How ForHealth reduced service desk wait times by 92% and request fulfilment times by 85%

ForHealth supports over a thousand independent dental and medical professionals. Each provides quality, accessible healthcare to all Australians. Their goal is to ensure better health outcomes to every one of its patients.

They believe that where you live and how much you earn should not be a barrier to high quality healthcare. But the right of every Australian.

It's a mission they developed after they became independent from a larger healthcare group. A result of the private equity sale of the group’s dental and medical centres.

As such, they needed to separate the IT operations from the existing organisation. Establish it as a standalone entity. And build the infrastructure and resources to support its 80 centres and 3,500+ users across Australia. No easy task.

Allura connected ForHealth with Mark Buckley to deliver the entire program of work. As a largescale digital and tech transformation leader, Mark is at home in the unknown.

“I thrive in ambiguity. I love going into an area where there’s a blank piece of paper and a lot of chaos going on. Then, bringing some structure and discipline to that chaos and executing change.”

Within a year, Mark’s team had designed and implemented ForHealth’s core set of tech services. They'd delivered a nationwide network and telephony transformation. Migrated 180 workloads into the Cloud. Executed a 3,500-user M365 migration. And completed an active directory migration.

They also implemented the core back-office applications, which included a new ERP solution. And created a dedicated cyber security function. This is paramount when dealing with sensitive and valuable patient data.

Over 18 months, Mark built out the tech function. He recruited 25 permanent staff for this. And hired another 20 contractors to deliver the separation program. He also worked with Allura to build out his entire service desk offering.

“Allura earnt their value because they manage the whole life-cycle - from recruiting and billing to onboarding. It makes my life easier because the less time I spend recruiting, the more I can deliver value into the business.”

This is only the tip of the ice-berg when it comes to what Mark and his team achieved in a short amount of time. And especially as they delivered the entire program of work during the pandemic.

“We've changed it from an IT department that had dated and slow systems and processes, to one that's focused on driving revenue for the business. So, we’ve done a lot.”

When Mark joined ForHealth, the average call wait time on the service desk was 30-40 minutes. It is now averaging under 3.5 minutes. Basic service requests such as a new work station request used to take around 3 weeks. It now takes Mark’s team 2 days, thanks to better logistics and automated processes.

“This is a direct result of Allura’s recruits. They have been the sole provider on the service desk staff.”

This is a major win for ForHealth’s medical centres, who provide patient care 22 hours a day, 365 days a year.

“If we reduce the time it takes to resolve IT issues, health practitioners have more time to focus on what matters: their patients.”

Now that Mark has achieved what he set out to, he and his team are focusing on building out the digital strategy. Their aim is to make the patient experience as easy and helpful as possible.

“It’s an exciting 12 months ahead in what the future holds from a tech perspective. When patients see a doctor or dentist, they are usually under duress. If we can make that experience as seamless and stress-free as possible, then that’s what we’re here to do.”