Cardinal Health Systems
Industry: Healthcare
Employees: 3,500
Flagship hospital: Ball Memorial Hospital
Headquarters: Muncie, IN
Challenge
CHS’s portal relied on a Web Content Management (WCM) system to provide dynamic information to end-users. The WCM interface had to be powerful enough to handle complex content while easy enough for staff across the organization to use.
Solution
EditLive! for IBM Workplace Web Content Management, a leading Web authoring tool providing a Word-like authoring environment, a clean copy-paste from Microsoft documents, and powerful features such as table editing.
Benefits
- Cost savings of up to $30,000 in custom coding for feature requirements
- Ongoing cost savings with rich, built-in functionality
- Increased use of Web Content Management system with user-friendly interface
Quote
"We’ve already saved $20,000 to $30,000 in custom html coding costs thanks to
EditLive!’s built-in table editing functions. Without EditLive!, we would have had
to develop and add these features ourselves. We’re looking forward to more savings
using the rich editing features that come with the application."
- Christina Fogle, Manager of eSystem Support, Cardinal Health System.
CHS saves on content creation costs with EditLive!
Publishing on the Web can be scary for office workers. Unfamiliar technology and the fear of looking unprofessional in public stop many people before they even get started.
For that reason there was some concern when 30 people were made Web publishers for the flagship hospital of Cardinal Health System (CHS). Since the department publishers were to update dynamic content for the hospital’s new portal, it was critical for the new Web publishing software to coax them over their fears with an inviting interface.
It was after all, the whole point of the new interactive portal. CHS wanted in-house department publishers to maintain daily content for the portal, not expensive Web specialists.
Moving toward dynamic information sharing
Four years ago, the CHS IT department implemented a portal for Ball Memorial Hospital, CHS’s flagship hospital, to assist the physicians. They installed IBM’s Websphere Portal Extend with custom portlets for providing such useful information as schedules and patient locations. While the solution was practical for the physicians, the first release did not provide any interactivity for its end-users.
So last fall, the IT team launched a new release of the portal that provided Web Content Management (WCM). The portal now functions as the hospital’s intranet, featuring internal news, policies and procedures, some external news, and other relevant information in addition to the physician schedules.
Each department has its own page, and it’s up to the individual departments to maintain them. Christina Fogle, Manager of eSystem Support, CHS, encourages hospital staff to use their department pages as communication vehicles. “I want to make sure departments are doing their own publishing,” she says. “I want to make it easy enough that they have control over it. I don’t want to pay a higher priced WCM administrator to publish things like meeting minutes and cafeteria menus.”
New system adoption a challenge
A big challenge is overcoming the intimidation staff feel when adopting new technology. Although departments like the idea of posting contact information, updating daily internal news, and creating a community feeling with personalized information, many balk at the thought of being responsible for it.
The WCM interface had to be as easy to use as possible, not just to make it user-friendly, but to ensure the health network gets the most out of the WCM they had heavily invested in.
At an IBM-sponsored session, Christina heard about EditLive!, a powerful XHTML authoring tool that provides cross-browser, fully integrated rich text authoring capabilities and a Microsoft Word-like environment. Curious to learn more, she downloaded the trial version and installed it on the portal herself.
EditLive! a shot in the arm
The new software was just what the doctor ordered. “EditLive! is so much better than the other editors we tried, it’s beyond comparison,” says Christina. “It’s not even like going from a small car to a mid-sized one. It’s like going from riding the bus to driving a Lexus.”
EditLive!’s rich, built-in functionality has helped the hospital realize significant cost savings. Because EditLive! can do so much, especially with table creation and manipulation, Christina did not need to bring in an HTML specialist for some of their complex content.
“EditLive! has saved me the cost of hiring an outside consultant for a two-week engagement at $225 per hour, because EditLive! is able to publish complex content without having to call someone else in to do it,” she continues.
Because publishers often need to create tables for their content, the hospital effectively saves money each time someone uses a new table. “We don’t have to bring in someone every time we need a new feature, so we’re seeing a new cost savings every time someone uses EditLive!’s more sophisticated features to add or create content for the hospital’s WCM.”
Ensuring maximum use of the WCM
EditLive! also provides other features that facilitate Web publishing, which encourages the content contributors to publish to the portal more actively. “A lot of our information already exists elsewhere. EditLive! makes it easy to import items from the file resource component, to create links, or to cut-and-paste from existing Microsoft Word or Excel documents right into the WCM.”
EditLive! Is helping smooth the path toward adoption of the new system, really encouraging staff to get behind the wheel of the WCM. “EditLive! allows unit secretaries to publish to the Web very easily,” Christina confirms. “It takes a fairly complex technical tool and turns it into something simple.”
“We try to encourage our publishers to have fun, and to really make it their own,” she continues. “And once they get more comfortable with it, they get excited about using it. That’s exactly what we’re trying to achieve.”
Technical support the right prescription
In addition to glowing words for the software, Christina is pleased to give Ephox a positive report on their technical support. “Tech support at Ephox has been excellent,” she enthuses. “The good news is that we haven’t needed them that much! But the few times that we have needed them, they were there right away.”
In the near future, Christina would like to have 75 people publishing eventually, to really maximize the value of their WCM. She’s relieved to know she can count on EditLive! to help them get there. “EditLive! makes doing what we need to do much easier. It’s just a great tool, and I can’t imagine not having it. We’ll never have a portal with Web Content Management without it.”