Key Issues
John Halamka is an essential contributor to CareGroup's success. His leadership in transitioning the company to a medical ERP system has drawn worldwide attention. However, John's inexperience with designing and maintaining large network systems contributed to the problems of November 13. Principally, CareGroup's core network contained too many switches. Due to the merger of several hospitals, involving several stand-alone networks, this oversight is understandable. However, the overuse of switches at several principle junctures resulted in Spanning Tree Protocol loops. This defect was made apparent with the failure of CareGroup's central network switch. …show more content…
CareGroup's IT operating expenses and IT capital expenditures are significantly lower than other similar hospitals in the industry. While this has been a source of admiration at CareGroup, it also calls attention to the fact that the company has not given the proper attention to maintaining its network hardware. In a similar vein, CareGroup also relied on one person to maintain its network. Was this an effort to further reduce the IT budget or was it a simple organizational