Humana Case Study "Buzz" Enables Humana Associates to Serve Customers Better Through Faster Access to Knowledge and Expertise
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Humana Case Study
“Buzz” Enables Humana Associates to Serve Customers Better
Through Faster Access to Knowledge and Expertise
© 2013 VMware, Inc. • Web: socialcast.com • Twitter: @socialcast“We chose Socialcast for its ability to integrate with other business systems through its Reach extensions, and
because of the robust privacy and security features that gave us the confidence our data would be protected.”
—— Jeff Ross, Community Manager for Enterprise Social Media, Humana
Business Challenge
AT A G L A N C E
Humana Inc. is a leading healthcare Humana delivers cutting edge health- The goal was to flatten the organiza-
Industry company offering a wide range of care products and services to millions tion and democratize information by
Healthcare insurance products and health and of customers. To be successful, making associate-to-associate
Corporate Headquarters wellness services. One of the Humana associates must be able to communication easier and a
Louisville, Kentucky country’s largest Medicare providers reach out to other associates to seamless extension to their daily flow
and a top health insurer, Humana collaborate, ask questions, or find of work. Humana wanted to ensure
Employees
38,260 provides Medicare Advantage plans needed expertise. In a decentralized, that collaborative capabilities were
and prescription drug coverage to diversified company of Humana’s size, directly accessible within various
Socialcast Users
more than 4.5 million members cross-company collaboration was enterprise application environ-
Over 22,500
throughout the US. It also adminis- becoming difficult, and information ments—not an additional “inbox”
Website ters managed care plans for other had become fragmented, trapped in to log in and out of each day.
www.humana.com government programs, including “silos of data” and hard to find.
Medicaid plans in Florida and Puerto
Rico and TRICARE (a program for
military personnel) in ten southern Socialcast democratizes
IN BRIEF states. Additionally, Humana offers information by making
commercial health plans and associate-to-associate
Business Challenge specialty (life, dental, and vision) communication seamless
To serve customers well, Humana associates coverage. All told, Humana covers
need fast access to information and subject
more than 11 million health plan
matter experts. Finding the right people and
information trapped in silos was becoming members in the United States. In 2009 the company’s Enterprise
increasingly difficult as the company grew. Innovation Team was tasked with
finding a way to improve communica-
Socialcast Solution
Socialcast has created an informal, internal tions between associates through a
forum where associates can exchange ideas more informal, internal forum—a place
and best practices, within a safe, regulatory- where everyone’s voice could be
compliant environment. heard, while keeping information and
Business Impact proprietary data safe. Any proposed
Over 22,500 employees use the Socialcast solution had to keep data secure to
community dubbed Buzz, with over 6,000 ensure Humana remained compliant
posts a week. Close to 80% of questions with the healthcare industry’s strin-
asked within Buzz are answered. By integrat-
ing social capabilities directly within other gent privacy requirements.
enterprise applications, communication and
collaboration are seamless.
H U MANA CUSTOM E R CASE STU DY / 2“Ironically, what SharePoint misses is the ability to have easily-discovered, interactive discussions
organized around groups and common interests, and that’s where Socialcast really shines”
—— Jeff Ross, Community Manager for Enterprise Social Media, Humana
Socialcast Solution Business Impact
Humana had been relying on Microsoft® Humana easily imported all their Since the launch of Buzz, Socialcast has which involve adding functionality to
SharePoint® as an internal communica- data from the pilot system into the been a hit among Humana’s associates. existing SharePoint sites. Humana has
tion platform; yet the team felt they Socialcast platform and launched their There are over 22,500 active users created team and topic oriented
needed a better way to collaborate community to the whole company in across all of Humana’s locations with integrations in SharePoint. “Ironically,
interdepartmentally and share data May, 2010. Jeff Ross commented, “At nearly 500,000 posts in Socialcast since what SharePoint misses is the ability
across multiple business systems. first we were nervous about importing Humana launched the community. More to have easily-discovered, interactive
Humana also needed to seamlessly all our data into Socialcast, but the than 6,000 posts are created each week. discussions organized around groups
bridge various silos of data that existed process was remarkably easy and most Currently, over 1,150 groups have been and common interests, and that’s where
across Humana’s large, extended importantly, Socialcast took extra steps created, and 80% of questions asked Socialcast really shines” notes Jeff Ross.
organization in order to help associates to ensure our data was kept secure within Buzz are answered.
work more efficiently. throughout the process.” Socialcast
was deployed as an on-premise 80% of questions asked within Buzz
“We initially tested another online Socialcast Reach extensions embed
solution with the appropriate security are answered
platform, one of the larger enterprise
measures to ensure Humana remained Buzz activity directly into
social networking solutions on the
in compliance with the healthcare SharePoint sites
market. After about a year, adoption by
industry’s data privacy regulations. Humana also quickly learned how to
our associates was good,” said Jeff
extend their social layer further using
Ross, Community Manager for
In addition to Socialcast being the best Socialcast’s robust APIs. For example,
Enterprise Social Media at Humana. Socialcast’s security capabilities out of box solution, for security purposes the Human Resources department
“The success of an initial pilot encour-
ensure that data is compliant with Humana elected to have their Socialcast developed several ways to harvest
aged us to go out and look for a more
healthcare industry regulations deployment on-premise to keep their discussion data from Buzz to encourage
robust solution that offered the option
data highly secure and to ensure that they participation and engagement among
to host our data on-premise for security
stayed in compliance with the health- associates in the community.
reasons. We embarked on a compre-
Humana refers to their Socialcast care industry’s security regulations.
hensive evaluation of enterprise social Nearly 20 different applications have
community as “Buzz” due to the hive of
networking tools including Jive, One of the reasons why Socialcast has been built to help Humana measure and
activity created by associates when
NewsGator, Socialtext—roughly eight or been so successful is because it is monitor associates’ engagement on Buzz,
Socialcast went live. “Our team looked
10 solutions. We chose Socialcast for its integrated into Humana’s other enter- and reward the associates who were using
at all the tools available in the Enterprise
ability to integrate with other business prise applications using Socialcast the social features correctly. These tools
Social Networking space. In terms of
systems using its Reach extensions, and Reach extensions. More than 100 Reach have helped Humana learn about what
cost, best-of-breed functionality and
because of the robust privacy and extensions have been implemented their associates respond to, and provide
features, as well as an on-premise
security features that gave us the confi- throughout the organization, most of insight to executive leadership on how to
option for security purposes, Socialcast
dence our data would be protected.” drive internal adoption of Buzz. (Cont.)
was the best option,” said Ross.
H U MANA CUSTOM E R CASE STU DY / 3“Socialcast’s growth and usefulness has surpassed everyone’s goals and expectations. Without
Socialcast, we’d have to revert to collaborating through emails and forwarded messages. I can’t
imagine going back to the way things used to be—we’d have a minor riot on our hands”
—— Jeff Ross, Community Manager for Enterprise Social Media, Humana
Business Impact Future Plans
(Cont.) In 2011, Humana set a business Moving forward, Humana wants to
goal of increasing productivity and cross-pollinate activity from Buzz with
knowledge sharing. With the help of external social media initiatives. Buzz
Socialcast, this goal was achieved. has done such a good job developing
By integrating enterprise social the social skills among associates that
networking capabilities directly within Humana is going to start taking their
other enterprise applications, communi- suggestions for the company Facebook
cation and collaboration is seamless— page content, YouTube videos, and
Socialcast is a platform that lets people Twitter posts. The goal is to encourage
‘work where they work’. “Socialcast’s associates to become part of the
growth and usefulness has surpassed external social media experience, solidi-
everyone’s goals and expectations. fying Humana’s position as a thought
Without Socialcast, we’d have to revert leader and innovator in the industry.
to collaborating through emails and
forwarded messages. I can’t imagine
going back to the way things used to
be—we’d have a minor riot on our
hands,” continued Ross.
H U MANA CUSTOM E R CASE STU DY / 4VMware, Inc. 3401 Hillview Avenue Palo Alto CA 94304 USA Tel 877-486-9273 Fax 650-427-5001 www.vmware.com Copyright © 2013 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. This product is protected by U.S. and international copyright and intellectual property laws. VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed at http://www.vmware.com/go/patents. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. Item No: Socialcast-CaseStudy-Humana-2013_10_22
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