HOMETOWN Health Center (HHC) is a growing healthcare organization with approximately 70 employees and a newly constructed 50,000-square-foot facility. As the organization grew, so did the importance of having reliable technology and a clear, accountable IT partner.

Dirigo Technology's relationship with HHC spans nearly 20 years. CEO Robin Winslow has longstanding relationships with several members of the Dirigo team, including Nick Knowlton, Mike Pratt and Israel Roy. That history created a strong foundation of trust even before Dirigo became HHC's managed IT provider.

As HHC continued to grow and prepared to move into its new 50,000-square-foot facility, its technology needs became increasingly complex. Robin recognized that the organization needed a more comprehensive managed IT approach - one that could provide clear accountability, proactive support, and ongoing technology leadership.

Technology issues were becoming increasingly visible. Server rooms needed attention, patch management needed improvement, responsibilities across multiple technology providers were unclear, and employees did not always know who to contact when they needed help.

As Dirigo began its standard onboarding process, the team uncovered an immediate challenge: six servers needed to be migrated from a private data center into Microsoft Azure, and HHC had only two to three weeks to complete the migration.

Missing the deadline would have resulted in more than $10,000 in additional monthly costs.

Dirigo needed to simultaneously onboard a new managed IT client, understand an unfamiliar environment, work through communication gaps with existing providers, design the Azure environment, and safely migrate six production servers - all without disrupting HHC staff or operations. 

The six-server Azure migration was completed successfully within the required timeline. Just as importantly, HHC now has clarity around who owns its technology and where employees should turn for support.

With onboarding complete, Israel serves as HHC's primary Client Advisor and has already identified several opportunities to improve the organization's infrastructure. Those recommendations have been presented to Robin as the beginning of an ongoing technology roadmap focused on improving reliability, simplifying the environment, and controlling costs.

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HOMETOWN Health Center is a Federally Qualified Health Center, in central rural Maine, that offers medical services, dental services, behavioral health services, a sliding-fee scale for payment that is based on what the patient can afford, prescription assistance programs, and much more.

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“Having known Nick Knowlton, Mike Pratt and Israel Roy for many years, I already knew the kind of people they were and the way they approached their clients. When I reached out and said, ‘I need help,’ they were here that same day. They listened to what we were dealing with, put together a plan, and immediately started taking ownership.

What has made the biggest difference is knowing that we do not have to figure out who to call anymore. Nick, Mike, Israel, and the Dirigo team are our technology partner. They know our organization, they understand what we are trying to accomplish, and we trust them to take care of us.

The transition happened during an incredibly busy time for HOMETOWN Health Center, including a major server migration with a very tight deadline. Dirigo handled it without disrupting our staff and helped us avoid significant additional costs. It feels good to finally have a technology team we know, trust, and can count on.”

Robin Winslow, CEO | HOMETOWN   Health Center