Interactive works with Homestyle to humanise technology
Interactive, one of Australia’s leading IT service providers, has partnered with Homestyle Aged Care, an aged care provider in Victoria with 10 high-quality purpose-built homes and one head office, on a range of IT projects.
At its core, Homestyle strives to provide the best for its residents, with homely comforts, aged care, and support. Creating a home away from home is a challenge that has no sleep, with 24/7 efforts required to ensure the comfort of the residents.
Following the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, residential aged care services in Australia came under significant pressure from both consumers and regulators to consistently deliver high quality aged care for residents.
Homestyle then grappled with a myriad of challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The sudden onset of the global health crisis significantly complicated their operations, as they had to navigate through the complexities of ensuring the safety and well-being of residents in their care.
The organisation found itself in a scenario where the familiar routine of caregiving was turned upside down, and the need for stringent data requirements and compliance added an extra layer of complexity to an already challenging environment.
Homestyle successfully overcame these challenges and sought a service provider that could partner with them to address the ongoing challenges and evolving landscape of the aged care industry. This included ensuring the consistent running of their technology, enabling the Homestyle team to focus on its philosophy of holistic residential aged care in an environment of caring, compassion and respect. The service provider needed to be able to grow with Homestyle and provide consolidated end-user support for 10 homes, a support office and over 1,500 employees.
Chief Information Officer, Peter Gunn, described this as a turning point for the organisation.
“The Homestyle team is committed to ensuring that each resident feels secure, safe, respected, and cared for. This is not only exclusive to nursing teams but across all departments. For us to succeed in our mission, we needed to protect resident’s data, ensuring that it is stored securely and is cared for by a team who are passionate about more than just technology.”
Interactive’s robust Interactive Anywhere offering, met the requirement Homestyle was looking for in an end to end managed services provider, including support for cloud migration, on-site support, and regulatory alignment.
Interactive’s Senior Business Development Manager – Cloud, Managed Services and Cyber Security, Tim Sparks, said that Interactive Anywhere felt like a natural fit for Homestyle.
“The ability to reassure family members that their loved ones are well cared for is a top priority for aged care providers, and this is largely underpinned by having the correct team to facilitate reliable communication. This focus on high quality care combined with the challenging regulatory environment that encompasses aged care means that Homestyle requires a flexible approach to IT. We’re really pleased to partner with Homestyle to help manage their IT environment.”
Interactive Anywhere is designed to deliver full managed services across infrastructure, network, end-user support and security. This provided Homestyle with a managed service partner who can optimise existing assets and strategically upgrade infrastructure when required to embrace emerging technologies and future advancements.
Gunn concludes; “Interactive understood our mission as it strives to make technology human. They care for their customers just as we care for residents choosing to live in a Homestyle Home. We knew we would be in good hands”.
