Netsmart Technologies Earns SAS70 Type II Certification

GREAT RIVER, N.Y., April 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Netsmart Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of software and services for health and human services organizations, today announced that it has earned SAS70 Type II certification for its entire Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) customer hosting environment.

Achieving SAS70 certification requires a stringent third-party audit of facilities, policies, procedures and controls within a company environment.

"SAS70 certification should be an important factor for organizations considering a hosting solution, and we are seeing it more frequently as a criterion from customers," said James L. Conway, chief executive officer, Netsmart Technologies. "We were confident we would receive certification following the independent audit because we have made the necessary investment in the systems and controls we have in place to protect our process and our customers who have selected SaaS as their deployment option."

A SAS70 Type II audit enables an organization to provide its customers with third-party verification of its environment, systems, business continuity, and security controls, and an independent assessment of whether the controls placed in operation were suitably designed and are operating effectively.

The three-month audit, which took place January through March 2010, was conducted by Packer Thomas, a certified public accounting and information technology consulting firm. Packer Thomas tested the Netsmart SaaS environment against a variety of ISO 27000 series compliance controls, including policies and procedures, asset management, physical and environmental security, operations management, access controls, incident management, business continuity, and compliance to ensure Netsmart met all SAS70 standards.

The process included a review of all controls in both the primary and backup facilities over a six-month period, and encompassed not only validating the hosting facilities' SAS70 compliance, but also Netsmart's environment within those facilities. Netsmart's primary SaaS hosting environment in Columbus, Ohio and secondary SaaS hosting environment in Cleveland, Ohio, were certified at the completion of the audit.

"SAS70 compliance signifies that an organization has implemented controls throughout its internal and external systems and the resources used to manage information, transactions and data for its SaaS customers," said Jeffrey R. Sheets, CPA, principal and director of Information Technology Consulting for Packer Thomas.

About Netsmart Technologies, Inc.

Netsmart Technologies is an established, leading supplier of enterprise software and software as a service (SaaS) solutions for health and human services providers. More than 18,000 customer organizations, including 350,000 care providers and nearly 40 state systems, use Netsmart products to help improve the quality of life for millions of people each year.

Netsmart customers include mental health and substance abuse treatment agencies, psychiatric hospitals, private and group mental health practices, public health departments, vital records offices and managed care organizations. Netsmart's products are full-featured information systems that operate on a variety of operating systems, hardware platforms, and mobile devices, and offer unlimited scalability.

Netsmart's Connected Care initiative allows behavioral and public healthcare providers to share clinical data electronically within their internal processes, externally with other providers, and with consumers via a Web-based portal, enabling high quality, consumer-directed care.

Netsmart provides expertise and solutions that help its customers meet the evolving definition of "meaningful use" under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. These include experience in electronic health record certification, the InfoScriber™ e-prescribing service, the Netsmart CareConnect™ service that enables the sharing of clinical information through health information exchanges, the Netsmart ConsumerConnect™ Web portal to provide consumer access to their care information, and a flexible platform to capture and share outcomes data.

For information about Netsmart Technologies' full range of solutions for health and human services organizations, visit www.ntst.com or call 1-800-421-7503, Option 6.

InfoScriber is a trademark of Netsmart Technologies, Inc.

Netsmart CareConnect and Netsmart ConsumerConnect are trademarks of Netsmart Technologies, Inc.

SOURCE Netsmart Technologies, Inc.