How data helps geographically dispersed care organisations

How many of our care homes are at capacity?

What is the profitability (or loss) of each care home/region?

What does our forecast capacity look like based on the age of our residents in each home/region?

How many rooms/carers do we have available in each region to let our sales team know where to sell?

How many carers do we need per 100 residents based on previous trends?

How do we forecast the number of new hires we need based on churn and growth?

We have been answering these questions plus a whole lot more for our care clients by creating the ability for these businesses to access live data for planning, budgeting and forecasting accurately, creating better value offerings for their clients. Which is the only thing that matters at the end of the day, right? This data driven decision making is inherently based on trusting the data you are seeing and using. So why is it so difficult to have data you can trust in a geographically dispersed business?

How do we know what is trustworthy?

No one in a business will feel comfortable making big decisions on bad data, yet I have personally witnessed many exec boards and senior managers making decisions on data that has been cobbled together in manual Excel spreadsheets and manipulated following ad-hoc process with very little control in place. The significance of multiple small handling errors can have huge impacts if not correctly managed through data quality mechanisms that should be automated at data capture and quality checked at transformation and reporting.

Trusting data relies both on knowing and understanding where the data has come from, but also trusting the right protocols are in place to capture errors right from the start. This sounds like a lot of work, which it is, but there are many quick wins to create visibility with very little investment before realising value and shortening lead time between operations and decision making.

The care industry is particularly interesting based on the dispersed nature of their operations. With carers, homes, residents, clients, and support usually working across the country, the ability to have a clear and concise overview is extremely difficult without the right technical infrastructure to bring it all together.

What has changed in technology that allows dispersed medium sized businesses in the care industry to use data?

The introduction of cloud and data services, low code/no code apps, and full-time connected devices, allows us the ability to create solutions on a single platform to collect data, process data and report on it using everyday tools like emails, SharePoint, Power BI and Power Apps across a dispersed workforce placed around an entire country.

These new technologies have historically been out of reach for non-enterprise businesses due to the high capital investment and long lead time to value realisation which smaller businesses couldn’t afford. This has now changed due to the consumption type model and subscription-based services that are available for almost all new services in the industry. This shift has opened the door to the dispersed SME market and we are taking advantage of this evolution in technology by providing this expertise to our clients.

So where do we start?

We start by looking at your business objectives and determining what data you need to support those objectives. A data and digital transformation roadmap is then developed to close the gap between these two entities and outline the series of projects to get to a trusted data driven decision making solution. The fundamentals are built on linking business objectives to specific data metrics that allow us to measure accurately.

This is a highly simplified version of a data strategy which becomes more complex when you start building the roadmap of projects to get to your ideal state. Combining this evolution in technology with an agile delivery approach, enables SME businesses to realise value early and quickly alongside their investment. We have seen savings in the magnitude of 30-45 days of effort per week for some care clients who can then better utilise these incredible people to create more valuable service offerings for your clients.

We are excited to see how this small technological step will impact the greater care industry where budget and cost savings are always front of mind while trying to provide valuable services in a dispersed delivery model.

Find out more

With the right IT support, care providers have access to a broad range of technology that can make a real difference in improving the quality of care they provide. To discuss your organisation’s care systems in more detail, call 0333 3209 900 or email hello@zenzero.co.uk