Considering a network?

 

Do you find yourself competing for time on the computer? In many settings, it becomes necessary for more than one person to have access to the Office Manager or Case Manager data at the same time.. For example, in a busy group practice it is frequently desirable to have a station for the receptionist to enter new charges and receipts, a second station for a collections clerk to generate billings and follow-up reports, and a third for the office manager or administrator to check account status and print management reports. Each of these people must have instant access to all current information.

 

The way multiuser capability is implemented on personal computers is by means of a local area network or multiuser operating system. Since the introduction of OM Version 2 back in 1989, all of SOS's primary software has been written for multiuser access, but moving from a single computer to a multiuser system is a big step. In brief, you must decide the following:

 

- Whether you will be better served by a local area network, in which two or more fully functional PC's are cabled together to share resources like hard disks and printers, or by a host-based multiuser system, in which terminals (or PC's running terminal emulation software) are connected to a single, powerful, central computer.

 

- Which of the many operating systems (Novell, Windows 95, Windows NT, etc.) you should choose.

 

- Who to use for a consultant to install and configure the system. This selection is the most important and may determine your other choices. These systems are much too complicated for most end-users to consider implementing on their own. If you are not familiar with terms like memory base address, IRQ, daisy-chain and star configuration, twisted-pair, Ethernet, redirection, spooling, page frame, and the like, you have no business even considering installing your own multiuser system.

 

As with most things in life, you don't get something for nothing. Moving to a network will involve expenses including consulting fees, new computer hardware, new operating system software, and SOS fees to unlock the multiuser features in your current software. The good news is that there is no data conversion necessary and your SOS software works the same way that it did as single user software, with the exception that more than one person will be able to use it at the same time.

 

SOS has a booklet available called hardware and System Recommendations (also available as document # 110 on our Fax-Back system) that details many of the issues involved in the decision to go multiuser.