Visual Care is now Live

IDS Visual Care – Go Live

IDS Visual Care Blog

It was a big week at IDS last week, actually it’s been a big year!

Over the last 12 months IDS has been on a journey of continuous improvement. The events of last week marks a significant milestone in this journey. On Monday November 8th, IDS moved from an outdated Client Management System to a purpose built, dynamic and high-performance new system called, Visual Care.

To move an organisation from one software system to another takes enormous planning. Through the process we needed to identify IDS’s business requirements, investigate the various forms and spreadsheets being used and work through creating a system that would house everything the organisation needed, ‘under one roof’ to use a familiar analogy.

And so, the planning and development began, way back in October 2020. Through several lockdowns and hundreds of video conference meetings we planned, we questioned, we investigated, we built, we tested, we adjusted, we retested, we trained and then again, we retested. And here we are just over a year later!

For those of us in the Project Team there were sleepless nights, hoping we had not missed anything. Particularly in the lead up to Monday the 8th, as they call in the ‘project management’ world, IDS’s ‘Go-Live’ Day, where the switch would be made. Had we migrated every bit of data, did every piece of data land in the right place? Did we create a system that would be not only be user-friendly but one that would be the game changer that IDS so critically needed to serve its clients better?

The image you see shows how we chose to celebrate…an enormous chocolate cake! This was ‘Go-Live’ Day…and it was a massive success. The switch was flicked… we held our breathe… and then, like magic, everything just worked. We did it!

And sure, there are still minor tweaks to be made, and like all projects of this size, there will be a stage 2, which excitingly brings this technology straight into the hands of our clients to further provide choice and control.

For now, though as the office team become more and more confident with each day, we rest in the fact that we made a milestone move look somewhat easy. And was it easy? Well, as the famous African Proverb states, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together!” This was truly a team coming together to achieve a common goal.

On behalf of everyone at IDS we want to say thank you, to the team at Orchard Consulting, Donna, Vardy and Shilpa, without you this may never have come to fruition. To Lawrence, out data specialist who volunteered many hours pulling data into shape so it would behave the way we needed it to! To the VDS team in Adelaide, who created this wonderful software system that streamlines the admin laden demands of working under the NDIS.

To all the IDS employees, past and present, in the head office and the DSW’s in the field, you’ve been patient, incredibly cooperative, willing to assist and supportive along the way. And finally, to the IDS Board, for giving us the autonomy and having the faith that we could pull this off.

And we did.

Cheryl Lardner
Cherry Bamboo
Visual Care Project Lead
15/11/2021