Consultant News · healthcare IT project in Denmark. The price tag on this historic proj - ect is DKK 2.8 billion (EUR 0,375 billion), and the objective is to standardize treatment

THE MAGAZINE FOR EXPERT BUSINESS AND IT CONSULTANTS. No. 43 / 2016

“It's a brilliant system” Interview with Tom Q. Jørgensen, program manager of the healthcare platform for Zealand Region.

Consultant News

2 ConsultantNews 43 2016

6 great pieces of advice on taking the

plunge as a freelancer

The healthcare platform will replace 30 systems and standardize treatment on the island of Zealand. Interview with Tom Q. Jørgensen, program manager. Page 4

A gigantic task Henning Trier, head of IT develop-

ment, Region Zealand. Page 8

“Relationships are key” Morten Fenger, project manager,

the healthcare platform. Page 16

100+ million kroner worth of technology

Tore Fribert, subprogram manager, the healthcare platform. Page 18

Goodbye to old habitsSøren Truelsen, subprogram

manager, implementation, the healthcare platform. Page 12

The transition from employee to freelancer is a big deci-sion. Here is some good advice on taking the first steps as an independent freelance consultant. Claus Schack,

sourcing manager at ProData Consult. Page 20

"It's a brilliant system"

3ConsultantNews 43 2016

ConsultantNews 43 2016

The magazine for business and IT consultants

ISSR no. 1604-878

Legally responsible editor Søren Rode

Editor Tina Lee [email protected]

Graphics and design Tina Lee

Journalists Tina Lee Lærke C. Lindegård

Photos Christian B / Yellows Rune / Yellows Publisher ProData Consult A/S Limited edition

Main offices ProData Consult Copenhagen Stamholmen 157 DK-2650 Hvidovre

ProData Consult GmbH Karlsplatz 5 80335 Munich Germany

ProData Consult Netherlands Avelingen-West 1 4202 MS Gorinchem Netherlands

ProData Consult Norge Ole Deviks vei 4 0666 Oslo Norway

ProData Consult Poland ul. Domaniewska 39a wejście B 02-672 Warszawa Poland

ProData Consult Stockholm Vretenvägen 6 171 54 Solna Sweden

Tel: +45 43 43 11 71 [email protected] www.prodataconsult.com www.it-consultant.com

We have a growing portfolio of substantial, interesting and challenging projects for our clients.

One of these projects, the theme of this issue of ConsultantNews, is the healthcare platform, the largest healthcare IT project in Denmark. The price tag on this historic proj-ect is DKK 2.8 billion (EUR 0,375 billion), and the objective is to standardize treatment of patients in the Capital Region of Denmark and Region Zealand. When the new system is up and running, it will be a tool for 44,000 employ-ees in the healthcare sector, and it will improve the treatment of 2.5 million citizens.

ProData Consult has had many different consultants working on the project during its lifetime, and right now four of our consultants are involved in the project, as

program manager, subprogram manager and project managers at Region Zealand. We’ve spoken to them about their experiences with this huge IT project, and we’ve also chatted with IT Development Manager Henning Trier, who is in command of the healthcare plat-form at Region Zealand. He tells us about the challenges he has faced in getting his own people up to speed, and that there’s one pitfall he thinks all too many consultants fall into. But you can read more about this in the article on page 8.

This issue of ConsultantNews will be the last in PDF format, because we’re putting the finishing touches on an update of it-consultant.com, where all articles will be published as soon as they’re finished from now on. The new, improved website will also offer many new features, including a job filter which

will make it easier to find precisely the jobs which match you. The new and improved consultant website will go live in late October.

After a relatively quiet summer, we’re wonderfully busy again: We’re sending more business and IT consultants to our clients than ever before. With over 250 different ProData end clients in six different countries who need a wide variety of skills in all areas of technology, we are probably one of the best consultancies to be affiliated with, if you’re looking for exciting and challenging projects.

Everything indicates that the positive trends in the consulting business will continue.

Søren Rode CEO

Denmark's biggest healthcare IT project


50,000 descriptions of how to treat every-thing from broken bones to blood clots have been boiled down to just 12,000 in the Capi-tal Region of Denmark and Zealand Region. Using the same guidelines, the same journal and the same system means that it will be easier to move staff between hospitals and regions and optimize processes further over time. Even though the healthcare platform is the most expen-sive IT system in Denmark, the people behind it are calculating that thanks to its many advantages, costs will be recouped by around 2022. “It’s a brilliant system, and we should have started on it years ago. I only hope that it will become such a big success that it’ll be implemented all over Denmark. Denmark is so small that it would make good sense to have the same system,” says Tom Q. Jør-gensen, the program manager of the health-care platform for Zealand Region. In addition to replacing 30 large systems,

the healthcare platform will also eliminate hundreds of smaller systems. As a conse-quence, the cost of running the hospitals in the Capital Region of Denmark and Region Zealand will fall dramatically. Workflows will

be simpler, because it won’t be necessary to integrate with so many systems, which will improve patient safety. The system integrates sev-eral hundred medical systems - the blood bank, operating theatres, and so on - in a single system,

which significantly reduces the risk of los-ing data or getting patient data mixed up. What’s more, data is available immediately. STAFF LOAN AGREEMENTS ENSURE KNOWLEDGE But before these benefits can be realized, the healthcare platform needs to be rolled out in Region Zealand. This should proceed more painlessly than the trailblazing process in the Capital Region of Denmark, which lacked experience to draw on when the roll-out started. According to Jørgensen, Region

“IT'S A BRILLIANT SYSTEM”THE HEALTHCARE PLATFORM, DENMARK’S LARGEST IT PROJECT IN THE HEALTHCARE SECTOR, WILL REPLACE 30 SYSTEMS AND STANDARDIZE TREATMENT ON THE ISLAND OF ZEALAND. A BRILLIANT PROJECT, SAYS REGION ZEALAND’S PROGRAM MANAGER.

Interview with Tom Q. Jørgensen, program manager through ProData Consult

________________________________________

"I only hope that it will become such a big success that it’ll be implemented all over Denmark.

Denmark is so small that it would make good sense to have the

same system."

Tom Q. Jørgensen, program manager


Zealand is well-organized and efficient, and the goal is for the rollout of the healthcare platform to proceed in the most uniform pos-sible way at all hospitals despite taking place over such a large geographical area. To ensure this, regional implementation groups with their own implementation coordinators have been formed. Each implementation coordinator is responsible for relaying stan-dardized communication, training, readiness and technique to the individual hospitals. Within the healthcare platform, the region’s hospitals will function as a single hospital with many subunits. “Staff loan agreements have been made to enable Region Zealand to loan personnel to the Capital Region of Denmark, so that they can learn from the process and return to Region Zealand with important knowledge which they can contribute to the rollout,” explains Jørgensen. A large training program is being run paral-lel with the loan agreements. Jørgensen’s team will send about 20,000 people on courses in 2017 to ensure that everyone is fully prepared to work with the new system. Because this part of the project has a high priority, participation in the courses will be monitored closely. A WELL-PREPARED ROLLOUT The major challenge will be handling patients during the implementation of the system. There will be a preliminary period of 14 days during which the hospitals will be on high alert, followed by a period of 4-6 weeks on extremely high alert. The actual conversion

and startup will only take two days, during which the hospitals will be on high alert. Unlike the implementation at Herlev and Gentofte Hospital, the system is already up and running. The server complex and opera-tions have already been set up, and Region Zealand is already designing the servers, which are expected to be in place during the first quarter of 2017. The existing hardware at the individual departments has also been inventoried, and any necessary equipment will be purchased in February - May 2017.

Finally, Jørgensen’s team will perform a tech-nical dress rehearsal to ensure that all clinical personnel are able to log in at every single department in the region. LEADER AND LOBBYIST It was no accident that Jørgensen was selected as program manager for Region Zealand’s part of the project. Highly skilled project managers were high on the region’s wish list for external resources, and this description fits Jørgensen. In addition, he also has many years of experience both as a client and supplier to the public sector, for example from The Interior Ministry and the Danish National Police. This gives him the authority to keep a tight rein on a very large, complex project with many stakeholders and a hardcore business technology aspect. And lots of politics. “It takes a lot of lobbying and working to influence particular areas. Progress is mea-sured differently here than elsewhere. There’s a lot of focus on making sure the political system is oriented about what’s happening. I have to demonstrate that I get a lot of deci-sions implemented. Instead of simply allo-cating budgets, I have to demonstrate that I’m spending the money as planned. There are a lot of stakeholders with different opin-ions, so it’s incredibly educational,” explains Jørgensen, who has a Bachelor’s degree in psychology. He continues: “Textbooks are one thing, but seeing

people’s reactions in high-pressure situations is something else entirely. Their backgrounds play into their work, and it’s important to take this into account so that everyone gets a sense of being involved in an exciting proj-ect. If you do that, they’ll go the extra mile to reach the goal - and making that happen is a fantastic feeling.”

____________________________________

"It takes a lot of lobbying and working to influence particular areas. Progress is measured differently here than elsewhere. There’s a lot of focus on making sure the political system is oriented about what’s happening."

Tom Q. Jørgensen, program manager

Name: Tom Q. Jørgensen Age: 56 Education: MSc in Engineering, diploma degree in business administration, degree in project management from Minneapolis/St. Paul University. BSc in psychology with a focus on management Title: Program Manager, Region Sjælland

Who’s Who

• The healthcare platform is a EUR 0,375 billion IT system which will replace 30 major IT systems and hundreds of smaller systems. Approx. 44,000 hospital employees and approx 2.5 million citizens will make use of the new healthcare system

• The healthcare system will be implemented at all hospitals in the Capital Region of Denmark and Region Zealand by 2018

• In May 2016, the system was implemented at the first hospital, Herlev and Gentofte Hospital

Facts about the healthcare platform


Most likely the company with the best

freelance jobs

For business and IT consultants

Prodata Consult is the largest provider of projects for independent business and IT consultants, and we offer a wide range of projects from a wide range of clients. In 2015, we provided projects to over 900 consultants and had over 220 active clients. We collaborate and have framework agreements with the largest companies in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Poland and Holland.

Because our clients expect a lot of us, we expect a lot of our consultants. Among other things, this means that you must have a minimum of five years of professional experience to work as a consultant for ProData Consult.

Check out available projects

http://www.it-consultant.com/


It has to be easier to do your work well. And so Region Zealand and the Capital Region of Denmark have joined forces to introduce the healthcare platform. A gigantic technical and change management project, which simply put involves implementing an American IT system at 17 hospitals across two regions. The healthcare platform is divided into three subprograms. The shared track: The health-care platform – and two subprograms in each of the two regions. A total of about 500 people are working together to implement the healthcare platform. And the implementation of the healthcare platform will fundamentally change how healthcare professionals perform their jobs. The system is a new way of organizing the encounter with the patient, treatment and the management of the hospital. The health-care platform unites all information about each patient in a single electronic medical record spanning the two regions. This gives healthcare personnel a better overview, greater patient safety and fewer errors during a course of treatment. Until now, Region Zealand and the Capital Region of Denmark have had separate IT systems, and in both cases, the primary

information about the patients is registered in a text record which often contain quite a lot of text, which can be difficult for personnel to process quickly in a hectic work environ-ment. The healthcare platform is introducing a system based on structured data, which is

intended to make it easy for the clinics to get an overview of the patient’s medical records quickly. And so work processes have been ana-lyzed, with assistance from healthcare per-sonnel, in order to improve and standardize the approach to treating patients across the two regions. In a democratic process,

nurses, chief consultants, orthopedic sur-geons and many, many more have voted for and against solutions with green and red cards – and have thus helped customize the American system to function in the Danish clinical reality. This has resulted in a patient medical record where it is no longer neces-sary for personnel to log prose descriptions of injuries or symptoms, for example a bro-ken leg or a frozen shoulder. Instead, they tick boxes in a form, with the patient sitting right next to them. “It’s a huge change management project, and we’re not at the finish line yet. But this is where we can really make gains: we save time, fewer people need to be involved, and it increases patient safety,” explains Hen-ning Trier, head of IT development in Region Zealand. PROFESSIONAL SUPPLIER The American company Epic won the tender. Trier has only praise for the Americans, who have shown themselves to be extremely professional and willing to work in an agile process. Involving stakeholders, particularly doctors, is an important part of Epic’s con-cept, because without their involvement,

A GIGANTIC TASKTHE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE HEALTHCARE PLATFORM IS A GIGANTIC PROJECT WHICH WILL CHANGE THE COURSE OF HEALTHCARE HISTORY ON ZEALAND. THE AIM OF THE PROJECT IS TO PURCHASE, CUSTOMIZE, IMPLEMENT AND STANDARDIZE AN ENTIRELY NEW SYSTEM FOR WORKING AND DOCUMENTING IN ALL OF THE HOSPITALS IN THE CAPITAL REGION OF DENMARK AND REGION ZEALAND.

Interview with Henning Trier, head of IT development, Region Zealand

_____________________________________

“It’s a huge change management project, and we’re not at the finish line yet. But this is where we can really make gains."

Henning Trier, head of IT development


implementing the system will be difficult. And so healthcare councils from all occupational groups have been asked to discuss the best way to work for each specialization. This was one of the first parts of Epic’s implementa-tion. As Trier explains: “In choosing Epic as a supplier, we also purchased an implementation concept with a great deal of focus on making sure the solution has local legitimacy. That’s a good starting point for success.” SLOW STARTUP It goes without saying that there are legions of challenges in such a large IT project, but one thing Trier has noticed in particular is that getting people up to speed was a slow process. It took five months to get people certified, during which the project practically ground to a halt. As Trier tells it: “Epic delivers a standard software project. Once it’s decided what extra features a de-partment needs, they need to be added on, but to get access to customizing the system, you have to be certified as a ‘builder’ by Epic. This is a requirement they included in

the contract documents: They wanted to make sure that we knew what we were do-ing. Selected employees were sent on train-ing courses and had three tries to pass an exam. Some of them didn’t pass, and so we had to send new ones for training.” All of the builders will be affiliated with a new form of system administration. With the old medical record system, you called the supplier and asked them to change things. Now the regions can make these changes themselves. “We’re saving a lot of money, but we will have to introduce a completely different form of system administration. The builders will be sent back to the regions when the program is finished, so that they can continue devel-oping the system,” explains Trier. When the individual departments have finished their part of the system and the hospitals are up and running, there will be new ballots with red and green cards if something doesn’t work, because the goal is to maintain standardization across hospitals and regions.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES Managing an enormous project like the healthcare platform is not for the weak of heart. Collaboration between two regions and 500 people involves a lot of cultural and professional differences, which has resulted in a fairly high rate of turnover. In 2014, Re-gion Zealand assigned 12 of its own project managers to the project – two years later, there are just two left. Geography has been a contributing factor, as the project manag-ers suddenly had to drive back and forth between Sorø and Copenhagen 3-4 times a week, an hour’s drive each way. What’s more, they became part of a large supplier organization, which requires a high degree of self-management, and that the employee goes back to his line manager in the region when challenges arise. The upshot was that the head of IT development has had to recruit external resources – with varying degrees of satisfaction so far: “It’s hard to find consultants who take ownership from day one. At the same time, the project managers often fall into one of two categories: either they are extremely skilled professionally and have no personnel management experience, or vice versa. If you’re a freelancer, you have to be extremely skilled. That’s my opinion, but it’s not always the case. It’s been a mixed bag, and I’ve had to send some of them home.” At the same time, Trier finds that consul-tants are bad at saying no. When a consul-tant is performing well, Trier delegates more task to him or her and asks if they can cope with more. “They say yes because they feel like they have to – but often I end up with bad qual-ity work delivered. Very few say no, and it’s natural, but it’s not professional. I expect people to be able to draw the line.”

• The healthcare system will be implemented at all hospitals and institutions under the Capital Region of Denmark and Region Zealand by 2018

• Region Zealand will begin implementing the healthcare platform in November 2017

• The supplier Epic supplies solutions to over 1,100 hospitals all over the world

Facts about the healthcare platform

Name: Henning Hoepfner Trier Age: 45 Education: MSc from the University of Copenhagen Title: Head of IT development, Region Zealand Has worked in IT since 1998, inclu-ding 8 years in the private sector and the last 9 years for Region Zealand. Responsible for all of the region’s IT projects, and has a special task as head of IT development in connec-tion with the healthcare platform. Is responsible for helping to ensure that it becomes a success, and acts as the intermediary between the pro-gram and the executive management of Region Zealand.

Who’s Who



But first, healthcare personnel in the Capital Region of Denmark and Region Zealand will have to adjust to an entirely new way of working. Because the new IT solution will change the division of labor currently prevalent at the hospitals. As Søren Truelsen, sub-program manager for implemen-tation at Region Zealand, explains: “It’s not an easy task: We’re changing traditions and attitudes which have a big influence on the day-to-day work of the person-nel and which have existed at the hospitals for the past 50 years.”

BREAKING WITH OLD HABITS When the five hospitals of Region Zealand go live with the healthcare platform in late 2017, the healthcare personnel of the region will see the world through a different lens. The standard approach to change management is to provide information and assume that the next step will be acceptance. If this doesn’t happen, the advanta-ges of the new solution are highli-ghted. But the healthcare platform presents a greater challenge, because it changes the division of labor among the hospital’s professional groups, which means that they have to change habits developed over decades of work

and organization. For example, doctors will no longer be able to sit alone and dictate information and later ask the secretary to update the patient’s journal. Now the doctor will have to docu-ment information in an online

journal while in the presence of the patient. This is the greatest challenge. The workflows of the healthcare platform are based on the principle of recording data where it is generated, which re-quires a major change of attitudes in relation to the division of labor among professional groups at the hospitals. As Truelsen explains: “It’s about challenging habits, for example when we need to

convince a doctor that it makes sense for him or her to perform documentation in the presence of the patient. We can take the first steps along that path and communicate why the workflows make sense, but it’s going to take years to get everyone on board.” The first results from the hospitals in the Capital Region of Denmark indicate that while younger doctors are more willing to rethink the division of labor and how they perform their work, the healthcare platform pushes every-one out of their comfort zone. Naturally, some doctors question why, considering their time costs more, they are being required to perform tasks their secretaries usually handle, with the result that they may have trouble treating the same number of patients, at least until the new workflows have become routine. These arguments must be addressed, in addition to the question of the new working relationships among professional groups. However, this is not done during the implementation phase, where the focus is on ensuring stable operations. “A lot of new conditions can be prepared and planned, but we can only see where behaviors are taking place after the system goes

Goodbye to old habitsTHE HEALTHCARE PLATFORM WILL GIVE HEALTHCARE PERSONNEL, PATIENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES BETTER AND EASIER ACCESS TO INFORMATION, AS WELL AS IMPROVING THE TREATMENT OF PATIENTS ON ZEALAND.

Interview with Søren Truelsen, subprogram manager, implementation, through ProData Consult

_____________________________

”A lot of new conditions can be prepared and planned, but we can only see where behaviors are taking place after the system goes live, so this is when the change management process really takes off.”

Søren Truelsen, subprogram manager


live, so this is when the change management process really takes off,” says Truelsen.

MANY COOKSOn many projects, a few people determine the strategy for a change process, and selected key stakeholders are involved. The healthcare platform is different: a complex puzzle with a huge set of stakeholder pieces. This makes it impossible to simply set a course and command everyone to march in the same direction. Region Zea-

land is one of just three principal stakeholders, and must coop-erate with the hospitals and the program steering committee - in addition to all of the cross-regional functions. All have stakes in the project: from the financial admini-stration department and person-nel law to PFI, a cross-regional center which supports the entire organization and contributes to setting a strategic direction. As Truelsen explains:

Name: Søren Truelsen Age: 57 Education: MSc in strategic management Title: Subprogram manager, implementation Experience from Capgemini Sogeti, Arthur Andersen and other major consulting firms.

Who’s Who

_____________________________

”The implementation project can’t simply decide how the implementation is going to proceed. We have to bring the relevant stakeholders from a wide range of focus areas together to make sure that we create consensus and share a common approach.”



1) When managing a project of this size, it’s extremely important to have structure and governance in place from day one. This allows everyone in the project to avoid a lot of confusion, frustration and discussions of how the setup should work. That said, there are usually political interests which must also be taken into consideration, and these aren’t dealt with just by having your governance and structure in place. 2) You have to quickly create a shared understanding of what the overall project is about. Almost all major stakeholders want the big picture: what the project means for them, what implementation tasks will affect them, and so on. The picture is constantly changing, so it’s difficult to give them an overview from day one. At the same time, there’s a lot of information which isn’t available, because the healthcare platform is under implementation at the ho-spitals in the Capital Region of Denmark and won’t formally start implementation in Region Zealand until November. You also need to remember that we are becoming wiser along the way. The healthcare platform is constantly being improved through the experiences gained at Gentofte and Herlev Ho-spital, and the implementation concept will be evaluated and adjusted along the way. 3) When you have a large, complex project with a lot of people from a lot of organizations working together, breaking down and delimiting tasks into a manageable size is a necessity. When communicating how the project is to be performed, ensuring coherence and cohesion between the individual components is a challenging necessity.

3 valuable project management tips

“The implementation project can’t simply decide how the im-plementation is going to proceed. We have to bring the relevant stakeholders from a wide range of focus areas together to make sure that we create consensus and share a common approach. Because after all, the goal is precisely a uniform and standar-dized implementation at all of the region’s hospitals.”

FEWER GLITCHES - MORE OPINIONSThe Capital Region of Denmark is implementing the system first, while the hospitals in Region Zealand will first get started in

earnest in November 2016. This is an advantage in relation to smoothing some of the glitches out of the implementation before the start gun sounds in Region Zealand. At the same time, delay-ing implementation also creates some challenges. “It’s a lot harder to manage the communication aspect when

the opinions of the personnel are being influenced by public debate and the opinions of professional organizations in the media. This is not the kind of change manage-ment communication we’re used to. One question is when to start, and another is whether Region Zealand should have an opinion about the Capital Region of Denmark – this is another huge challenge,” says Truelsen. The goal of the implementation team is to provide the most nu-anced possible information about the functionality of the healthcare platform. At the same time, the various professional groups need to know that the system they are using isn’t necessarily the final version. The new healthcare platform is a dynamic, flexible sy-stem, and many adaptations can only be made after the individual specialists have gained hands-on experience and familiarized themselves with the many new possibilities offered by the system. As Truelsen describes: “We need user experiences, after which we will definitely find things in the individual speciali-zations which can be improved. This is taking place right now in the Capital Region of Denmark at Gentofte and Herlev Hospital, where they’ve been working with the system since May.” ONLY NECESSARY INFORMATION However, the major challenge is ensuring a holistic, cohesive approach across the entire orga-nization, even while the implemen-tation team immerses itself in dif-

Søren Truelsen is subprogram manager for the overall implementation of the healthcare platform at Region Zealand’s four hospitals, psychiatric institutions, hospital pharmacy and five self-governing institutions. His subprogram includes four focus areas: · Readiness and change management · Training and support · IT and technology · Internal and external communication

Søren Truelsen’s responsibilities on the healthcare platform project

_____________________________

”It’s such a big change, and there’s so much at stake. Just working together on the project is a complex challenge, but it’s exciting to be a part of, because the healthcare platform can ultimately make a big difference for patients.”


ferent silos in connection with the daily tasks of the process. What motivates Truelsen are the people in the project: the healthcare pro-fessionals at the hospitals need to know what is expected of them, and how they will perform their jobs in future. For this reason, Truelsen’s goal is to provide only the absolutely essential informa-tion about the implementation process, while at the same time providing a clear picture of the future operating situation, in order to allow personnel to understand and discuss the new situation prior to startup. “It’s such a big change, and there’s so much at stake. Just working together on the project

is a complex challenge, but it’s ex-citing to be a part of, because the healthcare platform can ultimately make a big difference for patients. It’s not an easy solution, and it won’t be optimal from day one, but it’s a historic project which will change the foundation for pro-viding better and more effective treatment going forward.”


Consultants in demandProData Consult is on the lookout for heavyweight IT consultants in the following roles and areas. If you have the skills we need, or know someone who does, write us at: [email protected]

Developer

Front-end developer

Architect

Web developer

Mobile developer

Webmaster

Technical project manager

Scrum master

Project manager

Business manager

Business developer

Process consultant

Solution architect

Tester

Test coordinator

Test manager

Technical tester

Database developer

Database admin.

Operations consultant

Infrastructure consultant

Network consultant

Network architect

Support consultant

Security consultant

SEM/SEO

UX consultant

Visual designer

Microsoft/.NET

Java/J2EE

Responsive Web

JavaScript, CSS, HTML5

Oracle

Open Source

Mainframe

Web

Mobile

ERP

SAP

SharePoint

Data Warehouse/BI

PRINCE2

SOA

ITIL

Quality Center

ISTQB

Cloud

Cisco

Microsoft Dynamics

UNIX/Linux

Embedded

Adobe Creative Suite

Calypso

Hadoop

Public sector

Financial sector

Capital markets

Telecom

Check your ProData CV at: it-consultant.com/cv, and update your competencies, adding your newest qualifications/assignments. Having a fully updated CV in our database that describes all your competencies makes it more likely that our our sales staff can find new projects for you.

Get your CV ready

View projects, events and articles on the new LinkedIn pageNow you can stay up-to-date on news from ProData Consult: Check out – and like – our new LinkedIn page for consultants. You’ll get info on the latest projects, exciting events and articles.

Energy sector

Industry

TranspoArt/logistics

ROLES COMPETENCIES/AREAS INDUSTRIES

http://it-consultant.com/cv

https://www.linkedin.com/company/prodata-consult---for-consultants?trk=company_name


Name: Morten Fenger Age: 43 Education: MSc in computer science from the IT University of Copenhagen Title: Project manager Has previously worked for: KPMG, Region Zealand and Nordania Lea-sing

Who’s Who


No two organizations are alike. Morten Fenger experienced this first-hand in April 2016, when he was tasked with helping to get the operation, support and technical side of the healthcare platform up and running in Region Zealand. Although Fenger’s main focus has been getting Region Zealand ready for the new IT project which will be implemented at hospitals in Zealand over the course of 2017, his biggest – and most exciting – challenge has been col-laborating with the Capital Region of Denmark: “It’s been enormously interesting to be part of developing this setup, where people are physically far apart but are part of the same vir-tual organization. And harder than I thought it would be. People come from different worlds, so some compromises have been neces-sary in order to work together successfully. So I’ve focussed on working to bring people closer together - to get things to work from a relational and human perspective. This is one of my main preoccupations as a consultant,” says Fenger.

RESPECT FOR ALL ABILITIESAs a project manager, Fenger has approached the project with a consultancy mindset, which is primarily a question of getting people with different professional backgrounds to speak the same language. “The specialists are extremely focussed on

their own world. They’re super skilled at some particular corner of a field, while I as a gene-ralist draw on my particular expertise, which is knowing a little bit about what all of them specialize in. This means I can also facilitate a process which brings them closer through their understanding of each other’s work.”

Prior to his work on the healthcare platform, Fenger was involved in the implementation of a new accounting system in the region. This familiarized him with the workflows and organizational structure of Region Zealand. Nonetheless, he finds the sheer scope of the healthcare platform project surprising. “The project is so large that it’s hard to get an overall view of it. Some people focus on implementation, others on the technology and others on the healthcare platform itself.

As a consequence, silos have a tendency to emerge, and here it’s important as a manager to coordinate the process across the different areas of specialization.” However, the puzzle of piecing together the region under a single IT platform has not shifted Fenger’s gaze from his most important task as a manager. “Everyone has to feel that what they do is re-spected, and that there’s a good atmosphere. That’s key.”

_____________________________________

“It’s been enormously interesting to be part of developing this setup, where people are physically far apart but are part of the same virtual organization. And harder than I thought it would be.”

Morten Fenger, project manager

“Relationships are key”PROJECT MANAGER MORTEN FENGER HAS SPENT THE PAST SIX MONTHS BREAKING DOWN SILOS AND BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER. BECAUSE OPERATING THE HEALTHCARE PLATFORM ACROSS THE REGION TAKES A STRONG PARTNERSHIP.

Interview with Morten Fenger, project manager through ProData Consult

• Create good relationships between people

• Coordinate the work across all silos in the organization

• Establish and meet goals for the project

3 helpful tips


When doctors and nurses in Region Zealand put on their scrubs at the region’s hospitals at the end of 2017, their interactions with patients will be documented in the new region-wide healthcare IT system. And so computers, monitors, scanners, printers, digital patient bracelets and a lot more equipment have to be purchased and configured before Region Zealand’s four hospitals, psychiatric instituti-

ons, hospital pharmacy and five self-governing institutions start using the healthcare platform in November next year. Responsibility for making sure the technology works rests primarily on the shoulders of Pro-Data consultant Tore Fribert. Since May 2016, he has been working as technical program manager for the Region Zealand’s in-house

deliverable program, which is the part of the healthcare platform for which Region Zealand and the Capital Region of Denmark must en-sure the functionality. The in-house deliverable includes training, implementation, applications and technology associated with Denmark’s largest healthcare IT project. “My job is to get all of the equipment ready at the hospitals, test whether it works, and whether it’s compatible with the healthcare platform, whether it lives up to the require-ments from the software supplier and so on. These are concrete tasks with short-term goals, but which are at the same time part of a large, expensive and complex project. It’s very exciting to be involved in the technological testing,” explains Fribert. Nothing is left to chance. For example, all PC monitors need to be at least 23-inch in order for the healthcare platform to function properly on them.

SLOW PURCHASING AND LOTS OF OPINIONSBefore Fribert was hired as technical subpro-gram manager, he was in charge of building the healthcare platform infrastructure. This project, which was transferred to Region Zealand, involved building the platform for the IT project – in other words, making the data centers, net-works, servers data storage and so on work. The bill for the technical aspects of the health-care platform will amount to over 13.5 million EUR.

In this context, Fribert has had to deal with the complex procurement processes of EU tenders and SKI contracts (the Danish gover-nment’s purchasing authority), which means that purchasing processes can take up to a year. What’s more, collaboration between two institutions in the public sector is often a dicey affair: “It’s been difficult to kickstart the infrastructure

_____________________________________

“It’s been difficult to kickstart the infrastructure project. You have these two giant organizations which form part of a complex governance structure, each of which has a lot of stakeholders with opinions about IT, operations and the program.”

Tore Fribert, technical subprogram manager

13.5+ million EUR worth of technology REGION ZEALAND HAS SPENT MILLIONS ON A HARDWARE TO UPGRADE THE HOSPITALS TO THE HEALTHCARE PLATFORM. THE INSTALLATION OF TECHNICAL GEAR, IT INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMPLEX PROCUREMENT PROCESSES ARE ALL IN A DAY’S WORK FOR SUBPROGRAM MANAGER TORE FRIBERT.

Interview with Tore Fribert, technical subprogram manager through ProData Consult

• The most important thing is a good climate of cooperation between the two regions - creating a shared understanding how the project is to be run and designed all the way down on the level of project managers and architects.

• Close communication is important.

• The collaboration with Epic, supplier of software to the healthcare platform. We have been able to draw on Epic’s experience with other clients.

3 helpful tips


project. You have these two giant organizati-ons which form part of a complex governance structure, each of which has a lot of stakehol-ders with opinions about IT, operations and the program. So it was an uphill battle until people actually began working together across the different levels of management. But as soon as we defined the scope, it went fine,” he says.

LESSONS FROM THE CAPITALToday, the infrastructure project provides Fri-bert with the advantage that he knows a lot of the people who are working with parts of the healthcare platform in both regions – from pro-curement lawyers to middle managers. In addi-tion, Region Zealand has the advantage that the Capital Region has already implemented the healthcare platform at Herlev and Gentofte Hospital, and is preparing to implement it at Rigshospitalet, Denmark’s leading hospital. As Fribert explains: “We’re drawing on their experience to a high degree, and I have regular meeting with my counterpart in the capital, so we avoid making the same mistakes. Some of the issues are simply practical. For example, I’m now pre-pared for the fact that even if we make a map showing where all of the PCs are located at the hospitals, we know from experience that most of them will have been moved to a new place after a month. These are the kinds of challen-ges I communicate to my project managers, which is why I try to facilitate contact between them and the people in the capital region. Here it’s a huge advantage that I have eighteen months of experience from my work on the healthcare platform, because I know a lot of the people already."

Name: Tore Fribert Age: 49 Education: MSc in business administration Title: Technical subprogram manager for the in- house deliverable program for Region Zealand Has previously worked for: TopDanmark, NNIT and Saxo Bank

Who’s Who



1. DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?Let’s make one thing clear at the outset: Being a freelance consultant is not for everyone. The most important prerequisite is a foundation of experience and skills which are in demand on the market. The leap from employee to freelancer also has implications on both the professional and private fronts. Professionally, you must thrive under con-siderable pressure, and you must be able to land in an organization and start delivering from day one. You need to have a heavy profes-sional ballast, be resilient and be prepared to stake your good name on what you deliver. Personally, you must thrive with the increased risk connected with freelance work, and you must be able to take on a more exposed role than you have in a permanent employment situation. Freelance consultants are seldom security addicts. If you can live with the pressure and the uncertainty connected with the life of a freelance consultant, you have the possibility to create a career which brings you exciting challenges as well as financial gain.

2. WHAT ARE YOU GOOD AT?The path to becoming a good freelance con-sultant starts with you. What are you good at? Or perhaps even more important: What aren’t you good at? This may sound like a simple question to answer, but self-understanding is a difficult discipline for many people. Start by acknowledging that you aren’t an expert in everything. As a consultant, you get hired on the strength of your specialist knowledge, which is why it’s important for you to be able to define your area of expertise with extreme precision. From the perspective of the client, external consultants have no learning curve, and they demand that you deliver at a high level from day one. The client expects you to be a specialist within a domain, and if the client’s expectations harmonize with your abilities, you have every chance of becoming a success. Find a professional ‘sparring partner’ who dares to challenge your view of yourself and who can pose the right questions. Preferably someone who knows what it takes to be a consultant, and who’s used to identifying and highlighting core skills. This can pave the way to a greater awareness of what your strengths

6 great pieces of advice on taking the plunge as a freelancerTHE TRANSITION FROM EMPLOYEE TO FREELANCER IS A BIG DECISION, AND THERE ARE BOTH ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES TO GIVING UP THE SAFETY OF AN EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT TO LEAP INTO INDEPENDENCE. BUT IN RETURN, IF YOU SUCCEED AS A FREELANCE CONSULTANT, YOU CAN CREATE A UNIQUE CAREER, WITH FREEDOM, FLEXIBILITY AND MORE MONEY IN YOUR BANK ACCOUNT. HERE IS SOME GOOD ADVICE ON TAKING THE FIRST STEPS AS AN INDEPENDENT FREELANCE CONSULTANT.

By Claus Schack, sourcing manager at ProData Consult with over 12 years of experience in advising freelance consultants


are. Self-awareness is a huge advantage in relation to getting matched with the jobs where you’ll succeed.

3. LEARN TO COMMUNICATE WHAT YOU’RE CAPABLE OF When you know what you’re good at, you can communicate it. Create a clear pattern when you explain what you’re capable of. Your expertise must be presented as an objective truth. In other words, there must be a clear link between the things you’re an expert in and the things you’ve worked with previously. This applies to how you present yourself both in person and in writing. Put yourself in the listener’s place and consi-der carefully who you are communicating with. It’s your responsibility to make the listener un-derstand what you’re capable of. This applies both when you’re talking to the client as wells to consultancies, sourcing and recruitment specialists and other professionals in your network. Remember that the people you meet on the road towards a job don’t always have the same expert knowledge that you have. The better you are at communicating what you’re good at, the greater chance you have of succeeding. Not only do you avoid being mat-ched with the wrong jobs. You also ensure that the client has realistic expectations about your

abilities. If you’re assigned to a job where the client’s impression doesn’t match your skills, you risk failing in the client’s eyes and being labelled as incompetent. Bad publicity has a tendency to spread even when it’s not justified.

4. YOU ARE YOUR BRANDAs a freelance consultant, you have to rethink yourself as a brand. You are just one of many products on the shelves. For this reason, remember to always protect your professional reputation and to take responsibility for marke-ting and selling the product in an appropriate way. Stand out from the crowd in relation to your competitors and only take on jobs where you can deliver the best possible quality.

5. TAKE CONTROLTake ownership of your own success. Take control of your profile and your opportunities for landing the right jobs. No consultancy can guarantee you new projects. Keep your ears open, and choose the consultancies you want to work with. Use your network to navigate towards the right jobs and to create the right connections. Make demands on your business partners. Agree on the guidelines for how you want your CV and your profile to be presented to clients. If you have control over what jobs you are proposed for and how you are presented, you have a better chance of landing in the right places.

6. AND THEN THERE’S THE FINANCIAL SIDE OF THINGSThe issue of how to handle self-employment as a freelance consultant is a chapter in itself. But we do want to point out that there are certain administrative, tax-related and financial conditions you need to have under control before you take the plunge.

_____________________________________

“Create a clear pattern when you explain what you’re

capable of. Your expertise must be presented as an objective truth. In other words, there

must be a clear link between the things you’re an expert in and the things you’ve worked

with previously.”

Claus Schack, sourcing manager


Summer party at BryggenProData Consult held the annual summer party for consultants on 2 September. This year’s party was held at the Islands Brygge culture center, and 160 guests at-tended - our largest summer party to date. With a view of the waterfront, ProData Consult CEO Søren Rode wel-comed the guests, after which he gave the floor to Mette Bloch, former

rowing world champion. She put on a show full of entertainment and humor about how she has reached her goals. Next, a delicious buffet took care of both hunger and thirst, while the band Dr. Funkenstein provided a funky, festive soundtrack for the evening. All of us at ProData Consult would like to thank everyone for a great night in good company – and we are already looking forward to next year.

The DHL Relay Race 2016In keeping with tradition, running shoes were laced up on 31 August, when ProData Consult participated in the annual DHL Relay Race in Fælledparken, Copenhagen. Over 50 consultants and staff members from ProData Consult got to-

gether for this year’s DHL race, which took place under blue skies to the scent of grill starter fluid and the sound of cheering guests. To celebrate the five km run, Daniel from the catering firm D’ish served pulled pork burgers to the hungry runners - as well as plenty of cold drinks. Thanks to everyone for a great event.

Documents

Consultant News · healthcare IT project in Denmark. The price tag on this historic proj - ect is DKK 2.8 billion (EUR 0,375 billion), and the objective is to standardize treatment