Client Accomplishment: Deborah Hospital Foundation UNIX
and Network Infrastructure
A 275 Chapter Foundation with 68,000
members prepares for the new millennium.
Development, Design, Implementation
and Support of a new UNIX and network infrastructure helps Deborah Hospital
Foundation increase system performance, eliminate down time, reduce TCO and embrace new technology.
Mission:
In
support of Deborah Heart and Lung Center, Browns Mills, NJ., a provider of
medical and surgical treatment to patients with heart and lung disease and
children with congenital heart disease without distinction as to race, color,
religion, age, national origin, handicap or ability to pay and in support
of clinical research for advancing the treatment of heart and lung disease.
History:
When the Deborah Heart and Lung Center's avenues
of health care were becoming more extensive, encompassing pulmonary, cardiac
and vascular diseases, the leadership of Deborah recognized that the business
of raising funds was becoming more complicated and a more comprehensive coordinated
approach to fundraising was needed; thus in 1974, the Deborah Hospital Foundation
was established.
Today
their 275 community based chapters and their regions are ambassadors of information
about our Center, providing a strong presence in their areas through their
fundraising activities. Within the Foundation, new specialized departments
of fundraising have developed, supplementing the chapters effort to stimulate
interest and new sources of income through friends in business, labor organizations
industry, corporations, foundations and organizations that help maintain our
161 bed hospital and campus. Basically, this laid the groundwork for the grass
root volunteer and chapter network that consists of 68,000 members today,
predominantly located along the Eastern seaboard from Maine to Florida that
is Deborah Hospital Foundation.
Business Need:
Deborah Hospital needed to centralize it's
regional data, consolidate multiple applications and servers and increase
performance, high availability, expandability and growth in an open systems
computing environment.
Business Solution:
To meet the requirements of Deborah Hospital
Foundation, ASK was engaged to architect a comprehensive technology plan that would replace and re-build
a new computing foundation from the ground up. ASK addressed this redesign
by developing a 4 Phased implementation plan encompassing a wide variety of
proven technologies, hardware, software, networking products, implementation
services and ongoing technical and consulting support.
The Products:
Hewlett Packard LH Series Multi-Processor Netservers.
SCO UNIX Open Server Enterprise Operating System.
Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Operating
System.
Hewlett Packard Vectra Desk Tops Computers.
Intel Hubs and Layer 3 Switching Products.
Cisco Internet Routing and Firewall
Products.
ASK outlined a complete technology infrastructure
refresh around Hewlett Packard's Intel based hardware platforms, high availability
features, and critical support capabilities. "We needed a new architecture
that would support multiple processors for redundancy as well as accommodate
various new technologies," said Carl J. Minardo, Director Of Finance
and Administration, Deborah Hospital Foundation. "The
systems integrate our various business functions into a single, easy to use
solution." said Minardo.
"ASK
was engaged to design and implement a company wide solution that contained
a high level of performance, flexibility, and overall consistency," said
Stephen F. Pirolli, Principal Consultant, ASK Technologies,
Inc. "This new architecture will allow Deborah Hospital Foundation
to make the transition to fault resilient, symmetrical computing, enabling
them to provide comprehensive information to their members, contributors and
regions which is key to maintaining their current and future business goals.
The new architecture is comprised of both UNIX and NT servers working in unison.
The new centralized computing environment was designed to support internal
legacy applications running under the stability of UNIX, productivity and
networking applications running on Windows NT, remote connectivity and inter/intra
net email and web browsing in a secure redundant data center." says Pirolli.
"Our preliminary cost justification will yield a net savings of $58,000.00
over a 3 year period in maintenance fees alone. This number will at least
triple when factoring in increased employee productivity, increased system
performance and overall network availability.", says Pirolli.
"The solution brought us relief from out outdated system. We could no
longer tolerate a 2-hour sort time when adding just a few records," said
Karen Patterson, MIS Manager, Deborah Hospital Foundation.
" We are very happy with the products and services supplied by ASK
Technologies, Inc. Although the systems practically take care of themselves,
when we do need support, ASK has a knowledgeable and available staff
that provides us with timely responses.", said Patterson.
Note:
Clients mentioned in this article should not be contacted directly. For more
information about the client or accomplishment, contact the ASK consultant
for this account or contact our corporate headquarters at (610) 617-0300.
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