Real Life Options partners with Advanced Computer Software Group to embark on largest IT project in its history
19 September 2011 - Real Life Options (RLO), a specialist not-for-profit provider of support services for people with learning disabilities, complex support needs and autism across England and Scotland, is establishing a strategic partnership with Advanced Computer Software Group plc (Advanced) to undertake the largest IT project in its history. Advanced is providing RLO with an integrated portfolio of IT solutions that will be hosted on-demand by Advanced 365 to support RLO's growth plans and to enable personalised, cost-effective and transparent support services. The planned go-live is Q1 2012
Real Life Options will be implementing a tailored suite of care solutions from the Advanced Health & Care division including StaffPlan Roster, iConnect and CareSys – a care planning, financial, operational and management application designed specifically for care providers. In addition, RLO will be implementing financial management, human resources (HR), payroll and document management systems delivered by the Advanced Business Solutions division. This integrated IT platform will streamline processes and enable the real-time sharing of information for improved care delivery. Alongside the appointment of Mandy Senior as IT Systems Support Coordinator, this demonstrates the commitment and importance that Real Life Options is placing on innovative solutions and new ways of working across the whole organisation.
Tony Myers, Director of Finance from Real Life Options says, "We operate a few manually-intensive and standalone IT systems that are unable to support our growth aspirations and commissioners' requirements for clear evidence of tailored, cost-effective services. Using Advanced's comprehensive software and services, we will be at the leading edge of care delivery and effectively supported as we grow."
With Advanced's solutions, Real Life Options will have complete visibility of what support is being provided, how it is being provided, by whom and when. Using iConnect, which is an electronic monitoring solution that uses near field communication (NFC) enabled mobile phone technology, Real Life Options will even know exactly when a support worker enters and leaves the home of a person who is being supported. This information will be fed through to StaffPlan Roster in real-time so that support workers' appointment diaries can be updated and service delivery information can be recorded centrally and shared.
Tony says, "When arriving and departing people's homes, support workers will touch their iConnect mobile phones against small RFID tags placed discreetly in the person's home. This will record and relay exact times of support delivery."
"With this level of detail at our fingertips, we will be able to provide the people we support, their families and commissioners with detailed and personalised reports and a clear breakdown of costs. Manually processing support workers' timesheets will also be a thing of the past."
1,400 staff timesheets are currently completed on paper, posted to head office and processed manually at the end of each month. This manually-intensive and costly practice will be replaced with automated processes, cutting administration time and ensuring the accurate recording of hours worked.
The integrated suite of applications will be hosted and managed by Advanced 365, providing RLO with instant access to its IT solutions as and when required via the internet. The Advanced On-demand service removes the cost, time and hassle associated with managing IT in-house.
Tony comments, "We are embarking on the largest IT project in our history so that we can deliver high quality and tailored support in a cost-effective manner. With this in mind, why would we risk managing all the software applications ourselves? As our expert IT partner, it makes perfect sense for Advanced to manage our IT systems on a day-to-day basis, ensuring that they are fully operational and working effectively across all our sites, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year."
