Located in Portage, Michigan, Grabowski Orthodontics prides itself in creating personalized treatment plans, staying on schedule, and using modern technology to, according to their site,
“create the beautiful, one-of-a-kind smile you’ve been waiting for!”
Well, using new equipment is not only important in the patient rooms, but essential for the administrators who use computers to complete their daily tasks.
If you haven’t yet heard, Microsoft has ended support for Windows XP. Basically, this means that computers running on this system will be full of security holes and unable to install updates. As you can imagine, this is problematic for businesses that still used it, such as Grabowski Orthodontics.
Due to the ended support for Windows XP and the need to keep in line with their software requirements, Newmind recommended that the clinic upgrade to new desktops operating on Windows 7.
Kellie Simmons, SureSmile Coordinator, explained,
“We had one of our software vendors change to cloud-based and in order to meet those requirements, had to have certain machines.”
Newminder Ryan Russey said that a total of 10 computers had to be replaced. Along with meeting software vendor requirements, they also needed to keep the clinic’s budgetary concerns in mind when choosing a new device.
“He did really well in finding the correct machine for us,”
Kellie said in regards to the new computer that was chosen.
One of the first steps in the project was to do a pilot run. Rather than picking new devices and transitioning the whole office right away, Newmind replaced one computer for the office to test out for a week before setting up the other 9.
The project was a combination of offsite and onsite work. Once Newmind saw what worked with the pilot run, they needed to make those same, identical, custom configurations for the other 9. After doing some set up offsite, three Newminders went into the clinic one Friday afternoon for a 4-hour block to install the rest.
Kellie said their concern was
“just making sure that on Monday morning, all of our programs we use run the same.”
SureSmile Coordinator
Overall though, she said,
“I don’t think there was a whole lot of worry. We have a lot of trust in them. We expected it to be seamless and it was seamless. It was really nice because Newmind can remote into our machines rather than having to wait for them to come in. It was seamless.”
Come Monday morning, Ryan said the clinicians arrived to brand new work stations, brand new versions of their software, and Newmind had zero support calls for those new computers. He said the clinicians were
“all pleasantly surprised when they came in… though everything on the back end was new, they were able to run 100% without any glitches.”
The difference was definitely noticed, Kellie explained.
“The girls were happy because the machines ran faster than the old ones. It made a huge difference and in our line of work, staying on time for our patients is always important.”
When asked if there was something Newmind could do better, she said:
“We’re pretty happy. Compared with where we were before Newmind came – we had a day response time – and with Newmind, the response is within minutes. The guys are very professional. They keep me updated and let me know what they are doing. Even though I’m just a user, they don’t talk down to me. They try and teach as they go. They help to teach ‘this is why I am doing this’ versus just doing it. They’re very pro-active which is nice. That’s always better.”
With brand new devices in their hands, Grabowski Orthodontics can continue to run their business more efficiently and with the assurance that their information is secure.