Health Insurance Organization Success Story

This healthcare organization shows untiring dedication to its patients. Consequently, the company must be able to rely on its physical infrastructure and security processes. However, as a multi-location company, this organization was faced with the daily challenges—and expenditures—of high-volume hardware maintenance, repair, and secure upkeep. Between its 26 national locations, the company had 427 different units under Cisco SMARTnet maintenance contracts. While these units were under adequate coverage, the client was still paying a premium that made little room in its budget for future projects. The team was looking for a way to alleviate this financial strain.

Like most companies, the client wanted to reduce its OPEX costs. But the company—due to its constant handling of patients’ sensitive healthcare data—ultimately needed a solution that would not compromise the quality of maintenance service or security provided. For any subsequent solution to be successful, the organization needed to be assured that the chosen vendor could deliver the following list of requirements:

• Reduced overall maintenance expenditures
• No loss or degradation of services
• Specific SLAs
• 24/7 helpdesk availability
• Guaranteed HIPAA compliance

When one of our Senior Account Executives (who had been contracted by the client to complete several small orders in the past) heard about the company’s needs, she realized that CentricsIT had the flexibility and geographical reach to provide a customized solution; she made a bid on the maintenance contract. Unfortunately, at that time, company executives were under the impression that maintenance contracts needed to be “all or nothing,” and they had numerous high-availability units that required very strict 2-hour SLA’s. They were unsure how to approach third-party maintenance (TPM) as a comprehensive solution for all their assets. So, they decided to stick with their SMARTnet contract that year. At the end of that year, however, when the company’s executives saw little to no savings with their SMARTnet contracts yet again, they decided to revisit what the experts at CentricsIT had to say about third-party maintenance.