Surrounding Yourself with Good People

When asked what she thought was the most important ingredient in achieving his success, Debbie Phelps, mother of the phenomenal 2008 Olympian Michael, responded: surrounding yourself with good people.

How can you, as a lab technician or manager working intently at your job, surround yourself with more good people?   One excellent way that comes immediately to mind is to join the internet forums for your industry.   These are basically set up to exchange ideas and information, opinions and news pertinent to dental labs all over the world.  The internet makes this easily possible for anyone with a few moments a day, a computer or other device connected to the internet, and a willingness to listen and share.

As in any endeavor, there are those who are leaders, movers and shakers who like to communicate frequently and have their opinions heard.  Others who are members of the forums are known as lurkers because they tune in but do not make their voices heard.  And in between there are those who participate from time to time, asking questions, seeking opinions or whatever comes to mind.  Out of these exchanges, there develops camaraderie, giving support and friendship when needed, joking and good-natured kidding, a way to find good people who share your profession and livelihood. 

On these forums are also representatives of industry organizations, journals and vendors who have a mandate not to advertise directly but to share information and expertise when requested.   Also included in this group are dentists who can add knowledgeable viewpoints from their side of the fence.  The net result of tuning in is that you find those good-hearted folks who are willing to give back to the industry.

After a time in this quest, you come to know the personalities of the active participants:  who is witty, who is wise, who never seems to quite know what is going on, who is always trying to impress, who is willing to provide whatever education they may have to give---but basically all good people who care about this industry and each other.

To get you started, here are the contact points for some of the online communities for dental laboratories:  

Popularly known as the IDF:            internetdentalforum.org

-       to sign up, go to this link:

http://www.internetdentalforum.org/subscribe/subscribe/subscribe/sigsubscribe.html .

Dental Lab Network:                         dentallabnetwork.com/forums

Worldwide Dentaltown                     towniecentral.com or docere.com

-       First choose your area, then message boards and  dentallabtown

Lab Management Today                  LMTmag.com

-       Then choose The Bridge

Give them a try.  Find one or two that you like best.  We’ll look for you there.

Published in Spectrum Dialogue-Voice of Techno-Clinical Dentistry

About the Author:

Elaine Whelan is president of Mainstreet Systems & Software, specializing in software, training and support for dental laboratories as part of the Intuit Developers Network.   The flagship software system synchronizes case management with the QuickBooks products for accounting and financial management and services a large number of laboratories in the USA, Canada, Australia and United Kingdom. She has been a columnist for three journals of dental technology and has been guest speaker and lecturer at a number of dental conferences.

She is a graduate of Drexel University, has completed graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University, and has earned a CDP from the Institute for Certification of Computer Professionals.   She is the author of two books “My Mom’s Making History” and “Jameer” that have been chosen for Read Across America Day.  Pennsylvania has honored her as one of the Best 50 Women in Business for 2007.

 
Contact through:   http://www.mainstreetsystems.net

Artistic, Creative, Custom, Elite, Precision, Quality....

The list of superb adjectives goes on with many more…Aesthetic, Excel, Natural, Premier, Reliable, Superior, Unique.  These are not just adjectives, however, but dental laboratory names from our in-house license manager software that helps us keep track of both existing and prospective customers.  Many of the others in this industry are family names—names such as Dantonio, Glidewell, Killian, Rogers, Root---reflecting years of hard work to establish strong reputations for the very same superb characteristics. 

In these tough economic times, however, the qualities that have been the hallmark of many dental labs have taken a back seat to low-cost bottom dollar choices by dental practices.  To continue to succeed and prosper, labs must find ways to challenge this competition through more and better marketing, managing and innovation.

You may be thinking that your budget may not be big enough to do the things you would like to do in terms of time, money and other resources.  But think again….there may be a resource already in house, already paid for, that can be a great aid in meeting these challenges.   That resource is your dental laboratory software. 

Going beyond the tracking of cases and billing, many of the systems designed specifically for dental laboratories also include other capabilities that help you to reach out and find more business, both from your existing customers and prospective customers.  Sales and production analysis can pinpoint what types of services your customers have been using as well as those they have not used or used very little.   Is a particular customer only sending posterior cases and not anterior?   Do they use your lab for  crowns and bridges, but not implants, not dentures?

For prospective customers, you may need to ask these and other questions and record your notes in the software memo fields or activity logs.  Are they happy with their current lab in some ways but not in others?  Do they value excellent communication to achieve excellent results, do they need more expert guidance for their lab work, are they looking for faster turnarounds or bargain pricing or to try new techniques?

To help retain your existing customers, it is wise to take advantage of reports that show a change in activity.   If a customer has become inactive or greatly reduced the volume of work being sent to you, it would behoove you to find this out and resolve any issues, nipping trouble in the bud, as quickly as possible.   Reports that rank or sequence sales as well as graphs that show monthly sales can likewise be very helpful in spotting changes within your customer base.

In trying to attract and retain business, you can also let the dental offices know of capabilities you have not only with your products and services but also within your software that can of help to the doctors.   Some of these might include the ability to receive graphic images and imbed these in the case records for easy lookup both when performing the work and in the future.   Another might be materials disclosure forms sent with each completed case that specify the manufacturer, location, batch and lot of each component, as well as your own professional registrations, alliances and certifications.  Still another could be the capability to send invoices, statements and reports specific to the customer via email, as well as any special requests they may have.

To distinguish yourself from your competitors, you may be able to offer rapid and easily accessible case and invoice histories that can be printed or emailed upon request or simply answered in a phone call.   If your software system provides for direct entry via the internet for case information and requests from the dental office and then tracks these as well as billings and payments, this is another exceptional capability you can offer to save time and help assure accuracy for both of you. 

Doctors particularly value not having to repeat their preferences over and over again so it is wise to request these, record them, keep them up-to-date and then use them when performing lab work or making your next contact.  These can also provide an easy lead-in to discussing new work, an added way to build a reputation for trust and reliability.

Some labs market primarily by calling dental offices, others do mailings, seminars, in-person visits, sponsor events, email newsletters, maintain a website, exhibit or speak at trade shows and conferences.   To do any or all of these well, it is important to develop the habit of capturing and recording contact names and numbers with postal as well as email addresses and then extra pieces of information such as the type of practice, any specialties, preferences, alliances, how they like to be contacted, what they value most, the labs they currently use, and potential work for your lab.   You can then use your software to select from these criteria to generate communications in a variety of ways.  When you connect or receive a response, you can record your notes in activity logs to guide you on the next steps to follow through.  

Knowing that your schedule will be busy, it is good to provide alerts for yourself with dates and notes for your next communications.  One of fundamental rules of good marketing is to keep a steady beat of contacts so that through repetition your name and reputation become known.  Setting up an entrepreneurial program for your lab with the aid of your software can be accomplished with a little bit of determination, some guidance and input from your software support team, small chunks of time and minimal expense.  Then with some luck and good timing, you may be right there when a dental office is ready to send their lab work your way.  

Published in the Spectrum Dialogue-Voice of Techno-Clinical Dentistry

QuickBooks Synchronization vs. Integration

QuickBooks Synchronization vs. Integration

Having seen the success of DentaLab for QuickBooks, a number of other vendors began to advertise that their laboratory case management software integrated with QuickBooks or was compatible with QuickBooks.  So when reviewing the alternatives, a number of labs have asked us this question:

Is integration with QuickBooks the same as synchronization?

The answer emphatically is:  No

Synchronization has many advantages over integration, as it provides for transferring information both in and out of QuickBooks, for keeping the links for the various tables and the transaction records coordinated and accurate at all times. 

QuickBooks originally provided for integration through the creation of IIF files at intervals to bring information created in other systems into QuickBooks.  In our legacy systems, this was the only choice and required very careful, often manual, coordination between the two systems and remembering to integrate at the correct times.  Intuit has not dropped the use of IIF files, but discourages it.

Some say they are compatible with QuickBooks because the ask you to take advantage of the easy export of customers, employees, and items from QuickBooks into a variety of formats.  This is also quite different than synchronization.    

Synchronization was offered by Intuit to selected developers and provides many benefits, including these:

• Synchronization means that separate systems now work hand-in-hand as though they were one. It is a step above integration and compatibility via export/import steps.
• The standards, methods and look and feel are coordinated so that once one learns one system, it is easy to continue on with the other.
• Data is typically entered only once, eliminating the time and errors involved in multiple entries for the same data.
• Updates are immediate, as there is no need for exporting from one and then importing into the other at specific intervals.
• Data is not lost or mismatched due to forgetting to export and import or to enter at more than one point.
• Synchronization brings together the benefits of mass-marketed software funded by millions of users with the benefits of expertise involved in a smaller but more specific industry.
• Synchronized software results in a richer, more comprehensive, more complete set of features at an affordable cost.

DentaLab for QuickBooks was developed in conjunction with the Intuit Developers Network and  is the only dental laboratory case management system that is truly synchronized with QuickBooks.  

If you have further questions…

You can contact the support team at Mainstreet Systems at:

Voice :  215-256-4535
Fax:        215-256-1594
Email:    support@mainstreet-systems.com
Skype:  mainstreet-systems
Web:     http://www.mainstreet-systems.com or www.mainstreetsystems.net

Dental Lab Case Scheduling

DentaLab for QuickBooks – Case Scheduling

 

Overview

 

Almost all of the features of DentaLab for QuickBooks (DQB) are intuitive and very easy to learn and use. We find, however, that labs that have not had experience in scheduling cases with software often need extra coaching to help them get started.   This topic will discuss what information is needed, how items and tasks are scheduled for a case and the variety of possibilities for handling case management.

 

 

You will see there are very few requirements but tuning in to the options can lead to very efficient scheduling that serves to develop a case just the way the doctor wants it as well as assuring that it is returned in time for the patient visit.

 

 

To begin, DQB provides for several levels of case scheduling:

 

 

1)      By Critical Dates for case received, case start, case end, case ship and doctor’s request date, in which the system sets the received and start dates to the current date (allowing overrides), the user enters the doctor’s request date based on the prescription or a lab standard, then also enters the start, end and ship date.

 

 

2)      Automatic Scheduling, based on work center daily unit limits, schedule factors for difficulty/time and existing workloads, is the recommended method for greatest efficiency and for scheduling by task steps, rather than the whole case.  The task steps can be very broad or very detailed or anything in between.  This method sets the above Critical Dates for starting, ending and shipping.

 

3)      Manual Scheduling by the user, recommended only for special circumstances and adjustments, as this is the most time-consuming.   Manual adjustments can also take place after automatic scheduling.

 

 

Preliminary Information Setups

 

 

Before one can enter and schedule cases, there are several required tables of information that need to be setup.   In addition, optional tables of case-related information can be entered to provide for management control and speedier case entry.

 

 

The required tables are:

 

 

Customers:   the basic information needed for billing customers is established in QuickBooks and includes essentials such as name and address plus terms, taxation, payment methods, ship method.  Then in DQB, additional information can be added such as standard days to ship, doctor preferences by work center and/or item.

 

 

If working with group practices with multiple doctors under a billing account, you can also setup QuickBooks jobs for each one with separate shipping addresses.   In DQB, each doctor in a group practice will be treated as a separate customer with their own preferences and case tracking.

 

Items:  the basic item names, descriptions, type and default price are established in QuickBooks.  In addition, you can setup price levels for special pricing by item or percentage in DQB and assign a price level to a customer.   Also in DQB, you can assign a default work center, technician, and/or schedule factor to an item.

 

 

Work Centers:  this is the entity for which you will establish daily unit limits and track cases.   It can include one technician or multiple technicians, be considered a major department or a sub-department, it can be another lab to which you assign work, or an outsource company that performs all or part of the work.   When assigning daily units limits and schedule factors, you can establish your own measure for a unit such as a minute or tenth/hour, quarter/hour or any other interval of time.

 

 

Note that is you plan to assign technicians or implement barcoded technician productivity, you would also establish Employees in QuickBooks.

 

 

Prior to entering your first case, you should also review the Case and Invoice Settings under DQB Options to determine if you wish to change any of the default settings.  In the Holidays option, you can select holidays and other non-workdays on which you do not want to schedule work.

 

The optional tables are:

Case Status                        

Case Type                          
Holidays/Non-Workdays             
Lab Notes
Price Levels             

Ship Methods                    
Quality Control Issues   
Standard Procedures        

Tooth Numbers                  
Tooth Shades

 

Each of the optional tables serves a very good purpose for dental laboratories and you can choose whichever ones you would like to use.

 

 

We highly recommend the use of standard procedures, which define tasks by work center, item, and time, for the best management control and for speed when entering cases.   Details and samples for these and other optional tables can be found in the DQB user manual available from Help in the menu.

Case Entry and Scheduling

 

 

When you receive a prescription or work order for a new case, you can elect to enter its information from one of these places in the Cases menu:

 

Case List and Actions

New Case

 

 

The Customer List will automatically be shown.  You can also request customers by name, account, and various criteria as well as the alphabetic index.   From here you can highlight the selected customer and double click to begin creation of a case record.

 

 

From QuickBooks, the customer's credit limit and current balance will be examined by DentaLab for QuickBooks. If the balance exceeds the limit, an alert message will be displayed.

 

 

Near the top of the screen are the Critical Dates.  The enter/received date and start date are automatically set to the current date, but may be overwritten.   You enter the doctor’s request date based on the prescription or your standard lab turnaround time.  If not automatically scheduling, you would set the start, end and ship dates.

 

 

The New Case Entry process is broken down in steps aligned with these tabbed pages on the Case Entry form.  You can choose the ones you want to use:

 

- General Information

         Add Items

• Add Enclosures
• Preferences by Work Center, by Item
• Images
• Case Plans
• Materials
• Purchase Order
• Documents
• Technician Notes

 

 

It is in the Add Items tab that you build your case by selecting one or more standard procedures and/or one or more items.   When appropriate, you can also select quality control issues and assign technicians.  The case will appear in the grid.  From the grid, you can double-click any item to fine-tune it in any way or right-click to stop scheduling or rolldown a changed schedule.

 

 

When the case items have been specified and you are ready to schedule, simply click the Schedule button.   After the case is automatically scheduled, you can still fine-tune it if you wish.   We recommend that you use the automatic schedule option for the greatest speed and efficiency. The system will examine the master schedule by work center and date to find the earliest date with availability to complete the item. The system will bypass dates that:

 

- are established as non-workdays in the Holiday table

- are Saturday and Sunday dates unless specified as workdays in the Company table

- do not have a sufficient number of units available when the system reviews the number already scheduled vs the maximum limit.

To determine the number of units to schedule, the quantity or units entered will be multiplied by the schedule factor for the item. The default schedule factor is set to 1, but may be changed either in the item master record or at case entry. If the schedule factor is set to 0 (zero), this will result in no scheduled units being added to the schedule master for the item.

Note that you can also reschedule items or mark them as completed from the Master Scheduler or from the Extra Time Cases grid.   From Basic Lists-Work Center or the Master Scheduler, you can also fine-tune the daily limits by date or by week.

Once scheduled, here are some of the additional options available to you.

•  Mark Cases for Try-in/Finished
• Reactivate a Case
• Mark Items Complete
• Place a Case on Hold
• Show Work Ticket
• Print Work Ticket
• Case Materials Disclosure
• Invoice Case
• Show Invoice
• Print Invoice
• Delete Case
• Create Purchase Order
• Scan barcode for case tracking, technician productivity

Case Forms, Queries and Reports

 

 

Both from the Cases menu and the Reports Center, a large number of case-related reports are available for which you can select your own dates and other criteria.   Many of these reports are available in both detailed and summary formats.   Typically the reports are shown on the screen and/or printed, but from each report you can also select from a list of additional formats such as Adobe Portable Data Format (PDF), Excel, CSV.

 

 

From the Case List, you can also quickly retrieve cases through the Find options by date,  doctor,  patient and a host of other criteria.

 

 

The forms related to cases include:

Work Tickets                     
Case Labels                        
Quality Control Feedback

Case Invoices                    
Case Materials Disclosure

 

 

In addition to the standard choices provided by the system, customization is available for all forms and reports.

 

 If you have further questions…

 

You can contact the support team at Mainstreet Systems at:

Voice :  215-256-4535
Fax:       215-256-1594
Email:   support@mainstreet-systems.com
Skype:  mainstreet-systems
Web:     www.mainstreet-systems.com or www.mainstreetsystems.net