Healthcare Analytics Company Secures Laptops Despite a Global Shortage

Business Environment Challenges

The pandemic brewed a perfect storm of worldwide supply chain issues and computer chip shortages. Laptops were scarce yet a hot commodity. At that time, a prominent healthcare analytics company had pivoted to a full-on remote work environment and acquired a new company. With more than 5,000 employees working from home and onboarding new employees, it was in dire need of powerful laptops. A significant order had been placed with its legacy laptop vendor, but it was backordered for months with no ETA in sight. The company also wanted to increase laptop reliability to minimize disruptions in productivity.

Technology Solutions

Amid its daunting search for laptops, Sharp touched base to share news of product availability. Sharp has served as the company’s technology partner for over a decade, but it had never provided laptops. Inventory sounded promising but the internal IT professionals needed to vet Dynabook laptops first. They dismantled four Dynabook laptops to evaluate each component and leaned on the Sharp support team to address questions. Reliability was especially important, so when comparing devices from multiple laptop manufacturers, Dynabook soared to the top with its less than a 1% average monthly field failure rate.

“Most off-the-shelf models don’t cut it. Because we handle sensitive client data, mostly in healthcare, we are bound by HIPAA and CMS regulations. Dynabook laptops met our security, performance and ease of use requirements,” said the company’s Desk Side Manager.

He added, “Our laptops must have several layers of security, so it’s nice that Dynabook programs its own BIOS—something most manufacturers don’t do—and has a special interface layer to keep it isolated. We had our laptops specifically configured to ensure optimal performance on the software we run, especially for our inhouse developers who require higher spec laptops.”

Dynabook ultimately got the green light and employees had laptops in their hands shortly thereafter. To date, the healthcare analytics company has purchased a mix of 5,000 Dynabook Protégé and Tecra laptops with SystemGuard® accidental damage insurance, 2,000 Dynabook Thunderbolt II docking stations and 1,500 Sharp NEC 22” desktop monitors. Sharp is also configuring work-from-home technology kits that will include a laptop, monitor and additional accessories.

Proven Results

In a time of uncertainty, Sharp kept its promise and expeditiously delivered the company’s first batch of custom-built Dynabook laptops. What’s more, the laptop performance has lived up to its low failure rate, leaving end users highly satisfied with the product. However, the cherry on top has been the relationship established between the company and the Sharp team.

“We came back for more. The laptops are fantastic and reliable, but to be honest it was the people aspect for me. The service and support from the Sharp team has been spectacular and the turnaround times were unbeatable at a time when it seemed impossible,” said the Desk Side Manager. “Having a single point of contact saves me a bunch of time trying figuring out who to call. Communication with our Sharp representative is easy and she’s gone to bat for us numerous times—something I don’t typically experience with vendors. We don’t have to jump through hoops for orders, tickets, or troubleshooting. I can just get things done.”

Moreover, as the company continues to experience growth and welcome more employees, the availability of work-from-home technology kits will serve as an added convenience to help streamline the onboarding process.