes online and promptly brick it if it’s been lost or stolen.

Louis: How can our cybersecurity team ensure compliance that all cybersecurity software is active and running on all endpoints?

Steven: Compliance is an area where having an undeletable tether pays off in a big way. Knowing what’s going on from a software configuration and endpoint security agent standpoint – basically the entire software build of a given endpoint – is the most proven way I’ve seen CISOs keep their inventory of devices in compliance. What CISOs and their teams need is the ability to see endpoints in near real-time and predict which ones are most likely to fail at compliance. Using a cloud-based or SaaS console to track compliance down to the BIOS level removes all uncertainty of compliance. Enterprises doing this today stay in compliance with HIPAA, GDPR, PCI, SOX and other compliance requirements at scale. It’s important also to consider how security automation and orchestration kicks on to instantly resolve violations by revising security controls and configurations, restoring anti-malware, or even freezing the device or isolating it from data access. Persistent visibility and control give organizations what they need to be audit-ready at every moment.

Having that level of visibility makes it easy to brick a device. Cybersecurity teams using Absolute’s Persistence platform can lead to humorous results for IT teams, who call the bricking option a “fun button as they watch hackers continually try to reload new images and right after they’re done, re-brick the device again. One CIO told the story of how their laptops had been given to a service provider who was supposed to destroy them to stay in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and one had been resold on the black market, ending up in a 3^rd world nation. As the hacker attempted to rebuild the machine, the security team watched as each new image was loaded at which time they would promptly brick the machine. After 19 tries, the hacker gave up and called the image rebuild “brick me.”

Louis: With everyone working remote today, how can we know, with confidence where a given endpoint device is at a moments’ notice?

Steven: That’s another use case where having an undeletable tether pays off in two powerful ways: enabling autonomous endpoint security and real-time asset management. You can know with 100% confidence where a given endpoint device is in real-time so long as the device is connected to a permanent digital tether . Even if the device isn’t reachable by your own corporate network it’s possible to locate it using the technologies and techniques mentioned earlier. CIOs sleep better at night knowing every device is accounted for and if one gets lost or stolen, their teams can brick it in seconds.

Louis: How can our IT and cybersecurity teams know all cybersecurity applications are active and protecting the endpoint?

Steven: By taking a more aggressive approach to endpoint hygiene, it’s possible to know every application, system configuration and attributes of user data on the device. It’s important not to grow complacent and assume the gold image IT uses to configure every new or recycled laptop is accurate. One CIO was adamant they had nine software agents on every endpoint, but Absolute’s Resilience platform found 16, saving the enterprise from potential security gaps. The gold image is an enterprise IT team was using had inadvertently captured only a subset of the total number of software endpoints active on their networks. Absolute’s Resilience offering and Persistence technology enabled the CIO to discover gaps in endpoint security the team didn’t know existed before.

Louis: How can we restrict the geolocations of every endpoint?

Steven: This is an area that’s innovating quickly in response to the needs enterprises have to track and manage assets across countries and regions. IP tracking alone isn’t as effective as the newer techniques, including GPS tracking, Wi-Fi triangulation, with both integrated into the Google Maps API. Enterprises whose business relies on Personal Identifiable Information (PII) is especially interested in and adopting these technologies today. Apria Healthcare is currently using geofencing for endpoint security and asset management. They have laptops in use today across Indonesia, the Philippines and India. Given the confidential nature of the data on those devices and compliance with local government data protection laws, each laptop needs to stay in the country they’re assigned to. Geofencing gives Apria the power to freeze any device that gets outside of its region within seconds, averting costly fines and potential breaches.

Louis: How can our IT team immediately validate an endpoint for vulnerabilities in software and hardware?

Steven: The quickest way is to design in audit-ready compliance as a core part of any endpoint resilience initiative. Endpoint resilience to the BIOS level makes it possible to audit devices and find vulnerabilities in real-time, enabling self-healing of mission-critical security applications regardless of complexity. The goal of immediately validating endpoints for current security posture needs to be a core part of any automated endpoint hygiene strategy. It’s possible to do this across platforms while being OS-agnostic yet still accessible to over 500M endpoint devices, deployed across Microsoft Windows, macOS via a Mac Agent and Chrome platforms.

Conclusion

Knowing if their autonomous endpoint security and enterprise-wide cybersecurity strategies are working or not is what keeps CIOs up the most at night. One CISO confided to me that 70% of the attempted breaches to his organization are happening in areas he and his team already knew were vulnerable to attack. Bad actors are getting very good at finding the weakest links of an enterprises’ cyber defenses fast. They’re able to look at the configuration of endpoints, see which software agents are installed, research known conflicts and exploit them to gain access to corporate networks. All this is happening 24/7 to enterprises today. Needing greater resilient, persistent connections to every device, CISOs are looking at how they can achieve greater resilience on every endpoint. Capitalizing on an undeletable tether to track the location of the device, ensure the device and the apps on that device have self-healing capabilities and gain valuable asset management data  – these are a few of the many benefits they’re after.

Answers To Today’s Toughest Endpoint Security Questions In The Enterprise is copyrighted by Louis Columbus. If you are reading this outside your feed reader or email, you are likely witnessing illegal content theft.

Enterprise Irregulars is sponsored by Salesforce and Zoho.

Industry 4.0 is the progressive step in a manufacturing company’s digital transformation maturity curve, focusing on combining information technology and operational technology to modernize the value chain in new ways. 

IIoT is one of the leading Industry 4.0 technologies that are fueling business growth for manufacturers. In simple terms, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is a framework that connects numerous industrial machines together with the help of sensors, devices, software, and the internet.  Industrial machines that are connected together through the internet include robots, sensors, cranes, compressors, and more.

For our manufacturing customers, IIoT enables remote connectivity, monitoring, and predictive maintenance of their machines on the shop floor. Cloud, connected devices, sensors, artificial intelligence, big data, cyber-security, and additive manufacturing, are a few subcomponents of their IIoT strategy. With the help of interconnected systems, sensors, and devices, their manufacturing workforce can access the machines from their office, assess their performance, and view insights as well as log files remotely – anytime, anywhere.  

Any variation or deviance from the set parameters can be identified by smart machines and communicated to those responsible for operating it. Also, intelligent sensors help automate the decision-making process on the shop floor. 

When you install a new smart machine, it should
be compatible with the existing setup and machines from the OEMs. Also,
strong connectivity between the devices enables data
sharing, establishes predictive maintenance, and minimizes security
risks.  

Industrial machinery often requires frequent maintenance.
The good news is that with IoT-enabled ERP
systems, manufacturers can preemptively know
and predict when the operational failure of the
industrial machine is imminent using sensors and cloud-based
analytics.  

Big players in manufacturing such as Boeing, Bosch, Airbus,
etc. rely on IIoT for various reasons. Airbus has launched an
initiative: Factory of the Future that focuses on wearable technology
and integrated sensors which are designed for safety and reduced
errors. Bosch launched a track and trace program that automates factory
operations, tracks the workers, and guides assembly operations.   

Cloud is an omnipotent component
of IIoT-enabled ERP 

The major objective of cloud ERP and IIoT is
increasing organizational efficiency. We already know that IIoT is a
framework of smart machines with embedded sensors and
network connectivity. Cloud allows this framework
to collect, send, and receive data without any
manual intervention.

Cloud ERP and IIoT run parallel with each other. While IIoT generates a massive amount of data, cloud ERP creates a pathway for it to travel and reach its destination. Whether it is about tracking the data generated from machines or about knowing how many products have been procured and dispatched, cloud ERP lets you see everything from a single platform. In simple words, IIoT generates crucial data for the organization, and cloud ERP streamlines and protects it. A Gartner research says that IoT’s rapidly evolving technologies have ushered in innovative disruptions at a staggering pace, in five key areas:  

Sensing — IoT endpoints 

Communicating — IoT communications 

Securing — IoT security 

Understanding — IoT data and
analytics 

Acting — IoT artificial intelligence
(AI) 

Source: Gartner  

Integrating ERP with IIoT leads to
data availability in real-time. Integrating ERP software
with IIoT transforms the supply chain drastically. How?
When IIoT devices talks to your ERP applications, it promotes
visibility at a detailed SKU level. For example, when you know that components
you require for production are to be shipped internationally, ERP allows
you to track the time of arrival as products are tagged and you
get constant information of its whereabouts. ERP
and IIoT applications work together to transform the way information
is being received by us. It lets you monitor equipment
and the production line 24/7.  

Cloud is the gateway to modern
manufacturing. It allows manufacturers to access information about the
functioning of products after they have been shipped to the customers.
Manufacturers can monitor the product’s behavior, its maintenance, wear
and tear, and solve any problem that occurred in the product remotely.  

How does Cloud ERP
Enable IIoT in Manufacturing 

Cloud ERP lays the foundation
for collaboration, automation, and increased efficiency in a manufacturing environment.
When you tie cloud ERP with smart industrial
devices, it lets you see a holistic view of the shop floor and access data
from anywhere and through any internet-enabled device. 

IIoT primarily covers
all industry sectors where industrial machines are used. It becomes
easier for manufacturers to check the parameters, maintenance schedule,
assembly process, and optimize different parts on the shop floor.  

Cloud ERP brings every chunk of
information in a single system. With integrated IIoT, manufacturers can more
fully view accounting details, production completion status,
inventory levels, customer input, defect (if any), shipment schedule, and
minor details of everything happening on the shop floor. 

The post It’s Time to Find a Way Forward With Industry 4.0 appeared first on ERP News.

Every business owner knows that having a steady flow of website traffic is key to being successful online. The more visitors you have, the more opportunities you have to introduce your offering to prospects, build relationships, and sell your products or services. That’s what makes a drop in traffic so terrifying, as that ultimately results in a drop in sales and revenue.

Whether it’s a recent website redesign, a technical issue, or a recent Google algorithm update, there are many possible reasons why traffic to your website has been declining. So, in this post, we’ll share five reasons that caused it and what you can do about it.

1.   You’ve been ignoring your broken pages and links

All sites have broken pages but if yours happen all too often, that’s a problem you need to fix right away. Why? Because broken pages can damage your reputation, decrease your rankings, and cause your organic traffic to drop. Here’s how:

Broken pages affect user experience

They drive visitors away thinking your website doesn’t work.

Imagine a person visiting your website for the first time lands on a page that looks like this:

This is their first impression of your business and it’s not a good one. The chances are that person will immediately leave your site and go to a competitor’s website that works. The fact that visitors leave so quickly after entering your site also causes your bounce rate to increase.

Broken pages can affect your rankings

Bounce rate is one of the factors that Google takes into account when ranking websites in the search engine results.  A high bounce rate usually means that the website is either irrelevant to visitors’ search query or that it doesn’t provide the quality information that visitors are looking for. So if your site has a high bounce rate, Google is less likely to show your site at the top of the search engine results, which means fewer visitors for you.

How to fix broken pages

 If you want to get your website traffic back on track, you need to tackle this issue right away. Fortunately, there are lots of tools you can use to find broken links, including the Google Search Console. This is a great tool for finding pages on your site that return errors. You can find a list with the broken pages on your site in Crawl-> Crawl Errors -> Not Found. Read this post on why broken links can hurt your website to learn more about broken links, and the tools you can use to find and fix them quickly.

2.   Your pages take too long to load

If your website takes more than three seconds to load, you risk losing 40% of your visitors who are unlikely to revisit your site and give it a second chance. Not only that, but your rankings can drop too because page speed is a Google ranking factor.

How to speed up loading time

The first step you need to take is to check your site’s speed and see how well you’re doing. Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool is free and the easiest tool you can use to see where you stand and what you can do to address the speed issues on your site.

Simply enter the URL of a page on your site to check its speed:

Scroll down to the “Opportunities” section for some quick fixes and suggestions to help speed up your website on both desktop and mobile. Read this post to learn more about ways to get your website up to speed.

3.   Your non-secure website is scaring away visitors

Cybersecurity has become critical, which is why browsers like Google Chrome now alert users when visiting a site that uses HTTP (not secure) versus HTTPS (secure).

So, if your site is labelled as “not secure”, the chances are most people will immediately leave for fear it’s not safe for them to stick around. HTTPS vs HTTP is also another thing that Google takes into account when ranking sites. So, if your site uses HTTP instead of HTTPS, you’re likely to see a drop in website traffic.

How to secure your site with HTTPS

 Here are the steps you need to follow:

1. Purchase a SSL certificate. Check out our available SSL certificates and choose the one that best suits your needs.
2. Activate your SSL certificate with your web host.
3. Install the SSL certificate on your domain.

Learn more about what makes a website secure to ensure people feel safe when visiting your site and buying from you.

4.   Your search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy is outdated

As a small business owner, you likely wear many hats and work on everything from website design to content to SEO to promotion. It’s hard to find the time to learn about new tactics to properly optimise a site for visibility in the search engines.

Unfortunately, if you’re on a budget and can’t afford to stay updated or hire someone to work on your SEO for you, you might find yourself losing traffic because you’re using a strategy that’s not been updated in a while.

How to fix it

Just like people change, so do their search habits. For example, years ago people used specific keywords to find your site. These keywords might have changed over the years so you’ll need to revise your content and keyword strategy to reflect these changes and make your website content relevant to search engines and users again.

Here are some things you can do to build your website traffic back up:

• Perform a SEO and keyword audit to see what’s still relevant and what needs to be updated.
• Review your content and update it where necessary to include those alternative keywords.

Try our Search Engine Optimiser tool to perform a complete SEO audit of your website and find opportunities to improve and boost your website traffic. Use the tool to perform an in-depth website audit and check your website for dozens of key factors that affect your rankings, including Meta tags, broken links and duplicate content. You’ll also get keyword suggestions that you can use to optimise your content and attract more visitors to your site.

5.   You’re no longer creating great content

High-quality, useful content that provides insights, answers, and advice has always been one of the most effective ways to attract visitors to your site. So if, for some reason, you’ve stopped creating content, it’s not surprising that your traffic dropped.

How to fix it

Creating great content takes time. So it’s understandable if you’ve focused your efforts on other things and created less content than usual. But if your website traffic has been affected, it may be time to add this to your priority list. High quality, useful, entertaining content in different formats can help you to stay at the top of the search engine results, get a steady flow of traffic, and keep your brand, products, and services top of mind.

Read these posts to learn more about the types of content you can create to get more traffic to your site:

Wrapping up

These are some of the most common reasons a site loses traffic or sees a dip in rankings. Hopefully, the tips and advice in this post will make a difference to your traffic. You should also try to keep informed as much as possible about the latest updates and best practices to increase your online visibility and grow your business.

The post Five reasons why your website traffic is dropping (and ways to fix it) appeared first on Better business online: Tips, insight and advice.

Does your business operate in the Healthcare Industry? Are you unsure if you meet HIPAA compliance checklist requirements, or even if HIPAA applies to you?

For many businesses that operate in the health and wellness space, HIPAA compliance isn’t just a part of everyday life.

It is a requirement for remaining in good legal and ethical standing.

Businesses in the medical arena that eschew HIPAA requirements are not long for this world as the federal government has laid plain: ignoring complete HIPAA compliance is not acceptable and will be met with severely punitive measures.

Today, we will cover what HIPAA is, who must adhere to HIPAA, HIPAA requirements, as well as cover a full HIPAA Compliance checklist, making it easier to stay compliant in 2020 and beyond.

What is HIPAA?

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act guarantees patients security and protection for their personal health information, also known as “PHI.”

Furthermore, patients preserve the right to choose who has access to their medical records and information. By default, HIPAA creates protections and security around certain health information for every patient in the healthcare system.

Before HIPAA, there were very few protections afforded to the privacy and security of individuals’ health information.

Complicating matters was that HIPAA became law during the most technologically transformational period the nation has ever experienced.

As the internet matured and patient charts gave way to electronic medical records in offices across the country, new regulations around personal privacy were essential to helping the digitization of medicine succeed.

HIPAA was created with the movement of employees between one employer and another in mind.

It’s right there in the name: portability.

That is to say that the need of employees to safely and securely move their health information from one healthcare or insurance provider to another was, and remains, the primary stated goal of HIPAA.”

However, to meet this aim, the requirements for HIPAA compliance provide significant protection of private health information even when an individual is not changing jobs, health care provider, or health insurance provider.

And while HIPAA became law in 1996, it was not until ten years later in 2006 that the Enforcement Rule went into effect. The Enforcement Rule finally granted the Department of Health and Human Services the power to investigate HIPAA complaints and issue fines.

Generally speaking, HIPAA states that healthcare providers and those with access to PHI:

1. Ensure confidentiality
2. Identify and protect against reasonably anticipated threats
3. Protect against reasonably anticipated impermissible use or disclosure
4. Ensure compliance by their workforce

Who Must Adhere to HIPAA?

Physicians and their staff are not the only ones that must adhere to HIPAA privacy protections. Health insurance providers and health care clearinghouses that process nonstandard health information into standard formats must also adhere to HIPAA Compliance.

By and large, any organization that accesses, collects, or processes personal information, including health information and personally identifiable information, must protect that data as a provision of HIPAA.

Largely excluded from HIPAA compliance requirements are industries and organizations like life insurance providers, workers compensation carriers, and law enforcement agencies.

If you are unsure whether or not your organization is subject to HIPAA compliance, the Department of Health and Human Services provides comprehensive detail around who is, and who isn’t, covered.

HIPAA Responsibilities with Digital Records

For the better part of 20 years, medical practices and health practitioners have increasingly adopted digital tools to keep their businesses running.

From electronic medical records to data storage tools, the adoption of digitalization in the medical field has brought with it a new lens through which to view HIPAA guidelines and compliance.

Whereas patient privacy is a shared interest for healthcare providers, the increased quantity of threat vectors for digital records create great complications not just in securing information, but also in ensuring staff members are trained to protect that information at all times.

Storing data requires various levels of encryption, proper firewalling and network protection, and threat detection alerting that notifies of a data breach.

Additionally, part of HIPAA is staff compliance. That means that for all of the technology in place to protect patient data, of equal importance is the way that team members treat the data and systems to ensure privacy is maintained.

Examples of HIPAA Violations

Simply keeping physical patient records under lock and key is no longer enough. Keep a lookout for situations that can be viewed as a HIPAA violation, such as:

• Leaving a desktop workstation with access to an EMR system unlocked while going to the break room for a cup of coffee
• Allowing guests to access the same Wi-Fi network that is also connected to a digital archive of patient records

Situations like these are easily avoided when staff adhere to protocols, keeping patient data isolated and secure at all times.

The Official 7-Step HIPAA Compliance Checklist

Thankfully, ensuring that your organization remains HIPAA compliant is a straightforward matter.

Straightforward doesn’t necessarily mean easy, but at least areas of confusion or complication have greatly been mitigated.

The Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services has released a guide entitled “The Seven Fundamental Elements of an Effective Compliance Program.”

These fundamentals can, and should, serve as a HIPAA compliance checklist for making your organization compliant.

1. Implementing Written Policies, Procedures, and Standards of Conduct

For starters, HIPAA compliance must be outlined and documented. From allowable employee behaviors, to what to do in the event of a data breach, HIPAA requires documentation around practices or business activities that fall under the purview of the law.

2. Designating a Compliance Officer and Compliance Committee

It is critical that individuals within a HIPAA compliant organization be named and held responsible for HIPAA compliance.

3. Conducting Effective Training and Education

HIPAA compliance requires that team members protect PHI. To do so in a way that meets the HIPAA standard, it is crucial that HIPAA compliance training be provided to staff. Ignorance is not a valid defense in the event of a HIPAA violation.

Application to Web Hosting: For your hosting provider to support your HIPAA initiatives, it is important that their support and technology staff are also trained on HIPAA requirements. It is prudent to confirm that your hosting provider does indeed have an understanding of HIPAA requirements and how to best serve you.

4. Developing Effective Lines of Communication

Health practitioners and their teams must have clear channels of communication not just for training and in the event of a data breach, but also as part of the day to day operation of handling private information. From the handling of medical records to the discussion of patient care, communication is critical across all levels and in all departments.

5. Conducting Internal Monitoring and Auditing

As with many policies and procedures, regular verification and reporting are essential to maintaining HIPAA compliance. As part of HIPAA is protecting against reasonably anticipated threats to private health information, it is crucial that HIPAA-compliant businesses test their environment regularly for potential weak spots or areas of vulnerability.

6. Enforcing Standards Through Well-Publicized Disciplinary Guidelines

Team members across the organization must understand the possible legal ramifications of HIPAA violations not just to the business, but to the individual as well. The seriousness of HIPAA is hard to overstate, and it is incumbent upon business owners and operators to ensure staff members know what is at stake.

Application to Web Hosting: Your hosting provider shares responsibility in making sure your infrastructure is HIPAA compliant. Their engineers and support staff should be aware of the penalties of non-compliance.

7. Responding Promptly to Detected Offenses and Undertaking Corrective Action

Protecting PHI is certainly the goal of every HIPAA organization. However, it would be silly to behave as if mishandling or unauthorized access to private data never happens. In the event of an intrusion or error, HIPAA regulations mandate that immediate corrective action be taken.

Application to Web Hosting: Your hosting provider should not only communicate any potential intrusions or points of concern as it relates to your HIPAA needs, they should also be prepared to provide you Corrective Action Reports in the event of an incident.

Understanding How Infrastructure Plays a Role in HIPAA Compliance

Unauthorized access to workstations, accidental viewing of the wrong patient record, or leaving the Wi-Fi network unlocked during routine maintenance are all examples of potential violations. However, not all potential areas of vulnerability are so easily identified. When it comes to your technology infrastructure, every component in the stack must meet HIPAA standards if your organization is to be truly compliant.

That means that your servers must be HIPAA Compliant, including where you store data and the applications you use to access and modify it.”

Network switches and routers must be properly secured to the standards dictated by HIPAA. Many hosting providers provide a level of security to their infrastructure as a benefit to your purchase. But very few hosting providers actually provide security and protection that can survive the scrutiny of a complete HIPAA compliance checklist review.

For example, does your hosting provider have a defined policy on communicating data breaches to you? Does that policy actually meet HIPAA standards?

The Right HIPAA Compliance Solution for Your Organization

Whether you’re in the midst of a digital transformation or are just starting to investigate digitizing your medical organization, having the right partner at your side is critical.

Not only is it important that your IT service and infrastructure providers understand the importance of HIPAA in your business, it is also critical that their own policies, procedures, and guidelines align with the HIPAA requirements to which your business is bound.

Our team at Liquid Web possesses both the expertise and the experience necessary to keep your HIPAA compliant business on track and out of regulatory trouble. From small, single doctor clinics to large hospital networks operating across many states, our expertise at the cross-section of infrastructure and HIPAA compliance is unmatched in the industry.

If you’d like to learn more about how the Most Helpful Humans in Hosting can help deliver your HIPAA-compliant infrastructure both now and as your business grows, contact us here. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss not just how to get compliant but also how to ensure ongoing compliance so you can focus on patient care and other business priorities.

Is Your Business Unsure How to Achieve or Maintain HIPAA-Compliance? Download our HIPAA Guide for Small Businesses.

The post Understanding HIPAA in the Age of Digital Transformation appeared first on Liquid Web.

There are many instances when client wants to give multiple copies of the invoices to their customers, where they must segregate multiple copies into original and duplicate. So we have given option on the report for those client where at the header part Original and Duplicate check boxes are given. So if the specific invoice is printing for the first time then Original checkbox should be ticked and if it is printing for more than once then the checkbox for duplicate should be ticked.

To achieve this working in Crystal report please refer the below steps:

Step 1:-
Create subreport using below SQL query and add that subreport into main report.
For example, your report code is ZSINVOICE i.e. for Sales Invoice Report. Add our subreport in this main report.

Refer below screenshot for SQL Query snippet:-

New Stuff: https://www.greytrix.com/blogs/sagex3/2020/07/01/how-to-solve-if-new-field-added-in-inquiry-screen-and-still-not-visible-after-global-validation-of-window/

Where variable “NUMDEB” holds the Invoice Number and variable “FOLDER” holds the name of the Sage X3 folder in which you are working.

Step 2:-
Insert 2 ticked and 2 unticked check box images in report headers like below screenshot:-

Step 3:-
Add suppress condition for both of the header sections using Section Expert.

Below is the Condition for ‘Report header a’ section :-
{Command.COUNT}=1

Below is the Condition for ‘Report header b’ section :-
{Command.COUNT}<>1

Whenever user tries to print the Sales Invoice report from Sage X3, it will show checkbox ticked based on the counter.

Refer below screenshot of the sample output.

In this way anyone can identify whether the invoice copy is original or duplicate by looking at checkbox.