Home care providers dip toes into cloud technology

Many industries in Australia are experiencing a shift in they way they use technology, and are turning to cloud based mobile communications, to better enable their workforces, writes Andrew Tucker.

One of these is Australia’s home care sector, which faces increasing demands including an ageing population and budgetary pressures.

Prestige Inhome Care is one operator that has responded by migrating from on-premises infrastructure to a private cloud-hosted infrastructure.

Prestige Inhome Care staff need to have access to their applications, documents and emails no matter where they are or what device they are using.

Most of their workers are mobile, often on the road and travelling from one client to the next. Moving to a private cloud helps connect remote staff and give them the same experiences as office staff.

Using the cloud also means Prestige Inhome Care is no longer reliant on a single location to facilitate its business.

Staff are now able to log on anywhere in the world. With an internet connection, which can even be a 4G service, staff can now connect to their private cloud and work as if they are in the same office as the rest of the staff.

Like other service providers in the sector,  Presitge Inhome Care holds sensitive client data, and patient privacy and security is paramount to their business.

Their system means data is now also stored securely in Australian data centres, which means it is safe and secure and can meet the standards expected by clients and regulators.

Scalable for growth

The issue for many businesses is finding technology that helps them grow while being elastic enough to respond to change.

A cloud-based solution scales to the number of services required, and services can be dynamically added or removed as the business requires.

This can be critical in facilitating growth and onboarding acquisitions and new sites quickly and with minimal expense.

It can also result in reduced IT trouble shooting costs compared to managing hardware on premise.

The number one concern businesses have about going completely to the cloud is the migration process and the potential disruption to the business.

Because of the amount of sensitive client data they need to store and a plethora of different applications – such as case management systems – the IT environment can be intricate.

To ensure the security of sensitive data it’s important to look for a methodology that allows for speedy implementation and integration.

Using a private cloud that provides secured access to real time data can translate into increased productivity, more effective and faster patient care, and ultimately enhanced client outcomes.

Andrew Tucker is the CEO of ITonCloud, which provides managed services and IT systems integration.