By Insight Editor / 22 Sep 2021 / Topics: Backup & recovery Cloud Procurement Software
Facts at a glance
Client industry:
Health services
Size of company:
23,000+
Challenge:
A major county health department was purchasing software licensing separately and missing out on enterprise license agreement cost savings and benefits. They also needed increased security to protect valuable patient data across 26 health centers and four hospital training sites for multiple universities.
Solution:
Cisco Security Enterprise Agreement and Cisco Enterprise Agreement
Results:
- Full access to the Cisco Security Suite
- Streamlined license management and visibility
- An estimated 40-60% total cost of ownership savings
- A shorter procurement cycle, preventing downtime
One of the largest county health departments in the U.S., which supports 26 health centers and four physician training sites for multiple universities, was looking for a way to save costs on software licensing, improve procurement and bolster security. They have over 23,000 employees and care for around 750,000 patients a year between various health facilities, the juvenile justice system and county jails.
The health department was purchasing all their software licenses separately, which created added costs and downtime due to lengthy license procurement and tedious management.
This process included the time spent by their IT and purchasing personnel researching, shopping, negotiating, securing internal approval, awaiting vendor transaction time and deploying the software. Each step involved various team members, and in any given purchase there could be multiple bottlenecks, slowing the transaction.
This painstaking, unpredictable and too frequent routine created added costs due to repetitive tasks, the opportunity cost of taking focus away from the department’s mission-critical IT operations and higher prices associated with purchasing licenses separately.
The department’s additional long-term goal was to improve their security posture. With healthcare data breach threats growing and public sector funding challenges always looming, the client had to make some big changes — carefully.
Insight initially won the contract in 2018 with a multi architecture Cisco® Enterprise Agreement. This solution unified the health department’s communications licensing, with phones and Webex®, as well as Unified Contact Center Enterprise (UCCE) and Cisco Digital Network Architecture (DNA), licensing under one agreement.
The Cisco Enterprise Agreement was a huge victory for the health department. It gave the client complete transparency into their licensing management under one portal, increased license consumption efficiency and enabled them to improve project completion times. The health department would no longer have to experience software downtime due to incomplete licensing.
And, there was an added security benefit with the Cisco DNA licensing. The software subscription is always up to date with the latest security patches, protecting the department’s network from the most sophisticated security threats.
It’s estimated that with this new combined software licensing, the client saved 40-60% in total cost of ownership and increased the ease of management.
Fast forward to 2021, when the client’s software licensing was up for recompete. Because of the long-standing relationship between Insight and the county health department, as well as their previous positive experience with the Cisco Enterprise Agreement, the client trusted Insight with a new five-year contract and added the Cisco Security Enterprise Agreement.
With the Cisco Security EA, they have access to the entire Cisco Security Suite, which drastically improves their security posture. And, with an average of 3.3 million health records breached worldwide from June 2020 through June 2021, and hacking being a leading cause1, the need for increased measures was an absolute necessity.
The health department is benefiting from fixed pricing for the term of the contract, avoiding repetitive buying cycles with unsteady pricing. Plus, a 20% additional growth allowance is included in the initial purchase. Transparency through the smart licensing portal shows who consumed the license and allows them to run reports with a full history and inventory of what they own.
With the assurance of fortified security and seamless real-time license consumption, the health department can fix their eyes toward the future. They’re focused on improving outcomes for their 750,000 patients and doing it within their county budget.
1Alder, Steve. “June 2021 Healthcare Data Breach Report.” HIPAA Journal (2021): https://www.hipaajournal.com/june-2021-healthcare-data-breach-report/#:~:text=More than 40 million healthcare,records were breached each month.
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