The topic of this week’s continued look at serving the various needs of vertical markets may seem obvious—the acknowledgment that dealers must be certified, able and willing to adhere to government-mandated regulatory compliance protocol that comes with the territory of doing business in these spaces.
Clients are already under the thumb of oversight protocol, such as health care abiding by the Clinton era Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) aimed at guaranteeing patient privacy and confidentiality. Doing business with any government entity brings into play a number of compliance hurdles to clear.
It’s important to note, however, that these mandates align with many of the core objectives dealers espouse in their own corporate mission. First and foremost is the priority to ensure that a dealer can check off every box and deliver products and services in a way that enables customers to focus on their core objectives. Given the events of the past 16-odd months, this is no small consideration.
“Building our competencies in different vertical markets means getting to know the regulations, so regulatory compliance and certifications are an important part of how we serve customers in these markets,” notes Brad Cates, president and CEO of Prosource, headquartered in Cincinnati.
Following HIPAA guidelines for health care clients, according to Cates, entails ensuring all solutions, from printers and multi-functional devices to fax servers and print management meet compliance regulations. The same holds true for IT and cybersecurity solutions, which are designed to protect customer networks and patient information.
Certifications
For government and manufacturing, Prosource can help organizations meet Department of Defense and ISO security standards. The dealer’s layered approach to cybersecurity aligns with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) framework to help organizations comply with standards and certifications such as the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC).
On the education front, Prosource’s K-12 cybersecurity solutions are designed to protect student data and ensure compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
Jeff Miller, vice president of sales for Advanced Imaging Solutions (AIS) of Las Vegas, points out that one of the challenges in doing business with health care and government clients is that it requires specific knowledge sets that are constantly changing and growing. These clients are continually tasked with constantly needing to reroute valuable and scarce resources to this encumbering process, which is a distraction from their primary mission.
“As an example, our medical clients have to meet certain HIPAA criteria and federal/state regulations in order to receive insurance reimbursement and participate in government-regulated programs,” Miller said. “This is proving to be an ever-increasing burden to the medical vertical, and we are able to assist them with their security risk assessments in order to meet these required compliances and get funded.”
On Tap
In anticipation of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, which will be fully mandated for government contracts no later than 2026, Impact Networking has noted a large uptick in manufacturing companies (especially those with existing government pacts) emphasizing their cybersecurity resilience, notes Alex Kusters, sales manager and partner for the Lake Forest, Illinois-based managed services provider.
“This compliance is meant to protect controlled unclassified information across the Department of Defense supply chain, and our cybersecurity offering—ImpactShield—coupled with our compliance-as-a-service (CaaS) solution make for a perfect fit in this sector,” Kusters said.
RJ Young of Nashville, Tennessee, has several health care and department of defense/government customers that require security clearance or thorough background checks to be able to service and support client contracts effectively, according to CEO Chip Crunk.
“In addition to the vertical compliance, we also have certain product offerings in the audio/visual and security solutions space that require specific certifications to provide these solutions,” Crunk said. “We ensure all our implementation and service providers are properly certified and that those certifications and continuing education are updated regularly.”
