Ken Puffer Email & Phone Number

Herndon, Va, Us

As the Healthcare CTO at ePlus Technology, Inc., my primary responsibility is to engage with healthcare providers nationwide, understanding their unique challenges and strategic directions. In this role, I am privileged to collaborate closely with our healthcare customers to enhance patient care and operational efficiency through innovative technology solutions.Healthcare providers are dedicated to improving patient outcomes amidst ongoing digital transformation efforts. At ePlus, we leverage our proprietary services alongside strategic partnerships with leading technology and consulting firms. This synergy allows us to address critical themes identified by our healthcare clients:1. Patient and Family Experience: We prioritize solutions that enhance the overall patient journey and promote compassionate care delivery.2. Clinical Outcomes: Our focus is on technologies that improve treatment effectiveness, streamline workflows, and ensure clinical excellence.3. Physician Engagement: We provide tools and platforms that empower healthcare professionals, fostering collaboration.4. Financial Performance: Through strategic IT investments and process optimizations, we help healthcare organizations achieve sustainable financial health.5. Cybersecurity: Protecting patient data and ensuring regulatory compliance are paramount. We provide robust cybersecurity solutions tailored to healthcare's unique challenges.6. Employee Satisfaction: We recognize the importance of a supportive work environment and the connection between employee satisfaction and patient satisfaction. Our solutions aim to enhance operational efficiency while improving staff satisfaction.In translating these insights into actionable technology solutions, we aim to be at the forefront of healthcare innovation. Through continuous dialogue and collaboration, we strive to evolve alongside the healthcare industry, leveraging technology to drive positive outcomes and sustainable growth for our clients.

We are a provider of cyber security and risk-based assessments, security solutions and Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) services for mid-size businesses in the New York metropolitan region.• Security Risk Assessment• Security Program Advisory• Disaster Recovery Planning• Security Awareness Education for front line and back office employees• Network architecture assessment• Incident Response and Remediation Assistance• Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO)

Paramus, New Jersey, Us

- Developed and managed the organization’s Information Security Management Program. Advised organization on cyber risk responsibilities.- Commissioned Information Security Risk Assessments to identify gaps between policies and practice using security toolsets, observation, and reporting mechanisms. Developed security plan and remediation based on findings. Reported findings and Security Plan to Board of Directors annually.- Served as escalation point for all security incidents. Provided guidance to information security staff on technical and procedural issues. Developed and implemented mandatory information security awareness educational program for all staff.- Developed and led HIPAA Security and Technology Steering Teams for Hospital and Physician Practice organizations, enabling end-user involvement in general and security technology selection to ensure systems selected matched business needs. Involved technical and operational specialists as key team members and solution advisers.- Partnered with Hospital Security department to implement and maintain electronic access control systems (EACS), incident reporting systems, surveillance and staff duress systems.- Designed and implemented disaster recovery and business continuity (DRBC) plan for Hospital’s EMR, Meditech. Disaster Plan included redundant, diverse path, high-capacity dark fiber connections enabling synchronous data replication using IBM Storage Virtualization Controllers and virtual server migration between primary and secondary sites using dedicated VMWare clusters.- Selected and implemented perimeter and content security systems to protect organizational assets including Patient and Employee Portals.

Paramus, New Jersey, Us

- Restructured Information Systems Department into support, technical and operational functional areas to effectively address organizational expectations.- Developed and led Technology Steering Teams for Hospital and Physician Practice organizations, enabling end-user involvement in technology selection processes to ensure systems selected matched business needs.- Oversaw $20M Capital and Operating budgets to research, plan, install, integrate, and maintain hardware, software and networks to support 4,500 internal customers (staff) and 1,000 external customers (physicians) for Health System’s primary Hospital location, Ambulatory Care Center, Outpatient facilities, Urgent Care Centers, Home Health division, 50 Primary Care and Specialist Physician practices.- Conducted strategic planning including system upgrades, capital, operating and line item budgets. Developed Requests for Proposal, executed ROI analysis, and negotiated/reviewed contracts. - Achieved Hospitals and Health Networks Magazine's “Most Wired” award for 14 consecutive years, 2001-2014 by: + Consolidating departmentally managed, individual computer systems into a highly available, virtualized server environment, distributed among hospital owned and managed data centers. Implementing Self-Hosted Disaster Recovery Plan for both minor and major system failures resulting in a decrease in unscheduled downtime from hours or days to minutes for patient care areas. + Designing and delivering fault-tolerant, high-speed networks at primary business locations, medical-grade wireless network at Primary Hospital location, Dark Fiber ring connections between primary business locations and distributed, redundant Internet connections to support hosted applications, remote access for clinical and administrative applications.

- Consulted, designed and implemented network and server systems for high-profile customers in New York City and northern New Jersey with installations throughout the United States.- Improved sales margins by an additional 10% and improved customer satisfaction by ensuring solutions match customer business and operational processes.- Achieved certifications from Hewlett-Packard, Novell, and IBM for server, client and network hardware

- Consulted, designed and implemented network and server systems for customers in Albany, NY area and surrounding areas.- Managed service department for this picture framing software development start-up.- Responded to and resolved all customer software and hardware issues reducing system outages resulting in improved customer satisfaction.

Bachelor Of Science (B.S.), Computer Science

Associate Of Arts And Sciences (A.A.S.), Electrical Engineering Technologies/Technicians