Robert Hempel Email and Phone Number

Ardent Health Services is a nationwide provider of hospital and healthcare services. Ardent owns and operates 14 hospitals serving three major markets as well as owning physician practice organizations, retail pharmacies, diagnostic facilities and ambulatory surgery centers. Ardent has annual revenues in excess of $2 billion.Reporting to the CIO, responsible for the establishment, development and promotion of technology direction, architecture standards, frameworks and governance for all aspects of the endpoint computing environment. This includes the Desktop support team, Desktop analyst team, Help desk/Service desk team, ID provisioning team, Software Asset Manager as well as the Application/Citrix delivery team.

Responsible for the establishment, development and promotion of technology direction, architecture standards, frameworks and governance for all aspects of the enterprise desktop operating environment. This position is also responsible for securing, maintaining and monitoring the health of the desktop computing environment throughout the enterprise. This includes updating documentation, conducting utilization studies and the establishment of health and fault notification processes. This position oversees the planning and migration of users from newly acquired facilities into the Ardent enterprise computing environment. This position will work closely with other members of the Ardent information technology team to support the overall mission of the company and its long-term strategic business initiatives.

Responsible for the provisioning and support of the Afni, Inc. domestic and international desktop computing environment. The scope of the position includes oversight of the desktop support, desktop engineering, Citrix engineering, Citrix support and PC hardware asset management functions. Plan and execute against capital and expense budgets, participate in capital planning for the entire IT organization, and participate in IT department strategic planning, including technology and best practices strategy, compensation planning, succession planning, retention initiatives and employee satisfaction. Interact regularly with company senior leadership on planning and execution of strategic initiatives to support growth and maintain compliance with client requirements for service delivery and desktop computing. Manage 5-10 direct reports, including supervisors. Prepare and manage an operating budget of up to $1.5M. Prepare and manage a capital budget of up to $2M.

Technical sales of custom database driven web based software solutions and web sites. Planned, developed and executed interactive marketing campaigns for clients. Responsible for quarterly sales exceeding 250k every quarter while actively acquiring and developing new clients. The training of client staff on new software installations and websites, while ascertaining their future needs for new projects.

Manage and maintain all computer and technology assets for the Bureau. Restructured the entire Bureau’s infrastructure from top to bottom, saving $45,000 in annual service agreements by making all support functions internal. Planned, purchased and deployed new Nortel phone switch for entire enterprise including the Visitor Information Call Center. Provided the training for staff on new technology initiatives as well as existing technology implementations. Completely redesigned Bureau’s website visitlex.com as well as execute new web marketing, driving the sites visits up by 35%.

Manage and maintain 110 site statewide WAN & LAN network consisting of NetWare, Microsoft, Linux and Sun servers with over 3000 desktops. Maintained Gauntlet firewall solution and monitored enterprise security solutions. Team lead on 5 million dollar storm outage system (Sun Solaris), completed project 4 weeks ahead of schedule.

Manage and maintain 250 node Novell and Microsoft network. Implemented complete conversion from dumb terminals attached to A/S400 to PC solution for 120 seat call center. This included training for all users (many of which had never used PC) and continued help-desk support.

Manage and maintain 100 node Novell and Microsoft Network (PC & Mac). Developed Intranet Corporate Communications website, which allowed for increased inter-department collaboration and productivity thereby increasing revenues. Provided help-desk support and training on new software for entire company.