If you want access to your data from outside the office, you have number of options, depending on your situation:
Virtual Private Network (VPN)
VPN is a very
secure option which would most typically be used if you have a second office and
you wanted both offices to work off of the same database. Both offices would be
connected to the internet by a broadband connection, either cable or DSL. There
are different types of VPN solutions and a network specialist would have to set
it up for you. It typically involves a special router and some software. Once
the VPN is set up, the offices should be connected and function as if they were
a single office. You can also set it up so you can access the office from
home.
Remote desktop software
GoToMyPC.com makes an outstanding product
that is very easy to set up. For $15-$20 per month, you can log on to an office
PC from any computer you want, and if feels as if you were sitting at that
computer, except for a slight time delay. The data is sent encrypted so it is
secure. The only problem with this solution is that if you use a public
computer, or if you get a virus, someone may figure out what your password is.
If anyone figures out your password, they would have access to your network. As
long as you are careful, this should not be a problem.
Windows XP also comes with a similar built-in remote desktop feature. You can access it from Start | All Programs | Accessories | Communications | Remote Desktop Connection. Note that if you use one of these remote desktop solutions, the computer you are connected to is 'disabled' during use by the other user. In other words, it doesn't increase the number of users you can have.
Windows Terminal Services or Citrix
If you have
Windows Server, then you can use the built-in terminal services to access your
network remotely. The remote computers can run any application that you could
normally run from the office. The advantage over GoToMyPC which is described
above, is that you can have multiple connections operating at once. Instead of
just connecting to a single computer, the server would handle all the
connections. Each connection requires a license from Microsoft and this solution
runs into the thousands of dollars if you include the cost of Windows Server.
This solution works very well and is elegant in its simplicity.
An even more sophisticated option is a Citrix server. Citrix is the industry leader in terminal services, and the quality is very good. This is an even more expensive option which requires Windows Server in addition to a Citrix server and client licenses.
Laptop or removable hard drive
You can back up
your data to a laptop and take it home with you. As long as you remember to back
up before you leave the office in the evening, you would have access to all your
data. Another similar option is to use a hard drive of some sort to take home
the data with you. This would primarily be an offsite backup strategy, but could
also be adapted to allow you to use it at home. There are so many different
options out there that we can not begin to list them all. There are external
drives, internal removable drives, external cases, full size, medium, and small
drives, USB, USB2, firewire, ethernet, etc. Your best option is probably a USB
flash drive which is very small and convenient. If you have a lot of images,
then you may need to used a small external hard drive that connects with USB2 or
firewire. It will be fast, and it is easy to connect it to whichever computer
you want.
See the Backup section for specific instructions on how to restore a backup to a remote computer.
Multiple Servers
If you have multiple clinics,
and the internet connection between them is not very fast or is intermittent,
then this is a good solution. See the Multiple Server
page. This is currently NOT recommended as a way to access your office data from
home.
Palm or Pocket PC
A mobile version is
planned, but it is hard to say when we will be able to get started on it. Until
then, you could always do a few custom queries, save the results to your Pocket
PC or Palm, and then view the tables in a spreadsheet program.
Web browser
There is also not a web version of
Pract-Eze Dental, but this is a future possibility. Once it is done, you would have
to have someone configure your office as a webserver. This would require some
software, a firewall, and a fixed IP address which is a little more expensive.
You would also have to know how to maintain the web server, and ensure security.
Then, you could access the data from any computer with a simple password.
One other option might be to have us host your data for remote access. It will be some time before this will be available, but it would make it easier than trying to host your own web server. We would set up some sort of a periodic synchronization to upload patient information from your server to ours. Then, you could access it from any web browser.
Application Service Provider
At some point, we
will begin offering Pract-Eze Dental through terminal services. This would mean that
you would not have to install any software at your office in order to use it.
The database and program would be located on our servers. We would handle all
backup, upgrades, virus protection, etc. This would not be a web browser
version, but a full version of the program with all the functionality you are
used to. This service would be very convenient, although a bit more expensive.
But you would never be locked in to this setup. Your data always belongs to you,
so at any time you could request that we send you the entire database, and you
could switch to the traditional setup running on your own network. You could
freely move your database back and forth to best fit your situation and you
would always have total control over your data.