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Case Study - Blood Center of Iowa

The Blood Center of Iowa serves state with IP Communications system that never misses a beat

Company Profile
The Blood Center of Iowa is the largest independent blood center in the state, operating with a $20 million budget and a professional staff of more than 200. In 2006, the center plans to collect more than 100,000 units of much-needed blood for 46 hospitals.

Situation
When this business says its product is the lifeblood of the community, you can believe it. Because the mandate of the Blood Center of Iowa is nothing less than to save lives. “We’re a community-based blood center,” says Scott Manhart, Executive Director of Finance and IT. “We recruit volunteer blood donors, draw blood, test it, process it, and provide it to hospitals for patient transfusions.” No slips, missed calls, or miscommunications can be tolerated.

So in 2001, when the organization outgrew its old headquarters, it developed a plan to keep up with the growing demand for blood products. But the challenges involved more than moving a highly regulated FDA operation to a new facility — its funds were limited and its IT staff was struggling to maintain an antiquated PBX system and old software and hardware.

“When hospitals dial our number they have to know they’ll connect to one of our people. Phones are our most important equipment,” says Manhart. That’s why the new business plan pinpointed an all-new phone system as the top priority.

Solution
The Blood Center of Iowa team knew exactly what it wanted from a new phone system:

• Reliability around the clock
• Affordability with reduced costs down the line
• Ease of use and improved productivity

But what the center really needed was a partner who could help deliver that solution, as well as provide ongoing support to help IT staff work smarter.

The search ended with Vital Support Systems.
“Their presentation was clearly better, but we checked their record
and looked at similar projects for hospitals,” says Manhart. “And (the customers) were thrilled with the work they’d done along with Cisco.”

Because the center’s core activities require communicating with hospitals, recruiting volunteers, setting appointments, and reminding donors of their scheduled times, a reliable phone system was key. Vital also looked at how they could improve overall daily productivity. The final solution was an IPC system with 150 Cisco phones and a call center that connects to other office systems. In addition to handling and making calls more efficiently, the center’s growing staff can now check email, better manage time, and communicate with stakeholders from any phone within the organization.

“Vital provided everything. We just stepped aside and let them install the entire system,” says Manhart.

Results
The IPC solution delivered perfectly on the reliability promise —a phone system with no single point of failure. “Ultimately, I’m responsible for the system,” says Manhart. “So when it’s down, it’s my fault. But I can tell you this, in the past several years I’ve had zero complaints. We’ve been up 100% of the time.”

As for affordability, the solution slashed costs across the board, including cost reductions in network infrastructure, staffing and administration, and facilities. Just how much? Manhart won’t say, but he is smiling.

And with simple-to-use IPC phone features, everyone with a phone is working more productively in a network that never lets them down. Now the entire staff is confident that should any problem arise, it will be quickly resolved.

Beyond the easy-to-see improvements in hardware and software, Manhart says long-term success is based on the strong relationship between the center and Vital. “We can talk about it all, figure out what’s the best way to go for the company. It’s not a vendor-client position, it’s a partnership. I trust the work they do, knowing they’re giving us their very best.”

Now the Blood Center of Iowa is working even closer with Vital. “They provide an enormous amount of service. They take care of all our infrastructure and wide area network. They support all Microsoft and HP applications, and all Cisco applications and hardware. I rely on Vital for all of that,” says Manhart.