Case Study
Amentra and HMC Partner to Build Innovative Outcomes Reporting Solution
- Service:
- Enterprise Data Solutions
- Industry:
- Healthcare
- Engagement:
- Full Lifecycle
- Download PDF
Increased Efficiency And Enhanced Analytical Capabilities
Before Amentra
Health Management Corporation (HMC) is one of the nation's largest, most experienced managers of integrated care and total health solutions. Amentra is a solutions-based business and technology consulting firm dedicated to working with Global 1000, mid-size, small/emerging growth businesses, and government clients to create business processes and technology solutions that impact the bottom line. HMC sought to enhance its ability to extract information from raw data and provide it to clients in a more cost-effective and timely manner. In order to do this, HMC needed a consistent and powerful set of tools to unlock its data to produce a greater variety of reports and provide more in-depth analysis.
The member population that HMC supports began to grow exponentially creating intense demands on its reporting capabilities. HMC therefore began searching for a new set of tools to better support both its necessary ad hoc and long-term reporting capabilities.
Enter Amentra. Seeking a mutually beneficial solution, HMC's executive management decided that it was necessary to establish a reporting and analysis platform that would enable them to tap into the wealth of data in its data warehouse more quickly and efficiently. Amentra was selected due to its experience implementing similar solutions in various industries and its already strong partnership with HMC, which was developed when the two collaborated to deliver key enterprise data and system initiatives.
After Amentra
- Can quickly unlock critical data for reporting and analysis
- Can present robust, interactive reports for internal and external clients expeditiously
- Can utilize the reporting and analysis solution across lines of business
- Can better support growing member population through enhanced productivity
Evolution Of The Business Process
Amentra worked with HMC to evaluate, recommend, and implement a business intelligence solution that would meet the increased reporting and analysis needs brought on by the rapid growth of HMC's member population. Amentra implemented a solution that enables HMC to quickly produce quality, customized reports and analysis in a cost-effective manner by utilizing a consistent set of tools. Now implemented, this business intelligence platform has prompted the following meaningful innovations at HMC:
- HMC can quickly unlock data pertaining to client membership.
- HMC can present reports with sophisticated graphs and robust data, both necessary in analyzing health improvement outcomes.
- HMC has developed a modality that meets the reporting needs of a swiftly growing company that, likewise, has to constantly keep apace of demands from an exponentially growing member population - and do so daily.
Quantitatively, considering man-hours and dollars saved, the difference between manual report generation and report automation continues to yield phenomenal results. HMC saves 55 minutes on average for every report processed through their automated reporting platform. In October 2006 alone, HMC processed 20,400 reports through their platform, which represents an astounding savings in labor of 18,700 hours. That equates to man-hours that would have been required to custom generate each of those reports in that one month.
HMC was also able to implement a new development methodology that defined a repeatable approach to each effort. The new methodology ushered the successful adoption of the technology and ensured consistent delivery across projects, achieving timely project delivery with consistent quality and data integrity. The platform is truly enterprising in scope, having been leveraged across multiple lines of business. Not only was it successful in remedying high-volume reporting needs for external clients, it also has proven indispensable to internal business intelligence reporting needs, for example, in Operations, Finance, and Informatics.
The interoperability and extensibility of the platform has enabled HMC to provide access via a secure Web portal (AccessHMC). This platform extension allows external clients independent access on their own time. Clients can enter custom report parameters through the interface, self-generate reports, and then have their member population outcomes display back to them in their requested format (e.g. spreadsheet, pdf) - and all at the click of the mouse.
HMC's core competency is total care management. HMC's comprehensive suite of services envelops its members no matter where they are in terms of their health needs. HMC's programs range from user-friendly, self-guided, educational resources to multi-tiered and interventions covering an array of conditions including asthma, diabetes, coronary artery disease, COPD, heart failure and kidney disease. The platform enables HMC to provide timely information about its programs and services to clients and members with the utmost data integrity, reusability of report code and logic, ease of use by the staff, Web access for client self-service reporting, and scheduled batch reporting.
Applied Technologies and Expertise
Amentra worked with HMC to evaluate a number of business intelligence solutions; these included products from Cognos, MicroStrategy, and ProClarity. After an extensive evaluation, Amentra and HMC concurred in implementing Microsoft Reporting Services, Microsoft Analysis Services, and ProClarity. HMC was already utilizing SQL Server for one of the largest SQL Server data warehouse implementations in the industry, so it was a natural fit in its environment. Amentra worked alongside HMC staff to establish the infrastructure and implement a number of OLAP cubes and reports.
In a heterogeneous technology setting such as HMC's, interoperability is a crucial capability. Flexible deployment options that allow for the access of information over the Internet and internally in a secure fashion are also very important capabilities. Reports are consumed by both HMC staff and external customers. Internal and external customers access reports through a J2EE Web application with a SQL Server 2005 back-end database. Integration with Microsoft Reporting Services was achieved from the J2EE application by using the Web services it exposes to execute reports. In this process, authentication and authorization for reports are handled via Web services with a custom security extension utilizing HMC's LDAP server to validate user information.
The establishment of the platform provides a strong reporting and analysis solution that is enterprise-wide in scope. It outfits HMC with a consistent and reliable toolset for incomparable reporting and analysis. The resulting best practices are recycled reporting and analysis logic, a single version of the truth, and improvement in the accessibility and accuracy of data. While the solution increases a business analyst's ability to perform ad hoc reporting and analysis, it also reduces the amount of manipulation required to access and report information critical in communicating HMC's value to clients. HMC's ability to tap into and analyze data in a flexible manner provides its clients and members with indispensable information. The platform delivers an intuitive, easy-to-use technology solution that is extensible and integrates well with a diverse set of technologies.
Technologies used
- Microsoft SQL Server 2005
- Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services
- Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services
- ProClarity Analytics
- C# .NET
- LDAP
- Web Services
- Axis
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