IBM's NOC Inside Helped Sankara Nethralaya Cut Downtime

With almost half a million patients added every year, this pile of records was only getting bigger. It was then that the organization started looking for a network management system (NMS). "Apart from its main role of displaying the network, we needed something more, in terms of sending information to other teams by SMS," he says. It was important for the solution to multi-task because IT at the hospital multi-tasked. Manavalan explains why he chose IBM's NOC Inside, "We had evaluated a few other network management tools, both in terms of hardware and software, but none of them provided an integrated solution like NOC Inside. It provides software and hardware inventory as well as helpdesk management with SLA measurement, and comes along with core network monitoring requirement."

The system automatically calls the helpdesk if it finds a network problem in any of its network monitoring areas. The system never stopped surprising the hospital with what it could deliver. It also identifies and allocates the bandwidth required for a Sankara Nethralaya's branch that is being set up in a remote location. The solution also came bundled with an IT advisory service capability that employs a specialized analytics engine. This studies the network, acts as a consultant and recommends action plans for the network.

Every process that NOC Inside has eased is a business infographicsbenefit. Apart from providing the hospital with a 360-degree view of its infrastructure, Manavalan's biggest benefit was the elimination of downtime. "With NOC Inside even potential problems are identified, so within a minute we know which machine's application is giving away," he says. He also realized that NOC Inside would make running other applications easier. At any point of time, the hospital now knows the number of licenses it has and if it is meeting compliance standards for various applications.

This solution also generates a daily report that keeps track of the entire hardware and software inventory and ensures software license compliance. It acts as a centralized call center database management system (CMDP).

As Lingam points out, what is critical to business could also be critical to saving a life. So inversely, what the business can save (by being more efficient) is not looked at in terms of money - but in terms of lives. And today, with NOC Inside, the hospital, which had a myopic view of its network infrastructure, has broadened its vision and has gone beyond just a corrective surgery. With a system that delivered more than it promised, Sankara Nethralaya can now afford to rest on its laurels

The Person Behind It

M.K. Manavalan

Head-IT, Sankara Nethralaya

Savings with the NMS , we look at the investment more as a life-critical activity.

Dr. Lingam Gopal

chairman, Sankara Nethralaya,

Our operations are ‘life critical’; therefore we need sophisticated tools like NOC Inside, which make a big difference to our network uptime.