Healthcare IT Consulting Case Study: Managed IT for Senior Living
Derive Technologies, NJ healthcare IT consulting firm, modernized Applewood’s infrastructure, driving 40% efficiency gains and 25% projected revenue growth.
Overview
Applewood Estate in Freehold, NJ runs a 40-acre continuing care campus with over 400 residents. When a capital improvement project kicked off in 2018, their infrastructure couldn't keep up. The systems were legacy. The environment ran 24/7. And any downtime touched residents directly.
Applewood needed a healthcare IT consulting firm that had worked inside senior living facilities before. Derive Technologies was uniquely qualified because of its deep institutional knowledge in the healthcare vertical and its specialized staging facility, allowing the multi-vendor upgrade to be fully tested and deployed without causing a single disruption to resident-facing services.
Derive Technologies designed and deployed a Cisco Unified Communications platform that consolidated the whole campus onto one managed architecture. That resulted in:
• Management overhead dropped 40%.
• Memory care now has the capacity to grow by 25%.
• No residents experienced a disruption during the switchover.
Entity Overview
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Client
Applewood Estate, continuing care retirement community in Freehold, NJ (400+ residents, 40-acre campus)
Industry
Healthcare / Senior Living
Core Challenge
Legacy infrastructure unable to support campus expansion; zero tolerance for resident-facing downtime
Primary Solution
Cisco Unified Communications platform with Meraki wireless, delivered as part of managed IT services
Service Provider
Derive Technologies — MBE-Certified healthcare IT consulting firm
How Derive Ran the Project
1. Cisco Unified Communications Platform
Telephony, network access, and data distribution merged into one managed platform. Three separate legacy systems consolidated into one.
2. Meraki Wireless and WAN
Meraki provided consistent wireless coverage to every building on campus, including memory care. By building in backup systems throughout the network, the campus-wide connection was protected against total failure.
3. Centralized Management Dashboard
Applewood's infrastructure team can now see the full campus from one dashboard on any device. No more logging into separate systems to check separate things.
4. Pre-Deployment Staging in Manhattan
Derive configured and tested the full stack at their 5,000-square-footManhattan staging facility before anything went live on campus. The switchover happened against a spec that was already proven.
What the Numbers Showed After Deployment
• 40% less time managing infrastructure: one dashboard replaced multiple disconnected systems
• Data mirrors in redundant systems around the clock, no maintenance windows required
• Phones, access cards, and tablets run on the unified Cisco platform with backup power
• Memory care has room to expand, with a projected 25% revenue growth using the new capacity
Before vs. After: Applewood Infrastructure Transformation
Before Deployment
- Multiple disconnected legacy systems
- Limited redundancy and backup resilience
- Separate telephony, access, and data platforms
- Inconsistent Wi-Fi coverage
- Infrastructure limiting future growth
- Limited mobile access for care staff
After Deployment
- Centralized dashboard reduces management overhead by 40%
- Continuous redundancy across systems
- Unified Cisco platform integration
- Secure Meraki Wi-Fi across campus
- Infrastructure scaled for 25% growth
- Improved mobility and care coordination for staff
Continued care communities who are evaluating a healthcare IT consulting firm often underestimate how different care environments are from standard commercial projects.
In a care setting with 400 residents, infrastructure problems can affect clinical workflow, communications, and safety systems. Applewood's internal IT team had neither the bandwidth nor the experience to manage a multi-vendor upgrade while keeping services running.
They needed a partner who'd done this inside a facility like theirs, with the staging discipline to test everything before anything went live on campus.
Learn more about Derive's managed IT services for healthcare at derivetech.com/healthcare
About Derive Technologies
Derive Technologies is a healthcare IT consulting firm based in Manhattan. They provide managed IT services to hospital systems, senior living communities, and clinical networks across the Tri-State area. MBE-certified and ISO 9001:2015-certified, Derive maintains a dedicated staging and configuration center in Lower Manhattan for pre-deployment testing in environments where live testing isn't an option.
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From streamlined IT operations to enhanced security, these success stories reflect the trust businesses place in Derive Technologies — and the results we deliver every day.
"When my company suffered a ransomware attack on Dec. 23, 2023, I immediately reached out to Derive for assistance. With their round-the-clock remote and on-site assistance throughout the holidays, my company was back to normal IT operations only five days later. I continue to rely upon their expert and responsive IT services to this day."
"IT Initiatives has had a highly positive experience collaborating with Derive Technologies on the Fellowship LIFE project. Your team has successfully implemented our envisioned next-generation network infrastructure, utilized to provide exceptional care and services for our clients’ residents while meeting operational needs and objectives."
“Derive worked with our IT staff, suppliers, and technology partners to optimize a unified solution in far less time and with less expense than we imagined. As trusted partners, they
went above and beyond to secure our systems and ensure our goals were met or exceeded.”
“Our IT infrastructure was on the verge of obsolescence… until Derive Technologies helped us remediate that situation. Collaborating on
an IT roadmap highlighted their insight and ability to modernize our IT environment. Now our systems are faster and ready for future enhancements — and most important, patient data is safer than ever.”
“The HPE SimpliVity solution was precisely what we needed at this point in our company’s evolution. Having the ability to tap into the advantages of cloud computing while adding even greater data security and DR/BU capabilities was something we did not think was possible. But with HPE SimpliVity and the Derive Technologies’ team, it quickly became our new reality.”
“Derive has stepped up to the plate. They understand what healthcare is about. It’s not selling me a server; it’s selling me a service that helps me take care of my patients at the end of the day.”
“The solution far exceeded our expectations in terms of both short-term and long-term business value. Our infrastructure is now the foundation for us to deliver on our commitment to our customers: Get it right the first time, every time.”
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