Access Homehealth

A not-for-profit national New Zealand health service, Access Homehealth provides support to 15,000 people in home care. Telephony is a critical resource for often home-bound people as it is for nursing and support staff at Access Homehealth who were using 13 disparate telephony systems across 20 sites that offered little more than call and talk capabilities.

Organic growth and acquisitions had resulted in Access Homehealth’s multiple and disparate telephony including POTS and hybrid offerings from Panasonic, Samsung and Nortel, that resulted in a “system that never worked.”

“No vendor except for ShoreTel had a solution that made sense in terms of us being able to administer it in one place, once. They could not match ShoreTel for its ease of use and flexibility.”

—Philip Hendry, CIO, Access Homehealth 

Telephony maintenance was a constant issue for the home-care organisation. Nursing and support staff at Access Homehealth were using 13 disparate telephony systems across 20 sites that offered little more than call and talk capabilities. There was no visibility across the system. It was difficult to maintain. Phone system service, as well as moves, adds and changes were simply being put on hold.

Access Homehealth needed a single image system that could provide nursing and other care givers with improved resources to deliver better homehealth care. It also had to be robust,easy to maintain and flexible.

“ShoreTel helps you create a world of new telephony-based services that takes your business to a higher level. Everything ShoreTel is largely out-of-box and is simple to use. Staff find it easy to learn, it’s friendly, and it provides you with the flexibility to move or add additional phones at almost no cost beyond handsets.”

— Philip Hendry, CIO, Access Homehealth 

Following a review of leading telephony systems, and working with consultants Telesmart, Phillip Hendry and his team selected a brilliantly simple ShoreTel Unified Communications (UC) system comprising ShoreTel 90 BRI voice switches, and 150 easy to use ShoreTel IP Phones models IP 230 and IP 115.

Other IP telephony systems reviewed during the tender process could not match the performance of ShoreTel.

Benefits include:

• Ten call center personnel employed at sites throughout New Zealand have been reassigned to more productive work, and the company has seen at least 30% savings in telephony costs.
• Savings of $2,500 per month in system costs were gained even after the costs of leasing and installing an upgraded data network were considered.
• ShoreTel eliminated the need for external support and a $300 Telecom cost for adding 70 users
• IT staff at Access Homehealth have visibility across the system, now consolidated in one location, Christchurch, with three call centres and nine virtual call centres throughout New Zealand
• ShoreTel has enabled Access Homehealth to transform its business eliminating travel costs and downtime by using ShoreTel Conference for internal presentations and training, free calls between branches, and improved nursing care resources.

“You can do things with ShoreTel that you cannot do with other telephony systems. It becomes an integral part your business far removed from the commodity approach that other phone systems operate in. It is an entirely different business proposition, not an add-on.”

— Philip Hendry, CIO, Access Homehealth