Premera Blue Cross Cures audit requirements with Serena
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Premera Blue Cross implemented Serena Dimensions to address increasingly stringent audit requirements and improve their change management processes. Serena Dimensions standardized Premera's change management policies, provided visibility into their software development lifecycle, and automated processes, reducing costs. This enabled Premera to easily meet audit requirements and devote fewer resources to change management administration. Serena Dimensions also aligned IT initiatives more closely with business objectives by linking business and development processes.
Premera Blue Cross Cures audit requirements with Serena
- 1. Serena Success Story Premera Blue Cross Cures audit requirements with serena Leading healthcare provider reduces risk and cuts costs with Serena Dimensions “With Serena Dimensions, we are lowering costs and reducing risk, which supports the Premera Blue Cross top line objectives of the company.” — Gary Soule, manager of IT application lifecycle management, Premera Blue Cross Mountlake Terrace, Washington premera.com Premera Blue Cross is a non-profit, independent regional health plan Industry Healthcare providing members, employers, providers, and brokers with high Product quality healthcare coverage and service. Operating as Premera Blue Serena Dimensions ® ™ Cross in Washington state and Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield in Alaska, Application the company employs over 3,000 people and serves more than one Configuration management million members. In recent years, Premera’s IT department has been faced with increasingly stringent audit requirements, rapid company growth, and non-standardized, inefficient change management policies and processes. With Serena Dimensions, Premera has reduced risk and can now easily meet audit requirements. The company has also signifi- cantly reduced costs via process automation and standardization. Premera has new visibility into the software configuration manage- ment lifecycle—ensuring high quality, on-time, on budget projects. Premera is one of 30 Blue Cross companies across the U.S. that uses Serena Change Governance™ solutions. serena.com
- 2. Challenge Solution Results • Increasingly stringent government audit • Serena Dimensions selected for its ability • Reduced costs via process automation requirements to link business owner and developer and standardization • Non-standardized IT change management processes as well as work activities • New visibility into entire software policies and processes through one system configuration management process • Company migration from multiple legacy • Ability to easily and quickly meet audit systems to Windows-based system requirements with no extra resources • Rapid company growth adds complexity • IT initiatives aligned with business objectives “Our IT department will devote even fewer resources to administering Dimensions 10 due to improved, automated security features.”—Garth Frazer, senior technical analyst, Premera Blue Cross Challenge time-intensive process of gathering and With the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 sharing of information among developers and its implications, Premera has become and business owners to get work done. highly regulated by state and federal Premera has also grown its customer base government entities. Auditors regularly “exponentially” in recent years, which has conduct SAS 70 audits, a widely recognized placed new pressures on IT. The company audit for service organizations that focuses has added thousands of members from on IT controls and safeguards for companies Alaska and Arizona—and taken on self- that host or process customer data. “As insured giants Microsoft and Weyerhaeuser regulatory requirements have changed, our —all within the past two years. “We used IT department has been forced to change to be a regional provider but are now a systems and processes to ensure we have national company,” says Soule. Along with everything we need to comply with govern- rapid growth, the company has embraced ment standards,” says Gary Soule, manager new technology and systems. IT has been of IT application lifecycle management at tasked with moving legacy (mainframe) Premera. Without standardized change membership and claims processing applica- management policies or automated tions to a Windows-based application, one processes in place, the IT department has that requires extensive customizations. faced the challenge of limited visibility into the status of IT projects, and a cumbersome, serena.com
- 3. Solution a tremendous amount of administrative Once Premera determined it needed a work. With a central repository for configuration management solution, the configuration management, work gets company embarked on a rigorous selection funneled through one system with process. “We hired a consultant to help us consistent processes. We have excellent evaluate vendors,” explains Soule. “We visibility, control, and traceability.” Since chose Serena Dimensions because there Dimensions links the work of business was a built-in integration between strategic owners and developers, Premera has business requirements and tactical changes become more strategic in its IT initiatives. —a unified solution for our business “Business owners are now driving IT owners and developers.” Serena Dimensions priorities, as opposed to the other way has helped establish a cohesive process for around,” says Soule. “Our IT initiatives are employees working in both groups—and better aligned with the strategic needs of maximum visibility for effectively managing the company.” With data provided from change control from inception to completion. Dimensions, Premera can also satisfy SAS 70 and other audit reviews—with relative Premera plans to upgrade to Serena’s ease. “Audits can be time-intensive and most recent version, Serena Dimensions nerve-wracking for everybody,” says Garth 10, a process-centric Change Governance™ Frazer, senior technical analyst for Premera. solution for application lifecycle manage- “With no additional resources, we’ve been ment. “Serena has delivered a very robust able to access data quickly and easily to solution in Dimensions 10 and we look meet audit requirements. It’s given our forward to upgrading,” says Soule. “With a executive team great confidence that IT is user-friendly interface, dashboard capabili- meeting regulatory requirements—and ties, IDE integration, project views, and can consistently prove it.” other great features, Serena will continue to provide real value to Premera by further Premera looks forward to taking advantage mitigating risk, providing excellent of new features and offerings delivered in traceability, and streamlining software Serena Dimensions 10. “Our IT department configuration management.” will devote even fewer resources to admin- istering Dimensions 10 due to improved, Results automated security features,” says Frazer. Serena Dimensions is delivering business “We’ll have the ability to further define value to Premera. “With Dimensions, we roles for groups such as testers, developers are lowering costs and reducing risk, which and implementers. We’ll be able to track supports the top line objectives of the and strictly enforce processes and activities company,” says Soule. “Dimensions has for each role. The automated security streamlined the way work gets done. features will lower our total cost of owner- We’ve reduced e-mails, phone calls, and ship and further streamline the audit sending Word documents back and forth process.” between business owners and IT, eliminating serena.com
- 4. serena.com ABOUT SERENA Serena Software, the Change Governance™ leader, helps more than 15,000 organizations around the world—including 96 of the Fortune 100 and 90 of the Global 100—turn change into a business advantage. Serena is headquartered in San Mateo, California, and has offices throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific. CONTACT Learn more about the enterprise-wide power of Serena solutions by visiting www.serena.com or contacting one of our sales representatives in your area. Serena Worldwide Headquarters Serena European Headquarters Serena Asia Pacific Headquarters Serena Software, Inc. Serena Software Europe Ltd. 360 Orchard Road Corporate Offices Abbey View Everard Close #12-10 2755 Campus Drive St. Albans International Building Third Floor Hertfordshire AL1 2PS Singapore 238869 San Mateo, California 94403-2538 United Kingdom United States 800.457.3736 T +44 (0)800.328.0243 T +65 6834.9880 T 650.522.6699 F +44 (0)1727.869.804 F +65 6836.3119 F [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Copyright © 2006 Serena Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Serena, TeamTrack, ChangeMan, PVCS, StarTool, Collage and Comparex are registered trademarks of Serena Software. Change Governance, Command Center, Dimensions, Mover and Composer are trademarks of Serena Software, Inc. All other product or company names are used for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of their respective owners. 12.06