A leading US-based pharma IT company that monitors and maintains cloud-native enterprise networks needed support to run its operational systems. The client's core engineering team is responsible for designing and deploying infrastructure services and the company required help integrating cloud-technical customers with its complex compliance model. The client also needed to retreat from its existing data centers.

Based on HCLTech's strong engineering DNA and history of collaboration, the clients chose us to manage and deliver customized IT solutions for its business customers. The client had architected the technological infrastructure internally and needed HCLTech to accelerate their progress in the cloud. We proposed to do that by provisioning a new environment that enabled end users to become cloud-compliant while providing operational support to the company's customer base.

The Challenge:

Due to federal regulations, the client has a very complex compliance framework. The company faced the following challenges:

• Despite the company conducting complimentary programs every quarter and engineering calls every other week for end users, the users struggled to become IT-compliant
• End users needed guidance on mandated channels of documentation to facilitate onboarding to the platform and resolving tickets
• Certain geographies didn't permit the creation of services on the self-help platform, so the company needed resources dedicated to service creation
• The company needed to establish a pay-as-you-use model for the cloud environment to stay competitive
• They needed to move the entire workload to data centers that support their servers or to the cloud

The Objective:

The client required LI and L2 support from AWS, Azure and Google's cloud platforms. HCLTech became the primary partner for all support activities and transformational initiatives around operations, infrastructure, network, storage, patching and cloud adoption for the client's customers. The goal was to implement and underpin all compliance-focused, platform-specific services.

The Solution:

Collaborating with all stakeholders to identify problem areas, HCLTech studied the entire tech stack of the client's digital environment and the challenges it posed in its service pipeline.

This analysis helped us to implement the following solutions:

• Aligned Windows and Linux end users with built-in compliance guidelines
• Proposed ideas, solutions and changes wherever required, if possible. Our operations team guided and provided resources for end users who didn't have access to specific provisions due to compliance issues
• Guided end users in following the correct documentation from the client's guidelines. We also collaborated with other vendors and the customer's internal engineering team to provide solutions to end users
• Previously, the client's cloud operations team supported more than 9,000 AWS servers and 4,000 Azure servers. HCLTech currently supports the provisioning, commissioning and operations of approximately 15,000 cloud servers. While AWS uses more laaS components (load balancers, hosted databases, containers and elastic compute clouds), Azure primarily focuses on the PaaS model and supported web applications, Databricks and PaaS databases
• Since the client has a self-service platform, the primary function of HCLTech's operations team is to uphold compliance. Because customers perform 80-85% of deployment activities through the self-service platform, the operations team resolves non-compliance issues for the remaining 15-20%

The Impact:

By collaborating with HCLTech, the client experienced the following benefits:

• Reduced server provisioning time from one week on VMware to a few minutes in the cloud
• Offered the pay-as-you-go model to its clients for added flexibility and agility
• Helped enterprises migrate from on-premises infrastructure to an AWS-owned VPN environment

For this client, as for all enterprises, migrating to the cloud generates big business benefits that drive continuous modernization and accelerate progress. They no longer must invest in physically hosting their data centers and can scale output according to market conditions.

With this initiative, we matured the client from a proof-of-concept state into a fully secure and scalable enterprise operation environment in the cloud. Moving from zero servers to approximately 15,000, HCLTech has driven the client's progress, supported their complex compliance environment and streamlined the process for future migrations.

A leading US diagnostics company with a vast network of labs and thousands of instruments found it challenging to monitor the operational health of its onsite labs. With over 150 instrument types, 40,000 devices and 2,500 PCs, the company required enterprise-wide, real-time visibility into tools and digital assets.

The client chose HCLTech as their partner due to its deep understanding of commercial labs and proven 14-year performance implementing cutting-edge solutions for the company.

Knowing the client’s needs, HCLTech suggested implementing the CARE (Connected Assets in Regulated Environment) platform. HCLTech designed and developed CARE on Microsoft Azure with security best practices and standards with unique customizations for the client. To accomplish tangible, sustainable and accelerated outcomes, it connected all medical devices to a centralized IoT platform, monitored lab instruments and extracted telemetry data to build their minimum viable product (MVP). The client also required up-to-date analytics built on elementary historical data to predict machine downtimes.

The Challenge:

The client faced complex and interconnected challenges: high downtimes, rising operational expenses and no precise requirements from the end users. This hindered feedback collection and lengthened the go-to-market time for new lab services and tests. These challenges impacted the company’s business outcomes and overall productivity.

Some of these challenges were:

• Growing maintenance costs: The client had difficulty ascertaining onsite lab instruments' health and lifecycle maturity. They struggled with inadequate instrument monitoring, sub-par tracking of the number of reagents that machines consume, the pace of consumption and a lack of real-time monitoring of leading indicators to establish patterns and predict machine downtimes. If one engine went down, it affected all subsequent operations in the client’s interconnected ecosystem
• Lengthy instrument onboarding: All aspects of business functionality, from device onboarding to gateway connectivity, application readiness and advanced computing were heavily impacted by lengthy timeframes for onboarding, implementing and integrating new machines
• Reduced workforce efficiency: Some tasks on the lab floor were manual and there was a need for dedicated resources that surveyed facilities and collected machine data, leading to an additional workforce and reduced efficiency
• Impaired remote servicing of instruments: The command center had difficulty servicing equipment when it was not connected to an IoT platform. Specialist engineers had to travel to facilities for repairs and upkeep

The Objective

The client needed all assets to be reconnected to a centralized IoT platform that extracts telemetry data for two primary purposes:

• Real-time monitoring of devices and running analytics on telemetry data
• A digital instrument platform that integrated 40,000 instruments across all their facilities

The Solution:

The HCLTech CARE microservices platform and integrated solution stack collect data from a wide range of lab instruments, enabling the client to meet their instrument digitalization objectives at an optimal cost and accelerated pace. HCLTech collaborated with the client to increase lab efficiency, streamline inventory management with supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) and reduce manual processes. This included instrument onboarding and measuring office management enterprises (OMEs) through SLA-driven higher instrument uptime. HCLTech conducted multiple walkthroughs and roadshows to bring stakeholders, including architect planners, laboratory personnel, bio-med engineers and security teams, up to speed.

Subsequently, HCLTech’s POC defined checkpoints and success criteria. Consultative interactions included SMEs who shared their knowledge of future-facing use cases. HCLTech then executed the POC to predict downtimes by extracting elementary data from the company’s 40,000 instruments. HCLTech CARE’s digital and cloud-native architecture was built on on-site reliability engineering (SRE) and DevOps principles that helped secure operational and transactional data management.

HCLTech also shared output data with the company’s field service engineers to help them address the causes of failures. The solution provides remote services, firmware and software upgrades to reduce the client’s field service costs.

The next stage was to enable the automation of business functions through networked data communication, which ensured the seamless integration of onsite lab functions with SCADA. The client now receives role-based hierarchical data visualization reports for increased security and efficiency.

The Impact:

HCLTech went the extra mile to generate a visible impact and boost client progress. After conducting a robust assessment of their current state of reliability and sharing a detailed roadmap for reaching strategic business outcomes through the CARE platform, HCLTech is helping to improve operations on multiple parameters:

• Proactive monitoring and alerts through real-time business and operational dashboards
• A centralized and secure platform for enterprise IoTs and multiple IT and OT business teams
• Improvements in instrument lifecycle management, onboarding processes and real-time asset management, leading to streamlined inventory flow
• Reduced instrument downtime through proactive vendor notifications, resulting in lower maintenance costs
• Enhanced security with compliance control, OTA support and enterprise system integration

By providing this unique bouquet of proven solutions that automate processes and accelerate time-to-market, HCLTech is powering new revenue streams for the client. Machine downtimes are estimated to decrease by 80 % and on-the-ground resource requirements by 25%.

HCLTech CARE platform is a future-proof solution stack built on data analytics that can be easily implemented in diverse healthcare environments. HCLTech is committed to building on the client’s MVP vision. Ultimately, HCLTech will provide aspirational new features that will harness the power of data and boost progress to new heights.

Our client, backed by a team of innovative researchers, data scientists and entrepreneurs, is a pioneering US-based medical data firm. They specialize in patented implantable sensors and analytics ecosystems, offering a solution platform that facilitates enhancing healthcare outcomes through continuous and passive data collection from 'smart' implantable devices.

The Challenge:

Our client utilizes healthcare data to offer invaluable insights, empowering clinicians to make well-informed, timely decisions that significantly elevate patient health and quality of life. However, the legacy platform used by the client faced critical challenges in efficiently retrieving, processing and analyzing sensor-based data, posing a significant obstacle in systematically enhancing patient recovery outcomes. Recognizing this challenge, the client sought a robust, intelligent platform capable of making post-op care and recovery decisions that are more data-centric rather than intuitive.

The Objective:

Our client's primary goal was to implement a smart system that could effectively manage the complexities of sensor data and leverage sophisticated features like predictive alerts. They sought a platform that could proficiently manage the challenges and intricacies of data from implanted smart devices while supporting AI/ML integration for business resilience and downstream innovation. Throughout this transformation, the client focused on improving patient outcomes and paving the way for new business opportunities.

The Solution:

Our demonstrable experience in engineering complex platforms and deep expertise in the healthcare domain made us the partner of choice for our client. Our team at HCLTech carefully crafted a highly tailored solution to address the existing issues faced by our client while keeping tabs on potential future opportunities. We implemented our existing CARE platform, ensuring that it catered to the specific imperatives of our client through constant feedback and discussions.

• The platform supports a smart healthcare ecosystem, delivering a personalized and connected experience
• Our platform is fully equipped to tackle significant challenges faced by the client. It monetizes features like predictive maintenance, remote servicing, augmented reality-based CARE assist and HoloLens-driven VR
• We presented an effective tool that can not only enhance platform sustenance and mitigate security issues but also house any future AI/ML integration
• Our platform enabled IoT Hub implementation for API development

The Impact:

Revolutionizing post-op care with an AI/ML-ready platform

• Enhanced user interface offering seamless accessibility to data, improving recovery outcomes
• Significantly improving remote patient monitoring with the help of predictive models
• Improving security and enablement of future AI/ML integration
• Increasing recognition among users as well as physicians

Moving forward, our client continues to be committed to continuously improving and evolving this new platform and working with us to build a robust, inclusive and easily accessible healthcare ecosystem.