Full Life Occupational Therapy moves to Microsoft 365 to help deliver support to deaf and hard-of-hearing community.

About Full Life Occupational Therapy

Full Life is an NDIS national provider that takes great pride in supporting people with permanent and significant disabilities. The national provider is committed to helping the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.

Over the years, they have been tirelessly involved in developing innovative solutions that help them overcome any hurdles they may face when curing injuries, illnesses, or disabilities. Full Life specialises in various services that provide relief to patients with disabilities and help make their lives easier. These services include Assistive Technology and Equipment, Home Modifications, Case Management, and Occupational Therapy Aids.

Technological Challenges

During Covid-19, Full Life emphasised unprecedentedly expanding its operations. This allowed them to ensure that those suffering from hearing impairments were not left unattended due to the pandemic-imposed restrictions.

Catering to the needs of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community during the pandemic required shifting to online mediums. However, before working with A1 Technologies, Full Life faced many challenges in transitioning and managing online operations. Some of these challenges included:

IT Helpdesk

Due to the increased demand for therapeutic services in the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, Full Life had to shift from traditional face-to-face operations to using almost entirely online and digital tools. In addition, they also saw their staff numbers triple over a duration of eighteen months. As a result of such drastic changes, IT support and helpdesk management required almost full-time commitments and kept two employees fully occupied.

Platform Reliability

Another challenge that Full Life faced was identifying a reliable platform for conducting online operations. Medical data of patients is critical, and its confidentiality has an immense impact on the competence of the service provider. However, Full Life witnessed several technological challenges when using platforms provided by Google or Synology.

As a result of these challenges, the organisation witnessed lost files when their staff travelled to remote locations. In addition, conflict files became a daily occurrence, and the restrictions of limited file collaboration hindered the efficient operations of multi-user projects.

Lack of IT Training

Shifting to an online platform requires employees capable of IT management. However, the staff working at Full Life had limited IT knowledge and experience. Such staff limitations and the need for online services made operational continuity a massive challenge. As a result, Full Life required IT systems that their staff could easily understand and operate.

The Necessity for Change

Full Life understood that stabilising IT systems, platforms, and applications was crucial to support the growing number of employees. They also realised that the internal IT helpdesk was becoming an overwhelming operation. The two employees working to support IT operations and management were not specifically employed for IT and had to maintain their own roles at the same time.

In addition, 30% of the employees working at Full Life have hearing or vision disabilities. This prompted the need for them to have accessibility and support when using technology to perform their jobs. As a result, Full Life had to ensure accessibility and support for their clients and their staff.

``Full Life came to A1 with a clear brief, acute technology issues, and strong vision for where they were headed. All these elements made it much easier to design a robust solution that would help Full Life deliver better care, more effectively to their patients particularly in regional areas.``

Rob Rattray

Sales Director, A1 Technologies

The Solution

Considering all the challenges mentioned above, Full Life recognised that they needed expert technical support to ensure that their high-level goals or initiatives were met. The organisation understood that advanced solutions, such as Microsoft 365 suite, could help them deliver their services to remote locations and measure client progress.

When looking for solutions, Full Life realised that they needed accessibility support for deaf staff located across Australia and overseas. A statement from Full Life on how Microsoft 365 suite can help them deliver quality services reads:

``Clients are located all over Australia and often in remote locations. Technology allows us to bring services to them in these locations and stay connected with their progress. Ongoing support is also provided via technology. All staff work remotely, with occasional office days, and therefore require technology to stay connected and functional.”

Celeste Shackleton

Business Process Improvement, Full Life

They required a secure and reliable platform that allowed them to access and store client files and ensure project collaboration. They also required that the platform be easily integrated with current systems and tools such as Trello, Slack, and Zoom which the staff already used. In addition, Full Life has placed great emphasis on becoming a business that has a competent IT support team as opposed to one or two employees handling IT support.

“They appeared well organised and knowledgeable in their service and how to implement the service. They had a well-communicated plan and managed the process of migration well. This was better than other vendors trialled. They were able to provide IT Helpdesk services as well as platform services.”

Celeste Shackleton

Business Process Improvement, Full Life

Considering their technological challenges, A1 Technologies provides migration and IT support services to Full Life. These solutions help them ensure the high-quality delivery of their services to their clients across Australia. A1 Technologies ensured that:

Full Life’s staff successfully migrated to the Microsoft environment.
The staff members received adequate training on these new platforms.
The staff members had access to support for ongoing IT helpdesk operations.

The Benefits

Employees who had previously had the added responsibility of IT support can now return to their full-time roles, easing administrative overhead, and allowing them to focus on their clients.

Document collaboration on complex projects, which was once a challenge, has now become more streamlined and accessible anywhere. File sync and lost file issues have reduced dramatically which has improved productivity and compliance.

General IT knowledge, across the organisation, has also improved due to support and training materials provided by A1 Technologies, which is easy to understand and implement.

“The whole migration process went really smoothly. There were a lot of lessons learned from the previous migration to Synology, and A1 was sympathetic to these learnings.”

Celeste Shackleton

Business Process Improvement, Full Life

Need Help With Your Microsoft 365 Project?

Need a technical solution that will grow with your business, alongside expert Microsoft 365 advice when you need it? We can help, just like we did with Full Life Occupational Therapy. Contact A1 Technologies to learn more.