Retirement Concepts
Reliable IT systems built on the Microsoft platform help provide more efficient care for retirement community
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Company Overview
With retirees constituting the fastest-growing segment of the Canadian population, efficient and reliable care is a key concern for those nearing and over the age of 65. In fact, within the next 25 years, one in five Canadians will be over 65.
Business Challenge
Vancouver, B.C.-based Retirement Concepts offers a full range of services to seniors and their families, in response to the growing need for housing, care, respite services, adult day centres, wellness seminars and information.
Over the past 16 years, Retirement Concepts has opened new facilities across British Columbia and one in Quebec, expanding from one site in 1988 to nine locations by 2004. Each new site was managed independently, but reported its accounting and payroll information to the Vancouver head office. As new locations opened and more employees were hired, Retirement Concepts purchased more PCs to support its growing staff, and used whichever operating system shipped with the PC, resulting in a heterogeneous IT environment.
“We expect to open two to three new facilities every year and our goal is to keep costs affordable for seniors,” says Alan Owen, Director of Information Systems, Retirement Concepts. “While we want to ensure our employees have the tools they need to work effectively, we are also focused on decreasing redundancies in administrative duties, increasing the efficiency of our staff, and ensuring the security of our internal documents and residents’ files.”
The accounting and payroll department was one of the areas where duplication of work was a problem. When new Retirement Concepts locations were opened, the company did not connect them to its internal systems. At the end of each week, staff in the local offices recorded employee time in Excel charts, which were then sent to the head office where the information was retyped into the accounting and payroll application. Each office developed Excel charts formatted and structured according to each office’s preference, making it difficult to train new or temporary accounting staff at the head office. In addition, the re-keying of information created errors in the entries.
Another area the organization identified as inefficient was its ability to collaborate internally. The company’s outdated e-mail system lacked a group calendaring ability which would allow employees to easily book meetings with coworkers and work together online.
Lastly, Retirement Concepts wanted to ensure that its IT systems were up and running. The company’s outdated server and desktop operating systems, compounded by the lack of consistent internal IT support, created an unreliable and inflexible desktop PC environment. With frequent computer crashes and reboots needed, administrative staff were spending time on the phone with an IT help desk, instead of being free to immediately respond to client needs.
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Solution
Retirement Concepts wanted to focus on its core competency – caring for the retired and elderly – so it looked for a partner to help create a stable and reliable IT environment that would grow with the company, as well manage its IT systems. To manage its growing need for IT support in a cost-effective manner, Retirement Concepts identified Dyrand Systems as a partner that could manage networks and security, identify IT needs, and develop preventative measures early. After assessing Retirement Concepts’ business needs and current IT systems, Dyrand Systems recommended upgrading the company’s desktop and server operating systems, which Dyrand Systems would then manage remotely.
Caring for the aged operating system
“We had purchased new PCs to provide staff with access to a computer, but hadn’t upgraded our desktop applications consistently,” says Owen. “We had a bit of everything running on the desktop – Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000 and different iterations of Office as well. This made it difficult to manage our IT systems and hampered collaboration efforts.”
Dyrand Systems identified the outdated desktop operating system as a drain on staff efficiency. To decrease the number of crashes and PC reboots, Retirement Concepts upgraded to Windows XP Professional Edition, and then to Windows XP SP2.
“Because our business is centred on fast, reliable response to our customers’ IT issues, we only work with customers who are willing to upgrade or who are using Windows XP SP2,” says Ed Anderson, Dyrand Systems. “By moving customers to Windows XP SP2, we can manage them more easily, enhance IT security and decrease the amount of support they need from the help desk.”
Collaboration from anywhere
To allow for easy calendaring and collaboration, Retirement Concepts implemented Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Office 2003. With Exchange Server 2003, Retirement Concepts staff can send and receive e-mail and other forms of interactive communication through its computer network. The combination of Exchange Server 2003, powered by Windows Server 2003, and Outlook 2003 provides integrated collaborative messaging features such as scheduling, and contact and task management capabilities.
To keep a multi-site retirement facility running efficiently, Retirement Concepts needed tools to help manage scheduling, keep track of staff availability, and ensure that the appropriate resources, like meeting rooms, were available at the right time. The Terminal Server component of Windows Server 2003 also allows Retirement Concepts staff the added flexibility of access to Windows-based applications from any computing device in any of its remote offices.
“As our business grew, so did the number of people in the head office, and it became quite difficult to schedule a meeting by sending out an e-mail hoping that everyone, including the boardroom, would be free as well,” says Owen, Retirement Concepts. “Even though we’re a small organization, we realized that our staff needed to work with the same applications as a large enterprise to effectively and efficiently get their jobs done.”
Business Benefits
Since upgrading its desktop and server IT environments, Retirement Concepts has realized significant cost savings, efficiency increases and collaboration abilities. “We have a Microsoft solution that allows us to focus on growing our business and serving our customers without any limitations imposed by outdated IT,” says Owen.
Desktop stability and employee flexibility
With Windows XP Professional, Retirement Concepts is able to provide staff with a more reliable PC environment. By upgrading its PCs to the same platform, updates and upgrades can be pushed out to the desktop easily.
“We have seen a 50 per cent decrease in help desk calls since we implemented Windows XP Professional with SP2,” says Anderson, Dyrand Systems. “Not only does this help us focus on more strategic technology upgrades and issues, but it also decreases the costs for Retirement Concepts.”
By implementing a Microsoft Terminal Server and VPN technology, Retirement Concepts staff can now access their applications and files easily and securely when away from the office.
Meetings made easy
With Outlook 2003 and Windows XP Professional Edition, Retirement Concepts staff can use e-mail to send information to colleagues, and can use the new Research service in Office 2003 to help translate medical forms and letters. This allows nurses and staff to access information to help residents quickly and more effectively. In addition, Exchange Server 2003 and Outlook 2003 collaboration features help staff share information more efficiently.
With the upgraded desktop environment, Retirement Concepts can maintain shared address lists that staff can view and edit; schedule meetings and book conference rooms by viewing schedules online; grant other people, such as administrators, access to someone else’s mailbox. Outlook 2003 allows the organization to keep track of people, facilities and equipment with group schedules, and users can customize Outlook 2003 to make managing those schedules more efficient.
“Outlook 2003 and Exchange 2003 have made collaborating with head office easier and more effective,” says Owen. “With this new Windows XP-based solution, we can respond to changes among our clients or between locations better and faster.”
Integrating processes
With the integrated innovation inherent in the Microsoft Office System, Windows platform and Microsoft Business Solutions - Great Plains®, Retirement Concepts is able to reuse and manipulate data from one application to another program. Using PivotTable® dynamic views in Excel 2003 and extracting information from Microsoft Business Solutions for Financial Management - Great Plains, Retirement Concepts is able to better analyze data and make strategic business decisions.
“The more we automate our business processes, the more efficient our staff becomes, helping them focus more on the residents,” says Owen, Retirement Concepts.
Accessing applications
“From an IT management perspective, Windows XP and Terminal Server enhance Retirement Concepts’ software deployment capabilities,” says Anderson, Dyrand Systems. “Remote desktop for administration in Windows Server 2003 also allows us to help users quickly, through any issues they encounter. This increases our response time, and helps us meet our service level agreements.”
With Terminal Services, Retirement Concepts was able to decrease maintenance costs by centralizing software distribution, securing data in a central location, and better managing software licenses.
The ability to access information from any Windows XP Professional-based PC using Terminal Services helps streamline business processes and decrease redundancy of information. Retirement Concepts staff can send e-mails, access the network through a VPN, and use Microsoft - Great Plains for accounting and reporting. This has helped the company reduce the amount of work in each office by eight hours a week.
“With ubiquitous access to Office 2003 and Great Plains, each office has decreased statement preparation time by 20 per cent,” says Owen. “Now, we can enter accounting and payroll information once into the system and pull accurate, up-to-the-minute financial information, so we can make informed operational and strategic decisions.”
With Windows XP Professional Edition as the backbone of Retirement Concepts’ infrastructure, the company is able to rely on its IT in helping make key business decisions.
Microsoft Windows
Over the past two decades, Microsoft Windows® products have evolved from a single, one-size-fits-all desktop operating system into a diverse family of operating systems and mobile technologies. Today, Windows products help people worldwide achieve their potential at work, home, and just about anyplace in between.
For more information on Windows products or services visit www.microsoft.com/windows
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For more information about Dyrand Systems products and services, call 604-408-4415 or visit the Web site at: www.dyrandsystems.com
For more information about Retirement Concepts products and services, call 604-662-4969 or visit the Web site at: www.retirementconcepts.com
