Background:
As one of the largest Hosted Medical Management Solution providers in the United States, this client is experiencing tremendous growth. Facing similar obstacles as other fast growing companies, this EMR ASP needed a solution that would lower overall IT operating expenses, scale with their growth, increase security for HIPPA compliancy, and allow for a more user friendly interface with their Medical Management Software. As their client base grew, so did their corporate users. They have three facilities in three different states, and had virtually no inter-office communication between the locations. Each office had their own network, and as responsible for maintaining their own Mail Servers, File Storage, and Disaster Recovery Procedures, this increasing the possibility to lose critical information, and limiting the ability to share information.
Solution:
By outsourcing their core infrastructure, this client has seen the following network enhancements: upgrade of their Server OS to Server 2003; elimination of the clunky VPN interface with the RDP client built into the XP operating system; Increase in their Infrastructure Security with a combination of Cisco and Microsoft ISA Server; integration of a complete Disaster Recovery Plan; Increase in Redundancy throughout their environment; and reduction of the number of on staff engineers to support the application and end users. Implementation also included the roll out of the complete hosted network environment to all of their internal users, eliminating the need for multiple networks. To further integrate the corporate users and flow of client calls, the solution entailed cooperation with their Telecommunications company to roll out a VOIP solution to all 3 offices, with Unified Messaging and integration with their Hosted Exchange Server. Now their client's world-wide have a single 1- 800 number that can route the call to the appropriate resource, no matter which office they are in.
Benefits:
After the implementation of the Hosted Environment, they were able to increase their client base by 125% within the first 6 months. Since they have been able to eliminate the need for Capital Expenditures for hardware and software, they are targeting another 100% growth for the coming year. With increased security, data redundancy, and enterprise level backups, they now feel confident that their data is secure and available 24x7x365. They have also eliminated the need for different networks at each of their locations with the Hosted Network Environment. This has enabled them to share information seamlessly between 3 disparate locations and numerous traveling employees. Now each employee is an internet connection away from the latest information.
Technology and Services:
¨ ISA Server 2004
¨ MS Exchange Server 2003
¨ Microsoft Windows Server 2003
¨ Clustered Terminal Server 2003
¨ SQL Server 2000