In any healthcare field, compliance and security are critical. For one of our clients, compliance and security patches, as well as routine infrastructure tasks, were becoming a critical bottleneck that threatened to jeopardize standardization and security. Manual processes were taking up much more time than the growing company could afford.
For example, the process for standing up new machines wasn’t standardized. Instead, it took up an afternoon of an already-busy IT staffer to upload the newest version of Windows, double-check the settings, install the appropriate apps, and confirm all the security patches were in place. The client quickly realized that they would need outside help in order to keep critical infrastructure up and running.
The Scenario
Our client’s main line of business is in employee assistance program (EAP) resources for large corporate clients. Those benefits include short-term counseling resources, wellness coaching, life coaching, and a range of other behavioral health tools. When working with educational facilities, the company also offers behavioral health modules, comprehensive counseling, and wellness programs for students to support their academic and personal goals.
Because the services they offered were so flexible and needed, they found themselves managing some very large programs for some equally large clients. Of course, what every company dreams of is growth, and our client enjoyed a long, steady stream of new business because their clients were reaping the benefits of increased productivity and a healthier workforce. After a long period of sustained growth, the client suddenly found itself with a “success” problem: Increased business and folding in larger and larger clients (including U.S. federal agencies) increased the workloads for everyone and caused strain on manual, outdated processes.
The company’s workforce grew steadily from a relatively small organization to close to 1,000 employees. That explosive growth and success introduced headaches to the small IT team that had not yet scaled its internal processes to include automated OS deployment, patching, and updating. There was a need for better, more consistent reporting as well.
When more and more devices need to be added to an environment, it can tend to cause compliance drift and subsequent security issues. This drift can be especially problematic given the sensitive nature of the clients’ business. With more and more and more endpoints to manage, pressure on the company’s small IT team also increased.
The company had not yet fully configured Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) at the time. They soon discovered that finding and hiring the right talent to build and engineer that stack was proving to be a bigger challenge than they initially anticipated.
To engineer those automated solutions and standardize their processes, the client turned to Model.
The Service
Our team here at Model helped this client develop best practices and processes when it came to SCCM and management of their Windows 10 environment. Once implemented, we continued to provide tier III support. We also mentored their internal engineer to help keep much of their knowledge in-house.
Our goal was to save them both time and money, as well as establish ourselves as a strategic partner that freed up our client’s internal engineers to focus on business and product.
The Success Story
Our contact with this client has told us that working together “has been a wonderful, superb engagement up to this point,” citing Model’s availability, knowledge, and willingness to mentor members of the internal IT team. Because routine infrastructure tasks such as deployment and updating have mostly been automated, now there is more time to focus on the more innovative and strategic aspects of the business. At the same time, the end-user experience has been vastly improved.
The outcomes of this engagement have served this growing business well:
- Relieved the sys admins of mundane help desk updates and requests
- Refocused those admins on more strategic and engaging projects
- Improved the end user experience with easy-to-follow UIs and update instructions
- Provided an estimated savings of $10,000-$15,000 in resources
- Improved compliance and security
- Developed a predictable and normalized process to deploy new machines and update software suites
Routine infrastructure tasks such as deployment and updating have been largely automated. Now there is more time to focus on the more innovative and strategic aspects of the business.
About Model Technology Solutions
Model Technology Solutions is a consulting and managed services provider laser-focused on helping businesses realize the transformative power of IT automation. The company’s solution engineers strive to remain at the forefront of enterprise technology and the proper deployment and management of operating systems, end point devices, and infrastructures. Model values transparency and integrity and champions the continued growth of the automation technology community.
See how Model Technology can impact your business today and help you focus on what you do best.
