Guidehouse has released a Navigant survey, conducted by the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), revealing 75 percent of provider executives believe their corporate services spending could decrease without negatively impacting quality or efficiency, the company announced on Thursday. 

"Revenue growth remains a constant challenge for hospitals and health systems due to such aspects as stagnant reimbursement and meager inpatient growth, prompting many providers to grow inorganically via M&A while targeting corporate services for meaningful cost reductions," said Robert Green, partner at Guidehouse. 

The survey has revealed that providers fall in leveraging technology and automation of back-office corporate services functions through robotic process automation (RPA) and enterprise resource planning (ERP), shown to reduce costs and improve accuracy and efficiency. 

Specifically, Guidehouse has reported that 15 percent of providers have automated their corporate services functions, one-in-three providers have deployed an ERP system and 12 percent have optimized these systems. Moving forward, 51 percent of providers predict they'll deploy or optimize an ERP over the next 2 years.

"New technologies leveraging RPA, ERP, and machine learning have unlocked significant opportunities to drive back office efficiencies," said Jeff Palmieri, associate director of robotics automation at Guidehouse. "As many providers have learned the hard way, overlaying technology as the 'solution' without first reengineering the processes and concurrently embedding a change management program has proven to be frustrating at best, and value-degrading at worst."

About Guidehouse 

Guidehouse is a leading global provider of consulting services to the public and commercial markets with broad capabilities in management, technology, and risk consulting. We help clients address their toughest challenges with a focus on markets and clients facing transformational change, technology-driven innovation, and significant regulatory pressure. 

Across a range of advisory, consulting, outsourcing, and technology/analytics services, we help clients create scalable, innovative solutions that prepare them for future growth and success. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the company has more than 7,000 professionals in more than 50 locations. Guidehouse is a Veritas Capital portfolio company, led by seasoned professionals with proven and diverse expertise in traditional and emerging technologies, markets, and agenda-setting issues driving national and global economies.

Avaya Holdings Corp. has announced that it will provide its Avaya Spaces collaboration software for free to educational institutions, including colleges and universities, and non-profit organizations worldwide in lieu of the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the company announced on Wednesday. 

“There is an especially immediate need in the education sector as school and university administrators consider the safety of their students while ensuring continuity of their classes, engagement with their students and delivering on their educational objectives,” said  Jim Chirico, CEO of Avaya. 

Avaya Spaces has provided a cloud meeting and team collaboration solution that enables people and organizations to connect and collaborate remotely. The content will supply users a set of meeting and team collaboration features, including voice and video conferencing for up to 200 participants. 

As a mobile-enabled solution, it gives users a simple, secure and effective way to track communications and manage tasks when travel and connectivity are limited.

Throughout the year, Avaya teams and partners were on the frontline in Wuhan, China to help in the initial stages of this epidemic. The company has donated audio and video equipment and dispatched resources for speedy installation and deployment for hospitals in the region to help medical personnel perform remote consultation and video diagnostics.

The company has also worked with government health departments in the U.S. to get emergency call centers up-and-running in a matter of hours. “Coronavirus (COVID-19) is impacting the lives of people around the globe and every day we hear new sobering stories about the very real health and safety implications of the spread of this virus,” added Chirico.

About Avaya 

Businesses are built on the experiences they provide, and everyday millions of those experiences are built by Avaya (NYSE: AVYA). For over one hundred years, we’ve enabled organizations around the globe to win – by creating intelligent communications experiences for customers and employees. Avaya builds open, converged and innovative solutions to enhance and simplify communications and collaboration – in the cloud, on-premise or a hybrid of both. To grow your business, we’re committed to innovation, partnership, and a relentless focus on what’s next. We’re the technology company you trust to help you deliver Experiences that Matter.

QTS Realty Trust has signed agreements to purchase renewable energy through European Guarantees of Origin to enhance the company’s energy services in its newly acquired data center in Groningen, Netherlands, QTS reported on Wednesday. 

"Today's announcement is another significant step towards our goal of procuring 100% of our power from renewable energy sources by 2025," said Travis Wright, vice president of energy and sustainability, QTS. 

QTS has purchased environmental attributes from Dutch wind and Nordic hydro sources. The agreements cover over 20-gigawatt hours of energy and account for 100 percent of the expected electrical load at QTS' Groningen facility. The company’s transition to renewables will transform the global energy market and accelerate the transition to a clean economy.

The Groningen facility currently has built-out capacity representing approximately 10 gross megawatts of power and 45,000 square feet of raised floor data center space. Recognized as one of the most interconnected data centers in the Netherlands market, the facility has more than 10 network providers and internet exchanges on-site, including NL-IX and Eurofiber.

The Netherlands has been named one of the top European markets for data center users due to competitive utility and operating costs, availability of renewable power resources and proximity to diverse connectivity options to other major European markets.

In addition to QTS’ Netherlands facility, the company has also committed to renewable energy procurements in cities that include Dallas, Chicago, Piscataway, NJ, and Hillsboro, OR and supports QTS' commitment to procure 100 percent of its power from renewable energy sources globally by 2025.

"Groningen is particularly important as it demonstrates our global commitment to minimizing our carbon footprint through advanced development and procurement initiatives," added Wright. 

About QTS 

QTS Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: QTS) is a leading provider of data center solutions across a diverse footprint spanning more than 6 million square feet of owned mega scale data center space throughout North America and Europe. Through its software-defined technology platform, QTS is able to deliver secure, compliant infrastructure solutions, robust connectivity and premium customer service to leading hyperscale technology companies, enterprises, and government entities.

Perspecta announced today it has achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS) DevOps Competency status, proving the company’s ability to securely drive the delivery and efficiency of advanced cloud-based technology solutions across the federal government, Perspecta reported on Thursday.

"Our proven solutions and deep experience implementing CI/CD practices and automating infrastructure provisioning and management on AWS demonstrate our commitment of providing leading-edge cloud and transformation capabilities to our customers," said Mike Kirkland, senior vice president of offerings and solution development for Perspecta. 

With the certification, Perspecta has been recognized for its technical proficiency and proven customer success in specialized technical solution areas. Perspecta received the AWS DevOps competency for its established multiphase approach and tools to advise, transform and manage DevSecOps transformation for U.S. Government customers. 

The company's DevCloud framework will provide an adaptable AWS continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline to streamline operations and agility. As an AWS Public Sector Partner, Perspecta has been recognized for its solutions and experience in delivering government missions and has previously achieved AWS Government Competency status.

"The AWS DevOps Competency further highlights our ability to help government customers deliver mission-critical workloads and applications on the AWS Cloud," added Kirkland. 

In addition to the company’s DevOps Competency achievement, Perspecta has also received gold competency certification from Microsoft for demonstrating a commitment and an ability to provide cloud computing services to the public sector in May 2019.

The Gold Partner and Cloud Solution Provider designations indicate that Perspecta can help agencies implement cloud, office and collaboration services with the Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics platforms.

Mac Curtis, president and CEO of Perspecta, and a 2020 Wash100 Award winner, said the company applies its cloud migration approach along with the Microsoft products suite to provide an integrated offering to government customers.

About Perspecta Inc.

At Perspecta (NYSE: PRSP), we question, we seek and we solve. Perspecta brings a diverse set of capabilities to our U.S. government customers in defense, intelligence, civilian, health care and state and local markets. Our 270+ issued, licensed and pending patents are more than just pieces of paper, they tell the story of our innovation.

With offerings in mission services, digital transformation and enterprise operations, our team of 14,000 engineers, analysts, investigators and architects work tirelessly to not only execute the mission, but build and support the backbone that enables it. Perspecta was formed to take on big challenges. We are an engine for growth and success and we enable our customers to build a better nation. 

Acting U.S. Navy Secretary Thomas Modly has signed a document requiring the Department of the Navy to implement resiliency, efficiency and reliability approaches for energy systems on mission-critical shore infrastructure.

DON must adopt measures to secure power generation equipment in accordance with its Energy Security Framework as part of the Installation Energy Resilience Strategy, the Navy said Wednesday.

The document offers a information about congressional authorities intended to drive industry-community partnerships and case studies of energy resilience projects at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California and the Naval Support Activity facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A list of resources and references from the Department of Defense is also included in the strategy.

“With the guidance, priorities, and metrics in this energy plan, we can focus command attention and scarce resources at every level to deliver substantive results for the enhanced readiness and resilience of our forces,” Modly said.

The Navy noted that aging energy systems that help power shipyards, weapons systems, training ranges and other naval assets threaten warfighter readiness.