Testimonials

About

This non-profit founded by a Pastor with his wife, daughter, and a team of board members from the Lancaster County area provides a safe place where men and their families could come to receive faith-based teaching, resources, and counseling to aid them in the process of overcoming their addiction(s).  Men learn valuable life-skills, receive vocational training, connect with local churches, and transition back into the community.  This organization works with probation and parole officers and the courts to meet court-ordered recovery support legal obligations.

Challenges

The Center amassed thousands of documents, pictures, and forms over the many years of doing business.  Unfortunately, files were scattered, duplicated, and stored on removable media which made finding and accessing files frustrating and time consuming, but also posed risk of data security, integrity, and potential loss if a device was damaged, lost or stolen.

There was frequent confusion of finding the most recent, active files or spreadsheets. There were instances of data being saved to or edited on the wrong medium and having to ‘sneakernet’ flash drives back and forth.  The main computer the office manager conducted business with reached its end of life and slow.  The data was organized on this computer, however far too many nested folders resulted in files not being movable because the path and file name exceeded the character limits of the operating system.

Objectives

Data needed to be organized and re-sorted between active data and everything else that could be archived.  A solution that also afforded staff to work at either location or remote, and where data could be group by task/purpose with restrictions to access this data based on staff role, and last the ability to share data with outside sources without having to send flash drives or multiple emails was in order. Also, the data needed to be secure and HIPAA compliant.

Outcomes

First, ZSL spent hours working one on one with each staff member to inventory all files and reviewed with the office manager to determine how accessible the data needed to be.  ‘Active’ data needing to be readily accessible was uploaded into Sharepoint. Data that needed to be kept but not accessible was moved to an archive.

Prior to engaging ZSL, the Center recently adopted Microsoft Teams for team communication, and so channels based on purpose were created to isolate conversations by function or topic rather than one large group. Active files were moved from the flash drives, hard drives, and computers into the proper Teams channels and synced to the computers using the OneDrive app.  Critical files were set to ‘Always be on this device’ so even if the internet goes out, files can be accessed. Once internet is back, the files automatically synchronize changes to the cloud, making manual backups and having to think about it a thing of the past.

Conclusion

The speed and efficiency of this organization and using Teams and Sharepoint has no doubt saved the staff countless hours, increased security of the organization, and made it easy for third parties to have access granted to data with the ability to revoke access, rather than sending data out with no control over it once it left.

About

This physical therapy practice has been serving Berks County area since 2008 and opened a second location in 2021. ZSL has completed several projects for the Practice and continues to provide remote support as needed. Most recently, ZSL provisioned the hardware and designed the network at their second location.

Challenges

The Practice was using a perpetual financial software license limited to one computer, however due to their growth in operations and staff, one person at one computer could not keep up with data entry. Another office staff member needed to be hired, meaning this data needed to be accessed from two computers simultaneously without the risk of overwriting data.  Non-financial related data was stored across computers and ‘walked’ across via flash drives, sometimes confusing stuff causing duplicate data entries, but also posing a danger in the event the drive was lost, damaged, or corrupted – or worse, stolen. The data backup system was expiring, computers were aged and needing replacement, and there was no standard on antivirus software and a way to ensure all devices were protected and in a good state. The computers were old and reached end-of-life, additionally no battery backup systems were in place so in the event of a power failure or surge computers and network equipment would shut down, or damaged.

Objectives

Data needed to be organized and moved to a centralized spot and backed up. Financial software needed to be organized and converted to a cloud-based instance. Centrally managed endpoint protection (antivirus) needed to be installed on all computers. Computers needed to be replaced with all the programs and data copied over from the old computers. All computer and network equipment needed to be put on a battery backup that protects it from electrical issues. And all of this needed to be done with respect to HIPAA compliance.

Outcomes

First, ZSL spent working with each staff member to inventory all files and reviewed how to best arrange it with the office manager. Next, all data was moved to external drive. New Dell computers were quoted, ordered, and installed. Sophos’s centrally managed Intercept x endpoint was deployed on all computers and synchronized to a central administration portal. Data and programs were restored to the new computers, and the old computers were data wiped and recycled. Their financial system was converted to a cloud license and after assisting their office manager and working with their accounting firm to validate the data, was uploaded into the cloud-based software which allowed multiple users at once. Plus, the added benefit of not keeping financial data on site helped easily pass future audits. Their Wi-Fi network was configured with Guest network to separate untrusted guest devices from the rest of their network. OneDrive enabled the computers to back up data, and SysCloud was tied to both OneDrive and their financial software to back both of the software up a second time, to mitigate the risk associated with a cloud-based vendor outage.

Conclusion

The speed and efficiency of this organization and using OneDrive, SysCloud, Dell hardware, Sophos endpoint protection, and battery backups has ensured this business can operate no matter what cyber, electrical, or software vendor outage comes its way. Cybersecurity risk has been reduced to the greatest extent possible, exceeding HIPAA requirements, and provides data disaster recovery in the event of a catastrophic hardware or software vendor failure.

About

A premium landscaping company based in Berks County, designs and installs and high-quality hardscapes, planting beds, water features and more with personalized service. As with most contractors, the business is run by the owner/operator who is always trying to balance between being in the field on the job and managing the payroll, billing, purchasing, and maintenance.

Challenges

MSLBD was using paper timesheets and clipboards to have employees record their hours, but if a timesheet was turned in late, could risk delaying payroll. Sometimes papers would be lost, or illegible, or get wet; sometimes employees would incorrectly total their hours and shortchange themselves. Next, payroll time came, their current online payroll platform did not offer direct deposit and did not file state quarterly reports or file local taxes, so an accounting firm had to do this for a high fee. Once payroll was running the totals needed to be logged in an Excel expense ledger as the business did not utilize financial bookkeeping software and everything had to be totaled by hand. This presented a lack of financial insight and data trending that financial software offers so informed strategic decisions can be made, as well as producing tax documents instantly.

In addition, the business did not have a website and Mike wanted to feature in it so prospective clients can see recent projects in high quality photos, and the site needed the same level of style and feel as the business branding. Last, bulk contracts were becoming too much to enter each client’s contact information individually by reusing the same Word contract document, proving to be tedious and time-consuming, plus the occasional human error further slowed the process down.

Objectives

Find a new payroll company that was affordable and could handle local tax submissions in addition to state and federal as well as handle quarterly state submissions instead of relying on an accounting firm. Create a fast website that has filterable galleries based on project type and can showcase high quality project photos. Leverage integrations to automate data sync in between business software to reduce routine administrative tasks, save time, and eliminate the chance of human error (the software being new systems of time-tracking, payroll, and bookkeeping). Further, create an integration to automatically send a welcome email to new customers when their info is entered into the financial software, instead of entering it twice in both the financial software and email platform. Edit the bulk contract to a template and set up Mail Merge so bulk contact information can fill in at once and bulk create the documents instead of creating one by one, also reducing time spend and human error.

Outcomes

OnPay payroll, a preferred partner of ZSL, was selected as it offered the features this business was looking for and at a competitive rate, lower than budgeted for and eliminated reliance on an accountant to perform certain tasks. Employees log their time entries via an app that logs their location and syncs it to the payroll platform. Each week, Mike reviews their hours, approves the sheets, and clicks run payroll and everything is done automatically. The payroll direct deposits the funds and automatically uses an integration into their new Xero financial software, so this is no longer done by hand reducing time and risk of human error. Xero offers reporting and insights needed to make financial decisions, including the decision to drop a service offering after the software showed poor margins, allowing the business to focus on money making offerings!

A beautiful and high speed portfolio website with consistent branding was launched and has helped Mike close more deals as clients can quickly click a button to filter the photo to just ‘Driveways,’ ‘Walkways,’ etc. The contract template became the mail merge template and an Excel sheet that is the master list of contacts and pricing was created, upon mail merge each row in Excel represents one finished contract output from Microsoft Word, greatly reducing time spend and human error.

Conclusion

The speed and efficiency of this organization has improved so much the owner has reported saving 6 hours a week, allowing him to be on the job and earning more money. The chances of human error regarding time tracking, payroll, bookkeeping and creating bulk contracts have greatly reduced or eliminated in some instances. A website was created that features photos of completed projects and features a color scheme and design like the style of his projects, with soft sweeping features and personalized touch.