hmis newsletter winter spring 2012 final draft

the
HMIS Cloud
HMIS Celebrates 25 Years in Business
Spring 2012
HMIS, INC
25
1987-2012
HMIS, Inc. proudly celebrates its 25th anniversary on March 1, 2012. HMIS was
founded in 1987 by Frank Hanlon. Following graduation from college, Frank
went to work at Wang Laboratories in Lowell, Massachusetts
developing software to run Wang’s VS 300 line of computers. At its peak in the 1980s, Wang employed over
33,000 people. During his time at Wang, Frank realized the large corporate environment was not what he wanted,
and in 1987 Frank left Wang to become an independent consultant. HMIS’ first customer was Mt. Calvary
Cemetery of Manchester, New Hampshire. Mt. Calvary engaged Frank to assist in the selection of a software
solution to run the cemetery. Discovering that no suitable cemetery management product existed, Frank
decided to build his own product. To launch the project, Frank invited brother Mike Hanlon to join the company.
Mike had also worked at Wang as a programmer and as a COBOL programmer for a credit card processing
company working off the VS 300 platform. According to Mike, who is now President of HMIS, “Frank handed me a
napkin with some specs scribbled on it and a RealWorld Accounting Software manual and said ‘build me a
cemetery module to run inside the RealWorld accounting package.’ That was the beginning of my tenure at HMIS
and the birth of our DOS product.”
HMIS Relocates Hosting Operations
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In December 2011, HMIS completed a multi-phased relocation and upgrade of its ASP (application service
provider) hosting operations from Albany, New York to primary and secondary data centers located in Bedford,
New Hampshire and Boston, Massachusetts. The primary data center serves as the main hosting operation, and the
secondary data center serves as a back up and disaster recovery (“DR”) site. The new data centers are housed in
secure facilities managed by ColoSpace, Inc. ColoSpace is a leading regional provider of data hosting and
managed services, operating five data centers in New England. The ColoSpace data
centers are SSAE 16 Type II audited to provide an industry-leading level of
performance, reliability and security. The data centers offer N+1 redundancy of major
systems. The power supply is protected by backup battery UPS systems and on-site
diesel generators which are tested on a regular basis. Multiple ISP providers and fiber
optic networks provide redundant internet connectivity. Our specific hosting
infrastructure includes a Layer 2 Network for direct connectivity between our primary
data center and the
Bedford, NH Data Center
The Cemetery, Funeral Home, Crematory Software Solution.
©2012 HMIS, Inc 1.888.891.4647 • 603.883.5695 • www.hmisinc.com • nancys@hmisinc.com
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Data Centers
(Continued from page 1)
secondary DR location to assure rapid deployment of the secondary DR
site. Remote hands support is available on-site at both locations to
provide immediate support assistance to augment regular server
monitoring. Security includes multiple levels of controls, including
biometric fingerprint scanners, video surveillance, and 24/7 on-site
security at our DR location. Advanced temperature and humidity
systems and monitoring protect hardware and media at ideal operating
conditions. Advanced fire and smoke detection and suppression
features include leak/water detection and dry-pipe pre-action and
inergen fire suppression systems.
Our new data centers and upgraded disaster recovery infrastructure are further installments toward our
investment in building a superior hosting platform for our Web-based offering. The ColoSpace data centers
undergo rigorous SSAE 16-Type II audits to verify operational and disaster recovery integrity, and offer a high
quality infrastructure to assure performance, reliability and protection of customer data. During a record
breaking snow storm we experienced last October local power was out for nearly three days, but the ColoSpace
data centers in both New Hampshire and Boston experienced no downtime owing to their
power generating capabilities.
Data Center Interior
Tech Tip
Cafe
For HMIS customers who now self host, our cloud-based offering allows users to preserve
capital by eliminating IT hardware and internal support costs. Once on our hosted platform,
your data will reside in a distinct (not commingled) and secure database accessible to your
staff 24/7 from any computer having access to the Internet. Moreover, a single monthly
subscription fee includes not only software licensing and hosting services, but maintenance
and support as well. HMIS releases and upgrades occur automatically on the HMIS hosting
servers, with no need to install software on your local computers.
If you would like more information about the HMIS hosted offering or our new data centers,
please contact us.
Did you know that field labels can
be customized at the location
level? To customize a field label,
right-click on the label and then
left-click “Customize Label.”
You can then use the Label
Override screen to create custom
field labels:
The Cemetery, Funeral Home, Crematory Software Solution.
Somerville (Boston), MA Data Center
©2012 HMIS, Inc 1.888.891.4647 • 603.883.5695 • www.hmisinc.com • nancys@hmisinc.com

Tech Tip
Advantage
Did you know there’s an easy way to
get data from any HMIS report into
Excel? Simply save your report as XML
and then import the XML file into
Microsoft Excel. You can either
configure your report to output the
data as XML in Report Header Code
Maintenance, or, you can save the
report as XML after it is generated on
your screen as shown. Then you can
import the XML file into Excel.
The data displays as an Excel
Database:
HMIS to Release CafeAdvantage
Due to the overwhelming customer response to our 'Cafe Funeral' user interface, HMIS in partnership with Stewart Enterprises,
Inc has made a decision to transition the entire 'HMIS Advantage' interface to the new and more user friendly interface of
Cafe. This project will be phased in over the next two years, and we expect that the entire HMIS Advantage application will
be converted by June of 2014. The new product will be know as CafeAdvantage. The first phase of the project, Cafe
Cemetery, is scheduled for release in June of 2012. This project phase includes moving the ‘Cemetery’ module of HMIS
Advantage as well as eliminating duplicated tables in Cafe for improved efficiency and performance. Here are a few key
features and benefits of Cafe Cemetery:
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�� Cafe is an ASP.NET, 'Cloud' based Web application designed for funeral homes and cemeteries.
�� Cafe's user interface is similar to Microsoft Outlook, designed for ease of use, flexibility and performance.
�� Funeral and cemetery sales and administrative users of Cafe will share a common user interface.
�� Cafe is fully integrated with Cemecad, HMIS’ premier mapping system.
�� Improved form and report printing and accessibility.
�� Fully integrated and easy to use mail merge functionality utilizing Microsoft Word.
�� Cemetery contacts utilize Cafe's Template/Option functionality to improve accuracy and speed of contract entry.
�� Cafe allows sales counselors and funeral directors to make arrangements with customers.
The next phase of the project, Cafe Contracts, is scheduled for release in June of 2013. This project phase will include moving
the 'core' functionality of HMIS Advantage contracts to the Cafe user interface. The final phase of the project is scheduled
for June of 2014 release and will include all remaining
modules and functionality of HMIS Advantage. HMIS is
excited about the release of our new Web based
user interface, and we will continue to provide
updates and sample screens in future newsletters.
The Cemetery, Funeral Home, Crematory Software Solution.
©2012 HMIS, Inc 1.888.891.4647 • 603.883.5695 • www.hmisinc.com • nancys@hmisinc.com
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Customer Spotlight
Nelsen Funeral Home & Crematory
Nelsen Funeral Home & Crematory, exemplifies the qualities which make a funeral home
business a community institution. Nelsen Funeral Home and
Crematory, founded in 1892, operates
6 locations in the Commonwealth of
Virginia. Their focus is on providing
families and the community with the
knowledge and services to prevail
through one of life’s hardest
Blair H. Nelsen CEO
challenges, the loss of a loved one or
cherished pet. President and CEO Blair
Nelsen understands and practices the
vital principles of business management at an extraordinary level.
He is recognized as a mentor and progressive minded leader not
only by the community and his patrons, but by his peers in the
industry. His accolades are many, including service as Trustee of
the Funeral Service Foundation,
Director of the International
Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral
Association (ICCFA) and President
of both Preferred Funeral Directors
International (PFDI) and the
Independent Funeral Homes of
Virginia (IFHV). His progressive nature truly lends itself to employing
Web-based technology to promote his values and offerings. Blair
selected the HMIS cloud-based hosted offering, but he did not stop
there. He then developed the first iPhone Cremation app launched in
December 2011. HMIS is delighted to be the management
software solution selected by the Nelsen Funeral Home &
Ashland, VA location
Crematory. Blair Nelsen chose HMIS not only for the value of the
management software but our support services. Blair stated “The
HMIS support staff is fantastic. Their response to any issues which
might arise is always quick and thorough; their training of our staff
was comprehensive and handled patiently.” HMIS extends our best
wishes to Blair and his superior staff for continued success. We salute
his creativity and ingenuity in embracing software technology
advances to propel his business to the cloud, and are proud to have Nelsen as a valued
customer of HMIS.
The Cemetery, Funeral Home, Crematory Software Solution.
Richmond, VA location
Williamsburg, VA location
©2012 HMIS, Inc 1.888.891.4647 • 603.883.5695 • www.hmisinc.com • nancys@hmisinc.com

(Continued from page 1)
An important milestone occurred in 1999 when HMIS secured Alderwoods Group, a Canadian consolidator based in
Vancouver, CA. At the time, Alderwoods operated approximately 450 cemeteries and was running a home grown
cemetery management system that was not capable of satisfying complex state trust requirements. As a
consequence, Alderwoods was unable to continue its trust management operations in Florida and several other
states. Alderwood signed on with HMIS, which resulted in a complex multi-year data migration and
implementation process requiring a project team of some 40 conversion and implementation specialists. The project
resulted in the conversion to HMIS and the reconciliation of the Alderwoods trust accounts which brought
Alderwoods’ trust operations in compliance with the regulators.
Another major development for HMIS was moving from the DOS product to the Windows product.
For this multi-year project, HMIS partnered with customer Forest Lawn Mortuary of Glendale, California. The
Windows product was completed in 2002, and Forest Lawn continues to be a valued HMIS customer now running the
Web version of the HMIS Advantage product. The company’s next milestone was the creation of its Web-based
product. For this project, HMIS teamed up with Service Corporation International, Inc (“SCI”) and its third party
contractor Infosys Technologies. The project involved migrating the HMIS Windows product to a .NET Web-based
platform. The project required a team of approximately 50 members, and involved rigorous QA testing and
programming to address gaps between the two systems. The Web-based product was successfully completed in
2003. As a result of the project, HMIS was recognized by Microsoft in a white paper as one of the largest projects
employing the MS .NET framework.
In 2006, HMIS took its products to the “cloud” introducing its hosted offering. HMIS has since completed over 6 years
of successful operation as an ASP (application service provider), and continues to grow its customer base as funeral
homes and cemeteries learn the benefits of cloud-based computing. In a separate article in this edition of the
newsletter, we discuss the recent relocation and upgrade of our hosting operations.
In 2007, HMIS partnered with another HMIS
customer, Stewart Enterprises, Inc. (“Stewart”) in the
development of the HMIS Cafe Funeral Home
product. Cafe Funeral Home is a much improved front
end to the HMIS Advantage product. Cafe Funeral
.
Home represents HMIS’ commitment to the funeral
home market by combining the robust back office
management and accounting functionality of the Advantage product with an easy to use and more visually
engaging front end. Cafe’s improved ease of use is favored by funeral home directors and administrative and
accounting personnel. Currently, HMIS is in the midst of an ambitious second development project with Stewart to
bring the Cafe front-end to the cemetery side of the HMIS Advantage product. The new product is projected for
commercial release in the summer of 2012. Upon commercial release the new offering will be known as
CafeAdvantage.
Most recently, the company moved to expanded offices in Merrimack, New Hampshire. The new office
affords additional space for future growth and important IT infrastructure upgrades. The HMIS solution is currently
running in approximately 2,500 locations serving thousands of users in the United States, Canada and Central
America. As HMIS celebrates its 25th anniversary, we wish to extend our sincere gratitude to our
personnel, customers, vendors and strategic partners for their past and continued support as we continue our
commitment to being the best management software provider in the death care industry.
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HMIS Celebrates Years in Business
The Cemetery, Funeral Home, Crematory Software Solution.
Leading in comprehensive and fully integrated cemetery, crematory and funeral home software solutions
©2012 HMIS, Inc 1.888.891.4647 • 603.883.5695 • www.hmisinc.com • nancys@hmisinc.com
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Upcoming Events
New England Cemetery
Conference - Attitash Grand
Summit Hotel and Conference
Center, No. Conway, NH
June 25-28
10 Al Paul Lane
Suite 102
Merrimack, NH 03054
ICCFA- Mandalay Bay Expo
Center, Las Vegas, NV
March 19-21
Visit HMIS at Booth 733
Catholic Cemetery Conference - Gaylord
Resort, Washington, DC
September 25-28
NFDA - Charlotte
Convention Center,
Charlotte, NC October 7-10
Visit HMIS at Booth 2747
HMIS, INC
25
1987-2012
YEARS OF
EXCELLENCE
HMIS, INC.
The Cemetery, Funeral Home, Crematory Software Solution.