Medicross Healthcare has selected Red Brick as the data warehouse engine for its central data repository. According to June Zebert, IT executive at Medicross, the company wanted an effective solution to meet its business challenges. "With the growing instability in the medical industry in South Africa, we need reliable information to maintain our competitive advantage in the market," she says. "We need to keep track of multidimensional records, including detailed financial information, patient records, trends and patterns in health care and area-specific analyses." Through an extensive product evaluation campaign, Red Brick was chosen as the best fit to deliver the benefits Medicross was seeking. "A data warehouse makes sense when accumulating data in order to drill down and examine it at a later stage," said Zebert. "The front-end tools (which ones) we are using complement the system, and make it easy for users and even power users to draw their own information and make their own decisions without relying on IT." Distributed in South Africa by Software Futures, a Computer Configurations Holdings company, Red Brick is a specialised database designed specifically for data warehousing. It is fine-tuned to deliver the fastest possible, fully scalable data query engine available. "Following our proof of concept, the Software Futures team demonstrated how Red Brick would fit into the environment we envisioned," says Zebert. "They knew what Red Brick was about, and how it would work for our business." The system, which will be operational in May, will be hosted on a 200MHz Hewlett Packard dual-Pentium Windows NT server with 256MB RAM. Data will reside on a six-4,2GB RAID array. The data warehouse will initially support 15 dedicated users, although this number will grow substantially as the company explores the option of making data available over the Internet to its 37 clinics nationwide. A data warehouse has both tangible and intangible benefits. "The advantages are not only reflected in figures," says Zebert. "In most cases, we consider it as a tool for management decision-making and problem area identification." Trend analysis will help Medicross cut its costs by reducing the incidence of fraud and wastage, both major roadblocks for the medical industry today. It will also allow the company to monitor its debtor system. "Medicross is a corporate organisation, and we need to operate it this way," she adds. "Only then can we guarantee the service our communities expect from us." Zebert expects to see a return on investment inside two years, once the company`s trend analysis drive is in full force. "The payback in terms of fraud and wastage reduction will more than pay for the installation and maintenance of Red Brick, and continue to reap rewards for the company well beyond that." Aubrey van Aswegen, GM of Data Futures at Software Futures, says Medicross is the second healthcare company to sign with Red Brick, after Transmed. "This is indicative of an industry trend - that organisations with similar needs are needing a higher level of information to gain a competitive edge. We are gratified to be able to supply our customers with that edge."
Share
Editorial contacts