Is Your Organization Keeping Valuable Customer Data in Spreadsheets or a Homegrown Access™ Database?

A Common Scenario
One of the most common reasons for buying Everest is to replace spreadsheets, old software or a paper-based process. Our expertise comes from over 40 years of software application development. We understand the trade-off decisions considering in-house software development vs. buying a commercial off-the-shelf solution such as Everest.

Resource Allocation
One of the key factors to consider is project resource allocation. Significant issues to consider include:

 The internal resources necessary to create the desired functionality
 The talent and resources needed to maintain and update the system
 The effort required to become a subject matter expert
 The responsibility and resources to keep the system tuned with the latest technical advancements

An internal development team may possess the programming skills and even the lengthy development time required, however the extensive ongoing refinement of Everest keeps it consistently ahead of the pack. With Everest, you get the latest technological advancements, feature enhancements and cross-industry best practices bundled into regular releases of the program. Our focus and software expertise are unmatched because of the simple fact that Everest is all we do at Lynk Software.

Reasons for Change
Is your organization still keeping valuable customer data in various Excel™ spreadsheets or a homegrown Access™
database? Everest is a smart choice for many reasons. Consider the following:

 Multiple spreadsheets make consolidated reporting difficult and very time consuming, while inconsistencies can cause numerous errors
 Internally developed databases require regular maintenance and are usually over-dependent on a particular individual for advanced procedures or troubleshooting
 Data analysis is a time consuming, labor intensive process
 Limited functionality and static system design
 No internal support or completely outdated technology
 Results are displayed or categorized wrong due to inconsistent entries into key data fields
 Does not scale well for an expanded scope across multiple departments or multiple locations
 Evolution of the business including sales growth, expansion, merger, acquisition or re-organization
 Regulatory compliance requirements or industry standards for improving quality

BACKGROUND
The Motor Vehicles Division wanted a database driven solution to track public requests about automobile dealers. What they got was a software solution that far exceeded expectations. 

IMMEDIATE RESULTS
ITD selected the Everest software as a replacement for the existing in-house database because it offered the department an opportunity to achieve immediate results.

“The Everest system has already enhanced the efficiency of the department by improving the accuracy of dealership information, streamlining day-to-day processes and providing a central repository of all dealership information,” explained project manager Linda Ford.

 CASE STUDY

IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY
The new Everest system does far more  than addressing public inquiries and concerns about Idaho auto dealers, Ford explained. It tracks enforcement actions against dealers, automates dealer correspondence, streamlines processes and generates reports for management; all with greater efficiency and improved workflow.

Information that previously resided in three or four locations, now will be consolidated into one, easy to access repository.

Source: ITD Transporter News Article by Mel Coulter, published March 12, 2010
http://www.itd.idaho.gov

“I have been in the software industry for almost 30 years. This is the first time that a software company has listened and implemented any of my suggestions. The only way that ever occurred in the past was when I was writing the code. So, I am elated that your company has incorporated my suggestions into their release. Please share my kudos with everyone else that was involved.”

Regards,

Paul Burkhardt
Application Support Analyst – MIS
Velcro USA Inc.

Thank you, Paul. Your compliment was so well received, we wanted to share it with our blog readers. ~Lynk Team

Hospitals and medical groups that utilize Everest to track and resolve complaints within patient relations have begun to collaborate with risk management in an effort to reduce potential litigation. How? They are quickly communicating with patients after receiving notification of a complaint. “Prior to implementing Everest,” shares one patient relations manager, “we had stacks of complaints waiting to be processed and not enough staff to enter them”. By automating patient feedback, patient relations is able to receive immediate notification directly from front-line employees through an Everest portal located at each nursing station.

Sorry Works!
In 2005, The Sorry Works! Coalition was founded in an effort to encourage hospitals to communicate with patients and their families about mistakes that are made as soon as the error is discovered. The cause of the error is investigated and procedure changes are intitiated. In some cases, the patient is offered a settlement. The core of this approach lies in the power of an apology. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon – or perhaps it does – to know that apologizing for a mistake you’ve made is the right thing to do.

The University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago experienced this first hand upon implementing a formal apology program in 2006. Since then, the number of claims has declined by 40%. This isn’t just risk management, it’s human decency.

The Everest Healthcare Solution enables a consistent, paperless process for patient complaints and patient grievances. With Everest, the essential relationships between patients and providers are scalable across a large healthcare institution which often includes multiple locations and a network of affiliated group practices.

Once the stacks of patient complaints on paper have been replaced by a paperless, automated complaint resolution system, representatives from patient relations are free to actually visit patients to discuss their concerns, along with more often than not, offering a sincere apology.

Hospitals are quickly moving toward increased visibility when it comes to patient care. 25.8 billion dollars of Recovery Act (ARRA) funds is going toward Health Information Technology and establishing electronic health records. In addition, it’s increasingly important to capture feedback from the patients themselves about concerns involving a hospital stay.

The overarching goal, of course, is to improve care and reduce costs.  Duncan Regional Hospital and the five hospital network of  Wellstar Health System capture and track all feedback from patients with the Everest software solution for healthcare. 65% of patient complaints are received by front line employees. It is critical that employees have a way to efficiently document patient concerns in order to promptly resolve them and avoid further escalation.

Making it simple to record customer feedback is the first step. The Everest Healthcare Solution includes a patient feedback portal that is an online form any clinician or staffperson can rapidly fill out at any computer workstation on the Hospital’s intranet. There is no login required for staff to utilize the electronic form so there is no limitation on usage or the volume of submissions. The result is a fast, simple paperless process for capturing all types of patient feedback.  Nurses and other healthcare professionals are busy and need to be able to enter a complaint, concern or service recovery as soon as they walk out of the patient’s room. Once the feedback is in Everest, it can be reviewed by a member of patient relations or the patient advocate to ensure that there is appropriate follow-up and resolution.

Excellent patient care  is the priority for these hospitals, but there are other goals as well. Everest includes real-time reporting and data analysis for ongoing performance improvement, quality management and  identifying systemic issues. Tracking actions with due dates and automatic email reminders is also an important way Everest helps improve accountability and promote full engagement across a large healthcare network especially those who serve patients across multiple locations.

Minimizing litigation risk is also important, and keeping good records is critical when it comes to preventing escalation of an issue.

Finally, management and administration can view this information at any time to monitor trends, view analytics, and discover where to focus hospital resources to achieve the best improvements in patient care.

Customer Case Study Video Interview with Accutron Quality Manager

Learn how the Quality Manager at Accutron achieved a huge 50% reduction in returns as a result of implementing the Everest Software Solution for Customer Service, Complaint Tracking and Corrective Actions with real-time Reports and Charts.

We’ve just put the wrapper on our new 6.0.4 Release for 2010! The official announcement and other details will be out very soon. In the meantime, here is a preview of new features you may find of interest. Release Notes: http://www.lynksoftware.com/help/default.htm?release_notes.htm .

Reports | Action Reports
Extensive standard reporting options for Actions are now available.
http://www.lynksoftware.com/help/default.htm?action_reports.htm

Reports | Queries
Now you can copy or rename a Query.
http://www.lynksoftware.com/help/default.htm?queries.htm

Administration | Imports
Three new import formats are now available.
http://www.lynksoftware.com/help/default.htm?imports.htm

• Concern Type Import
• Defect Code Import
• Sales Activity Import

Administration | Notifications
A new list view format for QuickLink URLs in notification templates will display the list of Concerns by Owner or Actions by Owner for the User immediately upon login.
http://www.lynksoftware.com/help/default.htm?keywords.htm

Administration | Logged In Users
System Managers can now view a list of users who are currently logged into Everest in Administration | Logged In Users. http://www.lynksoftware.com/help/default.htm?logged_in_users.htm

Two separate state Department of Transportation agencies choose Everest by Lynk Software for constituent complaint tracking.

The State of New Mexico, Department of Transportation will utilize Everest to track and resolve constituent concerns across all divisions within the department. The State of Idaho Tranportation Department  is now tracking car dealership complaints with Everest.

We are pleased to welcome both of these state DOT agencies as new Everest customers. It is certainly interesting that two separate state transportation departments have simultaneously chosen Everest.  Could the Everest software become the citizen complaint tracking system of choice for other DOT agencies throughout the United States in 2010? It is certainly possible since our nation’s highways, bridges and roads are an important focus area for a large amount of federal stimulus funding.

President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) into law on February 17, 2009. Since that time, nearly two-thirds of the $26.6 billion in Recovery Act funding available to the States for highway investment has been obligated and thousands of projects are underway. These projects create jobs for Americans and the transportation infrastructure improvements are very important for public safety and commerce.  For further details see: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration.

We recently had the privilege of interviewing several managers from Accutron, a medical device manufacturer that uses Everest to track product returns and internal non-conformances. It was a great experience to get a glimpse of the daily operations of this extraordinary organization along with some feedback about how successful they’ve been since implementing the Everest software solution in 2007.

We spoke to both the Quality Manager and the IT Manager about how Everest has changed things in their respective departments.

Let’s be honest, IT Managers frequently have love/hate relationships with outside software vendors, which is why we were so pleased to hear Mark Koenig proudly describe how Everest makes his life easier. He expressed appreciation for the integrity and quality of the product, saying that the the fact that it is so low maintenance frees him up to take care of other things. Mark sums it up simply from the IT perspective, “Everest is bulletproof.”

Ram Chaturvedi, the Quality Manager, enthusiastically reported a 50% reduction in product returns, high employee engagement and increased communication between departments.

I’m sure Accutron’s success has a lot to do with the positive attitude of these two managers and their employees, yet the fact that their jobs have become easier while product quality continues to excel makes us proud of the work we do for you… our customers.

…Stay tuned for the upcoming Accutron video case study, coming soon!

How does customer complaint tracking relate to employee accountability?

Through recent communication with Everest customers, we have discovered a surprising benefit associated with tracking customer complaints. Because every notification about customer or product issues is recorded in the Everest database, managers are finding employee responsiveness and accountability levels soaring.

One enthusiastic customer shared, “No one can say, ‘I didn’t know about it’ because the notification is recorded in Everest.”

Employees from different departments are now able to complete their action items and record the completed status in Everest. As a result of this improved internal communication and accountability, organizations can work together like well-tuned machines.

Accountability is essential to employee engagement. What gets measured is what gets done. Ownership, due dates, automatic email reminders, action tracking and real-time reporting are a few of the specific software features that reinforce individual accountability in Everest. WIth little or no added effort required by management, those who use the Everest software tend to be passionate and engaged in their work.

The feelings of accomplishment that result encourage employees to look above routine tasks to make extra effort which directly improves the overall welfare of the business. Most importantly, the easiest way to cultivate passionate, engaged customers is with passionate, engaged employees.

We are pleasantly surprised at how much Everest is helping departments work together so seamlessly. This has always been the idea behind our complaint resolution software, but to hear it over and over again from customers is highly rewarding.