Comcast Business announced that Elwyn, a 5,000-employee human services nonprofit that has been supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities for nearly 170 years, implemented Comcast Business Ethernet and voice services across its nationwide locations. The network empowers Elwyn to transition to electronic medical record (EMR) and hosted cloud services, which will improve sharing of client and health information and centralize its HR and payroll functions.
Founded in 1852, Elwyn is the oldest nonprofit of its kind, providing a continuum of services from early intervention screenings and care coordination for children in Philadelphia who may have autism to residential offerings with accompanying day and vocational programs for people with intellectual disabilities. Elwyn also has a range of educational programs, including the largest Approved Private School in Pennsylvania, and behavioral health services for children and adults.
The internationally recognized organization serves 20,000 individuals at a variety of campus locations, community sites, schools, workplaces and individual residences across the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and California. Due to its broad reach and unique programs, Elwyn enlisted the assistance of its longtime trusted technology consultant, Chorus Communications to secure a flexible, cost-efficient, technology solution to centralize IT-based health and HR services.
“We have been working with Elwyn for over 20 years and our recent technology assessment indicated an opportunity for Elwyn to implement a centralized, fiber-based infrastructure that would increase network capacity without adding significant cost,” said Robert Molinaro, vice president of Chorus Communications. “Elwyn needed a nationwide fiber network that would replace its T1 lines with high-performance Ethernet and phone services while also supporting many smaller campuses. Comcast Business’ extensive network allows Elwyn to increase capacity and quickly migrate services to the cloud.”
Comcast Business provided Elwyn with a 14-site Ethernet Network Service (ENS) connecting the nonprofit’s 12 offices and two data centers with capacity ranging from 20-500 Megabits-per-second (Mbps). Additionally, Elwyn implemented PRI Trunks, a hosted voice solution, across six of its locations in Pennsylvania and Delaware for efficiency and call clarity, as well as Business Internet at more than 85 sites nationwide to allow its clients to get online from its residential locations.
“The time before and after our transition to Comcast Business was like night and day. We’ve quadrupled our network capacity but are still paying the same amount we were with our previous provider,” said Edwin Rodriguez, director of IT operations at Elwyn. “Our teams can access the information they need as if they were sitting next to each other rather than from the other side of the country, and our network can scale as we continue rolling out new technologies across our organization. But the real beauty of our Comcast Business solution is that it’s simple. It just works.”
With the new infrastructure, Elwyn is able to seamlessly transfer client EMRs between offices and data centers and employ Chorus Communications’ collocated hosting services to create a centralized, offsite network infrastructure that combines security, redundancy and reliability with environmental sustainability and cost savings.
“Elwyn fulfills a critical need in the non-profit human services area through its unique programs that help clients reach their maximum potential and lead fulfilling, meaningful lives,” said David Dombroski, regional vice president for Comcast Business. “Comcast Business’ scalable Ethernet and internet services integrate directly with Elwyn’s technology goals of migrating to cloud-based communication, collaboration tools and EMRs to help improve overall staff productivity and reduce operating costs.”
About Elwyn
Founded as a school for children with intellectual disabilities, Elwyn is one of the nation’s most trusted non-profit human service organizations, supporting children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Headquartered in Media, PA, Elwyn offers services in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and California; employs 5,000 people; and supports 20,000 individuals each year. For more information, call 610-891-2000 or visit www.elwyn.org.
About Chorus Communications
Chorus Communications is an award-winning technology consulting firm that has built an unmatched reputation with its sales-partners, suppliers and customers. Founded in 1995, Chorus is highly regarded as a leading Master Agency and has an extensive portfolio of cutting edge products and services to meet today’s ever-evolving world of technology. The experts at Chorus provide knowledgeable recommendations on your needs from complex cloud designs to global wide-area network deployments and everything in between.
Chorus is dedicated to helping sales partners and customers in making knowledgeable choices about services, technology and cost-efficient communications. Chorus Communications has received numerous awards and accolades recently, including the IT Hero Award, Comcast Gold Partnership, the Comcast Top-Performers Award and the Ciena Club Award. To learn more about Chorus Communications, please visit their website at http://www.choruscommunications.com/.
About Comcast Business
Comcast Business offers Ethernet, Internet, Wi-Fi, Voice, TV and Managed Enterprise Solutions to help organizations of all sizes transform their business. Powered by an advanced network, and backed by 24/7 customer support, Comcast Business is one of the largest contributors to the growth of Comcast Cable. Comcast Business is the nation’s largest cable provider to small and mid-size businesses and has emerged as a force in the enterprise market; recognized over the last two years by leading industry associations as one of the fastest growing providers of Ethernet services.
For more information, call 866-429-3085. Follow on Twitter @ComcastBusiness and on other social media networks at http://comca.st/2GqLcbY.
About Comcast Cable
Comcast Cable is one of the nation’s largest video, high-speed internet and phone providers to residential customers under the XFINITY brand and also provides these services to businesses. Comcast has invested in technology to build an advanced network that delivers among the fastest broadband speeds, and brings customers personalized video, communications and home management offerings. Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is a global media and technology company. Visit http://comca.st/2GqLdg2 for more information.
