Backup and Recovery, Client and Server Management, Volume Replication, and Staff Augmentation

Executive Summary

Overview
Servicio Andaluz de Salud (SAS), the Andalusia Health Service, provides health care services to the nearly 8.3 million citizens of Andalusia, Spain. Founded in 1986, the public health system’s mission is to guarantee high-quality, around-the-clock care to the people of this region, located in the southern part of the country. SAS is the second largest health maintenance organization in the world, with nearly 83,000 employees across 33 hospitals, approximately 1,500 primary health centers, and more than 100 specialized health centers.

Barriers
Ensuring high-quality citizen care is the primary focus of SAS, followed closely by effectively managing operational costs. In addition to a dynamic and dispersed citizen population and increasing regulatory demands, SAS was challenged by a depressed macroeconomic environment—Spain’s struggling economy, in particular—that heightened the need for cost controls and operational efficiencies. The health care provider required greater process automation, application and data consistency, and visibility into its complex, distributed information technology (IT) environment. It also sought to reduce IT risks and ensure continuity of care by improving endpoint management, properly securing its systems, and protecting sensitive patient information.

The Solution
To meet these challenges, SAS standardized its IT environment and streamlined its business processes by consolidating on the following Symantec products: Symantec NetBackup and Veritas Backup Reporter to address backup and recovery issues; Altiris Client Management Suite for simplified provisioning, reimaging, and patch management capabilities; Altiris Server Management Suite to streamline server provisioning and patching; and Veritas Volume Replicator for continuous data replication. Also deployed were Symantec Endpoint Protection; Veritas Cluster Server; Veritas Storage Foundation (device-level, Oracle RAC, and Windows versions); Altiris Asset Management Suite; Symantec Control Compliance Suite; Symantec Security Information Manager; Symantec DeepSight Threat Management System; and Wise Package Studio. To augment its IT staff, SAS contracted with Symantec Residency Services, Symantec Business Critical Services, Symantec Consulting Services, and Symantec Education Services at various points during the IT transformation.

Benefits
A Total Operational and Economic Impact (TOEI™) analysis by Alchemy Group found that Symantec and Altiris solutions helped SAS realize tangible business value. Actual and projected savings of more than $53 million are expected for the period of October 2005 through December 2012 (all savings are expressed in U.S. dollars). This TOEI was jointly developed by SAS senior IT executives and Alchemy Group. To ensure the integrity of this analysis, the assumptions and formulas were audited by an independent finance and accounting firm.