AAR Health Services
Healthcare Provider Improves Operational Efficiency with Technology Upgrade
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Company Overview
AAR Health Services is a private healthcare provider with its headquarters in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and 15 health centres in East and Central Africa countries including Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. In addition to the services offered through its health centres, AAR Health offers rescue and evacuation services to its members within and outside the East African region. Recognizing the benefits that remote access to its services could provide to its customers and employees, AAR Health sought to upgrade its technology environment to meet the requirements of its clientele and its increasingly mobile workforce. Through its deployment of Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 and implementation of Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004, AAR Health has realized the benefits of enabling remote access to its services for its branches, employees, and customers.
Business Challenge
When AAR Health Services started its operations in 1984, its intentions were to solely deal with evacuation of medical and accident casualties both by road and air. However, as its membership increased, the requirements of its clients expanded, leading to the company's evacuation service becoming one of the many services offered to its members.
Today, AAR is the largest and one of the most successful private healthcare companies in East Africa. The company operates over 15 health centres in East and Central African countries including Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Rwanda. Its rescue and evacuation service, although no longer the core focus of the business, is still available to members within and outside the East African region.
AAR employs nearly 300 staff, two-thirds of whom are doctors, nurses, laboratory technologists, paramedics, pharmacists, and pharmaceutical technologists. All are trained to operate on treatment protocols, drug formulary, and preset hospitalization guidelines. The company uses the latest technology in each of its areas of competence, and has established relationships with centres of medical expertise all over the world to enhance its own areas of specialized medical knowledge.
With a membership of over 100,000 customers, AAR prides itself on offering an ever-expanding product range to meet the future needs of its individual and corporate clients.
Much of the company's service delivery is dependent on its IT infrastructure, according to Patrick King'ori Kariuki, AAR's Regional IT Manager. "Approximately 70 percent of our business activities are highly dependent on IT. As a result, we continually monitor the advances in the technology industry, evaluating the impact that these could have on our business," he says.
The company's management monitors technology advances closely, measuring the value that new technology can bring to its business.
Although the company had invested in technology that allowed for Internet use, AAR management recognized that remote access to its services and a connected mobile workforce would bring significant opportunities to its business.
"As our Microsoft® Windows NT® servers and Microsoft Windows® 95 and Windows 98 desktops were due for upgrade, we elected to use the opportunity to invest in those technologies which would enable us to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness for business success," says King'ori Kariuki.
Solution
Although AAR considered several potential solutions—among them an open source–based solution—the company opted to go with the Microsoft-based solution proposed by the international vendor.
"Like other companies, we conducted research into the market before making a final decision on which solution to invest in. The Microsoft solution was well ahead of the rest due to its ease of use, reliability, and the extensive pool of Microsoft partners to provide service and after-sales support," says King'ori Kariuki.
According to Pratik Roy, Technology Specialist at Microsoft East Africa, the software vendor conducted a full investigation into the company's infrastructure and future requirements before proposing a solution to AAR.
"The consultative process is a critical step for companies looking to gain maximum benefit from their investments. We consulted with AAR to help its management to establish the best solution for their budget. Furthermore, we helped the company to measure the business, financial, and technical returns that they could expect as a result of their investment," he says.
In addition to the server and desktop platform upgrades that AAR required, the company sought to access the advantages of mobile access to its services.
Says King'ori Kariuki, "We have many salespeople and mobile managers who are predominantly out in the field. By increasing remote access to our services for these employees, we would be able to recognize significant cost savings and improvements in productivity and operational efficiency."
Microsoft proposed that the company upgrade its server environment from the aging Windows NT Server operating system version 4.0 to the Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 operating system and from Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5 to Exchange Server 2003 communication and collaboration server (both Windows Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2003 are part of Microsoft Windows Server System™ integrated server software). In terms of AAR's desktop needs, the vendor recommended an upgrade from Windows 95 and Windows 98 to the Microsoft Windows XP Professional operating system and Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003.
After this was concluded the Red Hat Linux firewall was to be decommissioned by implementing the Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2004 firewall and proxy solution, which is also part of Windows Server System.
Roy explains that Windows Server 2003 takes the best of the preceding Windows operating systems and makes them easier to deploy, manage, and use.
"By combining the best of our established operating systems and combining these with the improvements and enhancements which have resulted from our extensive research and development efforts, we have been able to introduce Windows Server 2003 as a highly productive infrastructure that helps make the network a strategic asset for the organization," Roy says.
Said to be the fastest, most reliable, most secure Windows operating system ever offered by Microsoft, Windows Server 2003 includes all the functionality customers need today.
Furthermore, Microsoft has improved and extended the Windows Server operating system to incorporate the benefits of Microsoft .NET connection software for connecting information, people, systems, and devices.
As AAR wanted to make use of Windows Server 2003 networking capabilities to set up a virtual private network (VPN) to extend the reach of its network to encompass mobile employees, the enhancements to security in Windows Server 2003 played an important role in its decision.
Says King'ori Kariuki, "Before allowing mobile workers to have remote access to our network, we wanted to be sure that we had the best security measures in place. Microsoft has done extensive research in this area and we are satisfied that the security enhancements in Windows Server 2003 will complement our own efforts to achieve this."
Furthermore, the improvements to the Active Directory® service, which stores information about identities and relationships on the network and makes this information easy to locate, and the introduction of Group Policy Management Console—the new Microsoft solution for managing all group policy–related tasks—ensured that AAR's IT management would find it easier to design, deploy, manage, and, most importantly, secure employee access to the company's network.
In turn, the deployment of Windows XP and Office Standard Edition 2003 throughout the organisation ensured that AAR's employees were equipped with optimal desktop operating systems and productivity suites for improved reliability and productivity.
Plans to ensure an optimal migration process with minimal downtime included the creation of a test lab and a decision to opt for deployment over a weekend.
As the company had decided to replace its server hardware to provide for increased network capability and efficiency, King'ori Kariuki says that it had an immediate fail-safe in place. Nevertheless, the test lab ensured that the company directory and migration process was designed ahead of time to highlight any issues that may occur.
"By setting up the test lab to proactively deal with any problems with the new system meant that the actual migration of the system went without a hitch. If anything, it was the physical task of getting all the services online and configuring the ISA Server 2004 back to back within the limited time that provided any challenge," King'ori Kariuki says.
Having deployed Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Office Standard Edition 2003, AAR opted to replace its Red Hat Linux firewall with ISA Server 2004 during the same weekend.
Roy explains that ISA Server 2004 offered AAR better security, remote e-mail access, and enhanced Internet management.
"AAR identified that ISA Server 2004 would enable it to access better protection against emerging security threats, including attachment blocking and Internet session time-out abilities, as well as secure access to Inbox content with Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 [messaging and collaboration client] over HTTP," he says.
The high-performance Web caching provided by ISA Server 2004 saw AAR applying an application-layer inspection firewall, VPN, and Web cache solution to improve network security.
Business Benefits
Having upgraded its environment to the latest Microsoft solutions available, AAR has been able to employ its technology for optimal return to its business.
Says King'ori Kariuki, "The improvements to IT infrastructure, employee productivity, and operational efficiency have been marked. Not only do we foresee considerable savings in the total cost of IT ownership, but significant improvements in the manner in which our technology investments are employed to support the strategic objectives of the business."
Remote Access
King'ori Kariuki notes that the creation of a VPN, which allows for sharing of company resources securely across the enterprise, has had a considerable impact on AAR's business.
AAR's salespeople, who once were required to return to the office to capture data attained out in the field, are now able to do so while on a customer's site, which reduces time in the office and improves productivity.
For management away from the office, the VPN has enabled remote access to e-mail that had previously been unavailable. This has resulted in a marked improvement of response time to any queries that need to be dealt with while out of the office, as well as ensuring that no matter where management may be they are able to access the information required to be productive and effective.
Furthermore, King'ori Kariuki explains that the IT team is now able to support the user base in a far more efficient manner.
"Before we implemented remote access ability within our organization, the IT team was required to make physical visits to sites with performance difficulties. The new system allows for remote IT support and management, considerably reducing the cost of support and improving time to resolution," he adds.
Improved Management Abilities
By utilising the Intelligent Message Filter and creating Internet access rules, AAR has been able to cut down on the productivity losses that are often found when enabling employing access to the Internet and e-mail.
"Like every other business and e-mail user, we receive a barrage of spam mail. Not only does this deplete bandwidth, but it reduces employee productivity and results in end-user frustration. Through the use of the Intelligent Message Filter we have been able to considerably reduce the amount of spam mail which reaches our desktops," says King'ori Kariuki.
Additionally, the intelligent creation of Internet access rules on the internal ISA Server, has allowed the company to cut down the amount of employee time wasted on surfing the Internet.
Explains King'ori Kariuki, "The Internet is a valuable resource, nevertheless access needs to be closely managed to ensure that the fine balance between aiding work performance and wasting valuable resource is not crossed.
"We opted to create rules for Internet access which allocates Internet access time slots to employees and limits the Web sites that can be visited."
Increased Employee Productivity
For AAR's management team the considerable improvement in employee productivity has been a delight.
Citing a combination of improved delivery ability at customer sites, reduced wasteful surfing of the Internet, enhanced application ability, and improved sharing of resources across the enterprise, management expects the business impact of the upgrade to show in a revenue increase in its upcoming quarterly results.
Furthermore, King'ori Kariuki says that the company's IT team has been able to reduce the time spent on user support and invest this in the strategic use of technology to meet business objectives.
Reduced Cost of Business
The impact of the technology upgrade has been widespread within the company. As service delivery from all departments improves along with the improved performance and extended access of its technology, AAR will be able to realize reduced costs of conducting business.
King'ori Kariuki notes that organizational efficiency and effectiveness inevitably impacts on a company's bottom line.
"Within AAR we are seeing the astounding benefits of doing far more with less. Our external turnaround times and customer service delivery has increased significantly, whereas internally, our employees are able to access the technology services they require for work performance quickly and effectively. We expect these improvements to deliver to our bottom line," he says.
The company's IT department has also been able to make considerable cuts in its operational costs through the improvement of technology productivity and the reduction of service and support calls.
"All this adds up to a business environment which optimally utilizes its assets for the best return to the business," adds King'ori Kariuki.
Operational EfficiencyBusinesses throughout the globe are being challenged to do more with less to remain competitive. To achieve this, businesses are required to assess every aspect of their business, investigating ways in which to reduce cost, increase production, ensure security, and still achieve high levels of service.
For AAR the technology upgrade has enabled it to achieve many of these objectives throughout the company with additional confidence that its infrastructure will be able to support its future business endeavours.
