“A child’s smile is one of life’s greatest blessings.” – Unknown Author

Dr. Kevin Nietzer and Evan Curry

As a dentist, I can’t agree more. One of my favorite things about my job is seeing a child smile up at me after a dental checkup. And what’s most rewarding is seeing the change from when a very young child is nervous coming to my office to when she’s a little older and comes back in, hops into the chair, and shares her joy with me with a big, toothy grin.

For the past two years, I have been fortunate enough to participate in Xerox’s Making Smiles Brighter Dental Outreach Initiative when it has come to Hawaii. The educational program, which launched in 2004 and travels around the country, has one main goal: promote fundamental improvements in the dental health status of at-risk and underserved children. Children from low-income families are less likely to see a dentist regularly and will suffer from twice as many cavities as their peers. Since its inception, the Making Smiles Brighter dental outreach initiative has screened more than 37,000 children in 13 states and the District of Columbia.

Dental problems are also one of the most frequently cited reasons for school absences. Making Smiles Brighter usually takes place at an elementary school, and it starts with a presentation using a video and a giant set of teeth and a toothbrush to demonstrate proper brushing techniques. We then give the children on-site dental screenings to determine their dental needs. For some, these screenings are their first check-up ever. I’ve found that some of them have been in pain for a long time and require immediate attention. Our goal is to provide the children and their caregivers with recommendations for improving the dental health of these kids.

This year, the Making Smiles Brighter program brought me, another dentist and two dental hygienists from West Hawaii Community Health Center to Kahakai and Kealakehe elementary schools in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island. We volunteered our time to educate and perform dental check-ups on approximately 1,600 Kindergarten through 5^th grade students in two days.

Programs like Xerox’s Making Smiles Brighter initiative helps kids realize that the dentist office is not a scary place to go. It’s a great feeling for dentists when children finally see that we are here to help them – and that makes us smile.

Making Smiles Brighter went to Montana in April and educated and screened approximately 300 kids, and it will be making stops in California, Connecticut, New Mexico and Wyoming later this year. Learn more at www.facebook.com/makingsmilesbrighter.

Send to Kindle

Imagine if everyone did the bare minimum at work. Firefighters might not save our beloved family pet, or a mechanic might change our oil, but opt not to warn us when our brakes are dangerously close to failing. At Xerox, however, we’re committed to going above and beyond for our customers.

For example, we work with the New Jersey Department of Human Services to manage healthcare benefits for NJ FamilyCare, a federal- and state-subsidized health insurance program. We process applications, manage eligibility and enrollment, and operate a customer service center so NJ FamilyCare can help uninsured children get access to affordable healthcare. But we don’t stop there.

Xerox has 35 employees in New Jersey who are dedicated to working in the community to educate potential participants about the program and to promote enrollment. These employees operate out of regional offices in New Jersey’s busiest counties and at New Jersey County Board of Social Services offices, but they also take a “feet on the street” approach.

In partnership with the state and local organizations, our community outreach employees participate in community health fairs, church events, and even go door-to-door to work with uninsured residents who are likely eligible for the program. Our flexible workforce is available wherever and whenever they are needed, seven days a week. By setting up mobile work stations, they are able to help potential participants complete enrollment applications right then and there, using secure online portals.

Xerox also hosts dental screenings for kids around the country, including in New Brunswick and Somerset, NJ. Through our “Making Smiles Brighter” initiative, we team up with local dental professionals. They volunteer their time to educate children about how to take care of their teeth and to check for cavities and other oral problems. In many cases, these are the first dental check-ups these children, often from low-income homes, have had.

By encouraging enrollment in NJ FamilyCare, we can help ensure that more people in New Jersey get access to quality healthcare, and, through the dental outreach program, we can help children develop healthy habits for a lifetime. Programs like these help us feel proud of the work we’re doing, proud to be Xerox.

Send to Kindle

Content for this paper is excerpted based on insights from the IDC iView “The Role of Documents: How They Drive Business, Today and Tomorrow,” December 2012, sponsored by Xerox. The multimedia content can be viewed here.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I am the classic iWorker in a large company and I heard this week about software that tells what percentage of your workday is productive. The reporter of the piece found her productivity was about average, between 65-75 percent. I’d like to believe I am above average but suspect I am not because of all the time it takes me to navigate work in the new IT era.

There are many factors in my everyday work life that contribute to that 25-35 percent of lost productivity for iWorkers like me.

iWorkers have so many ways to collaborate, it makes our heads spin. There’s Salesforce Chatter, Webex, cloud sharing services, team rooms, IM, email.  How many of us remember where to find that useful bit of information we saw a few weeks or months ago? How many of us know how to retrieve past IM trails, some of them chock full of important details? How many of us can find valuable content we saw a while back in Salesforce Chatter, whether it’s in a discussion thread or within an attachment? How many of us build our own systems on top of those so we can find what we need, when we need it?

What about the numerous financial tracking systems in many companies that don’t communicate with each other seamlessly – leaving workers spending hours cutting, pasting, and worse, re-keying inputs from disparate systems to create dashboards?

Years ago, a study found a huge number of silos or content repositories within companies. Little has changed. Silos are alive and well, and now we have two versions – on-premise and cloud-based, with no good solutions to bridge across them. There is talk about federated search, business process management software, and bridging the paper and digital divide with intelligent capture.

I am not suggesting there are easy solutions. But too many companies put on blinders to the huge costs and missed revenue opportunities associated with siloed information, and assume it is too expensive or too complex to fix.

Only after a major crisis like a security breach is action taken.   And even then, the reaction is often to take a short-sighted or piecemeal approach, such as a software solution for the call center or the accounting department,  instead of a holistic, systematic, end-to-end approach.

Smart companies that outperform their peers appreciate how technology can provide competitive advantage. These companies seek solution providers that will partner with them, starting with a needs assessment, followed by a strategic plan, implementation and continuous improvement.

It is through such a systematic approach that companies can actually simplify work, making iWorkers like me more productive.

Watch How the Future of Documents Will Drive Business:

Click here to view the embedded video.

What do you think would increase iWorker productivity?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This content is sponsored by Xerox. The content is the author’s opinion and does not necessarily reflect the views of Xerox.

Send to Kindle

“Hero” is a pretty big word to use lightly. When I hear it, I think of our military members freely sacrificing to keep us safe. Or Charles Lindbergh or Neil Armstrong. And you can’t forget about political heroes like George Washington or Abraham Lincoln.

But those folks are few and far between. I believe it’s also the “everyday heroes” that help make a difference in our world today. People who go the extra mile to make a difference – Liberty Mutual showcases this idea nicely in their “Pay it Forward” series of commercials.

Recently I was the chair of the American Red Cross Heroes Fundraising Campaign for a local chapter in Kentucky and we met some amazing people along the way – everyday heroes right here at Xerox.

Stephanie Roberts, Janet Francis, Dwan McKnight and Connie Harvey

Dwan McKnight has been in recovery for nearly six years. He’s not proud of his past, but knows by sharing it with others he is helping prevent others from following in his footsteps. He rarely turns down an opportunity to speak about his struggles, speaking to 10-12 groups a year about his choices and problems they caused.

For the last five years, Janet Francis has volunteered at the food bank at her church; serving meals every Tuesday to about 50 people a week. They share a meal, join in prayer and discuss their faith. That’s about 12,000 people she’s helped over the last five years.

Stephanie Roberts is never one to run away from problems – she runs toward them, or at least runs for the cause. She’s run in about 25-30 road races over the last three years. She picks races that fund causes she supports. The old saying about walking a mile in someone’s shoes has never been truer than for Stephanie.

As part of the fundraiser, the Red Cross calls for nominees for a local “Hero of the Year” award. We nominated Dwan, Janet and Stephanie for their accomplishments.

With more than 140,000 Xerox people around the world, I know we have thousands more people and stories just like this. It’s the people that make the difference in our company. It’s our people that are allowing others to have a more normal life that we all take for granted. Dwan, Janet and Stephanie have been added to my list of heroes.

Connie Harvey is an engineer by training and loves to travel. She’s visited six of the seven continents, but has no plans to visit the seventh. 

Send to Kindle

Next week, Aston Business School will be holding a two-day summit to explain the concept of ‘servitization’ in the UK. Aston and Xerox are also jointly launching a new report that looks at the benefits servitization is having on manufacturers, their customers and the wider implications for the UK economy.

But what is servitization and why are we getting behind it?

Xerox is a company founded on developing print and copy-related devices, after our founder Chester Carlson invented a dry-writing technology to produce multiple copies of the same document. While we remain extremely proud of our heritage, we see the real value being in offering services tightly coupled to the products we produce.

Our initial drive was to help customers gain control over all aspects of their print infrastructure, rather than just offering them the next generation device. The result was the creation of our Managed Print Services.

It began by monitoring and maintaining equipment and grew to the point where today over half our business comes from services, which have become international outsourcing contracts underpinned by our own technology.

This is the essence of servitization; utilising technology to offer services tightly coupled with existing products. The success stories are numerous but Aston’s research finds that the concept has failed to permeate the market at large.

In fact less than 30 per cent of UK manufacturers are believed to offer services as well as products, compared to more than 55 per cent in the United States.

One of the challenges we face is the way that ‘services’ and ‘manufacturing’ are identified by media reports (on government reporting of GDP) as completely separate strands of the economy. However, by evolving into a business that focuses on offering services to customers as well as the products we sell, we have continued to thrive as a services led, technology driven company.

For manufacturers, servitization can offer increased revenue streams, and builds closer ties with customers that ultimately helps us add the most value to their operations. It is clearly an idea worth exploring.  What are your views on the current state of servitization in the UK?

Send to Kindle

A colleague of mine recently observed if everyone’s goal is to be a leader, there are going to be an awful lot of disappointed people in the world.  I think we need to change the idea that being a follower means that we are docile, weak, and ineffective. As Edith Wharton once wrote: “there are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”

Leaders are not the only ones who can use their knowledge, skills, and ability to shape an organization. Followers also can lend valuable perspective.  The world is becoming so complex that one person, the leader, cannot begin to comprehend all the perspectives needed to make informed decisions.

As a researcher at Xerox Research Center Webster, I like to explore ideas that could improve how businesses or organizations operate, but I got interested in the idea of followership quite by accident.  A friend recommended a book, and just as I had gotten really engrossed in it, I received an email requesting a call for proposals for a conference sponsored by the RIT Institute for Leadership.  I thought followership was an interesting juxtaposition to leadership, so I delved into the subject more and submitted a proposal to speak on the topic.

Information about leadership – in the form of conferences, workshops, books, videos, coaches – is plentiful but very little exists on followership.  That’s quite ironic as there are so many more followers than leaders on the globe!  Material on followership began appearing in the late 1990s. My favorite book, so far, (of the say, five, out there!) is “The Courageous Follower” by Ira Chaleff (the book my friend recommended).  It gives some very specific examples of what a follower could say or do to make his or her voice heard in an organization.  As I read I thought “hey, I think I can do this.”  Maybe I would know what to say or do if a certain situation arose.  It made me realize I can have more of an impact than I used to think.

Send to Kindle

Last week, a number of TEDMED attendees and myself participated in a Google+ Hangout sponsored by Xerox, to take a look back at our unique experiences at TEDMED 2013. The discussion included the following people:

• Markus Fromherz, chief innovation officer of Xerox Healthcare
• Benjamin Miller, assistant professor at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine
• Nick Dawson, chief experience officer at Frontier Health Consulting
• John Lynn, editor and founder of the Healthcare Scene blog network

We made it a really focused 15 minute discussion of the key takeaways from TEDMED. Some of the topics we discussed included: healthcare big data, multidisciplinary collaboration, citizen science, patient centered care, and a look at TEDMED topics 5-10 years from now. It was a really great discussion, and I encourage you to watch the TEDMED recap video below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

John Lynn is the founder of the nationally renowned blog network Healthcare Scene, which consists of 15 blogs that have been viewed more than 10 million times.  John can be found on Twitter at @techguy and @ehrandhit.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

John Lynn filed this content as a paid contributor to Xerox. The content is the author’s opinion and does not necessarily reflect the views of Xerox.

Send to Kindle

Data is a part of our daily lives. From our work commute and lunch break to our email management, our routines are filled with data. When that data is analyzed it can provide relevant insights about our productivity, time management, stress levels and much more.

In short, analytics give data meaning. And for companies and government bodies alike this meaning can be used to improve performance, identify cost savings and create efficiencies – letting employers and their employees focus on what really matters.

The Federal government – like most businesses today – is interested in leveraging its massive amounts of data and is investing millions of dollars annually on the insights that can be gleaned from it. What makes the analysis difficult for the federal government is the three ‘V’s: the volume, the velocity with which the data arrives, and the variety of data. In fact, many of the new types of data – blogs, social media, videos and GPS – are unstructured, making it difficult for existing analytics solutions to handle. At Xerox, we are tackling the challenge head on by harnessing this data through predictive analytics and business intelligence.

This week at FOSE 2013 in Washington, D.C., my colleagues and I will help federal decision makers examine the hidden treasure of new insights and opportunities that lie  beneath unstructured and seemingly non-related data. We will also discuss strategies for promoting transparency and improving financial management at federal agencies.

I’m looking forward to engaging with government thought leaders and continuing to understand their challenges. If you’ll be in attendance reach out and we’ll connect.

Click here for more detailed information about Xerox’s FOSE 2013 sessions – “Promoting Transparency and Improving Financial Management Using Predictive Analytics and Social Analytics” and “Provider based Federal HealthCare Practical & Actionable Medical Surveillance – Improving Care Proactively with Analytics.”  

Send to Kindle

“Rules are meant to be broken.” We’ve all heard this line, and, while it always seemed like the interesting and fun route to take, it’s rarely the right decision – especially in business and in government. Rules are in place for a reason, and when millions of people (and dollars) are on the line, compliance is a must.

In the government healthcare world, this notion could not be truer. Complying with HIPAA Operating Rules, MAGI and ICD-10 may not be fun, but it’s also not negotiable. Whether states choose to expand Medicaid or not, they’ll have to update their systems in order to comply with the new rules outlined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Systems and the ACA. Failure to comply will hit states hard in their pocketbooks.

ICD-10 may seem especially un-fun. In fact, it’s seen by some as being potentially apocalyptic – a highly complicated technology issue that could have devastating effects, and the migration to ICD-10 is getting a lot of industry attention for both its benefits and its challenges. According to a February 2013 survey by the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), a private and public industry authority on the use of health IT, provider readiness appears to be the major concern in meeting the 2014 compliance deadline. And, generally, moving to ICD-10 is seen as a highly complicated technology issue.

Xerox, though, estimates that the technology component represents only about 20 percent of a shift to ICD-10. The other 80 percent is about business readiness. Health plans of all kinds – Medicaid and commercial – need to focus on collaborating with providers to open good lines of communication and on ensuring every step of an ICD-10 transition is led by an effective business continuity strategy. Done right, that strategy will drive the technology delivery. And that may include some variation of dual processing for ICD-9 and ICD-10 (a “step up-step down” mechanism or running both systems in parallel) during a set period of time. This would result in significantly lower disruptions to the healthcare market in its entirety, and might offer the single most viable business continuity strategy a health plan could deploy.

It’s human nature to resist compliance, but, when it comes to government healthcare, compliance is the right thing to do. The system will run more smoothly, large fines will be avoided, and some sections of the ACA even estimate that compliance will lower the cost of doing business for all providers.

Erik Newlin always tries to do the right thing, including speaking about Medicaid compliance at the 22^nd Annual WEDI National Conference in Las Vegas, 13 – 16 May.

Send to Kindle

A few days ago I was pondering the top 10 business priorities for CIOs, as revealed by Gartner’s recent CIO Agenda survey. Specifically, I was thinking about what this annual survey confirms to me about cost control.

For years, the Gartner survey has consistently revealed cost as a top-three CIO priority, but never at number one. It seems obvious to me that this is because reducing costs simply isn’t an end in itself. Its importance lies in enabling other things: creating efficiencies and freeing resources for transformation and growth.

The use of technology and information in business is changing so fast, the pressure’s really on for IT departments to respond effectively. To do so, though, they may need to first root out unnecessary cost wherever it lurks.

Often it lurks in unconsidered places. Cost reduction has always been a major driver for managed print services (MPS), but the focus tends to be on the obvious costs: hardware, maintenance and supplies. However, as this paper from IDC points out, these account for only a fraction of the total cost of printing.

There are five areas of cost not always perceived as print-related, that really are. They’re larger than the obvious costs and offer significant scope for savings through MPS:

• Organisational productivity
• Procurement and administration
• Environmental sustainability
• IT service desk
• Storage and office space

The IDC research shows that when you look beyond the obvious, the total cost of printing is typically one to three percent of revenue, with potential for up to 30 percent cost reduction. This is in line with our experience, too, working with organisations of all types and sizes to eliminate sources of unnecessary print-related cost. Here’s just one example, where we delivered savings of 30 percent that equate to over $7 million annually.

I heartily recommend that you download and read the IDC paper, which discusses all the areas for cost reduction, includes more case study results, and highlights some basic criteria to consider in assessing potential MPS partners.

Send to Kindle