Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit

Success Story

Managing a mobile workforce requires a reliable infrastructure and centralized user access. The Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit created a fault-tolerant infrastructure across all its locations with Novell® Open Enterprise Server and Novell GroupWise®, reducing administration time by 30 percent and travel costs by 50 percent for its mobile workforce.

Overview

The Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit serves the County of Prince Edward, Hastings County, Quinte West and Belleville, Ontario. The health unit provides dozens of programs and services, along with reliable health information to a population of approximately 150,000 people in an area of 7,000 square kilometers.

Challenge

One of the biggest IT challenges for the Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit is providing timely information access to a geographically dispersed and partially mobile workforce. Nearly 40 percent of the health unit's employees are mobile, working across six different locations as well as numerous client sites. These employees needed a mobile workforce solution to provide fast and reliable access to resources, regardless of location.

The health unit provides a variety of applications to its workforce, including customized applications and some specifically mandated by the Public Health Division, Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Its previous operating platform was outdated and incapable of giving employees reliable access from remote locations. The health unit also lacked a centralized directory to manage user access and safeguard data security.

Novell solution

"The biggest benefit of an open enterprise is the freedom of choice. We can adapt our environment the way we deem appropriate, not according to any particular vendor. Novell's view of open enterprise computing closely matches ours."

Tom Lockhart
IT Systems Manager
Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit

To create a stable infrastructure across all its locations, including mobile users, the health unit evaluated solutions from Microsoft* and Red Hat* before selecting Novell Open Enterprise Server running on Linux*.

"We selected Novell because we've had a good experience with NetWare and Novell Open Enterprise Server is an excellent value," said Tom Lockhart, IT Systems Manager at Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit. "We are impressed with Novell's direction of developing a stack of products that run on Linux. No other vendor develops products for so many different kernels and they all interoperate."

The health unit runs Novell Open Enterprise Server on both NetWare® and SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server. With Linux, the IT staff can introduce open source applications and new services while keeping costs down. Using open source development tools allows the IT staff to customize provincially mandated applications to better meet the organization's specific requirements, including providing solutions for its mobile workforce.

"The biggest benefit of an open enterprise is the freedom of choice," said Lockhart. "We can adapt our environment the way we deem appropriate, not according to any particular vendor. Novell's view of open enterprise computing closely matches ours."

Centralizing user account information with Novell eDirectory™ has streamlined identity management for the health unit by providing each employee a single user ID. Having an authoritative source of user information allows employees to access only authorized data and helps the organization better comply with regulatory requirements.

Novell GroupWise runs on Novell Cluster Services™ to give its mobile workforce fast and reliable access to e-mail, appointments, contacts, tasks, and attachments from any location. BlackBerry* Enterprise Server for GroupWise ensures that BlackBerry users can stay up-to-date while traveling.

Using third-party applications and open source software, the health unit created a unified messaging solution with GroupWise as the front-end for voicemail, faxing and other custom applications. Online voicemail allows users to prioritize calls just as they would e-mails, and online faxing has reduced paperwork and increased the security of information.

"We discovered that our users spend about 80 percent of their time in GroupWise so it made sense to give them access to applications without having to leave their e-mail," said Lockhart. "We've also never had a virus or worm attack with GroupWise and we get 99.999 percent uptime using Open Enterprise Server and Novell Cluster Services."

The health unit has integrated a variety of custom applets with Novell GroupWise, including a reporting portal for its Baby-Tot hotline. Users can now manage calls through Novell GroupWise, which eliminates paperwork and allows the health unit to track the volume and types of calls.

Results

"Without Novell, we would have to hire more IT staff or decrease the number of services that we can provide. Right now we could double our user base and still effectively accommodate our mobile workforce, before having to add staff."

Tom Lockhart
IT Systems Manager
Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit

The Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit implemented a Novell Open Enterprise Server cluster for a reliable infrastructure that has reduced administration time by 30 percent. The health unit can now run more services with fewer IT staff, freeing them up to spend more time assisting users.

Consistent identity management has reduced the number of user passwords from six to one, giving remote users the same computing experience as in the home office. The company can better safeguard its information, as well as comply with privacy requirements, and has reduced security maintenance costs by 50 percent.

"Without Novell, we would have to hire more IT staff or decrease the number of services that we can provide," said Lockhart. "Right now we could double our user base and still effectively accommodate our mobile workforce, before having to add staff."