Cleanroom H13

Since the recent outbreak of swine influenza A (H1N1), more commonly known as swine flu, IQAir has received numerous inquiries about the applicability of its air cleaning systems to address this serious health threat.

IQAir stand-alone air cleaning systems have an immediate application in healthcare settings to reduce the risk of airborne virus transmission based on the recommendations outlined by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The benefits of air cleaning outside of healthcare settings to help prevent the spread of the disease has yet to be substantiated, and will depend on the exact transmission characteristics and scale of infection of the swine flu.

Similar to common seasonal flu strains, transmission of the swine influenza
A (H1N1) virus is spread person-to-person by airborne droplets expelled from the respiratory tract during coughing or sneezing.

Most droplets created by coughing or sneezing are relatively large (over 5 microns), and most will travel only a short distance (1-2 meters, 3-6 feet) before settling out of the air and onto surrounding surfaces. The highest risk of transmission is through the direct inhalation of these droplets occurs when in close proximity to infected individuals, after sneezing and coughing. Another source of transmission is via contact with droplet-contaminated surfaces and the subsequent transfer to mouth, nose or eyes.

It cannot be ruled out that transmission can also take place through sub-micron droplets (droplet nuclei), which may remain suspended for longer periods of time and be transported over long distances.

The CDC issued the document “Interim Guidance for Infection Control for Care of Patients with Confirmed or Suspected Swine Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Infection in a Healthcare Setting” on April 28, 2009. Recommendations for reducing exposure to the virus include masking and separating people with respiratory symptoms as well as adopting droplet control precautions, such as the use of N-95 or above respirators for healthcare personnel.

The CDC recommends placing patients with suspected or confirmed case-status in single-patient rooms, preferably rooms with negative pressure air handling with 6 to 12 air changes per hour. The CDC recommends for air to be exhausted directly outside or be filtrated though a high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter prior to re-circulation into the indoor environment.

IQAir offers a range of air cleaning systems, which meet the CDC guidelines in terms of filtration efficiency and air changes per hour. In addition, IQAir offers accessories for creating negative pressure environments.

Leading medical and research institutions around the world rely on IQAir air cleaning systems for their critical airborne infection control needs. The Hong Kong Hospital Authority selected IQAir as the only mobile air filtration solution for SARS patient rooms to protect staff, visitors and patients. Currently over 150 hospitals, clinics and health-care centers in Hong Kong alone are equipped with IQAir air cleaning systems. Throughout Europe, North America and Asia, IQAir systems have been used in healthcare settings for infection control of SARS, MRSA, TB, and the avian flu.

It seems like weekly, I get request from folks wanting to know where should they start out in IT to build a career. I typically tell them to find a beer they like and stick to it (I highly recommend Newcastle), pick a Star Trek series (if it is Deep Space Nine go directly to a VOIP specialization) and start out with the foundational skills first. A good career in IT means be able to be many places at one time with a wide skill set. Just like any building, a strong foundation is the key before picking out window treatments. Here is typically what I recommend to folks just starting out:

• Do not be a vendor loyalist. Learn the best vendors and open source has to offer for all solutions. This helps make you flexible and very valuable to any employer.
• Learn a Cisco foundation. Not because I work at Cisco but because Cisco is the most deployed, most documented and easiest to find local training on. Many vendors use a IOS like interface as well, so your learning curve is super short if you understand the green arches. Ethernet is the ruling class in the network. If you have a good handle on Ethernet, you are way ahead of the game to learn new stuff.
• Start reading and never stop. A few must reads in any IT pros knowledge bank should be:
  • Interconnections: Radia Perlman
  • Routing TCP/IP Vols 1-3: Cisco Press
  • The Switch Book: Rich Seifert
  • OSPF: John Moy

Allow folks to challenge your designs and disagree with you as much as possible. You are going to be wrong and miss stuff, just don’t be a wank about it now or to the engineers that follow you.

• Get in the habit of understanding proprietary vs. standards based features. This is not like the old IBM days where proprietary is a bad thing. Some features you need on a network will never ever be a standard so you have to look at other options. All vendors do it, just look at the depth you need. If there is a standards based option, understand it and why is it better or worse.
• Now specialize in a career area. You can stay and do all things foundation for sure. That path is wide and will provide you with endless challenges. OR you can look at VOIP, Security, Wireless, Network Management, Data Center. I personally believe that Data Center is the hottest ticket out there. Customers are begging for data center engineers today that understand fiber channel, iSCSI, fiber channel over Ethernet, virtualization and power management/control. I could not give any area a higher recommendation right now. This is one hot hot hot ticket!
• I do not recommend folks to be lawyers or programmers. Programming is a great skill to know, but it is too easily outsourced and off shored. If you like programming look at becoming a Database Administrator. Those folks are making some serious green!
• Give back and don’t be a locust. We all learn from each other. Post a blog, teach a seminar, write a paper or a book. Your knowledge, experience, success, failures and view point is the future of networking.

If you are looking for more Cisco career options, Cisco is hosting a virtual career fair on Thursday 02April. It is a come and go all day event (click here for more info). I will be there virtually chillin’ in the Cisco lounge three times a day. So drop by and say hey Dude and have a virtual Newcastle with me! I would offer a virtual Cohiba but virtual cigar smoking is illegal in California…

Jimmy Ray Purser

Trivia File Transfer Protocol

Talk about dedication! When Archimedes was killed by a Roman Soldier his last words were; “Don’t disturb my equation”

The best audit is the one that returns the greatest retained savings for you, in the shortest time and with the least disruption to your daily telecom management efforts. Our authoritative approach, 100% vendor independence, and thorough processes yield the highest possible results for our clients.

To earn your respect, we know we must deliver a truly meaningful ROI. And to earn the respect and cooperation of your vendors we must be accurate and complete in our claims documentation, persuasive in our presentation, and persistent in pursuing results.

The impact of common errors such as these can be staggering, yet these are the types of errors we see over and over again, even with companies that work very hard at managing their telecom effectively.

• Services not requested, but billed
• Discontinued phone and data services still being billed
• Unused or underused circuits and services
• Variations between contractual terms and actual billing rates
• Improper long distance vendor selection

A McMartin Engineering audit delivers much more than just savings. The progress of your audit is tracked and reported to you on a regular schedule from start to finish. Each audit finding is meticulously detailed, then presented to you for validation and acceptance.

Upon completion of the audit we present a comprehensive Service Inventory Report that details all of the vendors, circuits and services we have audited, providing a critical value-added tool. And our Telecom Savings Report will list every finding and outcome so you can see exactly how much you saved and how.

Every day that you allow telecom overcharges to continue you are adding to your losses, because not all errors will result in recoveries. And if a dollar in excess spending requires ten to twenty dollars in sales to even out at the bottom line, doesn’t it make sense to stop the losses sooner rather than later?

So, if your telecom expenses exceed $500,000 annually, and if you are interested in lowering your costs through our Baseline Audit and Recovery service please contact us today.

With the Telecommunications Deregulation Act of 1996, billing has fallen into disarray. The billing systems in use today evolved haphazardly from legacy systems designed in the days when one monopolistic phone company walked the earth like a giant dinosaur. That uniform standard is now a chaotic mess. The fact is that deregulation has created a billing minefield, and you are the target.

Each telecom invoice rolls up untold numbers of call details, rates, tariffs, discounts, charges, taxes and fees into a summary set of charges. Having multiple providers means you’ll get multiple versions of these bills. With no existing standard for billing platforms, companies are left to fend for themselves. So unless the background billing charges and codes are well understood by your staff, they may as well stand for “lost profits.”

Everyone wants a clear handle on costs, but few companies are truly capable of delivering on that goal when it comes to telecom. IT departments are great with technology and systems but the paperwork can overwhelm them. Accounting departments can track the overall expense but do they really understand all of the codes and hidden charges that make up a bill summary? The result is that most telecom expenses are not given proper scrutiny, and millions of dollars are wasted annually.

Overcharges and errors often date back years. Our team of telecom billing engineers can uncover tariff, billing and connectivity errors that even the well-trained telecom manager could easily be unaware of.

Our Baseline Audit and Recovery service is designed to help companies who want to find and correct potentially costly problems which have crept into their telecom billing and their service management efforts. Here are a few Q&A elements that help explain what we do and how we do it.

Typically, we allocate 10-15 days to assemble all of the client invoices, contracts and related source materials. Following that, we project a similar timeframe to assemble vendor source materials, although some materials can take longer. Audit analysis and client review of findings can be performed in about 30 days. Where we identify overpayments, requests are submitted to vendors, which will typically appear within 1-2 billing cycles. Some recoveries are more complex and may require escalation within the carrier. Clients with greater than $5 million in annual spending may require some sequencing of spend categories.

We recognize that you brought us in to get a quality job done without tying up your internal resources. As a result, we ask our clients to accept two key responsibilities. The first is to provide us with primary account information such as invoices, contracts and location lists. That allows us to gather additional materials from the vendor and perform the audit analysis. The second responsibility is to review the findings that we bring forward, and to accept or decline our recommendations on a timely basis. That allows us to efficiently begin generating savings for you.

Our Letter of Agency agreement with you is “information only.” While we can request refunds on your behalf, we are not authorized to make service changes. Instead, we provide you with the information and support you need to request any service changes that the audit demonstrates will lower your costs.

McMartin Engineering will take full responsibility for identifying overpayments and requesting related refunds or credits on behalf of the client, then insuring they are properly applied to the invoices.

We believe an audit should do more than just put money in your pocket. At the conclusion of our audit we will provide the client with a comprehensive Service Inventory Report that details all of the vendors, circuits and services that we have audited. This report becomes an excellent baseline for ongoing telecom cost management. We also provide a Telecom Savings Report that details each of our findings and the results of those findings.

Yes, but we are certain we can do it better and faster. There are so many nooks and crannies where overpayments can be found, that it is beyond the capability of most businesses to find them all. It’s no secret that slogging through stacks of invoices and rate codes is not “sexy” work, and it’s hard for companies to tackle this task, especially if they have tightened the belt on human capital. Our proprietary automated processes and tools make this detective work more efficient.

Some state tariffs are more favorable to consumers than others. Many states even have statutes of limitations that limit the requirements on issuing credits. But companies should beware that we are seeing more and more vendors attempt to add contract language which limits their liability to just 6 months, which TelAssess vehemently opposes!

For now, most carriers are comfortable granting refunds back two years. But the two year timeline can also be greatly extended in select cases. On a recent audit we secured a refund for five years and eleven months where the mileage being applied to a T1 span was inaccurate. That small error of just $55 per month returned over $3,000 back to the client.

If you are considered to be an important customer to a vendor, they may be willing to go back further than their standard policy provides for. The key to a successful recovery is to be accurate and complete in documentation of the claim, persuasive in the presentation, and persistent in pursuing the longest possible duration.

Auditing is neither easy nor glamorous. It’s a detailed, laborious activity that requires deep expertise with vendor billing, comprehension of network design, insight into current technologies, and more. McMartin Engineering prides itself on the diverse backgrounds our team brings, and on the tools and processes we deploy in support of lowering our client’s telecom costs.

McMartin Engineering provides Client with a full accounting of the audit including the Service Inventory Report (in both printed and electronic form) which documents all of the client’s circuits and services, and the Telecom Savings Report which details the individual audit findings.