Founded in 1955, Michigan Blood is an independent, nonprofit blood bank that provides blood for 38 hospitals, collecting over 120,000 blood donations each year at its nine permanent donation sites and more than 3,700 mobile blood drives each year. With over 400 employees, more than 600 volunteers, as well as up to 30 mobile blood drives occurring daily, Michigan Blood is a 24/7/365 operation.
Because communication is at the heart of its operations, it was critical Michigan Blood deploy a flawless network solution. Over the last several years, problems emerged with stability for cell phone connectivity, especially in remote areas, which prompted the organization to pursue alternative solutions. Another challenge was addressing and deploying network connectivity at its mobile blood drives.
Michigan Blood turned to Aerohive to provide centrally-managed secure branch office connectivity at all of its mobile blood drive locations, as well as a resilient and robust WLAN for its fixed site and headquarters locations.
Michigan Blood activated iPods as SIP phones to run on the WLAN at three of its most crucial distribution locations. This allowed employees to receive critical calls from hospitals at any hour of the day regardless if they were sitting at their desk or roaming throughout the depths of the buildings.
Michigan Blood mobile buses are frequently driven to the heart of Amish country where modern conveniences like electricity are not available. However, once an Aerohive router is plugged in on the bus, the router discovers the HiveManager automatically and is centrally managed, allowing staff to save time and work from anywhere.
With solutions from Aerohive, Michigan Blood now has greater efficiency with higher production, without compromising security, performance or availability.
To learn more about the Aerohive implementation at Michigan Blood, read the full case study here.
