Evolving IT infrastructure to protect healthcare records

This hospital  system client had delayed upgrading its vast network infrastructure for too long and, as a result, faced daunting challenges:

• protecting confidential medical, personal, and business information against increasingly sophisticated threats
• executing a complex information technology (IT) infrastructure transformation that involved replacing thousands of routers, switches, and wireless access points in hundreds of buildings in several cities around the United States
• operating and maintaining the network as its needs continue to evolve.

KPMG in the US helped the client develop and execute a thorough, robust plan for managing its network transformation and achieving stated business requirements and security objectives.

When the project is complete, the client will have substantial progress toward its goals: a more secure network, leading infrastructure technology capable of handling new capabilities, and a plan for ongoing network upgrades.

With an out-of-date network infrastructure—and facing security and privacy risks—this leading healthcare provider engaged KPMG in the US to develop a thorough plan and help execute its network transformation project and long-term strategy for keeping its infrastructure current. KPMG’s contributions included:

• developing the requirements, objectives, scope, plan, and charters necessary to begin and complete the initiative successfully
• coordinating activities, schedules, workshops, and meetings to complete the planning process
• providing program quality assurance services, proactively identifying risks and recommending risk mitigation activities
• providing guidance to project leadership; project management support and quality assurance for the overall project, as well as support for each major component of the project, including the architecture management office, stakeholder analysis, secure internet presence, data center-access layer refresh, network access controls, network segmentation, network analysis, asset inventory, mobile device management, operational readiness, and organizational change management—with a focus on expectations management.

Developing a complex plan takes time 

A large-scale network transformation with a lot of complexity and a large budget requires a tremendous amount of detailed planning, sponsorship, and buy-in from key stakeholders, and robust project management. 

Communicate, communicate, communicate 

With stakeholders ranging from the C-suite to the front line, it is critical to communicate what is happening, why it is important, and what can be expected during and after the project. Changing behaviors is much tougher than changing technologies. 

Keep the network up to date 

The longer that organizations wait to update their infrastructures, the more expensive and complex the projects inevitably become. Organizations that are serious about protecting critical information and systems should develop—and follow—an infrastructure strategy to support new capabilities and applications.