May 20, 2025 —Over the last couple of months, I have had a packed schedule of meetings with team members and on-site visits with Affiliates. My focus has been on the Kendal System’s data, how it travels, how each Affiliate uses it, where data sharing is inefficient, and most importantly, identifying where data security can be strengthened.
Strengthening Data Security Infrastructure
I have been working closely with my partner in crime, TKC CTO Kurt Rahner. In March, Kurt and I concluded a 60-day project (I began working with Kurt when I was consulting with TKC before March) in which a group of the Kendal System’s IT brain trust identified gaps in security in the System’s infrastructure. We focused on file encryption, the security of our wide area network, disaster recovery, and, lastly, identity management. We created projects for all four areas with a 24-month timeline to complete them.
In March, we presented the group’s findings to the Affiliate CEO and ED Leadership Group. In April, all four projects were approved. We are now working on the first project, to harden or secure all the data in The Kendal System.
UKG, Digital Applications and Phones
At the same time, Kurt and I have been meeting with employee teams at Affiliate sites, including HR, Marketing and Sales, and also with resident groups focusing on technology for their community. These meetings have gelled two key projects. One is re-designing The Kendal System’s Payroll and HR Enterprise Resource Tool, UKG. The second is exploring a data management system to efficiently and securely manage prospective Kendal resident applications containing sensitive and private information.
In addition to these six projects, it is also time for our telephone system to be modernized from an on-premises physical Server phone system to a cloud-based Unified Communications as a Service (“UCaaS”) system.
I have been facilitating several group IT conversations where the prospective system’s functions, features, and costs are analyzed against the business requirements of each Affiliate so the Kendal System’s IT Peer Group can come to a consensus on what platform will be chosen and presented to The Kendal System’s leadership group. The UCaaS initiative is being led by the Enso Village IT Director, Tim Schafer. Tim joined Enso Village in 2024. In his last organization, he modernized it with both UCaaS and Secure Access Secure Edge (SASE). Tim has a great passion for this technology and significantly scrutinizes all the functions and features that could be available to The Kendal System. With UCaaS, Tim has started a pilot program for Affiliates to test Zoom as the leader in this platform.
Education in Cybersecurity
Later this month, I will start an 18-month educational course on IT cyber security policy and governance for the Affiliate CEOs and their IT Directors. The course will teach key business policies and identify cybersecurity frameworks for the System to adopt. The course will provide an opportunity for The Kendal System’s Leadership group to get to know IT on a deeper level and understand how adopting these best practices policies can help protect the Cyber Security of The Kendal System.
In June 2025, I will lead two educational remote meetings, open to all Affiliate and Hub Board Members. These meetings will provide a high-level overview and education on our technical work. There will also be an opportunity to address questions and concerns and have meaningful, deep-dive conversations. I encourage as many Board Members as possible to join these sessions. If any follow-up meetings or break-out sessions need to occur, I will make them available.
IT Sprint Group – Kendal as a Leader in the Field
Our CTO, Kurt Rahner, has formed a sprint group that is now exploring next-generation technology tools that can integrate into residents’ surroundings, enhancing the quality of their lives and safely providing us with instrumental business intelligence data that will put The Kendal System in a leading position for the Senior Living field to take notice of our lead.
Data-Analyst Position
Lastly, I am thrilled to announce that The Kendal Corporation has begun recruiting for a full-time Data Analyst. This key role of the Kendal System technology group is to transform raw and real-time data into actionable business insights through advanced data mining, AI integration, and dynamic Power BI visualizations.
The person in this role will build dashboards that aggregate key data across all our systems to provide meaningful and strategic data for each Affiliate and every department.
This will be the beginning of this role’s charge. Once they get started, they will work with different members of the IT teams and Affiliate business groups to find other ways to pull this data faster and lean into AI so we can move toward a live data-gathering operating model. This means that instead of leaning on automated tools to mine this data, the goal is for The Kendal System to have live data available to all key system areas.
Jonathan Jedeiken