Fast growing pre-hospital emergency assistance services specialist, Netcare 911, has implemented a Quintus CRM (customer relationship management) solution and an ESS (emergency services system) computer-aided despatch system.
The R3.5 million undertaking was project-managed - from development through to integration and implementation - by iLAB Project Services.
Netcare 911, synonymous with world-class emergency medical evacuation by road or air ambulances anywhere, any time in Southern Africa, has become a household brand. It is wholly owned by Trauma Link, a joint shareholding of Network Healthcare Holdings Group (Netcare) and Europ Assistance in a 75% and 25% split.
Chris Rose, CEO of Trauma Link, says the CRM solution, supplied by Dimension Data company eContact Solutions, has allowed Netcare 911 to split its 24-hour communications call contact centre into two separate entities after increasing the number of seats from 14 to 26. One half handles customer care and the other emergency services on the centralised call-taking number 082 911. The CRM solution is closely linked to a computer-aided despatch system supplied by Sysmans Solutions, and further improves time optimal response performance and service delivery.
"The power of the CRM solution brings real benefits for the emergency side of our business, while the improved customer care capability brings us closer to our members and delivers cross-selling and up-selling opportunities. It will allow us to increase the lifetime value of our customers and their share of wallet with us," says Rose.
He adds that the appointment of iLAB Project Services was integral to the overall success of the project.
"The inherent risks associated with CRM solutions are already high. This is why we decided to outsource the project management to iLAB Project Services whose unbiased team brought a combination of best practices and highly developed skills to the project."
The project kicked off in May with the initiation phase, which involved the contract negotiations with Sysman Solutions and eContact Solutions, including the definition of individual vendor deliverables and test criteria. This was followed by the definition phase, which saw the development of the business requirements and specification for the hardware, peripherals and software components of the project.
The project team moved on site at the end of July to set up a development environment for the two vendors which, under the guidance of iLAB Project Services, took the basic systems and customised them to meet the business requirements.
"Once customisation, user acceptance testing and business requirement testing were completed, 27 key success criteria were signed off for eContact Solutions," continues Debbie Nelson, MD of iLAB Project Services.
The next stage of the project saw the completion of the computer-telephony integration (CTI) work. This, Nelson says, consisted of analysing the environment, configuring the switch and the CTI server, integrating the new solutions with the CTI environment and testing.
Grintek Telecoms performed the testing as part of its requirement to support the CTI solution and initial user testing identified some changes which eContact Solutions completed for Netcare 911.
Workstations, software and technical integration took place at the call centre in conjunction with the training of staff. In addition, says Nelson, a disaster recovery project was spun off as a separate project, and medical aid data was cleansed to remove inconsistencies that would otherwise result in a corrupted solution.
Nelson says efficiencies at the upgraded and integrated call centre have been greatly improved. "Now, when the call centre receives a call, it can be established whether it is an emergency or if the call should be routed to the 24-hour non-emergency nurse advice line."
Emergency calls are diverted directly to dispatchers who are able to direct the nearest available response car or ambulance to the incident scene using satellite tracking devices in emergency services vehicles deployed around the country.
During the ensuing process of stabilising patients and transporting them by ambulance to hospital for handover to Emergency and Accident Unit staff, confidential patient treatment information can be captured on handheld computers with encryption capability for medico-legal recording. This can be then e-mailed to the call centre for analysis.
The system caters for seamless billing information to be generated and passed to the claims department at head office for processing and final billing.
"We now have one central enterprise-wide view of the customer and we can incorporate this technology into our wider IT strategy to include every customer or patient touchpoint," says Rose. "Through these powerful applications, we can improve coordination of the call centre`s objectives with those of our marketing, sales and emergency services to generate new revenues and acquire profitable customers."
Rose adds that the pre-hospital CRM computer-assisted dispatch system has streamlined operating procedures, facilitated data management and acquiring and retaining customers, and has simplified the delivery of mission-critical assistance solutions in emergency or disaster situations.
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