Leading Behavioral Healthcare Provider Replaces Cisco with Aruba to Improve Efficiencies and Support Cloud-Based Health Apps Across 600 Distributed Locations
Aruba Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:ARUN) today announced that NHS Human
Services, a leader in community-based, behavioral healthcare, has
replaced its Cisco wireless network with an Aruba wireless
infrastructure. Using the new infrastructure, NHS is enabling a
distributed computing environment that provides the flexibility,
performance and security the provider needs to ensure a high-level of
care for its 50,000+ consumers.
NHS provides integrated services in the areas of mental health,
addictive diseases, autism, education, intellectual/developmental
disabilities, juvenile justice, therapeutic family care and other
specialized services. The organization has experienced significant
growth in the past six years, acquiring two companies and nearly
doubling its employee numbers to more than 10,000. The non-profit
receives the bulk of its funding from the state of Pennsylvania and
relies on a very lean IT staff of only three network engineers to
support 600 locations. In addition to the NHS offices, clinicians work
in a variety of locations including community-based homes and schools,
so choosing a network infrastructure that is easy to deploy and manage
was critical for the organization.
Previously, NHS had deployed Cisco Aironet access points but found that
they didn’t offer the level of management and visibility, or the
performance needed for the multitude of distributed locations NHS
serves. As the company grew, the need to connect more mobile devices –
both corporate-issued and personal – also increased and NHS realized
that providing a secure, enterprise-class infrastructure was paramount
to success. Working with partner Corporate Networking Inc. (CNI) of
Worcester, Pennsylvania, NHS evaluated products from Cisco/Meraki and
Aerohive, but determined that Aruba was the right choice for its new
wireless infrastructure.
“Although we’re a Cisco shop on the wired side, we just didn’t have the
confidence in their wireless infrastructure,” said Joe Trodden, Network
Manager, NHS Human Services. “We have a complex, hybrid environment and
Aruba gave us the flexibility to pick and choose the right solution for
each location, and then gave us the ability to connect and manage it all
easily and cost-effectively.”
NHS chose a combination of Aruba Instant controllerless access points
and Remote Access Points (RAPs), enabling high-quality wireless
connectivity that was fast and easy to deploy in all of its many,
distributed locations. NHS is also using Aruba’s Airwave
Network Management for centralized configuration, visibility,
troubleshooting and reporting, and Aruba ClearPass
Policy Manager to support clinician access as well as its recently
implemented employee Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) initiative. Working in
concert with NHS’s MobileIron Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform,
ClearPass gives NHS visibility into exactly who is connecting to the
network and with which mobile devices. In the healthcare environment
where all data must be protected and organizations must comply with
HIPAA regulations, the granular insight that ClearPass provides into
network usage is invaluable.
“We’re managing just over 6,000 total wireless assets and approximately
3,500 laptops,” added Trodden. “And because we’re moving to a more
mobile workforce every day where, eventually, clinicians will transition
from laptops to tablets and smartphones, we had to put in place a
wireless infrastructure that would support our current needs, while
giving us room to expand services such as telehealth in the future.”
One of the other key drivers for deploying the new Aruba infrastructure
was support for some of NHS’s unique applications. For example, the
organization uses a specialized behavior health application called
Netsmart Avatar that allows staff to travel to homes or schools and
quickly conduct assessments, download and upload case information and
then store and sync all of the information including reporting and
billing via a cloud-based service. From a business standpoint, pairing
the Netsmart application with the new wireless infrastructure has
allowed NHS to move from what was previously a paper-based process to an
automated, electronic process. According to Trodden, the resulting
improvements in employee productivity and efficiency are beginning to
have a significant impact on patient care.
“Now that our clinicians have a fast, easy and secure way to perform
their timekeeping and reporting, they can focus more on consumer care,”
he said. “These are clinicians, not technicians, so eliminating the
burden of carrying around network cables or worrying about how and where
they will connect, allows them to deliver a better experience to our
consumers.”
As NHS employees use more mobile devices and applications, NHS plans to
implement ClearPass Onboard and ClearPass Guest to securely onboard
these devices. NHS is also investigating the use of assistive and Smart
Home technologies that enable a higher level of in-residence support and
care for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities. In
August, the company conducted a special pilot project wherein consumers
in such a Smart Home environment used iPads connected to the wireless
network to self-report and answer questions about their well-being. With
the Aruba wireless network as a foundation and the success of projects
like these, NHS is excited about the potential for even greater
improvements.
Jeff Dolce, Area Vice President for Aruba Networks noted, “NHS is the
perfect example of an organization that is adapting to its increasingly
distributed and mobile workforce and, in fact, is using these
characteristics to improve the services it delivers to clients. With the
right wireless infrastructure in place, organizations like NHS can
improve their internal operations, but more importantly, deliver
enhanced services to their end customers.”
About Aruba Networks, Inc.
Aruba Networks is a leading provider of next-generation network access
solutions for the mobile enterprise. The company designs and delivers
Mobility-Defined Networks that empower IT departments and #GenMobile, a
new generation of tech-savvy users who rely on their mobile devices for
every aspect of work and personal communication. To create a mobility
experience that #GenMobile and IT can rely upon, Aruba Mobility-Defined
Networks™ automate infrastructure-wide performance optimization and
trigger security actions that used to require manual IT intervention.
The results are dramatically improved productivity and lower operational
costs.
Listed on the NASDAQ and Russell 2000® Index, Aruba is based in
Sunnyvale, California, and has operations throughout the Americas,
Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific regions. To learn more,
visit Aruba at http://www.arubanetworks.com.
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Aruba Networks, Inc.
Pavel Radda, +1-408-419-0294
Director of Corporate Communications
pradda@arubanetworks.com
or
LSH Communications for Aruba Networks
Lori Hultin, +1-818-879-4651
Principal
lhultin@arubanetworks.com