UMMS hoppin’ with Toad

Medical school doubles It staff productivity

WORCESTER, MA – It took a Toad to get the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s databases hopping along steadily, says Raymond Lefebvre, director of database and reporting systems.

Developed by Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Quest Software, the Tools for Oracle Application Developers (now known simply as Toad) has become a ubiquitous mechanism for IT staffs around the country in the past 15 years.

“It has been in every place I ever worked,” Lefebvre said.

The latest generation of Toad has generated positive results at UMMS, he said, doubling IT staff productivity and reducing risk while supporting nearly 1,300 SQL and 125 Oracle server databases that drive mission-critical applications for the medical school and Commonwealth Medicine, the medical school’s healthcare consulting division.

Quest’s leading productivity software, including Toad for Oracle Xpert Edition and Toad for SQL Server have provided the medical school’s developers, administrators and database administrators with a simple, automated and consistent way to build, manage and maintain the databases that support vital enterprise-class business, facilities and ERP applications, including an Oracle-based international stem cell registry.

“We strive to be highly efficient in managing thousands of vital databases,” Lefebvre said. “Quest’s Toad software gives us access to robust features, such as built-in editors, SQL recall, schema compare and schema browser. We chose Toad after evaluating other solutions because of its deep, ‘Swiss Army knife’ functionality.”

Lefebvre says Toad also plays a key role in reducing information governance risks by helping to ensure compliance with HIPAA and SAS70 regulations, which require change tracking and auditing capabilities.

UMMS has a heterogeneous server environment, so Toad is used across all the platforms. Even with the school adding even more databases and taking on new lines of business, the IT department doesn’t need to add staff because Toad allows workers to take on extra growth seamlessly, Lefebvre said.

“Our Oracle and SQL DBAs can move between these servers – they would need to have the proprietary tools otherwise,” he said. “It would be a nightmarish situation to not have it…productivity would plummet and the staff says they would revolt without it.”

With a total of six database administrators, UMMS has been able to increase its productivity with no extra staff, Lefebvre said, because “Toad is not a tool, but a toolbox. With all these tools, the staff doesn’t have to read or memorize syntax like in times past. My team can go in and the tool streamlines the process for them.”

Amit Parikh, product manager for Quest, says the fact that Lefebvre and his team have been able to get more work done around the database is due to one of Toad’s most important facets, which allows customers to reclaim a significant portion of their time spent on daily development tasks.

“Database professionals need tools with functionality that’s deep and complete enough to amplify their productivity beyond what native tools can deliver,” he said. “Ray and the UMMS saw immediate value in Toad by reducing risk of error and improving level of efficiency through the automation of repeated database development and administration tasks.”

UMMS is also counting on Quest’s ChangeAuditor to become a useful implement for compliance and auditing as well, Lefebvre said.

“Our organization has four main purposes – higher education, health sciences, clinical research and human health services,” he said. “For HIPAA PHI, PII security and other sensitive data, we need to automatically create trails of changes made – the capability to show how changes were made and who made them.”

The organization has also expanded its suite of Quest products with the addition of Spotlight on Oracle and SQL servers, which provide operational diagnostics, administration and automated database tuning.

“The user community has always been fundamental in helping shape the evolution of Toad,” said Claudia Fernandez, director of product management for Toad Solutions. “The community-driven nature of the product is what made it such a success and so popular among the database community, and that aspect will never change.”