Executive summary
Challenge: Healthcode handle important and sensitive data within a strict regulatory framework and need guarantees on data location, security and uptime.
Solution: A secure Managed Hosting solution, featuring enterprise grade disaster recovery and data protection measures, all underpinned by Claranet's core MPLS network.
Result: Claranet has enabled Healthcode to accommodate growing customer demand, without surrendering the tight control it requires over its customers' personal data.
The challenge
Healthcode’s core business is electronic billing and the company processes approximately 18,000 bills from providers to insurers on a daily basis and around 600,000 clinical records annually. Its services and applications are critical to the functioning of private hospitals, insurers and consultants up and down the country, who entrust them with extremely confidential, personal and commercially sensitive data.
Given the sensitivities of the data that Healthcode handles and the regulatory framework governing the health industry, data sovereignty is a key issue for its clients who stipulate
that their data should not leave the UK.
To meet its clients’ service delivery and data protection requirements head on, Healthcode required a secure, resilient managed hosting solution delivered only out of UK-based data centres, explained Peter Connor, Managing Director at Healthcode:
A lot of very sensitive data goes through our systems, and we’re held directly accountable by our partners and their customers in the case of an outage or data breach. Our customers rely on our services to function day-to-day, so in order to support their businesses, it’s critical that they can access our applications at all times. Our stringent compliance to the ISO27001 system in the management of information security is, after all, a core reason our services are chosen above our competitors, so we needed a hosting provider that could offer us all-important guarantees about data location, security and uptime.”
The solution
With these key considerations in mind, Healthcode called on Claranet who devised a secure and reliable Managed Hosting solution designed to safeguard the delivery of its applications.
Underpinned by Claranet’s MPLS network, the solution features enterprise grade disaster recovery and data protection measures with 24/7 support from the managed services provider. Claranet also provides Healthcode with a number of other key services, including Internet Connectivity, Web Acceleration and DoS Protection to protect against external threats, Hosted Desktop and email services. Crucially, Claranet is able to meet the Healthcode’s data sovereignty requirements, as the service is delivered exclusively out of UK-based datacentres.
Peter explained the wider significance of the introduced solution:
Having worked with Claranet before, we knew they would go the extra mile to exactly meet our specifications. Claranet proposed a tailored service that met our strict
security and availability demands. Our new infrastructure is so watertight that it would take some sort of force majeure event for us to have to use our disaster recovery environment – but it does give us and our clients’ peace of mind. It was a combination of Claranet’s processes, people and facilities, and their ability to offer a complete end-to-end solution, which led us to choose them as our hosting partner.”
The result
Healthcode’s new Managed Hosting platform has enabled the company to accommodate growing customer demand, without surrendering the tight control it requires over its customers’ personal data.
Peter continued:
Our new platform is more resilient and robust against data breaches with an in-built disaster recovery system so we can offer a truly secure service to the private health sector. Data sovereignty is critically important for our business, and as Claranet operates only in-country data centres, they are able to offer the assurances on data location we – and by extension, our customers – need."
Claranet’s revamped solution has provided Healthcode with the infrastructure support necessary to cement its position as market leader, though, as Peter explained, the true benefit of the service has been seen in the everyday work carried out with Claranet’s dedicated support team to continually support and improve application delivery:
Both approachable and accommodating, Claranet’s service management team is at the front line, ensuring applications run at their optimum speed, are completely secure, and that changes can be made instantaneously. Their understanding of our plans for growth in turn enables us to deliver our innovative applications, and deliver return on investment to our customers."
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About Healthcode
Jointly owned by AXA PPPh, Bupa, Aviva, Nuffield Health and VitalityHealth, Healthcode is the leading online application software provider for the private healthcare sector in the UK.
Specialising in products that enable private practices and hospitals to manage their insurance and billing processes, the company currently processes in excess of £2.5 billion worth of bills and insurance claims every year.
With the increased use of e-billing and online insurance processing by its clients, Healthcode has seen demand for its range of applications grow rapidly in recent years, prompting the company to refresh its infrastructure.