Review our case studies from a few of our health and medical clients:
Health Care Agency
Situation
The client provides consumer and business health care services. Originally a small, early entrant into health care, when contacting 612 Network the client was confronting painful industry consolidation and tougher government regulation. They believed they had two strategic options: attempt to prudently stay the course, or sell out. After partnering with 612 Network, the option of selling out was abandoned, and a strategy of gradually increased investment was determined.
Outcome
Over nearly a decade, the client achieved +400% growth, to become an industry leader. We helped them establish branches across Minnesota, and a network of VPNs that guaranteed secure, reliable connections to the main office. The client’s president has stated, “612 Network—great guys! I don’t think we could have expanded the way we did without them. And when Hipaa hit us at about the same time, their counsel and expertise helped us keep our sanity. What you see is what you get from them—dedication and honesty.”
Medical Equipment Distribution
Situation
Before the company was sold, our client was an upper Midwest distributor for a national manufacturer of medical equipment. The manufacturer was noted for the innovation of its devices, but insisted that its distributors handle much of the customer device implementation. The manufacturer had developed an FDA approved device which allowed a single surgeon to observe remotely multiple operating room surgeries—developed to reduce the cost of hospitals having their operations monitored by a physically present “non-participating” surgeon. Device implementation had been putting a real burden on distributors—and our client had endured a history of hiring both poor performing internal IT staff, and outsourced IT help as well. Thus, the client was attempting to hold the line in refusing to sign a contract with any potential new IT vendor. While other IT suppliers were refusing to work without contract protection, 612 Network agreed to do so without a contract.
Outcome
The device in question was being test marketed in the upper Midwest, and our client was being asked to solve remote connectivity between operating rooms and the monitoring surgeon. There was no existing blueprint for doing so. Our client’s president observed, “I was really afraid that if we didn’t meet our manufacturer’s demands on this project, we would finally be fired. But not only did 612 Network bail us out, the manufacturer was so pleased that a year later it made an offer to purchase us, at a price we simply couldn’t pass up. Good for us. Tough for 612 Network. But we still remain friends.”
Medical Equipment Liquidator
Situation
The client is a full service provider, to hospitals and clinics, of used medical equipment—with over 10,000 items in stock. Their core competencies include customer liquidations, item appraisal, inventory management, and lease/buy options. The client had addressed its needs with what they acknowledged as somewhat randomly chosen separate IT providers, causing them concerns, with a tipping point being mounting Hipaa pressures.
Outcome
With Hipaa, we first told the client that Hipaa “deadlines” had been repeatedly established, delayed, reassessed and reissued. Thus, we advised that Hipaa IT decisions not be made prematurely. We then constructed, with the assistance of the client’s other IT vendors, a comprehensive hosted infrastructure. The client has been pleased with the results: “612 Network not only immediately calmed our fears about Hipaa, but also tried to tactfully tell us that essentially we had no coherent IT strategy at all. They did exactly what they said they would do, and we now have what we feel is a coordinated set of overall IT activities that is working extremely well.”