Giva's Corporate Outstanding Nursing Student Scholarship is for anyone currently enrolled in an accredited nursing program in the United States or Canada. This scholarship grant is aimed at assisting nursing students further their education.

$1000 scholarships will be awarded to students currently enrolled in an accredited nursing program in the United States or Canada who write thoughtful essays in answering the following questions:

How will you use your talents and education to make the world a better place for future generations? What are your career and personal goals and why?

The essay needs to be between 600-1000 words, and must be received by Giva no later than September 1st or March 1st of each year. A current resume must also be included with the essay. Giva will choose the scholarship winners and will award the scholarships by November 15th and May 15th of each year. Students can only apply once in any 12-month period.

For more information, please see visit our Giva Semi-Annual Outstanding Nursing Student Scholarship. Submit your application and essay today!

Giva has just announced its Corporate Excellence in Medicine Student Scholarship, which is for anyone currently enrolled in an accredited school of medicine in the United States or Canada. This scholarship grant is aimed at assisting medical students further their education.

$1000 scholarships will be awarded to students currently enrolled in an accredited school of medicine in the United States or Canada who write thoughtful essays in answering the following questions:

How will you use your talents and education to make the world a better place for future generations? What are your career and personal goals and why?

The essay needs to be between 600-1000 words, and must be received by Giva no later than September 1st or March 1st of each year. A current resume must also be included with the essay. Giva will choose the scholarship winners and will award the scholarships by November 15th and May 15th of each year. Students can only apply once in any 12-month period.

For more information, please see visit our Giva Semi-Annual Excellence in Medicine Student Scholarship. Submit your application and essay today!

Since the start of the year, over 92 million medical records have been affected by breaches of the healthcare industry. According to recent news in Forbes, these breaches can affect customers both financially and in a more personal way with the private medical history involved making them more vulnerable. The fraudster could actually receive medical treatment under the victim's identity in the end putting the victim at risk of later receiving wrong medical service based on someone else's health information. The possibilities of complications stemming from these breaches are endless.

According to the article, it used to be that the top cause for patient data loss was an employee losing a device or having it stolen, but more recently the medical information is being obtained through cyber attacks on major medical organizations including Anthem, Premera and Carefirst. Because financial services and retailers have become savvier about protecting customer data the cyber criminals are now targeting the healthcare industry. "In a recent FBI presentation, Kam [Rick Kam, president and cofounder of ID Experts] says that the agency said that it had seen health insurance information fetching a price of $60-$70 on the black market as opposed to less than a dollar for a Social Security Number." This should propel all of the healthcare industry to do all they can to make the protection of their customers' private information a top priority.

Giva's cloud software rises above the rest by being HIPAA compliant. For more in depth information on this very important benefit , please see 7 Key Elements of Giva's HIPAA-Compliant Cloud Help Desk Software for Electronic Health & Medical Records.

Organizations prepare service level agreements (SLA) detailing the services provided to their customers. These agreements describe how the work of the service organization is prioritized along with agreed upon response and resolve times.

For example, In order to provide optimal first level support service to all departments, all problem and repair calls might be received by a central Help Desk. This first level provides a platform where:

• All problems will be recorded
• Problems will be resolved or assigned to the appropriate specialist
• Problems will be monitored etc.

An SLA describes the factors influencing first level problem determinations, such as:

• Number of customers affected
• Effect on business mission
• Context of problem etc.

Tables used to define severity levels describe how calls are prioritized and the associated response and resolve commitments.

Single point of contact responses can be determined using the following criteria:

• Orders for new equipment provided by manager
• Data entry service
• System sign on request etc.

Does your business need a service level agreement? To ensure your SLA is consistent with best practices and contains all relevant topics and details, Giva provides much more in-depth coverage of this subject, using a help desk/customer service agreement as an example, in our whitepaper Sample IT Help Desk Service Level Agreement (SLA), which you can view online or download for free.

Saving time, in the long run, saves money. The new Apple watch discussed at TechCrunch is in the business of saving people time by making it easier to see important information throughout their workday without having to pull out their smart phone. This equates to precious time saved. According to Matthew Panzanaro at TechCrunch, "There are very few products that allow you to hand someone cash and be given back TIME."

Working around-the-clock to meet a client's needs is what a great attorney does. If that clock is slowed down in any way it costs extra money. Miles & Stockbridge P.C. has enjoyed a rich history of well-planned growth, enduring client relationships and loyal community leadership for over 80 years. They support approximately 500 employees in 8 offices across the east coast of the USA. "Since we are providing IT technical support to attorneys that work around-the-clock, we needed a solution that could be accessible anywhere and anytime by our staff. Our attorneys' time is our 'stock in trade', so we must keep the firm up and running and highly productive on a large number of applications and various hardware platforms in order to generate revenue." (Ken Adams, Chief Information Officer) They were spending a lot of time and money on managing and maintaining servers and software to host their previous application.

After researching their options, they found the solution to their time problem. "Giva's application suite is fast and responsive, and we have had 100% uptime. Any cloud application we use must perform this way, especially since we are working with attorneys that are always under tight deadlines and want to minimize the amount of time they are on the phone with us." Not only have they saved attorneys valuable time they have also experienced;

• 70% cost savings when considering the total cost of ownership (TCO) over a 3 year period
• 70% decrease in number of tickets that remain open from day-to-day
• 60% increase in customer satisfaction of attorneys and staff
• 100% application uptime and high application responsiveness

Miles & Stockbridge have taken the time to save their clients valuable time. According to Ken Adams, "With Giva, when I view any report, it always has real-time information. Furthermore, any of my staff can create, save and share reports, which allow us to retrieve pertinent real-time information at any moment without having to set up our own versions of a report. This dynamic nature of Giva's reporting engine is a tremendous advantage over all the others we evaluated."

Find more information at Miles & Stockbridge Case Study.

What is your challenge? Let Giva be your solution!

Giva joins in celebrating National Nurses Week 2015 this week, May 6-12. Anyone who has spent any amount of time in a doctor's office or hospital can attest to the fact that nurses are very special people. To quote Dr. Jean Watson, RN, Doctor, Author and Professor, "Nurses are a unique kind. They have this insatiable need to care for others, which is both their greatest strength and fatal flaw". Nurses "go there" every day cheerfully and lovingly tending to all those duties that include subjects polite conversation will not allow. And yet, most of them cannot imagine doing anything else. They receive us into the world and are by our side, helping us exit with dignity, and everything in between.

National Nurses Week begins each year on May 6th and ends on May 12th, Florence Nightingale's birthday, fittingly. The American Nurses Association website has lots of great information as well as many ideas and suggestions for celebrating National Nurses Week, honoring those unsung and tireless heroes and heroins. There is also a very timely and compelling book and movie documentary, The American Nurse, now showing in select theaters or available for download or purchase, chronicling the lives and unique experiences of several American nurses.

Many of Giva's customers are in the field of healthcare and we offer nursing and medical student scholarships as well. We wish to express our most sincere respect and appreciation to all of the nurses represented, not only in those companies but all over the country, for their integral role in the lives of so many.

How can you more quickly qualify and evaluate any software or cloud vendor?

In another informative whitepaper, Giva offers even more tough questions to keep your potential software or cloud vendor on their toes and to make sure they know you have done your homework. Customers interested in purchasing any software or cloud service may encounter myriad of problems and obstacles during the purchase process.  This whitepaper provides tough practical questions to ask your vendor candidate to help avoid mistakes that even the most experienced professionals can make. 

Some topics covered include:

• What happens if we have a disagreement? Mediation/arbitration or litigation?
• What are the costs of additional modules and licenses purchased in the future?
• What are license options for part-time usage?
• Are customer case studies with business results achieved available?
• Are your customer references compensated in any way?
• How will our future feature requirements be obtained?
• Will we have a dedicated Account Manager?
• Are thirty-day supported production trials available without obligation?
• How many new releases are provided per year?

For more information and tough questions to assist you in your vendor selection process, please refer to Ten More Tough Questions to Better Qualify Any Software or Cloud Vendor

Micah Solomon, best selling business author and named by the Financial Post "New Guru of Customer Service Excellence," wrote about an important principle of customer service titled the BUBL method in his informative article, "The One Customer Service Training Secret You Need To Know". The simple acronym stands for Begin immediately, Uncode, Break Your Schedule, and Leave Room For More:

Begin Immediately: This means giving immediate attention to the customer. Keep in mind they are here for your service; their needs are your priority.

Uncode: Be receptive to the body language, tone, and verbal cues of your customer to decode their persona and adjust your attitude accordingly.

Break Your Schedule: Throw your to-do list out the window. Customer service entails tending to customer needs as they are needed, so assure your schedule is their schedule.

Leave Room For More: Lastly, leave your interaction open-ended. In other words, make yourself available for future assistance.

These four practices are essential to successful customer service interactions.

But how do you provide helpful customer service when you are not physically present? Excellent online customer service is equally possible; however, business methods must be adapted to digital spaces:

1. "Beginning immediately" is no longer an issue in an online environment where the desired information should be readily available. A customer service representative or associate may not be present, but providing a Frequently Asked Questions page in your navigation can substitute as a reliable resource for any business-related questions your customer may have. Additionally, a search feature will assist users in navigating your website for any specific questions.
   
   
2. Uncoding a customer's presence online may not be possible , however, knowing what your customers find helpful or unhelpful is critical to the success of your business. To quote Bill Gates, "We all need people who will give us feedback. That's how we improve." Encouraging customer input by Including a survey or feedback form is a simple and effective way to gain that feedback. Consider using websites like Survey Monkey.
   
   
3. Navigating a website is a self-serving practice prohibiting you from personally tending to the customer's schedule. Instead, implement an analytics program to view the effectiveness of your website. By tracking metrics, you can gain a comprehensive look at customer interactions and pinpoint what areas of your business need improvement.
   
   
4. With regard to leaving yourself available for further interaction, be sure to provide a customer service phone number and email address in a clearly visible area should a visitor have additional questions or concerns. Regardless of the efficiency of your website's navigability or helpfulness, customers will always genuinely appreciate the option to communicate with a live person.

The online customer brings different challenges to the customer service environment, and successful organizations will find creative ways to closely interact with them, even if it is through "personal" virtual means.

Bedside doctors of old were sure to have a reputation in the local community. That reputation was determined by qualities that still exist in our current fast-paced world. Today, delivering the highest quality health care is as important now as it has ever been. According to Leonard S. Feldman, assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, "Basic things make a difference in patient outcomes and they're not being done to the extent they should be" (5 Ways New Doctors Fail At Bedside Manner). Just as it is for doctors, great customer service should be top priority for businesses. Giva customer Santé Health System understands this and endeavors to make certain that their customers in the medical field are satisfied.

Santé Health System provides IT and technical support across sixteen geographically dispersed healthcare sites. They provide technical support to physicians who in turn need quick answers in order to give great patient service. They were having difficulties that needed to be addressed. “Before Giva, we used FrontRange Solutions HEAT. However, significant IT issues were falling through the cracks over and over again. This is not tolerable in our organization given our goal of delivering the highest quality medical care possible” (Juan Carlo Muro, IT Director). After researching their options, they found the solution that would improve their customer service.

Santé Health System turned to Giva in order to solve the problem. “We were intrigued by Giva's cloud based service right from the first time we began evaluating it. It was very easy to get started, and we worked with a technical specialist for only just a few days in order to fully customize Giva the way we wanted it. Giva is more intuitive, easier and faster to customize, more functional, and has outstanding reports and dashboards.” The numbers show just how much they have improved:

• They experienced a 50% increase in productivity by using Giva's custom forms that are integrated with service requests to prompt technicians to ask important questions the first time they speak with users.
• As a result of productivity increases, they also experienced a 60% increase in meeting their internal resolve-time service level agreements (SLAs).
• The Giva dashboard made managers 80% more productive as compared to when they were using FrontRange HEAT as they can now see exactly what is going on across their 16 sites that they service.
• Giva increased their technician productivity by over 40% for those that travel between their 16 sites.

"Selecting Giva was an excellent choice for Santé Health System. After a support request is opened, Giva contacts us for more information, if needed, and consistently nudges and reminds us to follow up and provide all the information they need, so that our questions can be resolved in as timely a manner as possible. We never get this kind of focus and deliberate follow-up from other software vendors, and so we are extremely pleased."

Read more at about how Giva helped Santé Health System in their case study.

What is your challenge? Let Giva be your solution!