CANADA
The art of growth Part of what helped GE Healthcare grow into its current status as an industry giant is acquisitions , meaning a lot of systems have been cleaned up to create consistency . That , combined with the streamlining of GE ’ s own data systems , meant a concerted drive towards consolidation .
“ The whole idea here is that some IT energies are good , some are bad ,” Koontz says . “ We ’ ve consolidated hundreds of vendors down to four primary ones , and we ’ re standardizing our processes into something horizontal .”
The good and bad IT energies Koontz mentions can be found across the entirety of the digital landscape , reaching far beyond GE ’ s own in-house technology . In Zimmerman ’ s words , “ technology in and of itself is a very powerful and dangerous intoxicant .”
“ I think the challenge we have
“ When you have a consistent data set across the organization , you have a common source of truth ”
– James Richards , CIO , GE Healthcare
regarding how important technology is and how increasingly pervasive it is , is the intelligent harnessing and application of it to make a difference ,” he continues . “ To embrace quality , efficiency , and the ability to be rewarded for the work that you do .”
An example of good IT that GE Healthcare has firmly embraced is cloud computing . Since part of the company ’ s digital consolidation was the funneling of huge volumes of information into taut , legible streams , an effective data storage system was key , and cloud technology met that need .
“ Three years ago , if you went to a CIO in a hospital and said , “ What about cloud ?”, they would have been hesitant ,” Koontz says . “ Now , with the
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