Applications

Applications are the computer programs that get your work done. There are numerous ways that they operate and interact in various businesses and organizations. Let me give you a couple of examples.

In a medical office there are two very important functions that the computer provides consistently in most practices. One is to schedule the appointments for the office while the other is to keep information about the clients for that office. It is important that information about the clients includes insurance information and, in many cases, enough detail to perform electronic filing. There are numerous pieces of commercial software that compete to do these jobs better and to win market share for this type of application.

Let's imagine for a moment that the practice we are examining is a group of specialists in a related field; a group of surgeons whose specialties are similar but unique enough that the specialists would need to do referrals and consultations with each other to handle specific cases. The same would be true of a law firm that had a number of attorneys, each handling specific specialties. Meetings to interact and evaluate specific situations are a part of this type of organization and are a romantic aspect of what makes these types of organizations excellent television programs.

The cost of a meeting of the principals in these organizations is a financial burden on the organization and, although necessary for moral and good work environment, also must be weighed against the cost involved. By having patient notes or case notes available through the computer to everyone involved, savings in project time are achieved. Meetings can be used to handle issues that effect the majority of the staff. This is a second level of use for the computer.

Example #1 - Bankruptcy Intake System The Computer Farm developed an Intake system for a bankruptcy law firm that allowed the Legal Assistants to meet with the clients and gather pertenent information before the attorney ever meets the client. It flags areas of concern and while the client is in the office gives the attorney information about their specific situation prior to the attorney sitting down for the first consultation with the client. The attorney is able to spend all his meeting time with the client working toward a solution.

Example #2 - Computer Aided Manufacturing An architectural woodworking firm had the idea of effectively using the computer to combine custom jobs for several projects into a single run and gain the efficiency of a production shop. We also integrated their payroll and job costing systems to develop more accurate estimating and scheduling. The complete development of this system was a 5 year project during which time the company's gross increased about 600%. The system is still in place and the company's growth has continued.

Because the demand for information becomes greater with the increase in the availability of technology, many organizations are hard pressed to meet the requirements for details about their operation.

Example #3 - Combining payroll with other types of record keeping Working with a managed care organization we are developing a payroll system that, while recording the employees time cards, also records the cost center and client service information required for state reporting and record keeping for the organization. This has increased the efficiency of the collection and maintenance of that information tremendously.

Knowing how to apply these expansions to basic record keeping and how to evaluate their net worth is part of the process of surviving in the pressure cooker that today's fast paced world has presented us. We at The Computer Farm have been actively involved in helping smaller businesses find the cost effective answers to these riddles for many years. If you have questions we are happy to talk. We will confer and discuss a project fully before any work is started. We will go over your needs and your expectations and operate with steps that are the size you need to achieve success.

You can reach us on the Internet via sales@thecomputerfarm.com or call us at (860) 456-4501.