The Laurus Technologies annual boat cruise was this week down at Navy Pier! We had a phenomenal group of people turn out and are even more excited for next year. Special thanks to the Odyssey staff and everyone who helped make this year above and beyond what we expected. Pictures to come!
Good news from Laurus partner ThinIdentity
Our partner, ThinIdentity Corporation, recently announced that Alegent Health is moving forward with plans to implement the ThinIdentity stateless thin client solution throughout its healthcare system.
We recently demonstrated the ThinIdentity solution at BriForum 2009 in Chicago, and saw some enthusiastic response. ThinIdentity and Laurus can help hospitals improve the patient experience through enhanced caregiver workflow, reducing login sequences by 30 to 40 seconds each, while directing printing to the most appropriate location. That’s a big improvement in productivity for clinicians who log in to various workstations 30 or 40 times or more per day. More strategically, ThinIdentity can help hospital IT departments drive meaningful use of Electronic Medical Records, which may help them land stimulus dollars (and avoid the penalties down the road).
Most importantly, however, is that caregivers can have near-instant access to patient data at the bedside, which will improve clinician efficiency and patient care at the same time. That’s a healthy accomplishment!
Press Release: Alegent Health Turns to ThinIdentity™ to Improve Caregiver Productivity
Laurus Technologies resource page for Thin Identity and Caregiver Workflow
Good News for VARs Despite Tough Times
Channel Web just came out with an optimistic report based on responses from over 350 solutions providers about where they think the market is going in 2009. The results were positive, although noting the tough economic situation providers are dealing with, the future seems bright. Opportunities may be closing in one arena, but are opening in others. Many VARs, including Laurus, have seen the services portion of the business pick up tremendously.
Across the board demands for new technology and better margins are bringing diverse interest to the breadth of services that companies are taking on. Security is becoming a major issue, not just with compliance regulations but the fact companies can’t afford to lose precious customer trust. A boom in verticles like healthcare, government, and business all demonstrate a need that only seems to suggest this further. Campus Technology made mention to a lot of the philosophies we are Laurus feel are important– that these verticles show that the best way to survive the tough times is to adopt a plan incorporating more of these technologies and stick with it.
Moderating a Panel at CampIT tomorrow.
Tomorrow I have the pleasure of moderating a panel on IT Metrics at the CampIT Leadership Strategies Conference at the Rosemont Convention Center near Chicago. I’ll be a guest of Hitachi Data Systems for this event, and Dan Horwich of CampIT has done a fantastic job assembling some of the top IT leaders in the area to speak at this conference, and I am honored to guide one of the discussions.
My panel includes:
- Leslie Weber, SVP, CIO, TrueValue
- Lac Tran, SVP, CIO, Associate Dean, Rush University Medical Center
- Mary Ellen Woods, CIO, Veolia Water North America
Over the past few days I’ve been able to speak in depth with each panelist, and gained some insights into their use of metrics, both within the IT function, and how IT supports broader organizational goals. Some of the topics we’ll explore on this panel include the most important metrics today, what isn’t being measured but should be, government-driven metrics, and how the IT organization supports company- or organization-wide efforts.
It should be a great discussion–and if you’re at CampIT tomorrow, please stop by and introduce yourself.
Links for Security Breach Reporting
I’ve been working closely with our security and compliance experts over the past several days, and one of our engineers passed along a couple of useful links for security breach reporting:
- The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse at
- The DATALOSSdb from the Open Security Foundation
We are a Symantec partner, one of a handful authorized to sell the Control and Compliance Suite 9.0, so we’ve been involved in a number of audits and tests. We are amazed at what the trials turn up in terms of weaknesses in the data defenses, ranging from innocent release of information–a person wanting to work on a sensitive file emails it home–to outright fraud and theft.
A quick glance at either of the two databases above demonstrates exactly why companies have a continued need for enhanced data protection.
Laurus Talent Solutions: What Sets Us Apart?
Last week a group of us at Laurus met to discuss how our Talent Solutions team helps clients hire the best people for their contract, contract-to-hire or permanent hire positions.
Talent Solutions Group clients have a large number of options for staff augmentation projects–from huge IT recruiting “machines” to individual recruiters. The question we constantly need to answer for our customers is “What makes Laurus different?” Why chose us over any other competitor–including the in-house option or doing nothing at all.
The conversation was spirited and we concluded that there three fundamental aspects of our approach that set us apart:
- We have spoken with every candidate we send. With Laurus, you’ll never get a resume of someone that was just pulled out of a database. Resumes are not doctored, either–you’ll see exactly what the candidate submitted.
- Our submissions are 100% consent based. Every candidate we submit to you has given us permission to share their resume with you.
- We sweat the details of the search and hiring process, from arranging teleconference bridges to requesting background checks, including all communications with the client.
Watch for the Laurus Talent Solutions page on LaurusTech.com to reflect this updated value proposition. And please, put us to the test with your contract, contract-to-hire and permanent hire position.
