As I was writing last week’s post, I got an email from our social team asking me to take a look at a customer profile one of our internal teams recently put together.
The timing, as it turns out, couldn’t have been more perfect, and the story more in line with the “center of gravity” series I kicked off earlier this month. It’s a great example of the business benefits of a customer-focused IT strategy.
The profile recaps the journey EMH Healthcare went through to upgrade its legacy EMC storage environment. And while the product side of the story is compelling (and, yes, a nod to EMC products and solutions), it’s the business/customer thread, you’ll want to note. It’s what captured my attention and surely EMH management’s.
By focusing on its customers (i.e., the ends) and not just the products/services it provides/delivers (i.e., the means), EMH IT is delivering measurable business value to the broader organization.
Now, don’t get me wrong.
I’m not saying that products aren’t important; they definitely are. But what I am saying is that IT organizations need to think first about the bigger business picture. They need to understand what their customers (internal and external) need before they set IT priorities and invest in new products or technologies. (Recall the accidental architecture?)
EMH IT’s goal is to:
- Improve operational efficiency (traditional IT metric) and responsiveness to patient needs (business-focused metric).
And it’s doing this by:
- Improving application availability, responsiveness and performance – This expedites patient care, reduces the length of hospital stays and ensures accuracy of information processed at every level in the organization.
- Simplifying administrative time – This allows the IT team to invest more time in business-optimizing activities (e.g., making sure their IT infrastructure is performing optimally for clinicians, administrators and patients).
I’d say EMH IT has found its business center of gravity, wouldn’t you?
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Additional Resources
Customer Profile: EMH Healthcare: Private cloud improves healthcare applications, availability and performance.
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