In the mid-1990s, the physical therapy climate was saturated with large corporations and managed care organizations. Opening a private practice at the time was almost unheard of. Despite the challenges, M. Shannon O’Kelley, MPT, was convinced that the combination of high-quality care and conveniently-located clinics would offer patients an amazing alternative. After several years in a partnership overseeing another group of physical therapy clinics, Shannon met with a colleague and founded Integrated Rehabilitation Group (IRG) on a napkin over gin and tonics.
Success didn’t come easy at first. However, with an unwavering commitment to high-quality patient care; convenient hours and locations; and contagious, upbeat, and positive energy, word of IRG started to spread. As of 2022, IRG is comprised of over 38 clinic locations and 350 employees. They provide a multitude of service offerings that put them at the forefront of outpatient rehabilitation in the Pacific Northwest.
In late 2020, Integrated Rehabilitation Group had two IT staff supporting their infrastructure, network, and over 350 end users. Due to external circumstances their IT Director needed to take an extended absence of leave which left their organization in a peculiar position. The IT Manager that was on staff was fantastic, however, having one person to support an organization for their size would be impossible.
Additionally, IRG could not replace the IT Directors position, however, they needed to continue with infrastructure maintenance, end user support, and network optimization. As they began their search for a solution, Janet, IRG’s COO, had a conversation with their insurance broker which is where the connection with ISOutsource was made. Janet was not looking for a “cookie cutter solution” as she stated, IRG needed an IT partner that could be flexible and sensitive to the situation with their IT Director. After doing her research and interviewing many Managed Service Providers, she decided to partner with ISOutsource. We stepped in and immediately partnered with their internal IT Manager and got to work supporting IRG to ensure their IT continued to run seamlessly.
After finalizing the partnership with ISOutsource, it became apparent that the IT Director would unfortunately not be returning to the role. As the work built up for the one IT Engineer in place, he became overwhelmed and burned out from all the additional responsibilities. There was risk that he may leave and that provided a single point of failure risk to IRG. At that moment Janet knew that her one internal IT teammate could not support all 350 employees spread across 38 locations and growing. Janet tapped ISOutsource to partner with their IT Engineer and that was the beginning of a transformation. The transformation started with shifting Tier 1 end user support from internal to ISOutsource, this immediately relieved a level of stress for their IT Engineer. Additionally, ISOutsource provided coaching and guidance to their IT Engineer to help him grow his own skillsets, which in return made him more engaged and ensured Janet that he was no longer feeling burnt out.
The Result
Once the day-to-day operations were under control and trust was built, Janet then tapped ISOutsource for senior IT leadership. She partnered with a vCIO and begin to create a vision for IT that aligned with IRG’s business strategies. Janet said, “Once I started working with Doug, our vCIO, we were able to develop an IT roadmap that aligned with our business needs.”
One of the big decisions IRG made was to begin transitioning to the cloud. IRG started with moving their phone system from a server-based solution to the cloud. Next the IT Manager partnered with many different Engineers from ISOutsource to help migrate their entire infrastructure to the cloud. Janet said, “By partnering with ISOutsource, our IT Manager and I get to have an entire IT team that can do anything without having to pay for an entire team!” Other projects followed such as overhauling IRG’s SharePoint site and migration to Microsoft 365, tapping the experts who completed the projects and taught the IT Manager along the way. Janet said, “Our IT Manager is more successful because of his relationship with ISOutsource.”
The Future
Each week IRG’s IT Manager and the ISOutsource team meet and review the current state, and track along the roadmap to ensure that IRG’s IT infrastructure is evolving. The weekly meetings, coaching sessions, and genuine care for each other leaves the IT Manager feeling delighted and un-threatened by all his partners at ISOutsource. IRG plans to continue their partnership with ISOutsource for years to come.