To better meet the needs of members and remain competitive, Blue Shield of California needed to speed time-to-market for new offerings by overcoming a lack of automation and an inability to quickly provision systems.
The group chose IBM PureApplication System and IBM Premier Business Partner Perficient to speed deployment by pairing repeatable patterns and cloud delivery on a naturally scalable platform. Provisioning based on patterns allows Blue Shield to simplify management with automation, spend more time on innovation, and accelerate deployments from weeks to a matter of hours.
Blue Shield of CA - Tony Hsieh; Director of Infrastructure Management
Doug Mcculloh, Director, Perficient
2024: Domino Containers - The Next Step. News from the Domino Container commu...
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Blue Shield of California: Improving Service and Competitiveness with IBM PureApplication System
1. Š 2014 IBM Corporation
A New Way
CIN-5215: Blue Shield of CA Revolutionizes Its
Portal Environment on IBM PureApplication
System
Tony Hsieh- BlueShield of California
Doug McCulloh â Perficient
Stacy Ness - IBM
Speakers:
2. A New Way
Please Note
IBMâs statements regarding its plans, directions, and intent are subject to change
or withdrawal without notice at IBMâs sole discretion.
Information regarding potential future products is intended to outline our general
product direction and it should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision.
The information mentioned regarding potential future products is not a
commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or
functionality. Information about potential future products may not be incorporated
into any contract. The development, release, and timing of any future features or
functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion.
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM
benchmarks in a controlled environment. The actual throughput or performance
that any user will experience will vary depending upon many factors, including
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the userâs job stream,
the I/O configuration, the storage configuration, and the workload processed.
Therefore, no assurance can be given that an individual user will achieve results
similar to those stated here.
4. A New Way
Blue Shield of California, an independent member of the Blue Shield
Association, is a not-for-profit health plan dedicated to providing
Californians with access to high-quality health care at an
affordable price. With over 3 million members and 5,000
employees, they are one of the largest healthcare providers in CA.
Starting in 2014, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will fundamentally change the
healthcare insurance market. Motivated by the ACA requirements and participation in
"Covered California" Healthcare Insurance Exchange, Blue Shield of California
needed to create an exceptional web experience for their Members, Providers,
Producers and Employees. With Open Enrollment beginning in the Fall, their new
Member Portal needs to be ready by October 1st. Blue Shield anticipates much
higher activity on their website as a result of the Exchange given that California will
be one of, if not the, country's largest state-run Exchanges; and Blue Shield is a key
heath plan participant.
Blue Shield of California
5. A New Way
Challenges
Blue Shield of California teamâs Needs and/or Challenges:
â˘âŻ Had non-converged, standalone, legacy mid-range infrastructure
â˘âŻ Applications pattern & topologies were inconsistent in some cases non-existent.
â˘âŻ Manual provisioning of a new application environment â building a legacy environment â
took up to 4 months
â˘âŻ It is labor intensive, time consuming, and costly.
â˘âŻ Capacity/performance scaling requests took weeks
â˘âŻ Difficult to build an environment; too many pieces to put in place
â˘âŻ To stand up a new environment required staff from a number of different organizations in
IT, as patterns werenât centralized
â˘âŻ It is labor intensive, time consuming, and costly.
â˘âŻ Procurement of separate WAS and DB2 software licensing added time to deploy, as well
as additional expense
â˘âŻ License tracking of IBM software presented challenges
6. A New Way
Why Blue Shield of California Decided on PureApp
â˘âŻ End to end patterns that include infrastructure and software, including some shared services
â˘âŻ Consistent patterns, builds and time to build.
â˘âŻ Consistent method of customizations to an environment
Customizable patterns are an available option
â˘âŻ Able to spin up different environments for different purposes
â˘âŻ Well suited for agile development
â˘âŻ Shared services save on time to deploy/implement
â˘âŻ When we build a pattern now, it has the shared service automatically built into the pattern,
allowing us to have a consistent implementation of the services (monitoring, application
caching, OS patching)
â˘âŻ Following best practices application topology
â˘âŻ Virtual dynamic scaling capability is much easier
â˘âŻ Single pane of glass for entire platform
â˘âŻ Centralized logging features
â˘âŻ Cost savings due to shorter deployment times
â˘âŻ Fewer resources or handoffs to build
â˘âŻ Easier to do licensing, as are keeping track internally in the tool (unlimited application and database
(DB2) licensing)
6
7. A New Way
Why Blue Shield of California Decided on PureApp
" ⯠Time Savings thru avoided design, procurement, installation,
configuration activities
" ⯠Simplicity beginning w/ ordering process, culminating in system
arriving ready to plug in
" ⯠Portal Pattern delivering expertise reduced development timeline
" ⯠Single support number delivers simplicity in obtaining help
" ⯠Strategic solution enabling instantaneous adoption of cloud
principles for competitive advantage
7
A new vocabulary: Hours instead of weeks.
8. A New Way
A national IT & Business consulting
firm, with expert teams focused on
helping our clients implement
compelling, useful customer
experiences.
â˘âŻ
â˘âŻFast Facts:
â˘âŻFounded 1997
â˘âŻ$500 MM+ in annualized revenues
â˘âŻ26 locations in North America
â˘âŻOffshore in Europe, China and India
â˘âŻ2600 + employees
â˘âŻ80% of revenue from recurring
clients
â˘âŻServed 550+ clients in past 12
months
8
9. A New Way
Award Winning â Trusted IBM Premier Partner
IBM Premier BP for 17 years
â˘âŻIndustry Focused & Authorized:
â˘âŻ Healthcare, Financial Services & Retail
â˘âŻIBM Capability Authorized
â˘âŻ Smarter Commerce, Business Analytics, ECM,
Healthcare IM Data Governance
Award Winning Solutions:
â˘âŻ2015 BEACON Award - Health Analytics Gateway
â˘âŻ2014 Innovation Pure and Simple Collaboration Solution
â˘âŻ2014 Exceptional Digital Experience Portal Partner of the year
â˘âŻ2013 System Integration Partner of the Year
â˘âŻ2012 Information Management Integration Excellence Award
â˘âŻ2012 Healthcare Integration Excellence Award
â˘âŻ2011 Business Analytics Achievement Award
â˘âŻ2011, 2008, 2006 WebSphere Portal Distinguished Partner
(sole North American recipient and first-ever three-time winner)
10. A New Way
Blue Shieldâs Solution
" âŻConsumerism of HealthCare
" âŻTrends and Market Reality
" âŻNeeds for Creating a Unique Member Experience
" âŻBusiness Drivers
" âŻPerficientâs Connected Health Expertise
" âŻRanked by HealthCare
" âŻConnected Health, Integrated Health & Health Analytics
" âŻPerficientâs Portal Expertise
" âŻ850 Portal Deployments
11. A New Way
BlueShield of California Solution
" âŻMember Portal Rebuild leveraging the WebSphere Portal Pattern
" âŻModifications of the Pattern for BlueShield CA
" âŻWODM Pattern for Claims Processing â Best Practices
" âŻCreation - deployment of the Rules for Claims
" âŻMessage Broker Patterns
" âŻDataPower Patterns (Virtual Systems)
" âŻDevelopment of Custom Pattern for KONY Mobile Solutions
" âŻPattern Version Deployment
" âŻLifecycle Management
" âŻScript Packages for Patterns Customization
" âŻHADR (Highly Available Data Replication)
" âŻDB2 Hardening Scripting to BSC Standards
13. Š 2013 IBM Corporation13
Why Do You Want to use Cloud?
1.⯠Respond faster to customer requests: Be more agile!
2.⯠Eliminate errors associated w/ manual work: Standardize!
3.⯠Save time to do more of your TODO list: Be productive!
4.⯠Save money: Save money!
5.⯠Remove process/people bottlenecks: Automate everything!
1
2
3
4
5
14. Š 2013 IBM Corporation14
What Should Your Cloud Do For You?
User logs in
â˘âŻ Who is this user?
â˘âŻ Only show resources user has
permission to see/use
User requests deployment
â˘âŻ Do we have enough SW licenses?
â˘âŻ Where should we put these VMs?
â˘âŻ Letâs create the VMs
1.âŻCreate storage LUNs
2.âŻUse correct VLAN
3.âŻProvision IP addresses
4.âŻCreate golden OS base
5.âŻInstall & configure middleware
6.âŻInstall & configure app
7.âŻManage elasticity
Your cloud should let you forget about everything except your application.
Administrator needs information
â˘âŻ How much resource is my App ABC dev
team using?
â˘âŻ How much money should I charge them?
â˘âŻ How much capacity will I need next month?
Administrator needs an HA/DR strategy
â˘âŻ Enable check-box enablement of storage
replication for active/passive DR
â˘âŻ Extend system management model across
multiple datacenters for active/active HA
â˘âŻ Allow on-prem management model to reach
seamlessly into public cloud
15. Š 2013 IBM Corporation15
What Do Most âCloudsâ Do?
User logs in
â˘âŻ Who is this user?
â˘âŻ Only show resources user has
permission to see/use
User requests deployment
â˘âŻ Do we have enough SW licenses?
â˘âŻ Where should we put these VMs?
â˘âŻ Letâs create the VMs
1.âŻCreate storage LUNs
2.âŻUse correct VLAN
3.âŻProvision IP addresses
4.âŻCreate golden OS base
5.âŻInstall & configure middleware
6.âŻInstall & configure app
7.âŻManage elasticity
They deliver âOS as a Service,â and rely on old-fashioned elbow grease for the rest
Administrator needs information
â˘âŻ How much resource is my App ABC dev
team using?
â˘âŻ How much money should I charge them?
â˘âŻ How much capacity will I need next month?
Administrator needs an HA/DR strategy
â˘âŻ Enable check-box enablement of storage
replication for active/passive DR
â˘âŻ Extend system management model across
multiple datacenters for active/active HA
â˘âŻ Allow on-prem management model to reach
seamlessly into public cloud
20. A New Way
How Does the Portal Pattern Deliver All This Value?
Pre-Installed OS
Elastic
Best Practice
topologies
Pre-Installed/configured
middleware
22. A New Way
Virtual System Pattern â Predefined patterns
Deploys in minutes
23. A New Way
Virtual System Instance â virtual machines
vms may be treated
as BAU deployment
BUT, we recommend
âpatternizingâ any
changes
24. A New Way
Portal Pattern Does ...
" âŻDrag-and-drop simplicity
for multiple deployment
types
" âŻNever install/manually
cluster Portal again
" âŻCustomizable via script
packages
Portal Pattern Does
NOT
" âŻSecurity configuration
" âŻApplication, Content,
page deployment
" âŻApplication Data
" âŻHADR on DBs
26. A New Way
In Summary
Hours vs. Weeks the New Normal
Dependable Pattern Deployment
Ensures Best Practices
Minimize Hand Offs
Partnering with Perficient & IBM A Success Story
28. A New Way
We Value Your Feedback
" ⯠Donât forget to submit your Impact session and speaker
feedback! Your feedback is very important to us â we use it to
continually improve the conference.
" ⯠Use the Conference Mobile App or the online Agenda Builder to
quickly submit your survey
â˘âŻ Navigate to âSurveysâ to see a view of surveys for sessions
youâve attended
28
30. A New Way
Legal Disclaimer
â˘âŻ Š IBM Corporation 2014. All Rights Reserved.
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contained in this publication is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, creating any warranties or representations from IBM or its suppliers or licensors, or altering the terms and
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Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled environment. The actual throughput or performance that any user will
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configuration, and the workload processed. Therefore, no assurance can be given that an individual user will achieve results similar to those stated here.
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