This post originally appeared on the RES blog before the company was acquired by Ivanti in July 2017.

I’ve learned that one of the aspirations many healthcare IT leaders have is to earn a seat at the table. What table? I’m talking about the business table – where business decisions are made.

In other words, most healthcare IT organizations want to make the transition from back-office technical support to business partner – one that is capable of helping the larger healthcare organization follow through on its strategy and improve the quality of patient care. Unfortunately, when compared to other industries, healthcare IT has been late to the game in terms IT maturity and its ability to align the delivery of services with its primary constituents: physicians and other clinicians.

Rapid Change for Healthcare IT

The good news is that this is changing fast. In many cases, the digital needs of clinicians actually exceed their counterparts in other industries. I believe that within 3-5 years, healthcare IT will not only be on par with IT in other industries, but will actually surpass it.  And while this change is happening quickly at the industry level – it can also happen with surprising speed for individual organizations. I’ve seen it happen with RES customers all over the world.

Some quick examples:

  • Espria, a large healthcare provider in the Netherlands used RES ONE Service Store to deliver a self-service IT portal that automates the delivery of IT services while ensuring data security and reducing the cost of compliance.
  • Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in the UK used RES to help IT move to level 4 on Gartner’s IT maturity scale, which is reserved for organizations that are service-aligned, customer focused and capable of acting as trusted IT service providers. This has helped IT earn a seat at the board table where it is now playing a role in helping the organization to execute on business strategy.
  • Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Philadelphia used RES Workspace Manager (now called RES ONE Workspace) to cut IT service desk tickets by one third, reduce employee login times from five minutes to 16 seconds, and improve overall user satisfaction with a better virtual workspace experience.

By streamlining IT service delivery, all three of these customers – and many more – have taken giant steps in the process of transforming IT. It’s no longer just about keeping the lights on, but about what IT can do to increase organizational efficiency, drive down costs, and – most importantly – continuously improve the quality of patient care.

Trust in IT

RES helps IT gain the trust of the organization in a number of ways including:

  • Delivery of a superior clinician experience with a digital workspace that reduces login times while adapting and securing the workspace based on the clinician’s context – access to applications and information when and where they need it, fast
  • Automated on-boarding and off-boarding to quickly and securely manage a workforce in flux
  • A self-service enterprise app store that allows clinicians to request and subscribe to applications and services automatically

With such capabilities in place, many healthcare IT teams are streamlining hospital operations and changing the way clinicians work – helping them to deliver higher quality care on a regular basis. And this is earning IT a seat a table.