THE CHALLENGE:

Fortis is a leading health care provider in India, with 54 hospitals and clinics. Its vision to save and enrich lives relies on high performance technologies.

Fortis uses a reliable and secure connection to Microsoft Azure services on which its backend Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is deployed. The uptime of cloud ERP is critical to its core business and needed to be maintained.

Due to the demands placed on the growing business, Fortis decided it required greater availability to network bandwidth in order enhance patient safety. At the same time, it also wanted to redefine its full infrastructure management, as increased productivity was becoming a primary issue.

To further complicate the needs of the business, it was found that a centralised medical imaging and archive solution was required, so that patient records could be securely accessed regardless of location or time zone.

The challenge for Fortis was to find a single provider who could create, deploy and monitor the system across all locations to give end users a truly homogeneous healthcare applications experience.

With Tata Communications Global VPN and new healthcare services, Fortis can focus on what’s most important – its patients.

THE SOLUTION:

Fortis partnered with Tata Communications as it knew it needed a global solution that could seamlessly link its various sites around the world to offer a harmonious user-experience. This was achieved by implementing a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) based Global VPN that effectively linked sites with a common look and feel.

To enhance the user experience, Oracle e-Business Suite and other business critical applications situated on the public cloud are now carried over the Global VPN, so users can access records and data regardless of location or time zone.

Patient confidentiality is critical. To meet these strident needs, security services include managed firewalls, managed Proxy and managed Bluecoat Reporter were put in place.

A Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA) as a service was built to support the centralised medical imaging and archive solution, so images could be securely viewed regardless of location. Managed hosting and colocation were also provided to support the VNA service, to greater a smoother solution.

THE RESULT:

The Global VPN has created for Fortis an always-on network deployed through hardware and link redundancy. They have found that network uptime currently stands at 99.9 per cent, while packet drop ratio is near zero and jitter is less than 5 milliseconds, which has all ensured the increased business productivity the business sort.

The instant access to patient data, including X-rays and scans from any site at any time has been able to support Fortis’ growth, while enhancing its core mission and commitment to patient care.

Full DR capabilities including data backup and automatic failover reduces risk

Managed hosting and colocation services have freed up Fortis IT staff to focus on patient-centric services. Ultimately, with Tata Communications Global VPN and new healthcare services, Fortis can focus on what’s most important – its patients.

“Fortis has a vision of saving and enriching lives, and a mission to be a globally respected health care organisation known for clinical excellence and distinctive patient care. We need partners in this journey and that’s where a brand like Tata Communications plays a big role.”

Veneeth Purushothaman, CIO, Fortis Healthcare