new technology spotlight Dell Services Transforming the healthcare help desk with eresponder, a cloud-based ticketing system built on BMC Remedyforce

Transcription

1 new technology spotlight Dell Services Transforming the healthcare help desk with eresponder, a cloud-based ticketing system built on BMC Remedyforce

2 DELL SERVICES Dell Services credentials in healthcare are impressive. For four years in a row, Gartner, Inc., has ranked Dell Services #1 for IT services in the worldwide healthcare provider market. The company has received numerous other awards, including Leader and Star Performer for App Outsourcing (AO) and Infra Outsourcing (IO) in the Healthcare Payer and Provider market by the Everest Group. In recent years, the pressure on healthcare organizations to implement electronic medical records (EMR) software has intensified, and Dell Services has moved aggressively to deliver world-class service and support for such leading EMR solutions as Epic, McKesson, Meditech and NextGen. The company has built a strong reputation for providing top-notch help desk services to major healthcare players. Traditionally, Dell Services has focused on multiyear contracts with large healthcare providers. But, according to Ajay Aiyar, a Dell Services program manager, the company s Physician Services Group analyzed the market and discovered a huge underserved segment: small to midsize physicians practices and hospitals. Our business model was not suitable for this particular market, Aiyar said, so we embarked on a major transformation with respect to how we deliver EMR support to our customers. The result is eresponder, our cloud-based, ITIL-compliant ticketing system, which we built using Remedyforce technology from BMC Software. Geography: Global Industry: Healthcare Solutions: BMC Remedyforce Before: After: No ability to leverage live chat, self service, mobility or other technologies to engage with clients and EMR subject matter experts Onboarding of new clients took 4 to 6 weeks Cost of maintaining legacy systems resulted in high price point that was out of reach for small/midsize organizations Use of multiple legacy ticketing systems made it difficult to gain visibility across the entire enterprise Self service, chat, mobile support and other capabilities facilitate interactions, increase efficiency and reduce support costs New client onboarding time is 1 to 3 days Cloud/subscription model enables Dell Services to offer a help desk at very competitive pricing Single ticketing solution enables comprehensive reporting with a 360-degree view CREATING A WORLD-CLASS EMR HELP DESK The advantages of digitizing medical records are many. A patient s EMR consolidates all pertinent data in a single location medical history, medications, allergies, test results, immunizations, radiology images, vital signs and personal statistics. Medical professionals can access this information with a few clicks of a mouse instead of trying to track down paper-based records from multiple sources. Electronic records are more accurate, more legible and more complete than their handwritten predecessors. Because of the critical nature of patient data, high availability of an EMR solution is absolutely essential, and healthcare organizations of all sizes need to ensure that medical professionals have a place to go for assistance when issues arise. Implementing and managing a highly efficient help desk that meets the stringent demands of the healthcare environment, however, is a tough challenge, especially for smaller organizations. Dell Services built eresponder to give healthcare organizations of all sizes a high-quality yet affordable help desk solution in the cloud. 1

3 CHOOSING THE RIGHT TOOL From the beginning, the staff realized that a critical success factor would be choosing the right tool on which to build eresponder. In the small to midsize market, competitive pricing would be essential, as would be the ability to onboard new customers within one to three days instead of the more typical four to six weeks. Faster onboarding would mean revenue generation would start sooner once a new client signed up for service. According to Aiyar, project goals included empowering customers to submit tickets through multiple channels: telephone, and a self-service portal with chat. Ease of use was crucial. We wanted a positive experience for clients and agents, he recalled. Our business model was not aligned for this particular market. So we embarked on a major transformation with respect to how we deliver EMR support to our customers. The result is eresponder, our cloud-based ITIL-compliant ticketing system, which we built using Remedyforce technology from BMC Software. Ajay Aiyar Project Program Management Consultant Dell Services Physician Services Group Implementing a tool that increases help desk productivity and efficiency would not only improve customer satisfaction but also bring down our costs. A number of factors drove the decision to partner with BMC Software, including ITIL compatibility, high scalability and availability, HIPAA compliance, robust integration capabilities, mobile support, competitive subscription pricing and Dell s own in-house expertise with Salesforce.com. The leadership positions that BMC Software and Salesforce.com hold in their respective markets heavily influenced the choice. Moreover, the staff realized that capabilities such as self service for submitting incidents and the knowledge base that enables clients to address issues and answer questions on their own would minimize the volume of calls to the help desk, which, in turn, would cut call center costs. When we took everything into consideration, it was clear that Remedyforce offered the best value proposition for what we wanted to accomplish, Aiyar said. PUTTING TOGETHER THE RIGHT PIECES While Remedyforce is the foundation for eresponder, Dell Services has customized many aspects of the system and integrated a variety of third-party products to adapt eresponder to meet the unique and rigorous demands of the healthcare environment. The integration team comprised experts from Dell Services, BMC Software, Salesforce.com, and the Dell Boomi integration group and quality assurance (testing) practice as well as subject matter experts from the leading EMR solution providers. The team leveraged the integration capabilities of Remedyforce, Dell Boomi AtomSphere (the leading cloud integration platform) and Salesforce.com. Dell Boomi has been particularly helpful in integrating Remedyforce with legacy ticketing systems. One, for example, is a system that focuses on hosting support. Integration means that hosting-related issues are transferred in real time to eresponder and the corresponding tickets in the two systems are synchronized automatically. 2

4 The teams have completed several key integrations to expand the functionality of Remedyforce. Citrix GoToAssist enables agents to log into client machines to quickly resolve problems and demonstrate resolutions. The Surveyforce survey application captures customer opinions regarding help desk performance. Live chat connects customers directly to an agent, providing a highly cost-effective channel for customer/agent interactions. All of these integrations improve efficiency and help drive down costs, Aiyar said. For example, Remedyforce supports the Salesforce.com Chatter feature, which allows support teams to collaborate. But we also wanted to provide intelligent live chat. The program we ve integrated puts information regarding the client s previous incidents at the agents fingertips. It also captures a transcript of the current interaction and stores it with the ticket to keep the history up to date. As a result, agents don t have to enter notes manually, which saves a lot of time. Customers are happier because issues are resolved more quickly and agents are more productive. The teams are in the process of integrating telephony, short message services (SMS) for notifications and alerts via text messaging and mobile support. These additional integrations particularly SMS and mobile support will be particularly beneficial in boosting the efficiency Dell Services distributed help desk staff. Approximately 80 percent of agents work from remote locations. Many of these people are highly specialized, with extensive domain expertise in healthcare, Aiyar said. Some of them are doctors and nurses and lab technicians. Mobility means that they can be available to address critical incidents during nonpeak times without having to sit in front of a computer waiting for a ticket to come in. It s a very practical solution for our help desk operation. The support we receive from BMC is phenomenal. And just four months after going live, we re already expanding beyond our original scope. We ve already completed the configuration of two healthcare applications and we ve also done a Remedyforce implementation for our enterprise resource planning team to support their applications. Ajay Aiyar Project Program Management Consultant Dell Services Physician Services Group CONTINUOUS SERVICE IMPROVEMENT Dell Services is taking advantage of Remedyforce reporting and dashboards to measure performance and find areas for improvement. Reports and dashboards give senior management detailed information on the number of tickets opened each month, resolution times, first call resolution rates, performance against service level agreements and other key metrics. Because Remedyforce serves as a single ticketing system across EMR solutions, clients and Dell employees, the reporting is comprehensive, providing a 360-degree view of support operations. This visibility is enabling the staff to identify recurring issues and track down and eliminate root causes, thereby reducing ticket volumes. Managers can compare performance in a variety of ways, based on the customer, the EMR solution, the help desk agent and so forth. Through analysis and follow up, the staff is identifying areas for improvement and constantly refining processes to drive further efficiencies. 3

5 CUSTOMER S LAST WORDS The support from BMC is phenomenal, Aiyar concluded. And just four months after going live, we re already expanding beyond our original scope. We ve completed the configuration of two healthcare applications and we ve also done a Remedyforce implementation for our enterprise resource planning team to support their applications. ABOUT DELL SERVICES As a leader in the healthcare IT space for more than 20 years, Dell is continuously chosen by top customers to understand and identify the right solutions that help improve care, drive overall efficiency and manage financial risks. Gartner, Inc. rated Dell as the #1 healthcare IT services company in 2011, 2012 and The company s 14,000 healthcare resources include more than 300 clinicians. Dell provides deep domain expertise to more than 10,000 healthcare providers, health plans, pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, diagnostic and scientific instrumentation customers worldwide. For more information visit BMC delivers software solutions that help IT transform digital enterprises for the ultimate competitive business advantage. We have worked with thousands of leading companies to create and deliver powerful IT management services. From mainframe to cloud to mobile, we pair high-speed digital innovation with robust IT industrializationallowing our customers to provide amazing user experiences with optimized IT performance, cost, compliance, and productivity. We believe that technology is the heart of every business, and that IT drives business to the digital age. BMC Bring IT to Life. BMC, BMC Software, and the BMC Software logo are the exclusive properties of BMC Software, Inc., are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and may be registered or pending registration in other countries. All other BMC trademarks, service marks, and logos may be registered or pending registration in the U.S. or in other countries. UNIX is the registered trademark of The Open Group in the US and other countries. Tivoli and IBM are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. IT Infrastructure Library is a registered trademark of the Office of Government Commerce and is used here by BMC Software, Inc., under license from and with the permission of OGC. ITIL is a registered trademark, and a registered community trademark of the Office of Government Commerce, and is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and is used here by BMC Software, Inc., under license from and with the permission of OGC. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners BMC Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Origin date: 8/14 *000000*