Cognos 10 launches today.
Business Intelligence users will want to tune in today at 2:15PDT for the Cognos 10 Launch. Cognos 10 is said to deliver a unified workspace, collaboration capabilities and greater access to mobile, real time analytics.
Drive Failure! Are you ready?
Hard Drive with Cover Removed
What are the only mechanical devices in your computer?
1. The fan
2. The hard drive with all your data.
If the fan fails, most modern mobos will sense it and shut down before it becomes critical.
If the hard drive fails without a good recent backup, your data is gone. This happened to our Treasurer and she was not happy to recreate hours of financial data. The backup job on her desktop had failed for a couple of weeks and went unnoticed.
We found a new partner in data recovery based on reputation, service and price. In choosing a vendor, I read reviews and service levels for over a dozen data recovery services. The companies reviewed ranged from guys working in their garage to large data recovery specialist companies.
Crucial Data Recovery, is a full service recovery company with a No Data, No Charge guarantee. They have been around for 5 years and have an ISO 100 clean room to repair drives for data recovery.
They offered a free diagnosis and quote, while others may charge up to $59 just to give you a quote. Our drive had a head crash, so it was a mechanical fix in the clean room for a flat $649. The difference is that once they diagnose your drive, they offer a flat rate recovery fee based on level of failure. Others gave me open ended quotes ranging from $349 to over $2,100.
They diagnosed our drive within 24 hours of receipt. Two days later, 100% of my data was being shipped back on a new drive I provided. They shipped back the old drive so I could get it destroyed.
Overall, it was a frustrating for the user but we recovered, literally. If you need a drive recovered, tell them Allen from GAMA Health Tech sent you.
IBM Partnership
GAMA Health Technology has become an IBM Partner in order to bring more services to our customers. We are still working on our contracts, but we hope to add more IBM services this month.
Our specialty continues to be in healthcare and insurance, but IBM Cognos has a new Cognos Express version to better reach midsize companies. We will have a free demo link up soon.
Watch this site or the IBM Partner Referral system for more more details.
Cognos Tips Blog
With over ten years Cognos experience, I often show Cogos tips to my customers and fellow admins. One of them suggested I start posting them on a blog as I come up with them, so I did.
Check out the first few tips over at Cognitive Info.
I have more ideas on post it notes that need to be written up as tutorials in my ‘spare time’.
New Oklahoma Cognos User Group
I’m inviting everyone to come join the new Oklahoma Cognos User Group. Our first meeting will be November 16, 6:00 PM at the OKC CoCo Facility.
Analytics article in latest HDM
Health Data Management magazine has an excellent article on Business Intelligence within physician offices. With government money pushing physicians to adopt EHR’s that deliver “meaningful use”, the healthcare industry is still trying to define what that use will be. In the article, Jerry Osheroff, M.D., who chairs the HIMSS Clinical Decision Support Workgroup, says their group broadened the definition to: “intelligently filtered patient data that helps inform decisions that lead to better outcomes.”
GAMA Health Technology helps physicians and clinic administrators design and implement Business Intelligence systems to filter and analyze patient data for their clinic’s specific needs. If your current practice management software or EHR is not delivering the analytics you need, contact us today for a free 2 hour information system review and planning session.
Who really does personal backups?
I get calls every year from people who lost or deleted a file and did not have a backup. And these are people in the computer business!
So this post is just a reminder to take 10 minutes right now to backup your personal or business files. An easy way to do it is with Mozy online backup. It is free up to 2GB. If you need more space try the Pro version.
2GB Totally Free Online Backup! Compliments of Mozy
Economic Hope
The national economic slowdown has finally hit Oklahoma. Companies are starting to cut back spending on both contractors and full time employees. I choose not to participate in the recession and encourage others to hang in there!
Dave Ramsey will be having a ‘Town Hall for Hope’ next week. Whether you agree with all he says or not, I encourage you to listen and take hope.
http://www.townhallforhope.com/
Exciting Data Systems?
After I built my first project, the head of a medical department screamed “This is orgasmic! I’ve waited years for this.”
Since 1998, I have helped business users turn piles of data into useful information. In the IT industry this is called ‘data-warehousing’ or ‘business intelligence’. To business users, it is just common sense access to their business data.
After that first project, I spent nine years designing and building reporting and analysis systems in medical industry. I have spent just over a year in the insurance industry, working on a team to build solutions for a 22 state insurance company. This project is built on Microsoft SQL Server database and Cognos 8 reporting and analysis system.
Not every solution will be ‘orgasmic’ but it will provide access to make your business data relevant and meaningful.
About Us
GAMA Health Technology has been providing IT services to medical facilities since 2006.
GHT can provide technology planning, setup and maintenance for imaging and surgery centers. GHT can also provide HIPAA compliance services to help you maintain compliance records.
GHT is led by Allen Smith, who has an MBA in Computer Sciences and has worked in health technology since 1998. His IT specialties include database administration, business intelligence, secure networking and DICOM image services.