With the increasing adoption of cloud services and strategy, cloud management has become a vital trait in the present scenario. To date, the incorporation of cloud in management as well as operations has proven effective for businesses to scale success. Therefore, it has become crucial for leaders in the cloud industry to fully understand the basics of developing an effective cloud management strategy.
“One key to successful cloud adoption is to fully embrace the new generation of capabilities present in modern cloud environments–and do not constrain yourself by trying to apply on-premise approaches in a cloud world,” asserts John Hansen. A recognized face in the cloud services industry, John is a senior IT executive with a proven track record of delivering innovation and platform modernization at scale and building highly engaged technology teams.
Profound Technological Expertise
John’s fascination with technology began at an early period of his life. Although he graduated with a Finance degree, he was interested in technology and nearly undertook enough computer classes to pursue a minor in Computer Science. He began his career by implementing systems in an early predecessor to the modern cloud (mainframe timeshare) and spent the next couple of decades designing, building, and operating systems delivered as cloud applications.
Throughout the time, he was attracted to the cloud delivery model since it helps buyers focus more on getting value from services and less on the heavy lifting of installing and maintaining applications and infrastructure. Currently, John spearheads bswift as the Chief Technology Officer and leverages his expertise in scaling success for the company.
Pioneer in Configurable SaaS Technology
Established in 1996, bswift is a pioneer in configurable SaaS technology for benefits administration and joined the CVS Health family of companies in 2018. The company offers the following solutions:
- Cloud-based online benefits platform for enrollment and as a hub for year-round benefits engagement
- Integrations with employers’ benefits and healthcare vendors
- Service Center with experts in benefits, insurance HIPAA, compliance and customer service
- Communication Practice that provides end-to-end support from communication strategy development, to design, execution and delivery
- Interactive decision support, chat and benefits education/engagement resources
- Benefits administration, compliance, and billing support
- Reporting and analytics dashboard for administrators
- Integration with healthcare navigation services
- COVID-19 vaccine/test tracking solution
Additionally, bswift offers a proven blend of technology, expertise, and service excellence that provides flexible, customer-focused solutions to even the most complex benefits administration needs. The company delivers an omnichannel benefits experience that offers employees the flexibility of accessing their benefits anytime and anywhere. It also provides multiple touchpoints for accessing benefits while ensuring employees have a personalized, consistent, and informed experience across each channel.
Leading with Unique Differentiators
The bswift technology is grounded in the principles of human-centered design—keeping people at the center of the process—which allows it to deliver a truly personal and intuitive experience to its users. In addition, the technology simplifies the complex benefits and healthcare ecosystem by integrating with customers’ benefits vendors to bring everything into a single hub for employers and employees.
bswift also offers the Ask Emma virtual assistant, which provides different degrees of education and benefits decision support to fit each employee’s needs. An overarching differentiator of bswift in the marketplace is its strength, stability and data security for its clients as a CVS Health Company. Being part of a Fortune 4 organization enables the company to leverage the scale of its parent company to quickly and securely bring new technology and solutions to market for fulfilling the latest needs.
A Visionary Leader
Being at the forefront of the company, John wears multiple hats and is responsible for the strategy, development, and delivery of bswift’s strategic application platform. As the leader, he spearheads a global team of experienced product managers, developers, and engineers.
Quoting his distinguishing leadership style, John adds: “I believe in being a servant leader–focusing on maintaining a high level of alignment between the things my team does well, the things that they enjoy doing, and the things the company needs to succeed.” He believes technologists are most engaged when they are delivering significant value to the business while continuing to grow personally and professionally.
Scrutinizing Trends in the Industry
According to John, the growth of hyperscale cloud providers has created an age where it has never been easier to have an idea and turn it into an application. In fact, delivering it at a global scale with world-class security, scalability and availability at a cost that is orders of magnitude lower than a decade or two ago. Therefore, he adds that established businesses need to embrace this level of flexibility to innovate and evolve how they do business to avoid being consistently out-innovated by emerging players.
Analyzing the latest trends that have recently emerged in the cloud industry, John believes that the location of servers is not as vital or important as their security, performance, flexibility, and resiliency. The pace with which organizations have been able to adapt and scale cloud-based solutions out of necessity due to the pandemic has countered the commonly held notion that many “cloud solutions were not ready for primetime.”
‘Flywheel of Technology Innovation’
“With the flywheel of technology innovation spinning faster than ever, it is harder than ever to feel confident in predicting the challenges and opportunities we will face in five years,” says John. However, he is certain that his focus will continue to be on learning, evolving, and adapting to leverage innovations in the field of AI, machine learning, analytics, and natural language processing.
Speaking of the company, he adds that bswift is focused on helping individuals make great decisions about their health as well as other benefits. Therefore, the company will continue focusing on ways to leverage technology to fulfill its mission.
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