Blue Cross/Blue Shield of South Carolina (BCBSSC) has built a highly efficient information systems environment, largely based on IBM System z mainframes, that scales readily and rapidly processes the company’s high-volume, transaction-intensive workloads. BCBSSC has leveraged a clear understanding of workload optimization—the practice of running applications on systems best suited to serve them—and a rigid organizational structure to achieve extraordinary efficiency.

BCBSSC’s Workload

BCBSSC’s transaction processing workload is enormous; last year, it processed more than 825 million claims—a number that has grown steadily every year over the past decade. BCBSSC is among the largest processors of healthcare claims in the U.S.; it processed approximately $247 billion in annual claims in 2010—almost 10 percent of all national healthcare claims paid in the U.S. (see Figure 1).

 

To handle this massive workload efficiently, BCBSSC determined it needs:

• An information systems environment that can process large volumes of transactions and easily scale to handle the steady increase in annual transaction volumes
• A disciplined approach to building applications and efficiently managing this environment.

From a systems perspective, BCBSSC believes the IBM System z architecture is best-suited to handle a huge transaction processing workload. To efficiently run this environment, the company has structured a highly disciplined application development and management environment that helps contain developmental and operational costs while delivering high service levels to user organizations.

Workload Management Approach

According to Steve Wiggins, CIO at BCBSSC, five key elements have contributed to the company’s highly efficient information systems and development environment:

1. The relationship between executive management, line of business executives, and the IT organization
2. The skills needed to support the company’s process flows and growth plans
3. The company's information system design
4. How the company adheres to standards and implements best practices
5. How the company will support future growth by working with organizations to support the growth of IT skills.

Each of these elements deserves closer scrutiny.

Roles of Business, IT, and Business Process