Migration to Microsoft 365 implemented by iShift brings productivity-enhancing benefits to the largest integrated multi-specialty group practice in Arizona
Solution Summary
Founded in 1994, District Medical Group (DMG) is the largest integrated multi-specialty group practice in Arizona that has experienced dramatic growth in the past decade. Currently, it has more than 650 credentialed providers that represent over 50 medical and surgical specialties and sub-specialties. DMG provides care for over 450,000 patients every year and is a trusted partner in training future healthcare providers in Arizona with 220 residents in 60 affiliated programs.
The COVID pandemic highlighted beyond any doubt how imperative it is for a healthcare organization such as DMG to have flexible and secure access to data and applications anywhere anytime, as well as the ability to support a mobile workforce.
DMG engaged iShift to transform the IT environment across the organization by designing and deploying a modern workplace solution. iShift leveraged the Microsoft 365 technology stack to promote collaboration, knowledge sharing, and secure storage of data, as well as to provide users more flexibility through an enterprise-class mobile-enabled environment. The added benefits to the staff after the successful implementation are a consistent and straightforward user experience and peace of mind when it comes to data, device, and identity security.
Fast Facts
Company: District Medical Group (DMG)
Industry: Healthcare
Size: 650 medical providers in 25 specialties
Challenge: Legacy infrastructure. Limited capabilities for modern endpoint management.
Solution: Migration to Microsoft 365 implemented by iShift
Benefits for DMG:
- Users can work from anywhere and teams can collaborate easily
- Robust security and business continuity
- Streamlined infrastructure and IT administration
Challenge
Over the years, DMG had accumulated considerable on-premise legacy technology that was becoming more and more cumbersome to manage. The existing Exchange server hardware was overloaded due to organizational growth and an increased reliance on email communications. With multiple older operation systems in place, security and threat protection capabilities were limited. A change was essential to protect data and to enable the DMG team to work more effectively as it was growing. The accelerated adoption of telemedicine was another driver for the transition to a multi-cloud environment.
DMG wanted to implement the transformation as quickly and as smoothly as possible. Thus, a clear methodology, coordination of activities and communication were key to enabling the Group’s multiple locations quickly, efficiently, and seamlessly.
Adding Value with M365 Technology Stack
As a first step, iShift conducted a thorough analysis of DMG’s IT environment, the requirements of their staff and healthcare providers, as well as evaluated the needs for enhanced security, threat prevention, and privacy protection. The iShift migration team’s recommendation was Microsoft 365. There were clear advantages to this path.
All DMG employees would be on the same version of Outlook and Office applications within M365. This approach removed compatibility issues and made training easier, including support of new medical technology, such as telemedicine. Moreover, the staff was already familiar with the look and feel of Microsoft applications used in-house, which made the transition to the Microsoft cloud more transparent.
There were clear benefits from the point of view of IT operations, as well. M365 is a highly scalable solution that allowed the internal IT Department to provision accounts for new employees quickly and efficiently, while controlling costs as DMG continues to grow.
“In an increasingly collaborative and distributed environment, we are compelled to streamline our infrastructure, maximize internal efficiencies, and increase our agility to interact with people. Those were our goals when we approached iShift to guide us in our digital transformation. Their proven cloud experience made our migration fast and seamless while keeping our data integrity and business continuity intact. The roll-out and training for our end users was very well executed. Our collaboration with iShift is a true partnership.” (Kevin Rhode, CIO)
Benefits at a Glance
The implementation of Microsoft 365 streamlined and modernized the DMG workplace environment. In addition, it brought in a number of productivity-enhancing and financial benefits.
- Consolidation: All staff email accounts, calendars and public folders were consolidated into a single platform. This, in turn, greatly simplified the network and reduced the number of administrative tasks for the IT Department.
- Unification: Everyone in the organization is using the same version of Office, which is automatically updated to the latest version in the cloud. As a result, training and ongoing support is much more straightforward.
- Improved IT Administration: Thanks to the advanced administration capabilities included in M365 support desk staff are empowered with tools to quickly see versions, diagnostic data and updates on end-user devices. This speeds up time to resolution for end user issues. Intune, a part of Microsoft Endpoint Manager, allows DMG to manage PCs, servers, phones, applications, and data.
- Mobility: DMG has a mobile-enabled environment that uses state-of-the-art authentication and security. Furthermore, users are able to have access to the data and applications they need to work.
- IT Footprint Reduction: As many on-prem services were replaced or enhanced by their cloud versions, the migration to M365 reduced DMG’s overall technology stack, the footprint needed for their virtualized environment, and their storage footprint by nearly 9 TBs.
- Cost Savings: By replacing several legacy products with M365, DMG reduced its overall spend. In addition, the subscription model, which includes updates, allows DMG to budget their IT spend for the year ahead.
