Embark on a transformative journey alongside forward-thinking healthcare leaders. Discover how The Ottawa Hospital securely enabled and migrated over 5,500 healthcare professionals from multiple partner organizations into one cohesive digital ecosystem.
The Ontario Health Teams (OHT) initiative was introduced by Ontario Health to provide a new way of delivering centralized care to patients in their local communities. Under this initiative all health care providers will work as one coordinated team.
The Regional Security Operation Centre (RSOC) is a framework driven by Ontario Health for managing cyber security risk across the Ontario Health Sector with a Provincial Health SOC providing leadership, tools, templates, and specific cyber services to Regional SOCs that consume and provide additional cyber services to local delivery groups that service health care entities.
To support Ontario Health Teams and RSOC members during this transition, VNEXT Group created a Microsoft Office 365 and security enablement framework to accommodate a diverse, dynamic, and evolving set of requirements. VNEXT has been helping Ontario Health Teams and RSOC members by onboarding them into Office 365 and Enterprise Mobily + Security environments to modernize and enhance their collaboration experiences and facilitate a smooth transition for partners as they navigate complex integration activities.
As of today, VNEXT has worked with The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) and over eight members that have joined the Champlain Cyber Defense Collaborative (CCDC) led by TOH for the RSOC/Security initiatives. Other members are at the early planning stages and will follow the same adoption framework later.
The Ottawa Hospital is one of Canada’s largest learning and research hospitals, with more than 1,100 beds, approximately 12,000 staff members and an annual budget of about $1.2 billion.
The Ottawa Hospital belongs to The Ottawa Health Team that currently has 60 organizational partners that deliver healthcare services in that region.
TOH also leads the Champlain Cyber Defense Collaborative (CCDC) representing more than 40 health service providers across Eastern Ontario, where those organizations rely on their IT team and infrastructure for their RSOC initiatives.
The Ottawa Hospital and members have guidelines from Ontario Health but no prescriptive approach on how to get started with RSOC initiatives.
Organizations joining the RSOC had outdated IT infrastructure without or with minimal cloud presence and no clear roadmaps and guidance on how to get started.
Organizations wanted to consolidate accounts into one environment for ease of access to all services for clinical workers.
Over 4,000+ users from multiple organizations needed to be enabled securely and under the same environment, migrating from multiple sources and a variety of configuration scenarios.
Existing complex and outdated account provisioning processes required standardization across members.
Security vulnerabilities due to users having multiple identities and convoluted access to resources was of great concern, requiring a comprehensive account consolidation effort and a robust Identity Access Management strategy.
Knowledge transfer, training, adoption and change management was critically required for rapid adoption of modern cloud technologies.
Mapping out Ontario Health Teams and/or RSOC operational foundational requirements and developing technology roadmaps.
Analyzing feasibility, assessing requirements and options to enable collaboration for RSOC and OHT core team and partner members.
Providing strategic guidance to ensure data is protected in the cloud under the same environment (Information Protection & Governance).
Securing access to resources (workstations and mobile phones) for all member organizations including in-depth Identity and Access Management strategy.
Working side by side with decision makers to ensure vision and technical possibilities alignment while complying with Ontario Health’s guidance.
Discussing license requirements and operational constraints based on each collaboration scenarios.
Supporting and enabling Local Delivery Groups (community healthcare providers) and Ontario Health Teams core team’s collaboration requirements.
Planning and executing environment consolidation for RSOC initiatives including training and knowledge transfer.
Migration of legacy file shares and mailboxes to SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business and Exchange Online with Teams as the hub for collaboration.
Migrations, Disaster Recovery, Identity and Access Management, Endpoint Security.
Comprehensive and detailed End user, IT and Admin training as well as educational guides for adoption of all technologies and processes implemented.
Extended post-migration support for end users and administrators.
Migration from legacy on-premises environments to a mature cloud environment unlocking the potential for future innovation.
Delivery of Microsoft Cloud Accelerator Workshops to get planning sessions started.
Opportunities for modernization and consumption of advanced workloads for partners that did not have cloud presence before this initiative.
The Ottawa Hospital is a pioneer in the RSOC initiative and is paving the way for other organizations in Ontario to follow and replicate technology adoption, learnings, and best practices.
Provided on-going guidance for process development improvement and operations of RSOC. Also, provided agility, reliability, and bridged the gap between IT teams from different partners as VNEXT became an extension of Ottawa hospital IT team when it comes to Champlain tenant and related projects.
Enabled eight different healthcare organizations (Group Health Center, Cornwall Community Hospital, Pembroke Regional Hospital, St. Francis Memorial Hospital, Kemptville District Hospital, Deep River District Hospital, Renfrew Victoria Hospital and Ontario Clinical Imaging Network) to operate and collaborate under the common Champlain Microsoft Office 365 environment, introducing efficiency, modernization, and cost-saving opportunities.
Over 4,000+ users in the region, including clinical workers, were migrated to the shared tenant, and are currently collaborating under the same secured tenant as per guidelines provided by Ontario Health.
Over 1,500+ more users are in the process of being migrated and many more organizations in the region are in early stages of the process.
Opportunity to replicate the standard enablement and migration framework executed for the first eight organizations with other partners as they join the Champlain Cyber Defense Collaborative (CCDC) group led by The Ottawa Hospital.
Working with The Ottawa Hospital team has been incredibly rewarding. Together, we've achieved remarkable results while staying aligned with our mission to transform healthcare in Ontario and beyond. Becoming a trusted partner for The Ottawa Hospital is a testament to our commitment to supporting healthcare organizations in their mission to keep communities safe and healthy.
Ezekiel Calabia
Founder & CEO at VNEXT
VNEXT Group, an award-winning Canadian Microsoft Partner, has established a strong partnership with healthcare providers and hospitals throughout Ontario.
Our expertise in healthcare IT has garnered recognition and trust within the industry. We’ve played a pivotal role in guiding organizations like The Ottawa Hospital through secure, collaborative patient care transformations. Utilizing Microsoft technologies like Microsoft 365, Azure, Security and the Power Platform, we provide consulting and support services to enhance efficiency and foster innovation.
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