Page 54 - Security Today, July/August 2020

MANAGING COSTS
Although technology integrators sound like a high-end service with a commensurate price tag, that is not the case. An integrated approach to IT with the best-of-breed solutions on the market delivers economies of efficiency and scale that are often passed on to the customer.
When engaging with a managed IT service provider, Brackett says it is also important that customers know what they are pay- ing for with contracts that clearly spell out each installed product, feature, and support item or service they are purchasing.
Technology integrators should bear the cost of providing an initial assessment of their needs. The bid should itemize the costs for equipment and support. The vendor should anticipate future upgrade paths in order to provide transparency to future expenses. In this way, a customer knows their initial, ongoing and upgrade costs and can budget accordingly.
“Pricing transparency was a big factor in our telecom system purchase decision,” said Brett Stephen, director of information systems at Heart Care Centers of Illinois, a 5-center network of cardiovascular clinics, who selected BTI as their telecom partner. “In 14 years of supporting our telecom needs, we have not once been surprised by pricing even as we have upgraded features and added reporting tools.”
ONGOING IT MANAGEMENT AND SUPPORT
It is important to note also that the role of the technology in- tegrator does not end once the system is installed. Proactive monitoring should be employed, so that the system actively over- sees technology performance to identify anomalies even before a malfunction occurs. Problems are addressed proactively often
“When engaging with a managed IT service provider, it is also important that customers know what they are paying for with contracts that clearly spell out each installed product, feature, and support item or service they are purchasing.”
without the customer even knowing about it. When site visits are required, the monitoring system dispatches an engineer without interrupting the customer.
“Our 24-hour monitoring system sends me alarms by email, text, and phone. I am always in the know whether I am at work or remote, and I only have to deal with one vendor,” says Charles Lomboy, Director of Physical Plant Management at Los Ange- les-based AltaMed, a 46-site health clinic network that serves nearly 1 million patient visits annually. The company uses BTI networks for CCTV, access control and burglar alarms.
With a proactive model, far fewer healthcare IT resources are used. This minimizes the impact on daily op-
erations and enables an IT department to focus
on the core business rather than babysitting sys-
tems for lower level network needs.
Jeff Elliott is a freelance writer based in Torrance, Calif.
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HEALTHCARE SECURITY
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