Plan B Technologies: Because Every Successful Business Has One.
Healthcare executives face a myriad of challenges when dealing with IT. From security and networking, data storage, mobility, and compliance, the challenges are real. My advice? Find an organization who is an advocate for YOU. Someone who listens and supports you, and isn’t a puppet for large manufacturers with only the bottom line in mind.
1. Mr. Downs, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with us. DistilNFO appreciates it. To start with, tell us a little bit about yourself, your journey to becoming the CEO of Plan B Technologies. Also, tell us about Plan B Technologies and the most exciting thing happening there. |
Mr. DOWNS: My journey within the world of technology started at AT&T in 1989. It was never my desire to sell telephone systems; it was my desire to work at a progressive company that paid for graduate and post graduate status (thank you AT&T for my graduate degree). The time at AT&T exposed me to the speed of technology, and the race to remain relevant to a wide range of client needs. Upon graduation, I looked for a new opportunity which led me to VSI in 1996. There we were very focused on the new solutions around secure remote access and virtualization and had partnerships with Microsoft and Citrix. The value that we were demonstrating to the market allowed us to grow VSI in 36 months from 17 employees to 250, from one location to three. VSI was purchased in 1999 by FutureLink to focus on the undeveloped ASP market. I resigned in 2001 and started Plan B Technologies, Inc. 15 years later, it’s still an exciting life. The most exciting thing happening at Plan B Technologies remains being a customer advocate and liaison, solution builder to the markets we serve, most notably healthcare. I get excited about new product development for on-prem, off-prem, or hybrid solutions, SAAS offerings, managed services and cloud solutions from AWS. |
2. In the past few years, there has been an unprecedented increase in hacking, ransomware and data breaches in the Healthcare Industry. What is your advice to the executives of Healthcare companies? What steps should they take to keep their organization secure? |
MR. DOWNS: Security is one of the top challenges healthcare executives need to take into account as they prepare for 2017 and beyond. My advice to healthcare companies and executives is to pay attention to best practice fundamentals and secure an IT partner that has a wide breadth of healthcare experience and understands your business objectives in this tumultuous environment that we operate today. Not only are there malicious individuals on the web, there’s an influx of state sponsored cyber crime as well. The best option is partnering with a company that can look at your security posture from all layers of the data center to include clinical operations that touch the very important segment of patient care. |
3. Every healthcare organization works with a multitude of partners and products, what are the best practices to have seamless quality of service around a multitude of clinical software partners? | |
MR. DOWNS: The word that I would use to create awareness for medical IT organizations is very simple: discipline. Discipline comes from having a sound strategy and associated tactics with a paramount goal of maintaining overall IT optimization and a multi-layered security approach to core data center operations. You have to remember that you are a client to many of your clinical software partners. THEY DO NOT SET POLICY IN YOUR DATA CENTER, YOU DO. I take great pride that our organization is known to be a free-thinking customer advocate. We service, support, and listen to our clients that we have the privilege of serving. |
4. The Daily Record named you as one of the most admired CEOs. What makes Plan B Technologies different? |
MR. DOWNS: Plan B Technologies has been described to me, from analysts I trust, as a unique IT systems integrator. We have a multidimensional and multi-tactical approach when looking at any IT project. For example, when we engage with a medical provider with a storage concern, our engineers look at all things surrounding storage, and potential impacts. Our practice areas, by design, cross-train often. It is a core discipline within our practice leaders, which include storage, security and networking, Microsoft, virtualization and project management. We also hold the highest certifications with our manufacturing partners, and I’ve served as a consultant in product and solution designs for ways to better serve our mutual customers and prospects. In addition, we take a holistic approach to building the right solution. We train our staff to LISTEN to our clients – which is paramount in designing custom solutions. We listen, we don’t just come in and sell products. |
5. There is a talent crunch in the Healthcare IT Industry, how do you as CEO build winning teams? What can the industry learn from your experience? |
MR. DOWNS: First and foremost, at Plan B Technologies we hire for character first, not necessarily skill sets. I could teach people skills to be competent, I cannot teach a skilled person how to have integrity and character. Hence, our best people are people we selected during our interview process which extracts character and characteristics of integrity in addition to experience and skill. Once identified as a candidate, and after going through our engineering selection and training, applicable and specific hard skills (IT training) is executed. What comes out, is an IT professional with experience, soft skills for customer satisfaction, all wrapped around a personality of character, integrity and humility. |
6. Any closing thoughts you would like to share with our readers? |
MR. DOWNS: You have the opportunity to pick your partners carefully. Make certain they have the experience and knowledge to truly be a trusted advisor or partner in this dynamic, macro economy and highly volatile Geopolitical environment in which we operate. A partner should have YOU at the center of every single decision they make, and ultimately are an advocate for YOU and your operation when dealing with a multitude of IT providers and clinical consultants. Their advocacy should always manifest into the realization of your core mission and ultimately positively affect patient care and patient satisfaction results. |
Source: Plan B