Creative Solutions in Healthcare Brings Core Services to the Cloud and Cuts Costs by a Third With VMware vCloud Air

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - Dec 10, 2014) - VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW), the global leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure, today announced Creative Solutions in Healthcare, the largest owner and operator of skilled nursing facilities in the state of Texas, has cut costs by a third and accelerated compliant application deployment by adopting VMware vCloud® Air™. Creative Solutions in Healthcare delivered new healthcare and payroll applications to employees in less than two months while achieving their business objectives for compliance.

Based in Fort Worth, TX, Creative Solutions in Healthcare owns and operates more than 60 senior care and nursing home facilities and employs more than 6,000 staff, enhancing the quality of life for the seniors in their care facilities. Subject to a number of state and federal regulations such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) requirements, the company needed to deliver IT that enabled their network of nurses, assisted living providers and employees to provide better, more consistent care while efficiently maintaining security and compliance.

"VMware vCloud® Air™ exceeded expectations from a compliance point of view, and has brought tremendous value to our business by helping meet our goal of improved IT and end-user satisfaction, and enabling us to deploy solutions in a fraction of the time for a third of the cost," said Shawn Wiora, chief information officer, Creative Solutions in Healthcare. "VMware vCloud Air has been a total game changer for our company, and I think it's going to be a total game changer for the entire industry as it helps organizations drastically cut costs and open the door for IT resources to dedicate their focus to important areas, such as patient care and product innovation."

Creative Solutions in Healthcare's entire infrastructure was 100 percent physical with no virtual machines. With the Company's goals in mind, they decided to take on the initiative to go virtual, and at the same time go from on-premises to off-premises. Creative Solutions in Healthcare evaluated several cloud providers and chose to pilot Microsoft Azure.

"We immediately discovered that Microsoft Azure did not meet our expectations," said Wiora. "The support we received was very minimal, and we were actually way behind in terms of our timeline and budget."

"We explained our situation to VMware, and they immediately helped us through the next steps to get back on track," said Wiora. "In an IT environment there's nothing that builds trust more than assisting an organization when they're behind the gun. VMware vCloud Air has allowed our IT team to focus on how they deliver solutions that the business units, and ultimately our patients, can appreciate."

Creative Solutions in Healthcare made the decision to switch to VMware vCloud Air, VMware's hybrid cloud platform, and quickly ramped up enabling the company to deploy applications quicker and at less cost, respond to the nurses, caregivers and employees faster, improve the way their IT team operates, and deliver a financial return on investment. VMware vCloud Air has allowed the company to reduce trouble tickets from staff by 90 percent. The organization also saw a 100 percent increase in employee satisfaction, based on a recent company survey.

Starting with just eight care facilities, Creative Solutions in Healthcare now has more than 60 sites up and running in just six years. The skilled nursing facilities provider has plans to add more facilities, and VMware vCloud Air will enable them to expand and scale even more without significant changes to its IT infrastructure. With an expanded presence and the ability to streamline business processes, the company's IT resources can now devote their time, effort and energy toward working with employees, developing custom applications and driving further efficiencies. In the future, Creative Solutions in Healthcare is looking to use vCloud Air for a number of projects including mobility, electronic health records (EHR) modernization efforts and compliance across the organization.

Additional Resources

• Visit the VMware vCloud Air online press kit to get service details and images
• Learn more about how Creative Solutions in Healthcare is using VMware vCloud Air on the vCloud Blog
• Follow VMware vCloud on Facebook and Twitter

About VMware
VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure solutions that enable businesses to thrive in the Cloud Era. Customers rely on VMware to help them transform the way they build, deliver and consume Information Technology resources in a manner that is evolutionary and based on their specific needs. With 2013 revenues of $5.21 billion, VMware has more than 500,000 customers and 75,000 partners. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the world and can be found online at www.vmware.com.

VMware and VMware vCloud Air are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. and its subsidiaries in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.