Better Cloud Collaboration, Better Healthcare
Exciting news today as several new customers announced their move to the cloud with Microsoft Online Services. These customers join a growing list of others in realizing the benefits our hosted productivity solutions can have in fostering collaboration, improving productivity and reducing costs. Check out the article to hear how each of the completely unique organizations will be using the tools to achieve their business goals. Further, Tampa General Hospital also guest blogged about the transition on our Office 365 blog, which I've also posted below. And as always, for more information on our cloud offerings and the future of productivity, check out our Office 365 and Cloud Power sites.
-Allen
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Tampa General Hospital is making a big step forward in the advancement of healthcare:
We're moving to the cloud!
This may not be a medical breakthrough, but it's significant, because communication and collaboration is as the heart of everything we do. Our doctors, nurses, medical and administrative staff rely on technology to do great work every day, and we're bringing the tools we use up a notch. In the process, we'll improve our overall productivity, and in doing so, lower our overall IT costs. This really impacts our core vision - which is to bring world-class healthcare to Tampa-area residents.
The cloud is making this happen, because many of the technology tools used by businesses are available now as a service. We can take advantage of the best productivity solutions on the market - things like Microsoft Office, SharePoint, Exchange, and Lync - in a way that works for our business. Better yet, we can leave the details of deployment, maintenance and ongoing IT support to Microsoft.
Our hospital serves more than 4 million people in the Tampa region, so we're also one of the largest hospitals in Florida. Just a short while ago, we faced an expensive update of our IBM Lotus Notes legacy e-mail and business application platform. At the same time, we had several IT projects underway, designed to improve our healthcare records. Something had to give. We needed to streamline our everyday IT operations, so that we can focus on our core business-providing health care to thousands in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area.
Before choosing Microsoft, our IT team completed an extensive review of Microsoft's security policies, certifications and data security qualifications. Through our audits, it became clear Microsoft offered a highly secure environment, which surpassed anything we could build in our own data center.
Our ultimate decision to use Microsoft represents more than a switch to Exchange hosted e-mail. We will also roll out the full suite of Microsoft communications and collaboration services, including SharePoint Online and Lync Online, in the coming months.
Tampa General Hospital's physicians, nurses and support staff are on the go often, and they want the ability to work wherever they are, no matter what PC, browser, or device they're using. In the end, this improves the quality of our health care, and with the full suite of Microsoft cloud apps, we will be able to accomplish this goal. That's cloud power!
Shane Ochocny
Technology Architect
Tampa General