Contract Guardian

How does Contract Guardian Improve the Contract Expiration Process?

2011-10-16T19:53:00.000-07:00

Contract Guardian provides a few features to improve the contract expiration workflow process. When a contract is loaded into Contract Guardian it defaults to sending expiration emails based upon the contracts expiration date. In addition, the application sets up a default value so the first notice is sent 90 days in advance of the expiration date to the contract manager and or any other responsible party designated on the contract. The system then sends follow up reminders every 30 days until the expiration date is reached. This is an automatic process that alleviates this task for the contract manager. The contract manager can adjust any of these values at any time. All of this activity is permanently recorded in the contracts journal which can be used for reference or audit purposes.

When the responsible parties receive the expiration notice in their email, this triggers the responsible party to review the contract and possibly negotiate with their trading partner. All of these review activities can be recorded in the journal. The eTask email web client can be used to provide feedback to the contract manager which also records the email in the journal. The journal will contain a complete list of activities in chronological order with date, time and user stamps. These capabilities provide the contract manager with automatic features to improve their contract expiration process and provide documentation that normally would not get completed using a manual workflow.

For additional information on how Contract Guardian can improve your workflow process, please call our office at 877.751.7962. Click here to visit the website.

New Spokesperson for Contract Guardian

2011-06-11T07:31:00.000-07:00

I’ve long believed that people would much rather watch a well done 60-second video than read a 500-word article on a web site or blog post, but right now the web runs on text more than anything else. We have decided to do a little experiment by adding our own spokesperson for Contract Guardian. Click here and watch.

Great HCCA Conference

2011-04-12T11:24:00.000-07:00

We want to thank all of the customers that visited with us at the Nation's Largest Compliance Conference at Disney World. We found the sessions to be exceptional and look forward to speaking with the new organizations that visited our booth.

Ways to Configure Contract Guardian to send Expiration Notices to your Trading Partners

2011-03-24T11:36:00.000-07:00

Contract Guardian is typically used by our clients to manage supplier and service related contracts. Our clients use the application to send contract expiration notices to their internal staff so they can manage the contract life cycle to reduce risk and eliminate potential contract increases associated with auto renewal style contracts. The internal contract staff will work with the supplier or service provider to renew and renegotiate the contract.

Contract Guardian can also be used with your clients and customers. The expiration notice features can be used in the exact same manner as with suppliers and service providers. Contract Guardian can be configured to not only send expiration notices to internal staff, but it can be configured to send notices to your customers as well. When this capability is desired, the application is typically configured to send expiration notices based on the type of contract. Using the type expiration notices allows a different notice to be delivered to different contract types for the same client. Let's illustrate an example scenario: The user wants to send automatic notices to their customers prior to expiration and when the contract with this customer expires. Using the application to send these emails, it reduces manual cost and time associated with managing this process; especially if the service is a low cost renewable service our client is providing to their customer. You can have different expiration notices sent based on the type of contract. The advantage to using the application in this way is that it provides automatic notification to the customer with a standard message that may include prompting the customer for contract renewal or payment. It can also be used to notify the client that someone will be contacting them. This is a low cost automatic message delivery system that is triggered on a predetermined date or action to deliver a consistent, tracked, and managed communication to your client base.

For more information regarding how best to use Contract Guardian, please call your Contract Guardian Representative at 877.751.7962.

Rippe & Kingston will present at HCCA's Compliance Institute

2011-03-07T06:57:00.000-08:00

Once again, Rippe & Kingston will participate in the HCCA's Compliance Institute Conference. This year (April 10- 13) it will be held at the Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin Resort in Orlando, Florida.

Hope to see you there!

Contract Guardian Introduces Referral Program

2011-01-17T06:31:00.000-08:00

What is the Contract Guardian Referral Program?

All you have to do is refer a prospective client to us, and if they purchase Contract Guardian, you will receive a gift card (Amazon, Visa and iTunes) of your choice. Learn more.

Annual Audit Review Notification Enhanced for Multi-Year Contracts

2011-01-10T12:10:00.000-08:00

Contract Guardian's Annual Audit email notification system has been enhanced to allow the Contract Manager to enter a specific month and day each year the notification will be sent to all responsible parties associated with a contract. This is an override date. Now the user has an option to use the override Annual Audit Notification date or let the system default to using the month and year of the expiration date to send the Annual Audit Notification. The application can be handy for a variety of audit activity, such as a Joint Commission requirement in the health care industry. It can be useful in any situation where you want a multi-year contract to be reviewed by internal staff on an annual basis.

To have this feature turned on or for additional information on how to use and setup, please call your Contract Guardian Representative at 877.751.7962. Click here to visit the website.

Rippe and Kingston Helps Clients Grant Wishes This Holiday Season!

2010-12-23T20:18:00.000-08:00

Cincinnati, OH – December 23, 2010 – A child fighting a life-threatening medical condition may be closer to having a wish fulfilled this holiday season. In a trend that is becoming increasingly popular with corporations, Rippe & Kingston donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, Southern Ohio Region on behalf of their clients and friends in lieu of holiday gifting.

“Supporting the community that helped build our firm isn’t a new concept for us, but this is the first year we’ve moved to charitable gifting for the holidays,” Katie Springob, Marketing Director for Rippe & Kingston said. “For a firm whose employees and owners are involved with so many non profit groups throughout the year…this was a natural fit.”

Over the last few years, the economy has taken its toll on everyone – especially non profit organizations. With uncertainty about the future looming, people were forced to cut back on their charitable contributions. People began looking for creative ways to maintain their ability to contribute to organizations they believe in. So it’s no surprise that people react positively to having donations made on their behalf. “I would much rather see this money go to a worthy cause than spent on a fruit basket gift or bottle of wine for me,” says client Jeff Hiatt, President of U.S. Logistics. Jeff’s sentiments have been echoed by many of R&K’s clients.

Rippe & Kingston is a Wish Granting Sponsor of the Make-A-Wish Foundation® – Southern Ohio Region Walk for Wishes® being held on Saturday, June 18, 2011.

“We are deeply grateful for the support of Rippe & Kingston,” remarked Kevin Allender, Make-A-Wish Foundation – Southern Ohio Region Development Officer. “With the help of Rippe & Kingston and the local community we will be able to raise the funds needed to bring our mission to life. Every dollar raised at Walk for Wishes stays in southern Ohio to fund the wishes of 121 children currently waiting for their wish to come true.”

About Rippe & Kingston
Rippe & Kingston is a family of companies that provide an array of products and professional services including accounting, information technology and capital advisory. They have been a part of the Greater Cincinnati region since 1976. For more information, please visit www.rippe.com.

About the Make-A-Wish Foundation®
The Make-A-Wish Foundation grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. Founded in 1983, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana chapter is the largest of the 64 Make-A-Wish^®chapters in the country in both territory and wishes granted. The Make-A-Wish Foundation of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, Southern Ohio Region has fulfilled the individual wishes of 1,099 local children since it was founded in 1998. Currently, we have more than 121 pending wishes. You can help share the power of a wish^® by contributing financially, donating frequent flyer miles, adopting a wish or remembering the Make-A-Wish Foundation in your planned giving by calling (888) 441-9474. For more information, visit our website atwww.makeawishohio.org.

Press Release: R&K Releases Contract Guardian Enterprise Inquiry

2010-11-19T08:42:00.000-08:00

Enterprise Inquiry has enhanced several features of the existing inquiry system. A new scan feature has been added that dramatically improves the searching of contract documents across the entire enterprise.

The scan search feature goes well beyond the typical keyword or phrases and is only limited by the user’s security level. Additional search criteria can include Boolean logic, wildcard characters, fuzzy search (words similar) and proximity searches (words or phrases within x words of each other).

The result set dynamically adds the appropriate columns based on search type. Performance has been improved on all search types with new LANSA technology options. See complete press release.

Have you ever needed an annual audit review of your contracts?

2010-11-18T06:47:00.000-08:00

Contract Guardian's Annual Audit email notifications can be handy for a variety of audit activity, such as a Joint Commission requirement in the health care industry. It can be useful in any situation where you want a multi-year contract to be reviewed by internal staff on an annual basis. The Annual Audit Review email module is our notification application that will deliver annual audit email notifications on an annual basis for multi-year contracts. The notifications are delivered to all Contract Responsible Parties associated with a contract. The application will be enhanced to allow the Contract Manager to enter a specific month and day each year the notification will be sent to the responsible parties. This is an override date. Today the application uses the expiration date to retrieve the month and year to be used for the notification.

To have this feature turned on or for additional information on how to use and setup, please call your Contract Guardian Representative at 877.751.7962. Click here to visit the website.

Automatic Bookmark Process Feature Video

2010-08-17T08:31:00.000-07:00

In continuation of our previous blog from July 26th discussing Contract Guardian's new Automatic Bookmarking Feature, we now have a short demonstration of the Bookmarking process. For further information see our related links on the side of the page.

Where is my contract?

2010-08-03T05:17:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

With all the advanced features provided by the leading hosted contract management systems, it is ironic that many organizations still utter the phrase, “Where is my contract?”

We speak with numerous CFOs, Contract Managers, Risk Mitigation Officers, etc. and misplacing a contract is their number one complaint and often one of the key reasons for evaluating a system. A close second is the automatic alert mechanism offered by hosted contract management systems.

Fortunately, Contract Guardian offers several search options in one convenient function:

By Contract Number
By Title (Includes searching on word boundary as well as a pure string of characters)
By Department
By Contract Type
By Expiration Date
By Effective Date
By Other Party

My personal favorite is not having to search at all. This is accomplished by what is called My Contracts. Think of it as a sort of to do list for contracts. You can add and remove contracts from your list. Click on My Contracts and you immediately see your focus list. In addition, one can create user defined fields for searching. With all of these options, we hope you never again have to say “Where is my contract?”

Automatic Bookmarking Feature

2010-07-26T07:56:00.000-07:00

Contract Guardian has a new feature available called Automatic Bookmarking. Contract Guardian supports storing many document types that can be associated with a contract. If a contract image is a searchable PDF, Contract Guardian will place bookmarks into the PDF based on a predetermined set of phrases or words that have been defined to Contract Guardian. The process only takes seconds to complete. No manual intervention is required. For more information contact us at 877-751-7962, or send email to info@productivity.rippe.com or click here to visit our website.

Annual Audit Email - Assist with Annual Auditing Now Available

2010-07-01T06:52:00.000-07:00

The Annual Audit Review email module is our new notification application that will deliver annual audit emails to all Responsible Parties associated with a contract as well as the Annual Audit Evaluators. For the audit email to be sent, it must be turned by company and the contract must have the Annual Audit Checkbox set to on. The Annual Audit email notifications can be handy for a variety of audit activity such as a Joint Commission requirement in the health care industry. It can be useful in any situation where you want a multi-year contract to be reviewed by internal staff on an annual basis.

To have this feature turned on or for additional information on how to use and setup, please call your Contract Guardian Representative at 877.751.7962. Click here to visit the website.

eTask Assignments Now Available

2010-07-01T06:36:00.000-07:00

Etask assignments allows the user to send email that's attached to a specific contract. The email is permanently journaled to the contract and it can't be modified. Options can be turned on to allow the user to accept or decline the assigned task. The user can optionally include important attributes in the email by selecting check boxes. Additionally, email recipients must be authorized users in Contract Guardian and the contract favorites list is updated for quick access.

To have this feature activated or for more information call 877.751.7962 or email info@contract_guardian.

Etask Assignment Feature

2010-06-03T11:10:00.000-07:00

Rippe & Kingston announces a new feature that will be available this quarter called Etask Assignment. Etask allows the user to send email that is attached to a specific contract. The email is permanently journaled to the contract and it cannot be modified. Options can be turned on to allow the user to accept or decline the assignment. The user can optionally include important attributes in the email by selecting check boxes. Additionally, email recipients must be authorized users in Contract Guardian and the contract favorites list is updated for quick access. For more information call 877.751.7962 or email info@contract_guardian.

HFMA Conference in Las Vegas

2010-05-18T10:34:00.000-07:00

Rippe & Kingston will present Contract Guardian at the Healthcare Finance Conference. The conference is being held at the Sands Expo Center and Venetian/Palazzo Resort on June 20-23.

HCCA Conference in Dallas

2010-05-14T12:59:00.000-07:00

I want to thank everyone that stopped and visited with John and I at the HCCA conference. Below is a snapshot from the show.

Contract Guardian Delivers for Healthcare

2010-03-19T12:15:00.000-07:00

John Reuter just published a white paper: "Contract Guardian delivers for Healthcare". He provides focus on four (4) key areas:

The Joint Commission Hospital Accreditation Audit Assistance
Stark Law Conflict of Interest
Internal Audit Compliance
Organization and Risk Mitigation

See Complete Article and Other Publications for Contract Guardian

Auto Bookmark Available in Contract Guardian

2010-02-18T18:38:00.001-08:00

Contract Guardian allows a user to upload a document to the application from the desktop. If the document is an Adobe PDF document Guardian will create bookmarks in the PDF document based on predetermined inventory of phrases established by the client. The contracts are available immediately after the user uploads the contract to Contract Guardian. No waiting and available for immediate use!

Visit www.contractguardian.com for additional details.

Join Rippe & Kingston at the 14th Annual Compliance Institute

2010-02-02T06:46:00.000-08:00

Enjoy a personal demonstration of Contract Guardian while you address all of your Compliance Issues.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-23T07:30:00.001-08:00

Query Facility Now Supports Department Users

2009-11-17T18:33:00.000-08:00

The Query Facility can now be deployed to users that are authenticated at the Department Security Level. Contract Managers can now add Department Level Users to the Query Role. All Queries they create including both adhoc and saved queries will be limited to the departments they are authorized to use.

If you have questions on this new feature, please e-mail me at jreuter@Rippe.com. For more information on Contract Guardian, please visit www.contractguardian.com.

Transfer Merge Departments, Contract Types and Attachment Types

2009-11-10T13:27:00.001-08:00

Several new transfer facilities have been added to Contract Guardian. An Administrator can now transfer or merge contracts and attachments between Departments and Types.

As an example, a region may have 100 contracts associated with a type say "Affiliate Agreements" and 50 more under "Affiliation Agreements". If you want all 150 to be in the 'Affiliation Agreements" type, you can transfer the contracts then delete the "Affiliate Agreements" type. This can now be completed in seconds by the Administrator!

The same can be done for Departments and Attachment types. These features are available from within the specific table maintenance function.

Introduction to Rippe & Kingston Video

2009-10-29T09:53:00.000-07:00

A short video was created for Rippe and Kingston Systems that discusses R&K's Systems company. We have placed the video on YouTube. Click here to check it out. It provides brief information on our services including our support for Google Apps with our clients.

Google Apps has a premier edition that is geared toward businesses. The application can help organizations reduce costs associated with e-mail and spam filtering, as well as, provide a wealth of new capability. Google Apps is all web based which allows access from any PC with internet connection for e-mail, spam filtering, management of office documents, sharing of office documents, web sites, video chat, voice chat, instant messaging and more....

For more information on Rippe and Kingston visit www.rippe.com. For specific information on our support for Google Apps, please visit www.productivity.rippe.com. By the way, the "productivity" web site was built with Google Tools.

Contract Guardian Training Videos

2009-10-29T08:20:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce the availability of several new training videos. They are available from the Training tab within Contract Guardian. We have videos that range from providing an overview of the application to very specific features like changing your password and how to perform an inquiry. Report Generation how to videos are also available. If you have any questions, please e-mail jreuter@rippe.com.

Work-In-Progress Added

2009-08-03T12:52:00.000-07:00

Contract Guardian now supports work-in-progress contracts as well as current contracts. Work-in-progress contracts allow users to enter contracts that are not executed yet but need to be available to the user community and the responsible parties. New features will be added based on this status.

John Reuter Shares Contract Guardian

2009-05-06T17:03:00.001-07:00

As usual, John is always happy to share the Contract Guardian story. If any of the readers did not have the opportunity to attend the conference...just give us a call.

R&K Presents at National Health Care Compliance Conference

2009-05-06T16:59:00.000-07:00

1,600 Health Care Compliance Risk Officers from across the United States attended the conference. R&K of course was sharing with the attendees our award winning Contract Guardian.

Contract Guardian and United Way

2009-04-11T08:09:00.000-07:00

ContractGuardian.com will contribute ten dollars to the United Way’s National LIVE UNITED Campaign for each Contract & Commercial Management LinkedIn Member that attends the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) Convention in Las Vegas from April 26th to the 29th, 2009 and visits us at booth #309 for 10 minutes. The attendees will see Contract Guardian which is our contract management hosted solution for contract managers in the healthcare industry. It is a powerful but easy to use solution designed for environments with many users that need read-only access to contracts with automatic e-mail notifications. Users can access documents from any computer with a browser. Attendees can use this opportunity to help our fellow Americans and learn something at the same time.

CHRISTUS Health Brings Transparency to Contract Management

2009-03-23T05:44:00.000-07:00

Diana M. Holland, program manager, Strategy and Innovation, Business/Financial Strategies with CHRISTUS Health’s Information Management team, said "With Contract Guardian, the entire contract management process is more transparent, which allows us to build our operations on a process, rather than being dependent on individual people. Deployment is simple and only requires placing an icon on the desktops of the users. Nothing else needs to be installed or maintained."

Read the entire article published by LANSA.

Upgraded Generator for ContractGuardian's Facility

2009-02-20T06:37:00.000-08:00

HARDWARE: Rippe & Kingston recently replaced their Generator at the ContractGuardian Data Center. The generator operates on natural gas to provide immediate backup and delivery of diesel fuel is not required . The final steps are being completed that include the secured enclosure and electrical hookups.

SOFTWARE: Contract Guardian includes a very easy to use Microsoft Excel Interface that is available from within the managed service. It allows an authorized user to access their contracts and manipulate in Excel. Stark Law compliance capabilities is also being included in the software.

Visit www.contractguardian.com for additional details.

Contract Guardian Enhancement for Stark Compliance

2009-02-04T07:25:00.000-08:00

Several enhancements have been made to Contract Guardian's Other Party capabilities in Contract Maintenance. The Contract Managers can now search for related parties using a "free form" search and the application will search anywhere in the name field for the occurances entered regardless of case and position. Also, the Contract Manager can add a new related party record directly from the search screen. This enhancement will allow the Contract Manager to more fully utilize the application and assist with Stark compliance for conflict of interest. For additional information see our Stark Compliance page at www.contractguardian.com.

Stark Law and Contract Management

2009-02-04T07:12:00.000-08:00

If you haven’t reviewed your physician contracts lately, it’s high time you did. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) are enforcing Stark and federal anti-kickback laws with renewed vigor, and hospitals need to be wary of any and all agreements made with physicians past, present, and future.

Any financial arrangement between a hospital and a physician or a family member triggers Stark. It doesn’t matter what the arrangement is with the physician or what the referral is because any financial agreement, whether it’s new or old, will trigger a Stark question when that physician makes a referral.

To learn more visit our Stark Law Compliance page at www.contractguardian.com.

Contract Guardian Featured at HCCA Compliance Institute in Las Vegas

2008-12-24T06:23:00.000-08:00

Be sure and visit the Contract Guardian Booth in Las Vegas. Contract Guardian (leading Healthcare Contract Management Solution) will be featured at the HCCA Complaince Institute Conference being held in Las Vegas. (April 26-29) http://www.compliance-institute.org/

Query Enhancement to allow Search by Vendor

2008-12-08T11:29:00.000-08:00

Contract Guardian's easy to use Query facility has been enhanced to allow contracts to be searched by Vendor/Other Party in addition to the other selection criteria available to the end user with the appropriate security level. The search results can be easily transferred to the user in Excel or XML formats via a push of a button.

A press release on this enhancement as well as other materials are available in the library at Contract Guardian. If you would like to discuss this feature in more detail, please contact John Reuter at 513-977-4591 or e-mail him at jreuter@rippe.com.

Contract Guardian part of Strategic Agenda for Hospitals

2008-11-23T14:58:00.000-08:00

Faced with lingering economic uncertainty and heightened regulatory requirements, hospitals are under ever-increasing pressures to develop and execute strategies to continuously improve performance, mitigate risk, and ensure fiscal accountability. Contract Guardian is a prime example of a lever for achieving these objectives through contract lifecyle management.

Contract lifecycle management is the process of systematically and efficiently managing contract creation, execution, and analysis for maximizing financial and operational performance and minimizing risk.

Request Additional Information

Test Drive for Free

Portal Technology used with Contract Guardian Contract Management Solution

2008-11-07T13:43:00.000-08:00

The e.ssential™ Contract Guardian has portal technology as a foundation. This approach allows us to rapidly customize the solution to meet your needs, deliver it via the web and expand to include other products and solutions you already use or desire. This capability allows Contract Guardian to deliver the key features of contract management.

Contract Guardian Featured in Contract Magazine Resource Guide 2009

2008-10-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

Rippe & Kingston's Contract Guardian is featured in the 2009 issue of Contract Magazine Resource Guide. Link

Contract Guardian FREE TRIAL

2008-10-25T16:47:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce that Contract Guardian now offers a free trial of the leading Contract Management Software.

A few of the things that Contract Guardian will do for you:

Scan and store contract documents in a searchable centralized database

Locate contracts immediately, eliminating the need for copies and manual distribution

Advance email alerts for expiration, critical dates and automatic renewal of contracts

Control contractual obligations while preparing for audits and accreditations

Minimize risk of non-compliance by reducing payments on expired contracts

Maximize revenue collections and eliminate wasteful spending

Eliminate the risk of missing warranty expirations and service/maintenance requirements

Custom Videos........

2008-10-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

Rippe and Kingston Systems, Inc. developers of Contract Guardian has developed a series of videos designed for CHRISTUS Healthcare a Catholic-related health system providing faith-based care in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, and in Mexico with over 40 facilities. The videos illustrate the use of Contract Guardian for their specific version of the application. To learn more about Contract Guardian please visit www.contractguardian.com, send e-mail to sales@rippe.com or call 513-977-4591.

Journal Feature

2008-10-15T19:50:00.000-07:00

Contract Guardian includes a feature called the Journal that tracks various automated functions from creating a contract to expiration notices that are sent to users. The journal feature allows users to view the audit stamps for these events in date order. Users can also add their own non-editable entries. Recent audits added include recording the original and new values of various fields on a contract. As an example, if a user changes the expiration date on a contract, both the original and new value are saved in the journal with the user who make the change, the date and time are also recorded.

Please e-mail jreuter@rippe.com for additional information or visit www.contractguardian.com

Scanning Contracts

2008-10-13T12:36:00.000-07:00

We have placed one of our training videos that illustrates how a user can simply scan and upload a single contract using an HP7800 scanner. Other videos are available from Contract Guardian that illustrate how a user can use the application. If you want to see a more detailed demonstration or have any questions, please send an e-mail to jreuter@rippe.com or call 513-977-4591.

Video

$3.9 Billion overspend in US Healthcare

2008-09-27T05:46:00.000-07:00

A study released today by American Hospital Directory suggests that as much as half of the $7.8 billion spent by American hospitals on contract labor could be saved through better management.

American Hospital Directory published its first contract labor study in August 2004 using data through 2002. The study released today is the second in this series of reports, and incorporates data through 2003 and preliminary data for 2004.
The full report, Trends in the Use of Contract Labor among Hospitals, may be downloaded (free) from http://www.ahd.com/

U.S. Healthcare Industry Aligns to Improve Patient Safety and Supply Chain Efficiency

2008-09-13T15:58:00.000-07:00

In case you happen to miss the announcemnet in Forbes...GS1 Healthcare US welcomes the recent announcement of the Coalition for Healthcare eStandards (CHeS) and the Health Industry Group Purchasing Association's (HIGPA) agreement to work together to reduce healthcare costs and improve healthcare supply chain efficiency. CHeS, the leading industry-wide standards advocacy organization, will now serve as a committee under HIGPA, the preeminent organization that advocates on behalf of healthcare group purchasing organizations.This news follows the recent announcement from the Healthcare Supply Chain Standards Coalition (HSCSC) to merge their working groups into GS1 Healthcare US to eliminate any redundancy in efforts.

Rippe & Kingston is uniquely qualified to assist the Healthcare Industry with their extensive background in both standards-based data pools (1SYNC and GDSN Services) and contract management (Contract Guardian) for the healthcare industry.

About GS1 US(TM) GS1 US, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the adoption and implementation of standards-based, global supply chain solutions. GS1 US operates subsidiaries EPCglobal North America(TM), RosettaNet, and 1SYNC(TM).

Contract Guardian Expands Support with New On Demand Training Videos

2008-06-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

Contract Guardian continues to expand it's scope of support through the use of On Demand training videos. Videos are accessible via the Contract Guardian Portal or directly from within the application by clicking the Help Button.

A recent video illustrates how to scan a contract using an HP7800 scanner with the single button feature to Contract Guardian.

advance for Health Information Professionals features Contract Guardian

2008-05-12T06:07:00.000-07:00

Rippe and Kingston Offers Contract Guardian. Rippe and Kingston Systems Inc., provider of contract management solutions for health care, now offers Contract Guardian as a managed service using its Portal Based Solution, which uses a 100 percent browser user interface. Contract Guardian dynamically designs screens based on the user's credentials and roles. Features such as document management, external (RSS) and internal news feeds, document loading and downloading to excel, full comment journaling, interface alerts via e-mail and calendar, as well as power searching features deliver a managed service solution with no capital investment.

Contract Guardian uses LANSA as the foundation technology. LANSA provides simple but powerful application development tools and solutions to thousands of customers worldwide.

Contract Guardian at National Health Care Compliance

2008-03-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

HCCA Conference

2008-02-21T16:54:00.000-08:00

Disaster Recovery

2008-02-12T18:07:00.000-08:00

I thought you might enjoy this pod cast that is sponsored by our data vaulting partner VAULT400. The speaker is Wayne Madden from System iNetwork.

New Feature - Unlimited Custom Fields

2008-02-03T11:47:00.000-08:00

Contract Guardian will allow users to add custom fields to each contract. The Contract Manager can determine what each field should be called and can set the label for each custom field. The Contract Manager can store the new attributes with each contract. They can also include these fields in the Query Reporting application that is available. If you would like to see or learn more of this new feature, please contact jreuter@rippe.com or visit our web site at www.contractguardian.com.

Contract Notifications

2007-12-30T12:18:00.000-08:00

New Feature
Contract Notifications can be setup at the contract level by adding personnel to a contract. These individuals will receive a notice when the contract falls within the contract expiration grace period. Users can also be added to a contract type. Using this feature when a contract is added to a contract type, the users associated with a contract type are added to the contract notification feature. The application can be configured so a user receives e-mail notifications and/or is allowed to view the contract when the user signs onto the application.

If you would like to discuss these or other features, please visit www.contractguardian.com to learn more about our Contract Management Managed and Hosted Services. You can also contact John Reuter at 513.977.4591 or e-mail me at jreuter@rippe.com

Contract Manager Requirements

2007-11-17T10:17:00.000-08:00

A number of people have asked me for the typical definition of a Contract Managers responsibilities. That being said, here are a few of the common comments in addition to the appropriate education and experience:

Administers ongoing contracts and supports new business activity for a variety of contract types.

On less complex contracts, reviews proposal terms, conditions and special provisions to evaluate and make determinations of risks and other factors.

Provides on-site advice and assistance to the Project Manager and the project management team on contract management and policy compliance matters.

Ensures contract documents are consistent with agreements reached at negotiations.

Acts as a liaison between Project Manager and the client preparing and disseminating information regarding contract status, compliance, modifications, and contract notice requirements.

Evaluates contract performance to determine necessity for amendments or extensions of contracts and compliance to contractual obligations.

Leverages the Numerous Benefits of e.ssential Contract Guardian. (Ok, I made that up)

Contract Guardian VISTA Look

2007-10-22T07:59:00.000-07:00

Rippe & Kingston Systems has created a VISTA look for Contract Guardians application. This new theme and skin layout has been added to the available themes and layouts already available for each client to choose. Please contact John Reuter at 513.977.4591 for a complete demonstration of the theme and the contract management application. See www.contractguardian.com for additional information.

Storage on Trial

2007-10-13T07:36:00.000-07:00

If your organization is faced with a lawsuit, you could bear the burden of retreiving documents quickly. One of the biggest costs involved in e-discovery during litigation is restoring backup tapes and searching through myriad files to find the few pieces of relevent information.

A company should look at the applications that generate the most critical business records - financials, executive email and of course CONTRACTS. Contract Guardian dramatically mitigates that risk with the use of electronic vaulting (VAULT400)of all information that can be retreived from anywhere at anytime. This includes restoring to specific dates in time and not just current records. No concerns of locating tapes, tapes going bad etc. In addition, the journaling option provides a nice submissable log of relevant conversations and comments. If you would like to learn how our Managed Services can help you with your contracts Click Here.

Why Contract Management

2007-09-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

When speaking with clients, I frequently ask them what are the driving forces behind contract management. Below is a list of the top responses:

Contracts in a Centralized database

Locate Contracts Immediately

Provide Access to all Responsible Parties

Advance email Alerts

Control Contractual Obligations

Minimize Risk of Non-compliance

Maximize Revenue Collections and Eliminate Wasteful Spending

Eliminate the Risk of Missing Warranty Expirations

e.ssential™ Contract Guardian Press Release

2007-09-16T18:06:00.000-07:00

e.ssential™ Contract Guardian Delivers Better Control Over Contracts

LANSA Partner Releases New Web-based Solution for Contract Management
Downers Grove, Illinois, USA – June 5, 2007 – With compliance and risk management high on executive agendas, effective contract management is emerging as a business imperative. The contract management process is now easier to manage with a new product from LANSA solution partner Rippe & Kingston Systems, Inc. – e.ssential™ Contract Guardian.

Rippe & Kingston’s contract management solution accelerates companies to contract management excellence by streamlining the entire contract life cycle process. Built into the product are a powerful search engine as well as reporting, querying, journaling capabilities and a complete contract management portal. Other features include a highly intuitive browser-based user interface, open application architecture and integration methods and numerous extensive levels of security. Contract Guardian is available both as a hosted solution and in-house environment.

The e.ssential™ Contract Guardian solution will allow organizations to:

Scan and store contract documents in a searchable centralized database
Locate contracts immediately, eliminating the need for copies and manual distribution
Advance email alerts for expiration, critical dates and automatic renewal of contracts
Control contractual obligations while preparing for audits and accreditations
Minimize risk of non-compliance by reducing payments on expired contracts
Maximize revenue collections and eliminate wasteful spending
Eliminate the risk of missing warranty expirations and service/maintenance requirements

"Contract Guardian is delivered to the user’s desktop via a browser-based portal," says Thom Davidson, senior partner at Rippe & Kingston. "We are especially pleased by the simplicity of use requiring virtually no training. It is that intuitive!"

E.ssential™ Contract Guardian is written in LANSA and supports multiple platform (Windows, System i, UNIX and Linux) and multiple databases running on those platforms. It can also be extended to incorporate additional functionality as required.

"Rippe & Kingston’s new Web-based solution for contract management will be a great asset to companies faced with record keeping compliance requirements," said John Siniscal, president of LANSA Americas. "Moving paper contracts into a searchable database will ensure they are available and accessible for contract administrators and others responsible for their performance. Manual filing systems are an accident waiting to happen, which companies can’t afford in the current regulatory environment."

About Rippe & Kingston Systems, Inc.
Established in 1976, Rippe & Kingston and its over 100 certified professionals in their organizations is dedicated to improving and simplifying their clients business processes through a broad range of services and LANSA-based applications. Rippe & Kingston is an IBM Premier Partner and an LANSA Platinum Partner with clients in 42 states and seven countries. Their application products include the award winning LMS V, which is the number one solution for law firms in the world running on the IBM iSeries, METHOS for plant and facility maintenance and their complete e.ssential™ Portal Solutions and services offerings. For more information, please visit www.rippe.com or www.contractguardian.com.

About LANSA
LANSA is a leading provider of application development, modernization and integration software. LANSA's powerful suite of cross-platform development tools lets organizations overcome the complexity inherent in creating and maintaining business applications. LANSA’s integrated tool set is also the technology foundation for a wide range of business solutions from LANSA and over 300 Business Partners. Established in 1987, LANSA supports thousands of companies around the world with its products and services. For more information, please visit: www.lansa.com