A broad-based healthcare system with 40 medical centers has invested in thousands of IoT devices to protect its patients, visitors, medical professionals, and other staff members. Still, without a centralized and automated way to manage these devices, the medical centers lacked the visibility and tools they needed to ensure the devices were operating properly at all times. As a result, routine maintenance steps were being performed manually—a costly and inefficient approach to the operational management of these security devices.
In this case study, discover how Convergint introduced the healthcare system to SecuriThings’ Horizon solution to automate the operational management of their IoT devices.
Mission: Manage security devices in a centralized, automated way
The regional healthcare system valued the safety and transparency that security cameras and other IoT devices offered its patients, visitors, medical professionals, and other staff members. With more than 40 locations, the system had deployed thousands of IoT security devices to document any instances of violence, abuse, theft, or medical negligence. In addition to keeping its medical centers safe, these devices were intended to help them keep records in order to investigate any potentially problematic incidents that could take place. The problem was that the security devices were not being managed in a centralized, automated way.
Without real-time visibility into the status of any given device, the healthcare system faced a risk that one or more of these devices would go offline and time would pass before the security team discovered the availability issue. And because basic operational maintenance steps—such as password rotations, device restarts, and firmware upgrades—were being handled manually, the medical centers were spending significant money on these time-consuming processes.
Solution: SecuriThings Horizon
Already working with the medical centers, Convergint understood the concerns they had about the operational management of their IoT devices. And, having worked with SecuriThings on many previous deployments, Convergint also understood how much they would benefit from SecuriThings Horizon. Convergint recommended Horizon to the healthcare system, who were encouraged by the partnership between SecuriThings and Convergint. After learning about Horizon’s automated approach to the operational management of IoT devices, the healthcare system deployed Horizon.
The medical centers receive insights needed to diagnose problems, as well as the tools they need to resolve issues remotely. The Horizon solution enables the healthcare system to automate routine maintenance steps. Once it was initially deployed within the medical centers multiple security and operational risks were discovered, including some that required immediate patches to be implemented. Horizon alerted the relevant security professionals, letting their teams immediately take action to remediate these vulnerabilities.
“Working with Convergint Account Executives who were already familiar with their customer’s ecosystem, and who really understood their need for automation, made for a quick and smooth deployment of Horizon.”
~Jonathan Shtofman, RVP Sales, SecuriThings
Result: Increased reliability and security of IoT devices
Deploying SecuriThings Horizon empowered the medical centers to boost the availability of their IoT devices by automating these devices’ operational management. By automatically monitoring all of the IoT security devices across the entire healthcare system’s various locations, the solution helps ensure they stay online and operating properly. In case a device does face an issue (whether expected or unexpected), Horizon automatically sends an alert to the relevant security professionals in real time.
Horizon has offered the healthcare system significant cost savings by minimizing the need for expensive, manual, on-site work. Most importantly, Horizon has increased the reliability of the IoT devices’ cybersecurity by automating and centralizing the entire process of ensuring that necessary maintenance steps are performed proactively. In addition, Horizon helps the medical centers ensure that the operational management of their IoT devices complies with their own policies. The schedules on which routine maintenance steps are automatically performed reflect the medical centers’ specifications, helping reduce the risk that human error could result in cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Horizon regularly provides configurable and detailed compliance reports, helping keep security professionals up to date on the status of the medical centers’ various IoT devices.
By using SecuriThings Horizon, the healthcare system has achieved the following outcomes:
Compliance confidence
With smart alerts and detailed compliance reports from Horizon, the medical centers can easily ensure compliance with their own policies.
Dramatic cost
savings
savings
With centralized automation of operational bactivities, the healthcare system has reduced manual activities on-site resulting in significant cost savings.
Visibility for future planning
With a modernized approach to monitoring the operational health of their IoT devices, the medical centers have boosted their readiness for any expected or unexpected issues they may face.
Protection from cyber threats
In addition to automating cybersecurity maintenance steps, Horizon has enhanced the medical centers’ risk mitigation, root cause analysis, and real-time troubleshooting capabilities.
Improved system availability
With real-time monitoring and detailed automatic alerts, security professionals can rapidly and efficiently discover, diagnose, and troubleshoot any problems facing the medical centers’ IoT devices.
“With SecuriThings, we finally have ongoing visibility into the availability of all our IoT devices centrally and in real time. We easily keep the devices updated with the latest firmware versions possible, and apply patches immediately.”
~Director of Physical Security, Healthcare System
