Month: February 2016

Architecting the Digital Hospital

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More than 10 billion Euros will be spent on 16 new hospital construction projects in Denmark. One of the larger projects, dubbed a “super-hospital,” is in Odense, where the budget is 1.3 billion Euros. The New Odense University Hospital (Nyt OUH) will be approximately 250.000 m2 and is scheduled to be ready in 2022. It will become the largest hospital in Denmark that is built from scratch.

Budget
1.3 €billion

Floor area
250.000 m2

New OUH is a green-field mega-project which will replace the existing university hospital (OUH). So on one hand, it is a rare opportunity to architect a digital enterprise “ground-up”, regardless of the existing built-environment, but on the other hand, it is also a significant transition challenge for the existing enterprise.

The overall vision for New OUH is:

A university hospital is a highly technological and knowledge intensive enterprise that depends on knowledge being shared and used optimally in the primary production – treatment of patients and research. Knowledge in the hospital must flow freely inside the networks and between the relevant operators and must be available at any time and in such a fashion that it can be utilized immediately.

New OUHs governing bodies have established an overall vision for the digital hospital:

The Digital Hospital is a composite term consisting of the word Hospital. This represents the core service – diagnosing and treatment of patients and thus the circuit of knowledge while the Digital is a supporting and developmental term to the core service. The Digital element in New OUH must be omnipresent and must ensure that New OUH can realize its vision and make full and optimal use of the knowledge circuit. In other words, the Digital hospital is a precondition for the knowledge circuit in New OUH.

Jonas Hedegaard Knudsen, CIO

Digital solutions at New OUH will be for all, to all, between all, everywhere – always.

For all

Digital solutions must support all users of the hospital and its functions. Concurrently, the digital solutions will help convert data into information to the benefit of the sharing of knowledge, treatment, care and research. The digital solutions must support exchange of information/communication as well between the different users, and deliver to such an extent that they support proper communication between the parties and in a fashion making it relevant for the information seeker. When the term “all” is used it refers to patients, next of kin, hospital employees, GPs, municipality and scientific researchers at the university.

To all

Digital solutions for all are regarded as any productive process at New OUH is digitally supported. Data, information and knowledge flow freely and automatically to all people as well as systems, thus supporting the hospital processes in the best possible way and at any time providing the employees with the necessary knowledge needed to perform their tasks. “To all” constitutes a movement from one operator to (“all”) another operator. This movement rep-resents knowledge shared transparently and automatically. Data, information and knowledge thus flow to and between all productive operators and processes at the hospital.

Between all

Digital solutions between all tie individuals, work processes and solutions together in a holistically orientated network2. In other words, we are talking about coherent sharing of information and knowledge between all operators in a network. “Between all” is thus regarding the coherence and integration of concepts. The digital elements is seen as coherence and integration on three levels: between individuals, between equipment, and between equipment and individuals. The digital hospital must contribute to information and knowledge being made available in such a way that it can be integrated and utilized between all operators and network in and around the hospital’s technical and productive processes.

Everywhere

Digital solutions “over all” mean that the solutions must be available and integrated for all, in and around the hospital, patients as well as external partners. This availability “everywhere” facilitates communication, sharing and creation of knowledge. Therefore “Everywhere” must not be viewed as a (narrow hospital based) concept but as including all partners (patients, scientific researchers, municipalities etc.) “Everywhere” covers, in other words, the geographical and organizational areas that participate in or around a specific productive process offered by the hospital to a patient or a group of patients. “Everywhere” thus facilitates both and organizational perspective, a process related perspective, and a geographical perspective. This means that digital solutions “everywhere” must be an organizational part of the entire hospi-tal, support all productive processes in such a way that these can be utilized in the best possible way regardless of geographical location.

Always

Digital solutions must always be present and support the user at any given time to be able to procure the requested information – regardless of place and time. This means that the digital solutions support availability of information for the user at the time the information is requested. This means that during an operation the surgeon can pull vital information that the researcher has unlimited access to quality data in his field. That data is available regardless if the user is present at the hospital, the university or outside.

New OUH has chosen QualiWare’s digital business design platform for the ongoing architecture and design work on the digital enterprise. QualiWare is already used at the existing OUH for asset management in several clinical areas.

The New OUH enterprise architecture team will over the next 6 years need to flesh out actionable digital business design, and realize the digital hospital vision. QualiWare Center of Excellence will support the EA team in these efforts.

In future blogs, we will offer more updates and elaborations on the digital hospital.

How IT Can Enable Oil & Energy Firms to Survive the Oil Price Slump

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Many firms in the oil sector are struggling due to the steep drop in oil prices.  Across the sector there has been a reduction in investment, and in many cases downsizing.  Planning for the future in these times can be tough, and changes need to be made in order to survive.  However, some firms are not only working on surviving but also putting themselves in a strong position to capitalise on opportunities when oil prices eventually rise and stabilise.  Furthermore, these firms are also making big changes towards digitalisation, and modernising the way they do business in spite of the slump.

Oil & Energy firms, both upstream and downstream, are typically highly complex.  Equipment, assets, process, systems, applications, broad webs of suppliers and customers, and a large and varied workforce are integral to keeping everything running at a profit.  Regulatory requirements are not getting looser but tighter, this all adds the huge running costs which do not get lower as the oil price does.

However, there are opportunities to be exploited.  The big question is how?

Align Business & IT

Oil & Energy enterprises will typically have thousands of applications, and the associated infrastructure to run and host these systems.  Therefore you should start by creating a common enterprise model accurately showing how IT systems support business processes and identify the need for process information and data.  From there, you can define the key applications for development and maintenance, and importantly, identify redundant and overlapping applications to be phased out.  This allows the enterprise to focus investments in the right areas.  Through this process, we’ve seen oil & energy enterprises save millions of dollars annually in support & maintenance costs.  Furthermore, it will allow you to focus important resources on developing a modern, digital enterprise architecture.

Adapt to New Digital Technologies

The downturn has brought forth many new technologies designed to improve efficiency and reduce costs. And they have already started making an impact.  Your firm will be looking into or already implementing new automation technologies, exploiting big data, or bringing in customer focused technologies such as multichannel marketing platforms.  Capital projects will still be a large feature, and ensuring all these projects run on-time and on-budget is not simple.

In order to bring in these new technologies successfully, different stakeholders and cross-functional teams will need to see how the solution fits with the current organisation, the changes that need to be made, understand the impact of change to mitigate risks.  Take your enterprise model and publish this to the web so everyone can see it.  Ensure those involved in change can access all the information they need to facilitate the transformation, and provide a platform for all parties to collaborate.

Set up for Rapid Reaction to Market Change

If the oil market picks up in the next 12-18 months, you need to be in a position to react rapidly to changes.  A well-defined company architecture, aligned to corporate goals will allow the organisation to react quickly when the time comes. This should include each employee having access to all the information they need to do their job, get trained, and understand how they fit into the wider context.

With the slump in oil prices continuing and no concrete timeline for when it will improve, can you afford to sit tight and hope for the best?  Or is it time to visualise the changes you need to make, and work together to transform your business?

Take a look at how Statoil save millions of dollars in annual IT maintenance, support and development costs through aligning IT and business.  Also at GKN/Volvo Aero, the savings were in excess of $1.5million a year.