"When hurricane Sandy hit, one of the call centers went down. This highlighted the direct need to be able to work anywhere, any time — to be able to spin up a new call center immediately,” explains Chris Hoffner, senior director of IT architecture, infrastructure and security at MTM.
So MTM teamed up with local Citrix Partner, ISG Technology, to roll out the Citrix Workspace cloud service with NetScaler to enable a secure, flexible workspace environment.
“We’re a non-emergency medical transportation brokerage, so we're dealing with HIPAA-controlled data on a daily basis. Citrix and the entire suite of products provided a true road map for being able to allow people to work flexibly while also securing that data in the best way possible,” Hoffner says
The scale to accommodate continued growth
MTM has doubled in size in recent years, and thanks to the Citrix solution, Hoffner says, the business is geared to accommodate continued growth.
“With Citrix, we can spin up a new business very quickly. The second we sign a new contract, we expect to be operational the next day,” he says. “We can have staff sat in our client’s offices, working off the client’s hardware, with secure access to our internal applications.”
The business, he continues, is now more dynamic and flexible.
“Our workloads are moving to the Citrix cloud, with all the benefits of scale and speed that entails. As we continue to acquire new technologies that allow us to transform transport services, we’ll continue to favor a cloud approach.”
More effective frontline staff
Contact center staff now have consistent access to the latest patient, transport, and operational data from any location.
“MTM works with a lot of very sensitive healthcare data, and we're able to give our partners access to that data in a very controlled environment,” Hoffner says. “Employees can work from any device without having to worry about the data they have access to.”
Workplace flexibility is not only beneficial when it comes to disaster recovery, but it’s also helping to create a more content workforce.
“We're using workspace services to provide easy, secure access to internal systems, allowing our staff to work from anywhere in the country,” Hoffner says. “And one of the best ways of retaining contact staff is enabling them to work from home. We have that option with Citrix.”
Operational certainty in a changing world
By working with Citrix, Hoffner says MTM has a better idea of what a future workplace might look like. This provides a crucial advantage as the healthcare sector transforms.
“MTM three years from now is not going to be operating the same way that MTM operates today,” Hoffner says. “With Citrix, I’m confident every change we make will be easy to deliver. Technology is at the forefront of everything MTM does. We work in a very traditional environment, where vehicles need to take people from A to B, but the sector is ready for disruption. We aim to be a leader of that change.”
