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Alamance Regional Medical Center Selects Softricity Virtualization to Simplify Complex Application Management, Slash Costs; Expects to Realize $1.5 Million + Savings, 5.4 Months Time-to-Payback

Posted on: Thursday, 15 June 2006, 12:00 CDT

Softricity(R), the on-demand application virtualization company, today announced that Alamance Regional Medical Center (ARMC) has selected Softricity's solution to dramatically improve and reduce the costs of enterprise-wide application management.

ARMC, which serves central North Carolina and was named 2005 Hospital of the Year by Microsoft Healthcare User's Group, has a staff of 2,200 end-users, including physicians, nurses and administrators. Deploying, updating and supporting over 75 wide-ranging applications for these users were incredibly time-consuming and challenging. ARMC turned to Softricity to simplify and accelerate application management, and establish a much more flexible, cost-effective way to administer its IT infrastructure.

"Softricity is truly a transformational solution. It let us quickly turn our entire application environment into on-demand services. This not only saves us significant costs, it also makes us much more agile and greatly accelerates our ability to get applications to end users the moment they need them," said Andy Gerringer, senior network administrator, ARMC.

The Softricity Desktop is the foundation for an entirely new approach to desktop computing where software is de-coupled from hardware and users are not defined nor confined by their machines (i.e. laptop, desktop or thin client). Instead, applications--now transformed into network services--are never installed, roam with users wherever they go and are accessible on demand. Using its patented application virtualization, on-demand streaming and policy-based management technologies, the Softricity Desktop ensures that software is as instantly available and easy to use as electricity.

Upon deploying the Softricity Desktop, ARMC immediately realized significant benefits in the way it manages applications, and the time and costs required to do so. Some of the benefits include:

-- Save $1,576,490 in application deployments, upgrades, support and terminations over a three-year period. ARMC is on track to achieving a time-to-payback of just 5.4 months, according to in-depth analysis conducted using Softricity's Forrester TEI-compliance Return on Virtualization(TM) Calculator.

-- Eliminate application conflicts and reduce server farm: Because the Softricity Desktop allows any application to run alongside any other without conflict, ARMC was able to reconfigure its Terminal Services farm as a single flat silo, cut the number of servers from 16 to 10, and reduce annual server operating costs by 30 percent, from $98,936 to $62,726.

-- Eliminate over 200 hours of regression testing, deploy new applications in 1/10th the time: Because applications are never installed and can never conflict, ARMC no longer has to regression test them, saving IT over 200 hours every year. This has significant impact on the entire deployment process, which now takes an average of eight hours--instead of 87--to roll out a new application enterprise-wide, no matter how complex. This translates to IT spending only 80 hours per year instead of 1,324 hours on deployments. Annual upgrade time is slashed from 8,248 hours to just 365 hours--and upgrades and hotfixes can be done more frequently, keeping applications current for end-users.

-- Slash end-user downtime, saving $100,000 in end-user productivity: In the past, ARMC had to take Terminal Services users offline and take possession of PC users' machines when deploying, upgrading and terminating applications. This resulted in nearly 5,000 hours of end-user downtime every year. Now, end-user downtime is virtually eliminated--it is only needed for backend database changes--recouping about $100,000 for ARMC in lost productivity annually.

-- Reduce help desk burden by 30 percent, resolve problems in half the time: Because the Softricity Desktop isolates the problems of a single application, supporting end-users is easier and less time-consuming. ARMC expects its volume of calls to decrease by 30 percent, while its help desk handles more calls without escalation, and resolves them in half the time previously required.

-- Improve license management: Softricity's built-in application usage and license metering gives ARMC a detailed, real-time view into application usage. Because applications are turned into network services, every access is recorded. In addition, because no one can use software who isn't authorized to do so, usage policies and license agreements can be 100 percent enforced - without time-consuming, labor-intensive administration.

"ARMC is clearly committed to using advanced technology to improve patient care. We're thrilled that this award-winning hospital is relying on Softricity to transform the way IT supports its business and ensure excellence, while greatly reducing the costs inherent in application management and support," said Art Matin, CEO, Softricity.

About Softricity

Softricity is the only virtualization company to deliver software that is never installed, yet securely follows users anywhere, on demand, enabling high productivity while dramatically reducing IT costs. The Softricity Desktop(TM), powered by the SoftGrid(R) Platform & Softricity ZeroTouch(TM), employs the company's patented application virtualization, intelligent on-demand streaming and policy-based management technologies. Global customers include AIG, Blue Cross Blue Shield Kansas City, Northeastern University, Prudential, Raytheon, Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH and Suncor Energy. Softricity is a partner with Microsoft (Gold Certified), HP, IBM and VMware. For more information visit www.softricity.com.

Softricity, Softricity Desktop, SoftGrid and ZeroTouch are trademarks or registered trademarks of Softricity, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks herein are property of their respective owners.

Source: Business Wire

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