Cambio Health Solutions Outsources the staffing of its IT infrastructure

The Business Challenge:

Provide a high level of sophisticated IT services to a rapidly growing, technology dependent company while not having to create a large, full-time, in-house IT staff—and do so cost effectively. Also since a large number of Cambio employees are not local, the company needed remote solutions and the ability to support secure, high speed connectivity from a variety of locations nationwide.

Client Profile

Headquartered in Nashville, TN, Cambio Health Solutions provides management consulting services to hospitals and health systems, nationally—to improve their financial health and achieve their medical missions. Note that Cambio Health Solutions was recently purchased by FTI Consulting of Annapolis, MD

The Answer

XMi Technology appointed a Senior Project Manager who met regularly with Cambio’s Chief Technology Officer and other managers to provide initial and ongoing strategic and tactical planning for Cambio’s overall IT function—primarily focused on its network infrastructure. Using a multi-disciplinary team, XMI Technology staff on an as needed basis, provided a comprehensive set of IT infrastructure and related services. These included researching and implementing new solutions and overall system maintenance of the company’s in-house hardware and software—including system configuration, upgrades and patches, routine maintenance and monitoring; and inventory control and IT purchases.

Since cell phones are so critical to employees, XMI Technology (as a Sprint re-seller) handled all cell phone issues for employees and reviewed and approved all invoices related to the cell phone service. XMi Technology also developed a workflow process for Cambio management to handle all IT related aspects of hiring a new employee from issuing their computers and cell phones to providing them with an orientation training session to familiarizing employees with the company and how they will use the technology in their daily jobs.

Because some key employees were spending valuable time sitting in airports, XMi Technology recommended and implemented two pieces of mobile technology to keep these valuable employees productive, even while waiting at the airport or hotel. One of these pieces of technology is the Business Communication Enterprise Edition software from Sprint, which turns a PDA based cell phone into a handheld wireless email portal. The other is Sprint’s Datalink technology which uses cell phone technology to allow a user to connect his or her laptop to the corporate backbone via a secure VPN tunnel from a wireless data card in the laptop.

XMi Technology also provided ongoing troubleshooting via an on-site help desk support to Cambio personnel in their Brentwood, TN office: approximately 80 main office and remote users. Requests covered VPN issues, connectivity, cell phone issues, phone system troubleshooting, Windows problems, PC builds/re-builds, and user training. XMi Technology implemented an internal help desk ticket tracking system; implemented a self-service web-based travel site for field users to make their travel arrangements; and setup high speed routers at customer hospitals to provide an independent, secure data path from the customer’s site to the home office via the Internet in a HIPAA compliant way.

The Results

For nearly two years (until Cambio became part of FTI Consulting), XMi Technology provided the company a wide range of IT infrastructure services. Said Bob Enkema, CFO of Cambio, “After Cambio split off from Quorum a couple years ago, we wanted to in source the IT hardware elements but outsource the people components of our infrastructure. I wanted an IT services firm that could provide not only the blocking and tackling of the day to day issues but also a broad range of talent and good bench strength that would prepare Cambio in advance for the inevitable challenges and changes that are presented as the IT needs change and technology evolves. Finding this combination in 1 to 2 in-house personnel is very time consuming. Couple that with the difficulties of scheduling vacations, coverage, and departures in a 24/7 support discipline, and the out-source option becomes even more compelling.”

“There was a lot to conquer when XMI Technology started with us, and our own 80+ staff could be quite demanding. XMi Technology came in with a “we’ll get it done” attitude and did an excellent job not only ferreting out our needs but also researching options and coming up with creative solutions whether that meant implementing a better spam blocker, improving the ways our people all over the country access email and communicate with each other, instituting wireless connectivity to our clients, etc. Sometimes these initiatives took some trial and error, but XMi Technology was proactive and had the ability to make it happen. They were always responsive to what we needed—and if I had any type of issue I could contact them virtually 24/7—and they got it solved quickly. As we transition to become part of a larger organization that can justify the in-house staff model due to economies of scale, expectations of the Cambio staff are high due to the high performance water mark that XMi Technology has set.”