The business case for tech & vendor consolidation in healthcare
Technology is critical in helping care providers deliver high-quality services quickly, precisely, and efficiently. Many healthcare systems' key technology management challenge doesn’t usually come from the multi-million-dollar MRI scanners they may use. Instead, it comes from the numerous devices – like desktop PCs, laptops, and other input/output devices – critical to delivering care in a hospital setting, a community facility, or even a patient’s home.
Input/Output devices: The CIO’s greatest headache
The biggest challenge– and cost – of managing technology comes from how a piece of equipment is procured, deployed, installed, used, and decommissioned over its lifetime.
For a high-end MRI scanner, this is relatively straightforward. Once commissioned, it is used per the manual, with occasional support provided directly by the original equipment manufacturer.
For mission-critical equipment like PCs, laptops, hand-held devices, and printers, how they are used, managed, and supported over their lifetime is very different.
Ideally, all the technology used in a healthcare system would be purchased with the IT department's help from a few vendors. This would help ensure everything is built, maintained, and supported to a common standard. A central asset register would help provide visibility of where assets are located, who uses them, how they are supported, and when they need replacing. This approach would make the best use of limited resources and budget.
However, the reality is often very different from this ideal.
First, some equipment might be used far longer than planned when originally purchased. Sometimes, this means errors occur more often. It may mean that their contract and support documentation go missing too, so you don’t know which vendor or supplier to contact when something goes wrong. When the equipment is finally replaced, the replacements may come from a different vendor, who will likely provide extra support and maintenance, whether for replacement parts, software upgrades, or security patches.
Sometimes, a large infrastructure project will bring in more technology from a new vendor, and it isn’t uncommon for individual departments to buy their equipment without the knowledge or approval of the IT department.
In this situation, it is hardly surprising that many IT teams in healthcare systems end up in a worst-of-all-world scenario where they have to manage multiple suppliers and service providers with different contract terms and service level commitments for equipment never approved or budgeted for. Some equipment may no longer be supported, presenting an operational risk to the healthcare provider. Worse, a technology platform may no longer be supported, but you are still invoiced for a worthless contract.
Vendor consolidation: Enhanced business & technology alignment for improved operational performance
If this is a situation you suspect you are facing, the good news is that there is a way forward. For many healthcare systems, vendor consolidation can help address many challenges of streamlining the provisioning, management, and support of a complex technology environment.
Vendor management is a complex topic that can challenge the best-organized and most resourced organizations. Business requirements can change. Vendor focus and support can change, too, so technology roadmaps can become obsolete. Other vendors can create new offerings that provide powerful capabilities that are valuable for a hospital system. Constantly staying on top of all these developments is a job in itself.
Added to this is that a complex vendor environment is a significant management overhead, with real cost and operational implications for a hospital, that can catch the unwary.
Vendor consolidation helps to streamline the management of the technology function by – over time – ‘right-sizing’ the number of vendors in an environment that need to be managed, directed, and negotiated with.
As well as reducing technology complexity, the review process can also find the right vendor mix to implement the ideal combination of technology platforms, both generalist and specialist, at a healthcare provider. This approach means you can have a blended technology environment, with cost-effective platforms prioritized in some areas, and technically optimized platforms used elsewhere, depending on users' needs.
The end game for this type of project is to have a small number of carefully selected suppliers, all providing consistent service across the board.
This isn’t to say you replace all your laptops, PCs, and input/output devices on day one. Vendor consolidation is an iterative process where you:
- Understand the current technology environment and the contracts, support agreements, and SLAs.
- Understand how the technology estate is utilized throughout the 24-hour working day.
- Develop a roadmap that addresses any service gaps and wasted spend, and which reduces your technology partner base to a handful of providers fully aligned with your needs and objectives.
How Techio can help
Techio is a specialist provider of technology management and support services to healthcare providers throughout the U.S. Our unique technology management model allows us to analyze your technology usage to help identify areas where the number of vendors supporting your tech environment can be reduced over time. We also offer a comprehensive vendor management service that delivers an end-to-end technology support framework so that issues are permanently fixed promptly, even when the problem involves multiple partners; we make sure nothing falls between the gaps. Where others pass the buck, we run toward the fire and put it out.
Learn how Techio can help you consolidate your technology estate and vendor landscape, streamline your technology environment, optimize your budget, and deliver best-in-class service to your organization.