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BirchStreet Systems offers companies Procure-to-Pay (P2P) cloud solutions to help improve business processes by gaining efficiency, compliance and visibility to reduce costs. With their best-of-breed solutions and strong value proposition as the leading provider of Procure-to-Pay (P2P) solutions for enterprises operating in the hospitality space, BirchStreet is poised to enter its next phase of expansion into a hyper growth position.

BirchStreet Finds a Secure and Reliable Cloud Faxing Service

As a key component of success for its Procure-to-Pay (P2P) cloud solutions, BirchStreet needed a cloud-based, secure and reliable fax service partner to handle their increasing demand on reliable and timely delivery of purchase orders to suppliers around the globe on behalf of their customers that include such premium hotel brands as Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Accor, and Four Seasons among the enterprise-wide users of its suite of SaaS on-demand solutions.

About Softlinx

Softlinx provides Secure, Reliable and Compliant Cloud Fax Service solutions via a full set of end user faxing methods as well as cloud fax APIs. By using Softlinx’ cloud fax APIs, providers of enterprise cloud application solutions such as BirchStreet can enable their solutions with a seamless application faxing capability offering the highest service availability and reliability.

BirchStreet uses Softlinx cloud fax services to send over 50,000 fax pages per month on behalf of its customers to the corners of the globe to its customers’ suppliers. By partnering with Softlinx, BirchStreet increased its worldwide success rate by 20% while cutting costs by 10%.

Contact Softlinx Today for Cloud Faxing Services

For over 20 years, Softlinx has been providing cloud-based fax and secure document delivery solutions to help our customers optimize their document workflow processes and reduce costs. Headquartered in North Reading, Massachusetts, Softlinx has built an impressive track record of helping our customers improve their business efficiency, save costs and grow their success. Contact us today to learn more about cloud faxing for businesses of all sizes and industries.

Read Full Article Here: www.BusinessChief.com

For companies providing their services to consumers, it has become a priority to ensure company operations are environmentally-friendly. In developed markets, sustainability is now a critical factor in shopper decisions, with one-third of consumers using it as a deciding factor. This shift also coincides with the maturity of millennials, with more than 65 percent willing to pay more for a product manufactured through sustainable, eco-friendly efforts.

In response to this market change, many companies are adopting eco-friendly business practices. Here are seven techniques they’re using to become a bit more sustainable.

1. Partner With Green Businesses

Companies with an established supply chain can assess and analyze their supply chain partners, such as manufacturers and distributors, to determine if their practices are green. A supply chain that uses recyclable and renewable materials, as well as minimal packaging with zero toxins, can often promote a clean supply chain or green procurement efforts to consumers.

This approach does pose a challenge, as it may require your company to form new business relationships and cease others. If you’re considering adopting this eco-friendly business practice, do not immediately switch all your processes to your new supplier, courier or manufacturer. Instead — if possible — taper your business off to ensure your new partner can meet your demands. It limits supply chain issues, such as those experienced by KFC and their new courier, DHL.

2. Use Green Web Hosting

The power demands of data centers in the U.S. are well-known. In 2014, they consumed enough power to match the energy usage of 6.4 million homes in the U.S. The improvements to server efficiency and power have lessened the growth rate of data center demands, while the popularity of green web hosting has provided companies with a viable way to make their business more eco-friendly.

A company that provides green web hosting operates on reusable energy. They also partake in additional carbon offset activities, such as planting trees or other vegetation on the facility’s property, utilizing energy-saving appliances and minimizing company waste. By focusing on a clean, eco-friendly operation, many of these hosting companies offer a lower rate for their services than non-green web hosting providers.

3. Optimize Energy Usage

Another productive way to make your business environmentally friendly is by assessing your energy usage and optimizing it. This area encompasses an expansive net, including the energy demands of your employee equipment, such as desktops, as well as heating, cooling, lighting and plumbing features. The assessment can also consider whether you’re purchasing renewable or non-renewable energy from your utility company.

To counter each of the above factors, you’ll rely on different approaches and technologies. The energy use of employee computers, for instance, can be resolved through company policies recommending the shutdown of non-essential equipment at the end of the day — or the installation of an automatic power shutdown system. For lighting and plumbing, your company can add energy-efficient LEDs and occupancy sensors, as well as low-flow toilets and low-flow faucets.

4. Initiate Recycling and E-Recycling Programs

Recycling is often a part of your employees’ personal lives, which is why many can quickly adapt to and support company recycling programs. A recycling program is one way to make your business more eco-friendly that also offers your organization the opportunity to apply for government grants. Since many companies use waste management providers, creating less waste can lead to a decreased fee.

In many instances, it’s difficult for consumers and businesses to recycle electronics due to their components. As a result, only 27 percent of the two million tons produced each year are recycled. Retailers and manufacturers, such as BestBuy, Dell, HP and Staples, will often accept electronics less than five years old for a store or tax credit, which allows your company to boost its green practices while saving money.

5. Go Paperless With the Cloud

Moving your company from pen-and-paper to digital documents offers more than financial savings, but also another option for how to make your business more eco-friendly. By adopting cloud computing, your organization can take advantage of cloud-based services from trusted third-party providers, such as for secure document delivery, faxing, network monitoring and more.

As well as decreasing your operating costs, investing in a paper-free operation provides a quick return on investment — in 84 percent of cases, companies received their payback in less than 18 months. A cloud-based service also benefits your employee productivity by streamlining document access and modification, plus supporting on-the-go communication among team members.

6. Carry Renewable Office Supplies

A significant factor in establishing eco-friendly business practices are your employees, who must adopt and support your efforts. That’s why they play an immense role in your use of renewable office supplies, which can include a variety of items, from pencils and pens to water bottles and single-use beverage pods. To support your renewable efforts, stock your shelves with post-consumer waste (PCW) products, such as paper towels and printing paper, and recyclable versions of single-use beverage pods.

Some companies will implement a team of green leaders to encourage employee participation. Their purpose is to promote cooperation, such as by initiating a recycling competition between departments, tracking the overall recycling savings and researching new ways to make your business green. While optional, it’s a route many businesses explore.

7. Audit Company Buildings for Energy Waste

On average, small- and medium-sized companies can save $165,000 through an energy audit. That’s why, if your company is searching for ways to make your business more eco-friendly, it’s recommended your facilities undergo an energy audit. With an experienced professional, your business can discover heating and cooling inefficiencies, as well as structural issues increasing your energy use and carbon footprint.

If you’re expanding your company by constructing a new office or facility, consider high-efficiency building construction. By investing in this type of architecture, your organization can promote your eco-friendly approach and reduce your overall operating costs, as high-efficiency building construction often lowers energy consumption by 80 to 90 percent.

Adopt Eco-Friendly Business Practices With Softlinx

With more than 20 years of experience and an established reputation for secure and compliant cloud-based solutions, Softlinx is the trusted partner for global organizations and world-class technology providers. Whether you’re a part of the healthcare, financial, education, manufacturing or insurance market, we can provide a secure and compliant cloud-based solution that matches your requirements.

Learn more about our secure cloud fax and document delivery services and 24/7 support by contacting us today.

With any major advancement in technology come several popular myths and misconceptions. For example, many people still believe the only way to judge a digital camera’s value is by how many megapixels it has. This myth results in many misled consumers purchasing a more expensive phone or camera simply based on a high pixel count. The truth, of course, is that an overabundance of pixels can result in images that are far too detailed, or noisy, for the simple purpose of posting everyday photos online.

Debunking Tech Myths: Megapixels Don’t Tell the Whole Story for Digital Cameras

There are other tech myths people still buy into as well. Some still believe the number of bars on their cell phones represents service speed. However, you could have full bars showing on your phone but be in an area like a sporting event where many others are on their phones, too. Despite having full bars displayed — which is a sign of signal strength, not service speed — you can experience slow service due to the congestion of localized phone users.

Other people misguidedly believe Apple-branded hardware is immune to malware. But don’t think because you’re reading this on a Mac that you never have to worry about viruses or malware. Typically, because cybercrime, including malware, looks to take advantage of the greatest number of targets, it focuses on the more common PC market, but that’s been proven to not always be the case. In fact, a growing number of malware samples targeting Macs is being developed.

The important lesson we can learn from all of this is it’s better to know the truth than believe in myths — and that all computers need good anti-malware protection.

Cloud Computing Myths Unveiled: Separating Fact from Fiction in the Business World

Of course, over the last few years, cloud computing — commonly referred to as “the cloud” — has taken the business world in particular by storm. In its report “Building Trust in a Cloudy Sky: The State of Cloud Adoption and Security,” Intel Security interviewed thousands of IT professionals and decision-makers and discovered that 90 percent are already using some form of cloud computing. Moreover, 73 percent of organizations surveyed reported they’re planning to fully move their computing needs to the cloud within the next two years.

But, as we’ve seen, with any tech advancement — especially one that has the potential to disrupt how business is conducted — there will be numerous myths floating around about its effectiveness, capabilities, cost and level of security, to name a few. In order to make sense out of this phenomenon, let’s examine and debunk some of the most common present-day myths that are frequently associated with the cloud.

1. The Cloud Is a Fad

Is the cloud going to last or is it some passing trend that will soon be replaced and forgotten? The myth that the cloud is just a passing fad is simply that — a myth. Understandably, because we all live in a world where smartphones and other devices become obsolete in our very hands, we can be tempted into thinking the cloud is just another example of tech obsolescence.

But here’s the truth: The cloud isn’t a device. It’s a method of conducting everything from remote computing to storage via the internet. Do you think the internet is a fad? And while we’re at it, how about the need for businesses to store data and quickly retrieve it? Because the cloud supports how business is conducted via a reliable network that we use more, not less, every day, don’t expect the cloud to do anything other than grow in popularity, importance and influence for years and decades to come.

2. The Cloud Is Unreliable

How can I trust something I can’t see? This question exposes a great deal about where myths surrounding the cloud come from. Incredibly, many of those who mistakenly believe the cloud can’t be as reliable as having localized computing hardware and storage are the same people who regularly use their smartphones to conduct remote banking, update their social media accounts and check on their doctors’ appointments and lab results. Of course, in all of these instances, people accessed and used the cloud via their smartphones. So the truth in the case of the cloud’s reliability is that it’s already a trusted technology for many banking, financial, insurance, educational and healthcare organizations.

What’s more, if you’ve ever been concerned with losing your business’s data, it’s important to note that quality cloud providers offer extremely reliable backup, storage and disaster recovery services, making the switch to cloud computing a much more reliable option than the localized computing route.

3. The Cloud Isn’t Compliant

Won’t the cloud affect my organization’s compliance? Is the cloud HIPAA-compliant? From healthcare to finance, many institutions are required by law to accept, store and share sensitive data in a highly secure fashion. Whether it’s handling protected health information (PHI) under HIPAA rules or protecting customers’ financial data under SOX and GLBA regulations, meeting your industry’s compliance standards is a crucial part of staying in business and earning your clients’ trust.

What’s so important to know about this myth is that the opposite is actually true. The cloud and many of the services associated with it, such as cloud-based faxing, actually include a very proactive approach to ensuring compliance standards are met as part of any service agreement. For this reason, Softlinx uses the Replix^® delivery platform to deliver a complete cloud-based faxing and document handling system that allows healthcare organizations, financial institutions, insurance companies and many other forms of business to remain fully compliant to their respective industry’s standards and regulations.

4. The Cloud Isn’t Secure

Is the cloud secure? Here, again, the truth is far from the myth. Since migration to the cloud began, the security of the cloud has proven to be far better than the vast majority of localized computing infrastructures. Cloud security is, after all, a big part of any cloud provider’s reputation. This means the large majority of cloud service providers will continually utilize the latest professional-level data encryption and security protocols to protect their business — and yours!

Softlinx Supplies Secure Cloud-Based Faxing

Now that you know the truth about the cloud, find out more about secure cloud-based faxing service. Contact us or schedule a live demo. You can also call (800) 899-7724 to speak directly with a Softlinx representative.

Advancements in technology are having a major impact on every aspect of our daily lives, from how we communicate to how we work, exercise and relax. So it’s no surprise that the healthcare industry is poised to take advantage of certain technological breakthroughs in a very big way.

Of course, if you’re directly involved in providing healthcare, or if you manage a facility or service related to health and wellness, the adoption of these new technologies couldn’t come at a better time. The American Medical Association reports that, while U.S. health spending rose 4.3 percent to $3.3 trillion in 2016 — or in excess of $10,000 per person — that growth rate was down from the 5.8 percent increase seen in 2015. And the trend to slow, or at least rein in, healthcare spending looks set to continue for the foreseeable future.

What this means is that while patients’ expectations are growing, healthcare spending is slowing down. And nowhere is this fact felt more than through the slowing of spending related to physician services. Over the ten-year period from 2006 to 2016, this spend has only seen an annual growth rate of 3.8 percent — and that represents a lower increase than other large categories associated with health, such as hospital care at 5.2 percent or clinical services at 6.5 percent.

This is why healthcare technology trends specifically designed for professionals looking to make healthcare practices more efficient are welcome additions if you’re facing the simultaneous challenges of managing costs while increasing the quality of care you provide to your patients.

Best Technology for Healthcare Businesses

If you’re deciding how to use technology to improve healthcare, the following list of top trends meet the double criteria of having the potential to increase the level of care provided and helping to control costs. Read on to see how the future of healthcare is likely to be positively affected by each of these promising technological advancements.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) — often referred to as “machine learning” — is finally turning the corner from being a distant idea to becoming a powerful everyday tool. Since it’s particularly useful for repetitive tasks and data processing, it can assist in a wide range of functions, from insurance claim processing to diagnostics such as cancer screening. In addition, while voice-activated assistants like Alexa and Siri are changing people’s personal lives, AI-powered chat bots are pushing the boundaries of conversational applications in the health industry. Now, within a few minutes of speaking with a chat bot, it can serve as a medical intermediary ready to monitor a patient’s condition and, if necessary, make an appointment.

Blockchain

Forget its association with digital currencies for a moment and think instead of blockchain as a new way of securely sharing vast amounts of sensitive health data. Granted, there are plenty of skeptics when it comes to employing the power of what amounts to a digital ledger for the purposes of the healthcare industry. But when you stop to consider that Microsoft, Google, IBM and Intel all have departments dedicated to the development of products using blockchain technology — including applications associated with healthcare — then you have to take it seriously.

In addition, it’s hard not to acknowledge its growing importance after the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology encouraged IT developers to explore healthcare-related uses of the blockchain. Nevertheless, before it can be used as a data transmission method, it will need to be cleared as HIPAA-compliant.

Cloud Faxing

While some technology trends may still seem like far-off predictions, others are already here, in use, and making a big impact on healthcare professionals and practices. Nowhere has the challenge to make healthcare data more secure been met with more positive and cost-effective results than with HIPAA-compliant cloud faxing services. Saying “goodbye” to the costs and complications associated with traditional fax machines and on-site fax servers is now a reality for numerous hospitals, clinics and private practices.

With reliable cloud-based fax services like those supplied by Softlinx using the ReplixFax delivery platform, your transmission and receipt of electronic protected health information (ePHI), including electronic health records (EHR), practice management (PM) documents and radiology information systems (RIS) are secure, encrypted and fully HIPAA-compliant.

Increased Security

While technology has advanced, so too have the threats associated with it — in fact, data breaches currently cost the healthcare industry $6 billion each year. Unfortunately, the nightmare of a healthcare organization falling prey to cybercrime and ransomware and having to pay thousands of dollars to regain access to its sensitive data remains an all-too-real scenario. And when you realize that ransomware alone is a multi-million-dollar industry for cybercriminals, it’s not surprising that the need for robust online security for healthcare companies has never been greater.

For this reason, expect to see everything from the addition of two-step authentication for online patient information portals to increased cybersecurity training for healthcare professionals to stronger cybersecurity systems.

Wearable Technology

More than helping you count calories at the gym or track cycling speeds on the road, wearable technology is about to vastly improve how health information is collected and shared with healthcare providers. Thanks to advancements in wearable technology, diabetics will be able to enjoy far more comfortable and accurate glucose monitoring. People who have difficulty sleeping will be able to monitor their resting state to help determine if they’re suffering from sleep apnea or some other respiratory condition. And heart patients will be able to send data about their heart rate right to their physician, who can analyze it and determine if any additional action is required.

To get an idea of how widespread this trend is set to be, consider this: The International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that more than 200 billion wearable tech devices will be in use by 2020!

Softlinx Leads Reliable Healthcare Tech Trends

To learn more about converting to cloud-based HIPAA fax services, contact us. We can schedule a live demo and answer any questions you might have. Call (800) 899-7724 today!