To boost return on investment as it upgraded to Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007, Independence Blue Cross created a five-person Center of Excellence that provides best practices, accelerates deployment, and manages site growth. The COE is helping the company to make full and effective use of enterprise search, to reduce costs and boost efficiency by moving off Lotus Notes, and to increase its security for collaboration sites.

Upgrading a software system shouldn’t put an enterprise at risk. But, too often, it does. The Upper Chesapeake Health System (UCHS) wanted to reduce the risk associated with upgrading its mission-critical hospital information system (HIS)—a major undertaking for UCHS. To help ensure success, UCHS turned to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and RJB Technical Consulting, a member of the Microsoft Partner Network, to build a portal with which to manage the projects supporting the upgrade. The results: The HIS deployment will be tracked and managed more effectively than otherwise possible, with UCHS expanding HIS functionality by 50 percent over initial plans. Executives are making better and faster decisions about the upgrade. Team members can support the project online or offline, within UCHS facilities or elsewhere. As a bonus, project management costs are as much as 80 percent lower.