Six Consulting, Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a health services provider of hospitals and clinics. I'm the director of clinical informatics, and our team is responsible for optimization and enhancement of physician workflow.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Six Consulting?

We needed to find reliable contracting resources for short-term contract work.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We first sat down to review our needs. Then they sent us a summary document that laid out everything so we were all on the same page. They helped us find the right resources to fit our project requirements. We needed somebody with specific experience and knowledge of business analysis in a hospital setting, basic knowledge of electronic medical records, and specific knowledge of the vendor system we use. We also needed somebody who had good presentation skills and could perform at a very high level in stressful situations, like operating rooms and procedure areas. They sent us resumes, and we picked a few people for review, proceeded with phone interviews, and ended up with one resource for the project. They provided us with technical resources and business analysis.

The project has only been documenting existing workflows. Now, we're getting into recommendations for improvement, where I expect some interaction.

What is the team dynamic?

From a work perspective, my team interacts with this resource. For invoicing or any issues, my managers reach out to the resource manager or administrative lead at the company.

How did you come to work with Six Consulting?

A friend of mine had used them and was happy with the consulting services they had provided at that time.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent $500,000–$1,000,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them since June 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

My managers are happy with what they have seen so far. We don't have any documented increase yet, but there will be once the project is implemented. A significant improvement will be the business analysis work. We are also using their services again for something else.

How did Six Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

They were responsive and hit the deadlines. My project manager manages the project. The resources were housed within our healthcare facility.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I am happy with the end product. It's very clean, and their summaries are easy to read and tell me what I need to know. Once we tell them this is how it needs to be in terms of complying with our standards, we don't have to repeat that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Not yet. I'm sure as we go along in the project, there may be something we come up with.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the IT manager of a health care facility in South Jersey. We have acute inpatient hospital centers and outpatient centers, physicians’ offices and practices, and urgent care facilities. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Six Consulting?

We had implemented a SharePoint installation in 2008/2009. We were on MOSS [Microsoft’s Office SharePoint Server] 2007 and were looking for a partner to help us with some of our workflow.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We met with their representative for a discussion. Our first project with them involved implementing a custom SharePoint workflow for our operating and capital budget, which we’ve continued to develop and still use today. It’s had a good lifecycle and earned strong reviews from our finance department and our users.

We wanted to change the way that our company handles the budgeting process. Instead of doing capital budget requests on a yearly basis, we wanted to put this process into the hands of the users to do on an as-needed basis. Now, they can put in capital requests throughout the year that go through a workflow that gets approved from various areas and eventually by a capital committee.

Six Consulting worked closely with our finance department, which was driving the process. My technology team worked on the backend and tried to make sure all our users had access and the SharePoint form was set up properly. They focus on the end user and conducted testing to make sure that the alerts were generated correctly. We’ve even gone through some updates. At this point, we’ve not only done our capital budget but also our operating budget through a separate workflow on a SharePoint page. Our finance department has asked for some enhancements over the years, starting in 2008 or 2009. Since then, Six Consulting has developed custom enhancements for us on multiple occasions and deployed them with very little downtime for our users. They’re willing to assist with any maintenance we need, which has been helpful because we’re a 24/7 operation and can’t afford much downtime.

They’ve also helped with our SharePoint environment after our other provider fell through suddenly. We needed to engage a team that was readily available to support our entire SharePoint farm. Six Consulting came to the rescue and took over the work in a matter of days. They’re available to provide 24/7 support. Even our support center contacts them if we have any type of SharePoint issue. Because we have such a good relationship with them, we felt comfortable in trusting them with our environment. Every Friday, their team checks our servers and farm to make sure everything is running smoothly. Then, they submit a report to me that I can share with our team. They’re a partner that we trust and would not hesitate to use.

What is the team dynamic?

We had a consistent point of contact, and I never had an issue with communicating or getting timely feedback. We’re a 24/7 shop, and their support covers that. They engaged resources, but I’m not sure how many people were in the background for some of our projects. I’ve never had any issues with their resources or timing.

How did you come to work with Six Consulting?

We looked at a few SharePoint development companies in our area and developed a level of comfort with them. Some we found via word of mouth, others we located through Microsoft or various conferences. We’re a Cerner shop, and so through some of the user groups, we got an idea of which companies had experience in the health care space and SharePoint. One of the gentlemen we’d worked with originally was from New Jersey. We had met face-to-face a few times, and that local connection really drew us in. We’ve continued to develop that relationship, and now we work with the team in Atlanta.

How much have you invested with them?

I’m not privy to all the contracts and details. They’ve always been reasonable and upfront if a task has fallen outside the scope of normal support. They’d tell us what level of effort would be required to get things done. We budget for enhancements based on what our finance department needs. We have a new version of SharePoint that we may want to look at next year. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Going from a yearly budget plan to one that’s done almost in real-time saves our finance department quite a bit of time. The new system generates multiple tasks.

How did Six Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a good experience with our old vendor. When they couldn’t support us any longer, we realized they didn’t have enough resources to support our needs. When we approached Six Consulting about this, they convinced us that this wouldn’t be an issue. They pledged to take care of whatever we needed to get the job done. They have a strong portfolio and good resources.

We run ideas past them occasionally for their feedback. They’ve also shared market trends and what their other clients are moving towards, especially now with cloud-based systems. We engage in those discussions and see how we want our platform to develop. Health care is a unique space with certain challenges. Six Consulting is honest with us and gives us good feedback based on our ideas or questions.

We have an internal ticketing system for requests related to SharePoint and our 24/7 support system. I also handle business intelligence through my group. I send them larger questions or explanations via email. They’re very responsive. We have some clinical applications that cannot have downtime for users. We do have an emergency page that we can put up in case there is an issue. Whenever I’ve needed to call Six Consulting, I can ask for an escalation to address the problem quickly. They’re quick to engage and troubleshoot any issues with our tech team. Our downtime is minimal. If we have any maintenance to do, we usually do it Sunday mornings from 1–4 a.m. to minimize the impact.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I was really impressed with the health checkups and the status updates that they provide. I get a concise version of the health of my SharePoint environment. If I want to dig into the details, I can. I did not get that with our other vendors.

I appreciate the work that they do behind the scenes to make sure everything stays functional. Since I’m trying to manage people and projects and organizations, I just need an overview.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’ve addressed any issues that came up. They communicate clearly. Especially during off hours, we set up a process for their support team to contact our support center. So, when maintenance is finished, our support center can send out an alert for the enterprise. Working out the logistics took time, and we have to send things through change management. Once we established a maintenance communication process, there’s been no issue.