CIO's Shopping: Fortis

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Learn what investments leading companies are making in their IT infrastructure
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COMPANY

Fortis Healthcare, Mumbai

COMPANY BACKGROUND

Fortis Healthcare Limited is a company initiated by the promoters of Ranbaxy
Laboratories Limited. It was founded by the late Dr Parvinder Singh with a
vision of becoming an integrated healthcare delivery organisation. It aims to
achieve this through a chain of Super Specialty and Multi-specialty hospitals.

CURRENT INFRASTRUCTURE

Having hospitals at five locations, Fortis has a network of 550 desktops and
19 HP servers as its IT backbone. It also has a Dell server which is primarily
used for image archival purposes. There are 25 notebooks in the organization
from Acer, and one from IBM for the head office. Of the 60 printers that the
company uses, inkjets are sourced from HP, while Epson supplies the dot matrix
versions. The LAN works largely on Cisco switches.

VALUE OF INFRASTRUCTURE

The investment in IT is around 2.5% of the total infrastructure deployed by
the company.

PROPOSED INFRASTRUCTURE FOR 2005-06

Fortis will soon have bar codes at all its locations and wants applications for
barcoding its medical products and its distribution processes. Samples sent for
diagnostic purposes will be barcoded. The company is also negotiating with some
service providers for a broadband connectivity for all its five locations. This
connection will be used for video-conferencing, tele-medicining and making its
pool of medical talent available across the board, internally.

EXPECTED BUDGET

Fortis plans to add another hospital soon and the IT infrastructure of this
place is on the agenda. IT investment will continue to be in the region of 2.5%
of the company's overall infrastructure.

CURRENT SYSTEMS SUPPLIER

Fortis negotiates directly with vendors like IBM, HP, Dell, Acer and Sify.
Though it relies on these companies for support, it has developed a team of
service engineers who can do some trouble shooting.

QUALIFICATIONS OF SUPPLIER

Price is an important criteria, but more importantly Fortis wants its
suppliers to look at it as a partner rather than a customer.

This kind of relationship often results in the company calling a vendor directly
for requirements, rather than waiting for the latter to make presentations to
it. Proactivity is also an important factor while selecting a supplier. Fortis
would rather do business with a company that can predict and suggest newer
applications, rather than vice versa. Support is also a crucial aspect.