IT consulting

Sometimes you do not need someone to fix anything. You need a straight answer about what to buy, what to skip, and when. Consulting is a conversation with a technician who works in dental offices every day and has no reason to sell you more than you need.

When practices ask for this

• You are opening a new practice and want the technology planned before the walls go up
• A vendor has quoted something expensive and you want a second opinion
• You are buying a practice and need to know what you are inheriting
• Your HIPAA risk assessment is due and you want the technical side done properly
• You are choosing new practice-management or imaging software and want to know what each one needs underneath it

What you get

A written answer, in plain English, to the question you asked. It will not turn into a proposal for managed services or a list of products. If the right answer is “keep what you have for another two years”, that is the answer you get.

Where a decision involves money, we lay out the options side by side: what each one costs, what it gets you, and what happens if you do nothing. You make the decision with the facts in front of you.

New practice build-outs

This is the one where consulting pays for itself many times over. Network cabling, the server closet, power, where the access points go, how the imaging room is wired. All of it is cheap to get right on a drawing and expensive to fix after the drywall is up. We work with your contractor and your equipment supplier so the technology side is in the plans from the start.

HIPAA

The Security Rule requires a risk assessment and reasonable safeguards. We help with the technical part: what is protected, what is not, and what a realistic fix looks like for a practice your size. We are not lawyers and do not give legal advice, but we can make sure the technical answers in your assessment are true.

How it works

Consulting is billed by the hour, quoted in advance for a defined question. A second opinion on a quote might be an hour. A new practice build-out is a series of conversations over months. We tell you which it is before we start.

Common questions

Do you sell the equipment you recommend?

No. We will tell you what to buy and where the fair price is, and you buy it from whoever you like. That is the only way the advice stays independent.

We have a quote from another IT company. Will you look at it?

Yes. A second opinion on a quote is one of the most common things we are asked for. We will tell you what is reasonable, what is padded, and what is missing. Sometimes the answer is that the quote is fine.

Can you help us choose practice-management software?

We can tell you what each system needs from your network, your server and your workstations, and what the migration would involve. We do not have a favourite and we do not take referral fees from any of them. The clinical side of the choice is yours.

What does a new-practice consultation involve?

Usually a first meeting with the floor plans, a written list of what the build needs to include for technology, and then check-ins with your contractor at the points where it matters: before cabling goes in, before the server closet is finished, and before the fit-out is signed off.

Is there a minimum?

No. If a question takes an hour, you pay for an hour. If it takes five minutes on the phone, there is no charge.

Getting started

Call with the question. If it is something we can answer on the phone in five minutes, we will, and there is no charge for that.