The more efficiently your office operates, the happier your patients and staff will be. Just about all dentists will tell you that it is difficult to provide both superior dental care and maintain a smooth-running network. Typically, most dentists do not have the time or desire to be both dental and technology experts. Yet without the right dental IT support system in place, even the best dental practice can’t operate efficiently and profitably. However, providing the very best patient care has never been easier.
So what’s the secret? Finding an experienced virtual firm or employee who understands your specific dental practice management software and all the technology in your office. By outsourcing your dental IT support services, you can focus on keeping your patients healthy and happy, while your virtual employee focuses on the technology and maintenance it takes to keep your practice running like a well-oiled machine.
Outsourcing your dental IT support will allow you to save on overhead expenses such as benefits, office space, technology fees, and many more items. You will get an “in house” SME (subject matter expert) who will be intimately familiar with your systems at a fraction of the cost.
This will also free up both your time and resources so you can practice dentistry… not install the latest security patch to your server. To see a comprehensive list take a look at this article.
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Not all work can be done 100% remotely. If you have a hard drive that fails or someone accidentally unplugged the copier… a virtual employee can troubleshoot the problem over the phone with you, but they will not be able to physically come to your business. Make sure you have a local company on retainer for such instances as failed motherboards, mice, keyboards and hard drives.
Also, any type of new installations such as setting up a new computer or server will require someone to be on-site in your office. Just about everything else can be done remotely in another country.
Well, there is a bit of a difference but it’s probably not exactly what you’re thinking. When dealing with somebody in the Philippines you are going to notice a small accent when speaking to them on the phone. The reason for this is their original language is Tagalog.
However, they all understand and speak English very well. English is a major language there. It’s taught in public schools and it’s even spoken in courts of law. You will also find that everything is written in a court of law in English.
You shouldn’t have any miscommunication problems that you might encounter in another country like India for instance. This is the main reason that I recommend outsourcing to the Philippines vs. Brazil, India or another country where English is not as widely taught or spoken.
You end up with miscommunication. You told them one thing and they thought they understood what that meant in English, but something got lost in translation. You’re not going to run into that problem in the Philippines.
Secondly, your virtual Filipino employee will be very well educated. It is very common for someone applying for these type positions to have their BS or even masters in the field they are applying for. Filipino’s are so well educated and such good workers that some of the biggest companies in the USA hire their virtual talent from the Philipines. Recognize the names: Uber, Google, Speedo, CBS, or Canva? Yep, all of these companies hire from the Philipines for their virtual employees.
According to Salary.com, the “average hourly wage for a Network Administrator I in the United States is $29 as of January 16, 2019, but the range typically falls between $25 and $34.”
I then went over to Online Jobs and found a superbly qualified young lady for about $9/hr. She actually is a little bit more expensive than most (average range is about $6-8/hr), but she had so much experience I would easily be willing to pay the extra $1/hr to get her if I was looking to hire someone to deal with all my dental IT support and network administration.
Just so you know you’re aware and so you don’t crucify me in the comments later. The average minimum wage in the Philippines in Manila is about $2/hr. So somebody who’s making $3/hr is actually getting paid above minimum wage and they’re not having to travel about an hour one way to their job and back home.
For them to be able to stay at home and make $3/hr they’re very happy with that. This translates into about $12/hr in the United States. The cost of living is just much less in the Philippines. So don’t think that you’re paying them so little that they can’t live. Now let’s be clear, $2/hr is a minimum wage for them. So it is difficult for them to survive on $2/hr, but $3/hr gives them a little bit of breathing room and a little extra play money. It is not unheard of for someone to be happy with $3/hr in parts of the Philippines. Someone asking $9/hr would be making a ton of money in the Philippines.
Below is a graphic from Online Jobs that shows you the average minimum wage per city in the Philippines.
Here is a graphic to help you understand why a person would want to work virtually in the Philippines:
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Regardless of whether you hire a network administrator or just simply desktop support, they both should clearly understand computers and have a firm grip on virtual desktop support/network administration, so make sure you quiz them on that information.
You’re also going to want somebody who’s a good culture fit for your organization. You want to be comfortable with their personality and know they are trustworthy. You will be building a long term relationship with them. Remember you’re allowing them into your servers and networks. Go ahead and quiz them to make sure they are up to the task. If it is someone for desktop support, make sure they understand how to remotely log into your computer and fix an update error or a missing printer driver.
If it is a network administrator quiz them on your dental software (they probably won’t know this, but will be able to learn it relatively easily… allow them to go do some research), backup schedules, network patches, or security updates, but do please make sure that you pay them for the two to three hours worth of research that you ask them to do. You like to get paid for the work you do, so make sure you pay them for the work they are doing as well.
Personally, I want somebody who has at least four to five years of experience. I don’t want somebody fresh out of college that has zero experience messing around with my computer network. I want somebody who knows what they’re doing. So that’s just a prerequisite for me.
Also, you will want to hire someone who’s used to working from home. It can be different because it’s typically very loud. If they’re used to being in a quiet office environment and it is loud at home it may be difficult for them to prioritize and complete tasks efficiently. Now, this is not the norm. I would say you may run into this 2% of the time.
Most people are very easily able to work from home, but you want to make sure that that they’re a self-starter and do not need to be micromanaged. They will have no boss looking over their shoulder making sure they stay busy.
You’re going to want somebody who has a high-speed internet connection
Also, during the rainy months, it’s common for the power to go out. So you not only want them to have a high-speed Internet connection but you also want them to have a backup. Ask them if the power goes out, how are they going to be able to do their job?
In the Philippines, they have everything from dial-up to about 6 megabits per second. Anything above 3mb/s is considered high-speed for them. Personally I require my employees to have at least have three megabits per second internet connection to be able to do their job effectively. At $6-9/hr they can easily budget for this expense.
Lastly, you want someone who does not have to take care of a family member while on the clock working for you. An example could be a child or an elderly parent. Make it clear to them that if they do have somebody that they’re responsible for taking care of, they will need to make other arrangements while they’re working for you. If for whatever reason they’re not willing to do this, this should be a red flag and I personally would not hire that person.
Glad you asked. We wrote another blog post on exactly that topic. It is 3,000 words of jam-packed advice. I highly recommend checking it out (and yes, it was written by someone who I hired on Online Jobs from the Philippines). It will answer most if not all of your questions on exactly how to hire virtually.
The Ultimate Guide On How To Outsource
I hope this has helped educate you about outsourcing your dental IT support services, and possibly consider outsourcing some of your work overseas. As always, you can message me at our Awesome Outsourcing Facebook page. I’d be happy to chat with you.
