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Choosing the Right Mac Software for Your Dental Office

If youre exploring the advantages of becoming a Mac-based dental practice, you probably already have a sense for the unique appeal of the Mac platform. Maybe youve used a Mac at home or at a previous job. Maybe you have a Macloving friend or colleague trying to win you over. Or perhaps youre just naturally attracted to the elegant simplicity of Mac hardware and software. Whatever the reasons, your decision to seriously consider the Mac platform for your dental practice makes sense.

Of course, the quality of your Mac experience depends as much on the software you choose as the standard Mac hardware and operating system. Apple provides third-party developers with a detailed set of Human Interface Guidelines to help them consistently deliver the full Mac experience to their users. However, plenty of Mac applications dont make much of an eort to follow them, especially in smaller specialty markets such as dental software. In many cases, the Mac versions of these specialty apps are just hastily ported versions of their Windows counterparts, which means they technically run on the Mac platform but do a poor job of delivering the kind of enjoyable, streamlined and user-focused experience Mac users have come to expect. Understanding this can help you make smarter software decisions as you evaluate the technology you purchase for your Mac-based practice. Youre probably not an interface design expert, but you can look for a few basic, common-sense characteristics to make sure every application you invest in delivers a consistent, complete and thoroughly Mac experience. This paper identies some of those characteristics. Then, since your practice management solution makes up the cornerstone of your Mac-based software universe, well look at how Viive, the Mac-based practice management software from Henry Schein, applies specic Apple design principles to create a more streamlined, ecient and userfocused practice management solution. This will help you evaluate Viive as a potential solution for your practice, and it will also help you make better choices as you evaluate other Mac software.

Understanding how things work in OS X helps you produce an app that integrates seamlessly with the environment and delights users. Apple OS X Human Interface Guidelines

Practice Management Software Designed for the Mac Designed from the ground up for the Mac platform, Viive brings the full simplicity, elegance, and ease of use that make up the Mac experience to the world of dental practice management software.

Embracing the Mac Experience

Die-hard Mac fans tend to wax poetic (often at great length) about why they prefer their MacBook Pro or iMac to any Windows machine. So exactly what is it about the Mac experience that inspires so much passion and loyalty? The answer starts with a design approach that focuses on making it easy and enjoyable to get things donerather than simply seeing how many features can be realistically crammed into an application. The Mac OS X operating system and Apples own applications are known for their clean and uncluttered environments, logical processes, and the intelligent use of multitouch and multisensory technology. With the Mac, its not about how many buttons you can pack onto a button bar, its about how easy and pleasant you can make otherwise complicated tasks. This philosophy denes all of the best Mac software, from Apple Pages to Garage Band. And the best third-party developersincluding the team that created Viivego to great lengths to embrace and recreate the same simple, elegant, results-focused experience in their applications. Thats why its so easy to tell the dierence between an application that was carefully designed from the ground up for the Mac platform and one that was simply ported over from another operating system. As you evaluate Mac-based practice management solutions and other applications for your practice, its important to look for and insist on the characteristics and design principles that dene a true and complete Mac experience.

Designed by Dentists for Dentists

Every successful Mac application starts with developers who are passionate about the OS X environment and know how to leverage its unique platform features to create that distinctive Mac experience. But in the world of highly specialized applications such as dental practice

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management software, the developers also need a thorough, in-depth understanding of the eld itself. For example, Viive was designed and developed by a carefully selected team made up of dentists who are also lifelong Mac fanatics. This combination made it possible to create a practice management solution thats easy to understand and a pleasure to use, because it works the same way dentists do. Unlike most cluttered, module-based and fairly obtuse practice management solutions, the Viive interface is clean, logical and totally focused on helping dental oces get things done quickly and without a lot of training. In other words, its a great example of how the Mac approach to software design can make dental oces more ecient and productive.

Apple provides the most admired customer experience in the marketplace, besting Amazon.com, Zappos, Starbucks and Disney. Steven Walden Senior head of research and consulting, Beyond Philosophy

Tasks above Features

The OS X Human Interface Guidelines encourage developers to follow what Apple calls the 80-20 rule, which states that roughly 80 percent of users use only a small handful of an applications features, while about 20 percent regularly use most or all features. This simple principle encourages developers to arrange and place features in the context of what most users want to accomplish with the softwareand carefully consider whether a proposed new feature supports most users goals. The 80-20 rule manifests itself in many OS X design features. For example, OS X features popovers that intelligently appear when users need them and disappear when they dont, which helps keep people focused on the task at hand rather than being constantly distracted and sidetracked by unnecessary windows and menus. Viive embraces and extends this simple, task-focused approach. The dentists who developed and perfected the Viive workow understand the details and nuances of how a successful dental practice works and the specic tasks each member of the sta needs to complete in a typical day. Then, they applied the principles of Apples human interface design to create a solution that makes it easier and more enjoyable to complete those tasks. The result is a practice management solution that combines a clean, ecient interface with a practical, ground-level understanding of how dental professionals work.

Committed to Consistency
Consistency is another core component of the Apple experience that has immediate implications for your practice. OS X facilitates and supports applications that run reliably, behave predictably and perform consistently. For example, all Mac applications automatically save content periodically, so you dont have to worry about losing important information. Most Mac applications, including Viive, are also built on a remarkably robust, scalable and sophisticated PostreSQL database with a proven reputation for performance and reliability. This translates into a faster, more responsive user experience, and it means that with Viive you can access patient records in real time, work on multiple patient records at the same time and get instant access to real-time account totals and reports.

The Power of Simplicity

Over the past two decades, Apple designers and engineers have perfected the art of building simple, elegant solutions that make it easy to perform dicult, complicated tasks. How do they do it? The answer starts with a design philosophy where users see only the tools and features they need to accomplish specic tasks. Apple also excels at creating experiences that feel familiareven if someone is performing a task for the rst time. For example, iTunes makes it easy for nearly anyone to search through thousands of albums, nd a song,

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add it to a playlist and play it within a few seconds, even if theyre using the app for the rst time. More advanced features such as ejecting a disk or shuing a playlist are always available, but they stay out of the way when theyre not needed, so they never compete for attention. And of course, Apple reinforces this sense of simplicity and familiarity by leveraging familiar symbols and icons and standardizing search functions, menu structures and other interface elements across every Mac application. Viive makes the most of this uncluttered, task-focused design philosophy to create a fundamentally dierent kind of practice management experience. Other solutions use a workow thats based on the functional areas of the oce, which means you often have to jump between several dierent functional modules to complete basic tasks. The Viive workow, on the other hand, revolves around a central patient screen, where you can access patient charts, ledgers, images and much moreand begin nearly any taskwith the click of a mouse.

A Sense of Style
Mac computers will add an instant splash of style to your practice; there is a reason you see so many of them featured in movies and TV shows. But the stylish, artistic Mac aesthetic goes beyond the hardware. Mac OS X places a premium on intuitive design, stunning graphics and well-organized screens that are pleasant to look ateven over extended periods. Viive embraces Apples distinctive sense of style with clean, simple screens that are free from unnecessary icons, buttons and windows. Information is always well organized and attractively arranged. And Viives patient-focused workow and design make it easy to nd information and complete tasksoften with a single click. This all adds up to a pleasant, ecient practice management experience thats as elegant and impressive as the hardware its running on.

The Service and Support You Deserve

When it comes to customer service and support, you simply wont nd a better combination than Apple and Henry Schein. Industry experts often refer to all of the interactions companies have with their customersincluding service and supportas the customer experience. In 2011, a rm named Beyond Philosophy announced that Apple provides the most admired customer experience in the marketplace, besting Amazon.com, Zappos, Starbucks and Disney. Steven Walden, the senior head of research and consulting at Beyond Philosophy, went on to say, Apple has married all the elements of its experience and connected with customers in a deeply emotional, irrational way. The American Customer Satisfaction Index reached a similar conclusion when, after interviewing over 70,000 consumers, it found that Apples Macs have, for the eighth year in a row, satised more customers than any other companys computers, earning Apple a score of 87 out of 100. Thats all great news if youre looking to build a Mac-based practice. But the story gets even better when you consider that Viive is developed and supported by Henry Schein, an established leader in the dental software industry and the creator of Dentrix, the gold standard in PC-based practice management.

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This powerful combination means you start with a hardware and software foundation from one of the most consistently recognized and highest rated customer experience companies in the worldand then add a practice management solution from a recognized leader with more than 25 years of dental practice experience and one of the industrys best customer service guarantees.

Bringing the Mac Experience to Your Practice

These are just a few of the characteristics and principles that help dene the Mac experience and distinguish Mac hardware and software from other platforms, and if youve ever used a Mac, youre familiar with them. But before Viive, the advantages of the Mac experience were largely unavailable to dental practices, because there simply were no Mac-based practice management options that could both deliver all the capabilities modern dental practices needed and take full advantage of the Mac platform to create a true Mac experience. Now, as you evaluate your options, you can be condent that theres a practice management solution that fully embraces the Mac experience and makes your Mac-based practice a practical, viable reality.
Visit viive.com/products.aspx to learn more about what Viive can offer your Mac-based dental practice.

www.Viive.com | 1-855-MAC-VIIVE
2013 Henry Schein Inc. All rights reserved. Henry Schein Practice Solutions makes no representations or warranties with respect to the contents or use of this documentation, and specically disclaims any express or implied warranties of title, merchantability, or tness for any particular use. All contents are subject to change. Henry Schein, Dentrix and the S logo are registered trademarks of Henry Schein, Inc. Other products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. C-VIWP-Q413