Published date: 9 November 2020
As part of our ‘Meet the Experts’ Healthcare series we will take a look at the background and experience of some of our senior staff to highlight what they think are the most important factors in bringing about improvement in the sector. Brian Armstrong discusses the key factors to ensure a successful implementation process.
Brian’s delivery expertise is vital when it comes to implementation and helping customers meet their contractual obligations.
With a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and a career spanning over 30 years including experience in industry, teaching as well as project management, Brian Armstrong helps SSG Insight customers meet their objectives by ensuring implementation stays on track and to deadline.
How is your experience helping SSG Insight customers?
I started out at SSG Insight in a training and account management role before moving into implementation and project management. I have good knowledge and understanding of customer needs and, based on what we have done in the past, what we can deliver. However, there is never one right answer so each project starts with a listening exercise and I can then use what I know to advise on how a system might be set up.
For example, the fundamental role of a cleaner in a hospital hasn’t changed over the years and yet in that time we have moved away from green screens to mobile platforms. This means understanding how the technology can fit with the requirements. Take Barts Health NHS Trust which needed a simple end-to-end process for managing cleaning requests – we realised the key to success was to make the mobile solution easy to use. We had to make sure the cleaners should have a quick and easy to use solution to view logged requests and respond to them without distracting them from their primary focus of patient care. Barts Health NHS Trust is a highly complex system and we were able to roll out an end-to-end mobile solution in less than three weeks.
How is your sector insight making a difference?
I tend to deal with bigger contracts and in contract managed healthcare there are finite timeframes when it comes to delivery. There will be requirements for a system to be up and running within a given number of months. I can help our customers understand what they need to do and in what sequence – this will vary from one industry to another. I combine my sector understanding with my expertise in delivery to deliver a solution that meets the objectives on time.
Can you give us examples of the benefits for customers?
Customers benefits from timely and successful implementation which makes a difference when you consider that the standard success rates across industry for IT implementations runs at between 50 to 60 per cent.
Often customers have limited resources for the delivery of solutions. By providing the expertise in managing and resourcing the end-to-end process of delivery (e.g. project management, business process analysis, solution design, configuration, testing, technical work and training). This takes the pressure off of the customer and allows for a smooth and timely solution to be delivered.
My industry knowledge and experience in numerous sectors allows me provide advice to customers on best practice and how to configure the optimum solutions to achieve the cost savings and benefits required.
Have you worked on any quick implementation projects?
Yes, and this is where my experience and insight really helps. For example, we had four hospital projects to deliver in four months which means rapid delivery times, but we were able to get customers where they needed to be. Most of these projects are measured on KPIs, so my understanding of contracts and service delivery is also important. NHS contracts in particular can be very detailed, and you have to understand the detail and financial intricacies of the contracts.
We will be posting a series of four Meet the Experts pieces in our Healthcare series profiling James MacPherson, Matthew Wood, Amber Hart and Brian Armstrong. We hope that you find them an interesting read.