Customer support moved from Manila to Kolbotn in Norway

EY
EY Global

Ernst & Young Global Ltd.

08 Apr 2022
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How did The Central Norway Regional Health Authority obtain a cheaper, more practical and, not least, more secure IT service?

In brief:

Customer: The Central Norway Regional Health Authority (Helse Midt-Norge RHF)
Sector: Healthcare services
Region: Norway
The Customer’s challenges: The Central Norway RHA needed secure and cost-effective operations for its finance and logistics IT systems. The regional health authority uses the SAP business system and wanted a solution that provided high quality system administration and maintenance with a high standard of security.

Solution: EY Skye expanded its operations and customer support in Kolbotn and the service was moved back to Norway from Manila, where their former supplier was located. A team of ten now takes care of continuous operation, 24/7, 365 days per year. The team stays in close contact with the Client at the Central Norway RHA.

Resultater: Central Norway RHA saves both time and money by receiving a high-quality IT delivery.

  • Man-hours at Central Norway RHA are freed up because operations and maintenance from EY Skye mean the customer needs to do less follow-up than before. The regional health authority can put these man-hours to effective use in other projects.
  • The list of errors to be fixed and tasks that still are unfinished is shorter than before.
  • SAP competence at the Central Norway RHA has increased due to the close collaboration with EY Skye.
  • Delivery times are faster and fewer errors occur. 
  • Public confidence in the health service has increased.

Supplies healthcare services to 750,000 citizens

The Central Norway Regional Health Authority has a huge responsibility. Every day the regional health authority must ensure that 750,000 citizens in the counties of Trøndelag and Møre og Romsdal have the specialist healthcare services they need. Under the motto “We’re on the same team for your health,” 23,000 employees ensure patients receive excellent care at institutions within the fields of mental health, substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation, in addition to running eight hospitals. The Central Norway Regional Health Authority also conducts research and supplies education, as well as training patients and relatives.

Reliable and secure IT systems are decisive to succeeding with this formidable task. The system must continue running even if errors occur. The correct use of employees’ time saves money, which can be used for other life-saving work. A system that ensures sensitive information about patients never falls into the wrong hands is necessary for people in the two central Norwegian counties to have trust in the health authority. 

The Central Norway Regional Health Authority uses the SAP business system for its finance and logistics solution. SAP is used daily in finance, procurement, warehouse operations, sales and invoicing. These tasks also involve processing personal data.

For several years, the regional health authority received customer support from a company who supplied the services from Manila, in the Philippines. But in 2020, the path to IT support became shorter: EY Skye was chosen as the new collaborative partner for finance and logistics. The new customer support function was then moved from Manila to a newly refurbished barn in Kolbotn that serves as offices for EY Skye. 

Service from one location

We are always available for the Central Norway Regional Health Authority. We do not have a typical customer and supplier relationship; we are more like colleagues. This is the value we try to provide through our services

Kristoffer Engh

Business Manager SAP EY Skye, Senior Manager, Technology Consulting, EY Skye Norway

Actually, it is not uncommon for large IT companies to supply their services from low-cost countries where labor costs are much cheaper than here,” he explains. But, exactly how effective is it for a company to have its collaborative partners on the other side of the world when faced with an IT problem that needs to be solved together? Language barriers can cause Teams meetings to become drawn out. Many are now opting to bring customer support home again, because an outsourced service becomes more risky and more cumbersome than necessary. The Central Norway Regional Health Authority had experienced that receiving customer support from far away was time-consuming for its employees.

EY Skye won the contract to collaborate with the Central Norway RHA in a public tender, where they were ranked according to price, quality and risk. EY Skye scored high on all the above and was the best at keeping a low level of risk. Sensitive personal data never crosses national borders since operations and customer support remain at a barn in Kolbotn. 

An application team and a technical team work on site to supply administration and maintenance for the Central Norway RHA’s SAP solution, and they also ensure the facility is staffed 24/7. “The term “Application Management” means the customer does not need to think about maintenance, staffing or support.

They are ensured access to application competence and familiarity with the solution. They want a team that is there in the long run, who knows the solution and who are their specialists. We are the Central Norway RHA’s right arm

Kristoffer Engh

Business Manager SAP EY Skye, Senior Manager, Technology Consulting, EY Skye Norway

How EY can help

More healthcare per krone
 

The Central Norway Regional Health Authority is EY Skye’s largest customer in Norway. The responsibility rests heavily upon EY Skye when operation of the main IT systems at eight hospitals is at stake. The regional health authority contract involves clear obligations for how and when small and large events must be followed up by EY Skye. 
 

The team at Kolbotn maintains a high alert level, where someone is always on duty with a charged PC at hand. EY Skye has also set up automatic “robots” that detect any system errors and warn when something is wrong. 
 

“The Central Norway Regional Health Authority likes to challenge us as a supplier. We not only have to solve the problems they bring us, but we also need to be their professional advisor and get them to make the right decisions. We have a good collaboration and have also increased the quality of the services we provide,” says Engh. 
 

His team has frequent contact with the client’s solution team, which is in Stjørdal. They learn from each other and in meetings with them he has learned that the Central Norway Regional Health Authority saves both time and money by collaborating with EY Skye. 
 

- I usually say that we help provide more healthcare per krone, says Engh.
 

The collaboration has given him profound respect for the professionalism found within the public health service.
 

- Some think that the public health service is cumbersome, but this hasn’t been our experience. The public health service conducts many projects, is at the forefront when it comes to innovation and new things happen all the time. This is a customer who can make fast decisions about some things and we collaborate with them to supply services, he says.
 

Engh maintains that the collaboration with the Central Norway Regional Health Authority has prepared EY Skye to stand string in new tender rounds for customer support, also for other regional health authorities.
 

- We are incredibly proud to have won this tender. Now we are where we should be. We have made the investment and now all we need to do is grow, explains Engh.
 

Kristoffer Engh believes that EY Skye has found the key to success for collaborating with customers large and small. 
 

“Many competitors create a concept that is supposed to suit all customers, so we have created a solution where the customer can choose from a broad range of our services, and scale up or down, from year to year or month to month. All customers can have their own solution and receive a customized, dynamic concept that suits their specific needs,” says Engh.
 

Contact: Kristoffer Engh, Business Manager SAP EY Skye, Senior Manager, Technology Consulting, EY Skye Norway: 004795090121

An equal culture on the customer and supplier sides makes communication easier. We understand each other better.

Tor Einar Jørgensen

IT-spesialkonsulent

A close dialogue and follow-up so that we can quickly come up with solutions together, is the result of our positive collaboration with EY Skye.

Morten Stene Jensen

Tjenesteutvikler

The security of knowing the solution choices we make at the Central Norway Regional Health Authority are firmly rooted with a supplier who has a holistic understanding of the strategic investment in SAP, which again simplifies and improves the daily working lives of our SAP solution users.

Sonja Hansen

Løsningsarkitekt DSLØ

Summary

Health Central Norway needed a safe and cost-effective operation of its IT systems for finance and logistics. The regional health authority uses the business system SAP and wanted a solution where management and maintenance of the system was delivered with high safety and quality.

EY Skye expanded their operations and customer support. A team of ten people now ensures continuous operation, around the clock, all year round.

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EY
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Ernst & Young Global Ltd.
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