WHITE PAPER

Drive More Cost Optimization with

Modernized Archiving

Change Your Wheels to Clearsense

Executive Summary

Healthcare CIOs are entering a new era of operational pressure. According to the Gartner 2026 CIO Agenda for Healthcare Providers, 59% of technology leaders now rank cost reduction as their top outcome priority.

In today’s environment, speed is a strategy. Multi-year, service-driven archiving projects can no longer keep pace with budget compression and workforce constraints. CIOs need a path to immediate operational savings—and that requires a modernized approach to application decommissioning built for velocity and scale.

Clearsense’s 1Clearsense Platform® delivers that acceleration—retiring redundant systems in months, not years, and transforming data archiving from a compliance expense into a strategic engine for cost optimization and innovation.

The Cost Optimization Mandate

  • 59% identify cost reduction as their new #1 outcome for 2026–2027.
  • 53% are launching new cost-optimization initiatives.

This movement makes cost optimization the new strategic action category, reflecting a fundamental reset: healthcare organizations are re-engineering IT portfolios to release trapped costs and accelerate return on investment. Speed to value has become the new competitive advantage.

In short, health systems are still pushing on square wheels to archive apps — expending tremendous energy with little acceleration.

Legacy Archiving is a Bottleneck to Reducing Technical Debt

Legacy archiving vendors were built for retention, not velocity. They rely on service-heavy, project-based models that consume resources, stretch timelines, and delay measurable ROI.

The Evidence: Trinity Health Case Study (Gartner, 2025)

In the Gartner case study, “Trinity Health Drives IT Cost Optimization With Legacy Application Decommissioning” (Barry Runyon, 27 June 2025), we saw Trinity demonstrate the impact of velocity at scale:

  • Implemented 1Clearsense Platform to modernize its decommissioning strategy.
  • Achieved over $68M in annual OpEx savings while improving access to historical data.

These results reinforce what we see across the industry: health systems that treat decommissioning as a continuous, platform-driven process—not a one-time project—gain a sustained advantage in cost, agility, and data accessibility. By replacing a multi-year, project-based approach with a scalable platform, Trinity compressed timelines, released OpEx faster, and embedded archived data directly into EHR and operational systems—proving that speed and scale compound financial benefit.

The Economics of Speed

Time compression amplifies cost savings. In one example, a health system that shortened its decommissioning from five years to one year achieved an additional $12M in cost takeout, totaling $20M in net reduction.

Cutting $1 million in technical debt operating expense at a typical 4% health system operating margin is financially equivalent to generating $25 million in replacement revenue.

Accelerated OpEx Cost Takeout

  • Immediate OpEx Reduction

We helped one customer slash their decommissioning timeline from 5 years to just 1 year.

When application archive and decommission is accelerated from 5 years to just 12 months, annual OpEx cost savings compounds.

  • Improved Security

Removed high-risk “Zombie Apps” to improve cybersecurity and reduce costs.

Eliminated $8 million in annual license and infrastructure fees in year one.

The above program created revenue replacement of $435M
$20M total OpEx reduction + 4.6% Operating Margin = $435M in equivalent revenue

The Clearsense Advantage: Modernized App Decommissioning That Rolls Rapidly

  • Faster and Larger Cost Takeout

Featured in Gartner and KLAS case studies, the 1Clearsense Platform has demonstrated enterprise-scale decommissioning in action. In our view, these outcomes validate the platform’s ability to convert years of missed opportunity into immediate ROI.

  • Revitalized Data Value

Rather than static archives, Clearsense unifies historical patient data into a longitudinal record, embedding it directly into EHRs and workflows for operational use.

  • Fuel for Innovation

Rapid cost reduction frees capital for AI validation, predictive modeling, and clinical trial expansion—turning data from a liability into a growth enabler.

Clearsense Featured in KLAS Emerging Insights Case Study for Powering the Largest and Most Impactful Application Rationalization

Clearsense’s recognition by KLAS underscores its leadership in modern data management and application decommissioning.

Key Highlights:

  • Recognized by KLAS Research for driving one of the industry’s most transformative application rationalization initiatives.
  • Demonstrated ability to streamline IT environments and unify data across silos.
  • Showcased platform-based innovation that enhances compliance, clinical access, and performance.
  • Validated approach that reduces complexity while maximizing operational and strategic value.

Conclusion: Velocity as a Strategic Asset

The new benchmark for healthcare CIOs is not simply compliance or uptime—it’s speed and magnitude to cost optimization.

Research confirms, the future of IT value realization lies in fast, scalable application decommissioning reduces cost, reclaims capital, and revitalizes data.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission.