I had this idea to evaluate the quality of software support by the most basic measurement – how easy was it to find the vendor’s phone number for support. So I went to the CPR+ website and clicked on the contact us – saw a picture of their owners, their building and right there – their toll free number for support. 5 seconds. Next I went to the Healthcare Automation website, clicked on contact us and there it was, the support phone number. And then I went to the Hanns On Software site and one click and there it was. So what is the difference between 3 and 5 seconds? Nothing. That’s not my point. Read on.
So I went to the Microsoft site looking for the number to call for SQL Server support. After 10 minutes of searching, clicking on “Contact Us” links, clicking on links that I thought surely I would get a phone number, I got nothing. I clicked on SQL Server and all I could find was info for SQL Server 2008. I guess they figure that if I am not on the latest release I am nobody. This was not just random searching, I started by clicking on the support tab off of the main www.microsoft.com menu. I don’t give up easy, as I have some real SQL Server questions. I entered “SQL Server” in the search area on the site (something none of the home infusion software vendors had) and I got a Bing search results page. Clicked the back button. Clicked on Products and found SQL Server. Oh, I’m almost there. Clicked on Contact us and got a “Ask Carey” prompt.
I give up.
There is a lesson here. All of the home infusion vendors started out using some legacy data format like .dbx or Access database files. All of the home infusion software vendors have selected Microsoft SQL Server as the software to store all of the data that is put into their home infusion software. The difference is that in the “old days”, the data base served the needs of the software. The database was only designed to be used by the software vendor and when you had a problem with the software, whether it was related to the system, the database or the information in the database, you called the software vendor.
In today’s world, your data exists independently from your system and there are powerful tools, including SQL Server, that allow you to take control of your data. Tools that are exponentially more advanced than your home infusion software. You can still call your software vendor and ask them about the data in your SQL Server, but you’ll get a fairly narrow answer. If you want to fully take advantage of the power of SQL Server you need to hire someone with this experience or contract with a company who has it. One of the most powerful and underutilized applications you have in your business might be SQL Server, or some other Microsoft product.
If you want to know about SQL Server (or CPR+, HomecareNet or Ascend), you can always call Rock-Pond Solutions. You are already on our site, just click on Contact Us on the top of this page. 2 seconds. Or enter “SQL” in our search box. We do a lot with SQL and SQL Server and we have a search box, just like Microsoft. Our mission is to help you extend the value of your information system investment. In late 2009 and 2010 we’ve been helping home infusion providers extend their systems through advanced uses of SQL Server and the opportunities are awesome.
You see, Microsoft is in the software business, not the support business. They rely on other vendors, like Rock-Pond, to support their products.
Find out what Rock-Pond Solutions can do for your organization. Click on the link below, or call 501-450-6446, and one of our representatives will follow up with you to schedule a demo of our reporting solutions.