Customer Story | Meals on Wheels SA centralises IT to realise $50,000 cost saving

Meals on Wheels SA centralises its IT environment to better coordinate thousands of daily deliveries

Almost everyone has heard of Meals on Wheels. It was first formed in South Australia (SA), in 1954. Founder Doris Taylor MBE, wheelchair-bound from an accident as a teen, empathised with the challenges of those returning home from the hospital. She noted, in the elderly in particular, that they had trouble shopping and preparing meals for themselves, often depriving them of the ability to live independently.  Meals on Wheels was her remedy. Nearly seventy years on, more than 50 million meals have made their way into SA homes. The organisation is currently providing 4,300 meals per day to customers across the state.

 Key Challenges

• The state-wide operation included a vast degree of variation among branches

• There was no single payments system and accounting was resource-intense

• COVID-19 caused a surge in demand that could only be met by a centralised model

In every other Australian state, Meals on Wheels operates as several independent entities. However, Meals on Wheels SA is a state-wide association with 80 branches. Some were established under the state-wide model, while others were independent organisations incorporated into the association - the latter managed their own affairs, with committees, treasurers, bank accounts and chequebooks. Add to this that many pre-dated the internet, set up without the benefit of computerised systems, and you get an idea of the variation within the Meals on Wheels model.

Even so, it’s a model that has served the community well for 50 years. Testimony to its success is the tenure of its volunteers. Among seven thousand volunteers, the average age is 75. David Smith, Executive Manager, Corporate Services for Meal on Wheels, recalls the first time he attended an annual award ceremony recognising long term volunteers; “There were 40 people who had been volunteering for 40 years,” he says. 

COVID-19 caused a surge in demand

When COVID-19 arrived in early 2020, hitting Australian businesses hard, Meals on Wheels wasn’t one of them. “Quite the opposite,” Smith says. A surge in demand for meal services presented the organisation with the challenge of meeting it with maximum efficiency.

Growing fast in a controlled way required digitising and automating financial processes. It also called for complete compliance with Work health and safety (WHS) standards which view volunteers as employees, governed by the same safety rules. This includes 75 to 90-year-old volunteers who'd never had to think about them before during their working lives. “They've always stood on a ladder on top of a table to change a light bulb, so why would they not do it now?” says Smith. 

Finally, the model needed to flexibly accommodate digital and non-digital interaction. Any assumption that in time everyone will become comfortable with internet-based services doesn’t take into consideration the aging population. “Just because you are computer literate now, it doesn't mean that when you're 85 or 90 you're somehow going to be magically better. And so this market for people who are getting older, and some of their capacities have diminished, they're always going to need a meal delivered to their house,” says Smith.

Meals on Wheels SA contacted Advance Business Consulting to help them cut through these requirements to arrive at a system that would allow them to grow securely with a fraction of the effort while getting more from their technology and data.

The challenge of connecting everyone

Creating a common organisational infrastructure was a priority. But not every branch had a physical office to call their own, and a few smaller branches had been relying on their own computers to log into Meals on Wheels. Smith leaned on Advance’s consultancy services to design an infrastructure capable of accommodating what Smith refers to as the “lowest common denominator of what you need a computer to be.” In this way, it would be embraced by everyone, regardless of their circumstance.

Security was top of mind. “If you have to put a secure internet connection in a branch and a managed computer, and that computer is only going to be used for one hour, twice a week, it's quite a big investment for a very small use case. Also, you don't know who's going to be using it. It might be 20 different people in a branch,” says Smith, who looked to Advance to propose the most viable security strategy.

Opportunity to streamline payments processes

Digitising and automating payments within one simple payment system was identified as an excellent way to inject efficiency into operations. In the past, Central Office would invoice the branches for meals delivered, and reimburse costs incurred by them. If those costs had been incurred directly by Central Office and not the branch, which sometimes happened, another invoice would be issued for the money to be returned. A reconciliation was completed every three months on a simple electronic cash book, to check the accuracy and retrieve surplus funds advanced but not used. There was also an exercise of distributing funds from more profitable branches to those who needed “propping up” to ensure equity across the model. Accounting in this way took time and resources that Meals on Wheels decided it would prefer to apply to service excellence.

Solutions:

• Advance standardised how branches connected to Central Office

• World-class security was built in via VPN enabled teleworker devices

• M-Files automated important processes like payments and reimbursements

One simple means of connecting

Advance migrated Meals on Wheels from Telstra 4g connections to a Cisco Meraki SD-WAN with Teleworker VPN, which has proven to be incredibly successful. Teleworker devices are not carrier dependent, for one thing, which supports the association’s need for flexible connectivity, as well as delivering world-class security. In this model, secure corporate LAN connectivity is extended to employees at remote sites via Meraki APs (access points), without needing them to install VPN software on their devices themselves. It can all be done centrally, keeping things simple. 

Added security benefits are realised through Meals on Wheels’ ability to whitelist applications, making them unavailable to users on their devices, as well as best-in-class anti-virus software. This provides better protection from hackers. “Meals on Wheels is a very well-known name, which unfortunately makes us an obvious target for cybercrime,” says David.

A unified payment system

Improving the efficiency of the outgrown payment system began with eliminating the need for branches to pay their own invoices. “How do you get at branches to be able to effectively send invoices into Central Office if they want to send them by fax, which some still do?” says Smith. “But of course, that really just pushes the workload elsewhere.”

Advance suggested M-Files, a document management system for coordinating the right information to the right people at the right time. This immediately gave branches the ability to scan an invoice, sign to confirm goods had been received, and be paid automatically. Where branches don’t always have a reliable internet connection, M-Files helps with that too: “M-Files was great because we could actually fall back to a mobile phone to do the same thing,” says Smith. “And in a couple of cases we still do use the fax, but what it means is no longer needing branches to pay any bills”

Verifying and reimbursing drivers

Additionally, M-Files was set up to support driver reimbursement. Volunteers are paid a fee per delivery for their petrol and wear and tear. “They used to be paid in cash. The driver could take the money and if they didn't, it got flipped into a bucket and then banked as a donation,” says Smith. M-Files has automated the entire process with a workflow that lets Meals on Wheels collect a declaration from drivers with their bank account details for payment. Stored securely in M-Files, it can be centrally and accurately managed. 

“We realised while we're doing this, it would be useful to check that the person we're paying a driver reimbursement to is actually a volunteer,” says Smith, explaining that people used to get roped in to be a deliverer and stay for 10 years when they're not actually on the books. If they're not registered, it means they haven't had a police check. “Right through this process, we found little added gains from simply just trying to improve a process,” Smith says.

Compliance is much easier

Driver verification is one aspect of compliance, but it’s not the only one to benefit from the new technology-enabled operational model. Meals on Wheels can now issue communications on things like Work health and safety rules to employees and volunteers with minimum effort and feel confident they have been received.

Outcomes:

• Closing the branch bank accounts saves $50,000 per year

• New employees can be onboarded, from anywhere, in moments

• Centralised management of data drives compliance across 80 branches and 7000 volunteers

When you no longer need to pay for anything by cash or cheque, you don't need money. Meals on Wheels has been able to close all its bank accounts. This simple act is saving of $50,000 per year in bank fees and transaction costs. 

Security concerns are alleviated through central controls configured by Advance that let Meals on Wheels whitelist applications and prevent people from running programs that are not supposed to.

The project, which began pre-pandemic, turned out to be well-timed since it allowed Meals on Wheels to rapidly transition to a work-from-home strategy during COVID-19 restrictions with the Meraki teleworking devices. “When our staff had to work from home, it was a trivial matter to give them a network device with a SIM card in and connect them and get them working. It was an accidental benefit that really set us in good stead.”

Since kicking off its transformation, Meals on Wheels SA has gone from strength to strength, most recently introducing a new ERP system, Pronto, for dealing with manufacturing, and other important resources, with efficiency, and creating a host of web applications using low-code development tool Intrexx, provided by Advance.  

With the expansion of services no longer a heavy lift, the sky is the limit.

CONTACT US

For any further information regarding how Advance can help implement a successful digital process in your industry, get in touch with us here. We’re here to help!

KEY TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS

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Cyber Security | SD-WAN | Cisco Meraki

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Low-code development platform | Intrexx

How Important Are Windows Updates?

We’ve all seen the notifications for when Windows Updates are available, and I’m sure most of us have thought to ourselves “Again?! I only just installed one last week!”.

Have you ever thought to yourself why they pop up at what seems to be the most inopportune moments, and with such importance?

What is a Windows Update?

Windows Update is an inbuilt Microsoft service used for periodic updating of system files, to patch known issues and vulnerabilities with Microsoft products. This includes the Windows OS itself, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Edge, etc.

Each Microsoft Update is assigned an associated Knowledge Base number (KB) which gives further information on the updates. Updates are classified as one of four types:

Critical Updates

• These fix major issues, found across all Microsoft Products, that cause errors or unexpected functions. Alongside Security Updates, these are the highest priority updates to apply and should be done as soon as possible.

Security Updates

• Security Updates are applied to address security vulnerabilities which can allow a system to become compromised. Security updates have five different levels of importance; Critical, Important, Moderate, Low or non-rated. Security updates classed as Critical are the most important updates for your system and ignoring these can leave your server or computer vulnerable to hackers and other malicious attacks.
• Security updates are provided with a Microsoft Security Bulletin number (MS) for further details.

Software Updates

• Applied to cover non-critical problems, often applying feature updates and addressing minor bugs.

Service Packs

• Service packs are an amalgamation of all updates up to a certain date, for a specific piece of software or operating system, typically including feature updates.

How can I ensure that my systems are secure?

All recent Microsoft Operating Systems have in-built automatic updating features, which allows you to schedule and download high-priority updates.

If you are managing multiple desktop computers and even servers, the most efficient and effective way to stay up-to-date is to offload what can be a mammoth task to a Managed Service Provider (MSP). Managed Service Providers employ professionals with years of experience maintaining, reviewing and applying Microsoft patches to a vast range of different environments.

Using monitoring software MSP’s are able to monitor patch statuses remotely and schedule regular patching cycles to ensure that all critical and relevant patches are applied as soon as they are available. If issues are to arise from any patches pushed by Microsoft, your MSP is able to analyse the issue and determine which patches can be causing the issue and disable them, or roll-back where necessary.

By removing the burden of responsibility internally and placing it in the hands of experienced professionals, you can rest easy knowing that your systems are receiving the best in pro-active care.

If you are interested in what Advance can offer in this scope, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

5 Challenges Faced On Small Data Reporting

Five challenges faced on Small Data reporting

Big data is often touted as imperative to businesses, however in recent years perhaps we have been so blinded by Big Data that we are ignoring its poorer cousin, Small Data?

Big Data simply put looks at trends, information and patterns that can be utilised to forecast as well as give an overview of how your business is tracking. Big data takes high volumes of different sets of data and displays this information in a way that management can make decisions quickly and efficiently. Usually Big Data is generally generated outside of the business to assist the business make decisions moving forward.

Small Data on the other hand allows for the business to extract transactional information from data sources that end users can make use of immediately. Its focus is on providing information to the end user, so they can take action right now. It allows users to be able to determine why things happen, analyse this in real time and then take corrective action. Small Data can be generated as a sub set of Big Data or from other non-traditional data sources. The main thing to remember here is that it helps the end user achieve a result.

Big Data and Small Data each have their place in the business aiming to make inroads into improving decision making ability and resolve problems.

Formulating a plan to extract Small Data that suits each need within the company is paramount. If you ignore Small Data over Big Data then you are robbing yourself of some analytical tools that can help your company develop and improve.

Challenges facing managers looking at developing tools that allow Small Data reporting is:

• what type of data is required?
• where will it be obtained?
• who requires it?
• what format is it required?
• how will you extract the data?

The best methodology is to look at the problem you have and work backwards from that point.

As an example let’s look at the problem statement “Average Days Debtors take to pay have increased”. If we look at our challenge we can see that want to interrogate each customer and determine what the payments days are for each invoice payment has been made against (What). We check with accounts and find that this data can be retrieved from their SAP Accounts database (Where). It has been determined that Accounts Staff and Sales Account Managers will use the data (Who), accounts to chase up overdue accounts, and sales to check credit terms prior to selling. The decision then needs to be made as to what format they want to see the data in (What). An example may be a program that can run real time analysis of the accounting data and display that to screen. Selecting the right tool to extract and display this information is paramount to ensuring that the tool gets used (How). There are many good Business Intelligence tools that will allow quick extraction, analysis and display of the results the user requires.

As they say “look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves”. In other words Small Data can and will affect Big Data if looked after properly.