blackberry applications give a healthy boost to hospital-based

Case StudyBlackBerry Applications Give a Healthy Boost to Hospital-based IT Team

Company: Baylor Health Care System is one of the largest, not-for-profit care facilities with more than 15,000 employees in primary care centers and practices, rehabilitation clinics, senior centers and ambulatory surgery centers.

Industry: Life Sciences

Region: Americas

Company Size: Large Enterprise

Email Environment: Microsoft® Exchange

Type of Solution: Network and Systems Management, Workflow and Approvals

In-House Solution: Change Management Application

BlackBerry Partner Solution: IC2 by Ecutel

Business Challenge: Baylor is a typical healthcare organization, constantly looking for ways to increase productivity and reduce costs through efficient resource investment. For the IT team, this goal translates into solutions that streamline IT management and system changes from remote locations.

Solution: Using the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution™, Baylor extended the value of BlackBerry® with both an out-of-the-box and a custom application. The IT team deployed IC2, an application by Ecutel, to enable remote management of critical business systems. They also built their own in-house solution for managing their change management process using the BlackBerry Java™ Development Environment (JDE).

Results:• Increased reliability of critical business systems • Reduced need for 24/7 IT staffing• Eliminate bottlenecks in approvals • Ensured changes are made effectively

Life Sciences | IT Operations | Technical C

ase Study


ase Study

The Challenge: Help IT Resources Support Large User Base

Baylor is a busy system of hospitals, spread throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The 3,300 doctors and thousands of nurses, who deliver these services were tethered to their desks for email and calendar access. The labor-intensive system extended their workday and diminished productivity.

They deployed the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution in 1999 to free clinical staff from their desks. As interest in the wireless approach grew, so did the number of users. Over the years, Baylor has looked at several solutions to assist its busy IT team, which now supports a BlackBerry user base of almost 1,250 people.

Their first challenge was to find a way to reliably manage critical hospital systems, such as servers and applications, from remote locations. Their ideal solution would allow them to troubleshoot server crashes and reboot applications from their devices.

Their second goal was to develop a more effective change management process for overseeing and gaining approval on procedures that affect IT systems. Specifically, they needed a way to help senior people sign off on changes to IT systems with minimal paperwork.

Solution #1:Remote Management Solution Increases Productivity

In 2002, Baylor began using an out-of-the-box solution for BlackBerry to manage its systems when the IT team was away from the office. IC2, by Ecutel, is a remote enterprise management solution that enables IT professionals to securely manage their network appliances, servers and users from the BlackBerry device.

IC2 server software is installed on Baylor’s systems behind the firewall. The server has access to the enterprise infrastructure and performs all the system and network administration transactions. The Baylor IT team uses the BlackBerry device to securely connect to the IC2 server. Requested administrative transactions are completed and the results are sent to the administrator.

This application functions on the BlackBerry device because of the BlackBerry Mobile Data System™ (BlackBerry MDS™) of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server®. BlackBerry MDS allows applications to securely communicate between the device and enterprise systems.

“Having this capability on the BlackBerry has been an efficient solution for Baylor IT professionals,” saysRobbie Perez, Director of Core Technology Development. “It allows my staff to run IC2 so that they can remotely manage the server and network infrastructure.”

Perez believes BlackBerry has helped on-call support personnel manage systems, receive system alerts and respond to issues rapidly.

Case Study: BlackBerry Applications Give a Healthy Boost to Hospital-based IT Team2

“Having this capability on the BlackBerry has been an efficient solution for Baylor IT professionals. It allows my staff to remotely manage the server and network infrastructure.”

~ RoBBIE PEREz, Director of Core Technology Development.


ase Study

Partner Profile:

Company: Ecutel • Provides standards-based, secure enterprise mobility software products worldwide • Brings seamless mobility to all facets of the enterprise, from simple and secure access for mobile workers to remote management for IT professionals

Featured Product: IC 2 – Infrastructure Command and Control

Application Type: Network and Systems Management

Business Value: IC 2 is a remote enterprise system management

solution that enables Baylor’s IT professionals to securely manage their network appliances, servers, and users from any handled device using any available network. By taking full control of their wireless network management functionality, Baylor was able to reduce the costs associated with maintaining a high level of system and network uptime.


For more information, visit www.ecutel.com

Solution #2:Reinventing the Change Management Process

The change management process at Baylor requires a robust workflow. If the IT team wants to upgrade a system, such as pharmacy system software, they must have the change approved by up to 30 directors. They send out detailed information that includes specifics such as whether there will be downtime and the impact on the organization. Directors have several options in their responses, including requesting impact reviews to ensure the change won’t adversely affect various business units.

“In an effort to streamline the change management process at Baylor, we needed a way to quickly get information in front of directors to receive their approval,” says Germinal Ibarrola, Manager of Enterprise Architecture. “We consider the change management process very important in reducing the number of system failures resulting from mismanaged changes made to the system – changes that were poorly communicated or not communicated at all.”

Every director at Baylor carries a BlackBerry device. In the past, they were emailed an alert that a change control required their attention. But the early solution didn’t work well because of the large volume of email each director receives on a daily basis. Change notifications could easily get lost in the daily traffic and the IT team wanted to offer clear notification within an application.

To solve this challenge, the Baylor IT team decided to build its own application. The change management solution they devised is a Java™ ME application that runs in the application folder on the BlackBerry device and sends requests across .NET servers to the back end SQL server.

“In a short time, adoption rates have been extremely high as directors use the BlackBerry application to approve close to 90 percent of all change requests. Since implementation, the timeline for approvals has been reduced from an average of five days to approximately 16 hours for each change management request.”

~ GERmInAl IBARRolA, Manager of Enterprise Architecture


ase Study

Customization:The Advantages of In-house Development

Baylor used the talents of its own usability design experts to create the custom application. Two developers were assigned to the project: one proficient in Java, the other in .NET. Initial coding required only four weeks.

“We tried to keep as much of the pertinent information above the fold and on the first click of their BlackBerry,” says Ibarrola. “Those first 8 or 10 lines that pop up could give a director enough information to make a judgment call.”

Directors also have maximum flexibility with the solution. They can see a history of any change controls and comments that have been sent out for review and can comment back. This gives them all the information they need to approve or reject a change, or even send that change control out to another person in the organization for their review.

Another user-friendly feature is the integration with the BlackBerry address book. When a director wants to send an approval on to someone else, they can do it easily from within the application. Using the trackwheel, they click the “Send For Review” menu item and it automatically takes them to a Baylor employee look-up form.

“We wanted to create transparency for our directors so our solution would be comparable to the standard BlackBerry applications that come with the device,” says Ibarrola. “We wanted to make sure all of our menus follow the same style and offer the minimum amount of escaping from one menu to perform a new task.”


“We tried to keep as much of the pertinent information above the fold and on the first click of their BlackBerry. Those first 8 or 10 lines that pop up could give a director enough information to make a judgment call.”

~ GERmInAl IBARRolA, Manager of Enterprise Architecture

55


ase Study

Results

Increased Reliability of Critical Business Systems: Using the remote wireless management features of IC 2, Baylor’s IT team increases the timeliness and reliability of service to their customers.

Reduced need for 24/7 IT Staffing: By taking full control of their wireless network management functionality, Baylor has reduced the costs and the need for around-the-clock personnel to deliver the caliber of system performance their organization depends on.

Eliminates Bottlenecks in Approvals: The Change Management Solution Baylor built is now the primary tool for approving changes. Directors can approve or reject changes wirelessly, with the freedom to work from remote locations. “There was definitely a need for this, as we listened to our director’s needs to have a solid BlackBerry solution in place,” explains Ibarrola. “In a short time, adoption rates have been extremely high as directors use the application to approve close to 90 percent of all change requests. Since implementation, the timeline for approvals has been reduced from an average of five days to approximately 16 hours for each change management request.”

Ensures Changes are made Effectively: Because they have streamlined the administration of changes with a shared system for approvals, Baylor now ensures that important IT changes are made in a timely manner.

The above information regarding third party products and services is provided in this document for your information. Since third parties provide the information to Research In Motion Limited (“RIM”) and RIM relies on the information without performing any independent investigations, RIM makes no warranty or guarantee concerning the features, reliability, or pricing of the third party products or services, or their compatibility with any RIM products.

Check with service provider for availability, roaming arrangements and service plans. Certain features outlined in this document require a minimum version of BlackBerry Enterprise Server Software, BlackBerry Desktop Software, BlackBerry device software and/or BlackBerry devices and may require additional development or third party products and/or services for access to corporate applications. Prior to subscribing to or implementing any third party products and services, it is your responsibility to ensure that the airtime service provider you are working with has agreed to support all of the features of the third party products and services. Installation and use of third party products and services with Research In Motion’s (“RIM”) products and services may require one or more patent, trademark or copyright licenses in order to avoid infringement of the intellectual property rights of others. You are solely responsible for determining whether such third

party licenses are required and are responsible for acquiring any such licenses. To the extent that such intellectual property licenses may be required, RIM expressly recommends that you do not install or use these products and services until all such applicable licenses have been acquired by you or on your behalf. Your use of third party software shall be governed by and subject to you agreeing to the terms of separate software licenses, if any, for those products or services. Any third party products or services that are provided with RIM’s products and services are provided “as is”. RIM makes no representation, warranty or guarantee whatsoever in relation to the third party products or services and RIM assumes no liability whatsoever in relation to the third party products and services even if RIM has been advised of the possibility of such damages or can anticipate such damages.

© 2006 Research In Motion Limited. All Rights Reserved. The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties of Research In Motion Limited. RIM, Research In Motion, BlackBerry, and BlackBerry Enterprise Server are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and may be pending or registered in other countries. All other brands, product names, company names, trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners. MAT-11647-001

Case Study: BlackBerry Applications Give a Healthy Boost to Hospital-based IT Team

For more information on solutions for BlackBerry, visit www.blackberry.com/go/success

blackberry applications give a healthy boost to hospital-based

Documents