Ingeus

Ingeus provide services that help people across the UK make positive changes to their lives including building skills, improving their employment prospects, and assisting them to better themselves. With an ethos that “people with barriers to work should be supported to thrive, rather than left alone to just survive”, the company focuses on offering programmes in health, employment, youth services and justice. Originally founded in Australia, Ingeus is now part of the APM group and operates in countries across North America, Europe and APAC.

The challenge

One of Ingeus’ responsibilities is running health-related campaigns on behalf of various NHS England. Due to the sudden shift of their operating model as a result of Covid-19, it became apparent that a number of existing processes were required to meet the requirements of remote delivery. In addition, this was also a great opportunity to modernise working practices.

Previously there was no need to update their method of submitting patient progress reports to GPs via post, but this was now no longer practical. Patient data was housed in an on-premises data warehouse, which made connecting to external services – and therefore remote working – more difficult. Additionally, Ingeus wanted to create an automated process for patient notifications with the added complexity that the output had to be sent via secure mail.

Having worked with Transparity at previous organisations, Ingeus’ CIO recommended that their teams engaged with the Microsoft Cloud specialist. Transparity were ultimately chosen to deliver this project due to an excellent reputation in the industry, proven experience in implementing similar solutions, and the ability to work to the tight timescales needed.

The solution

Transparity implemented a solution based on Microsoft Power Apps and SharePoint, which enabled them to provide a proven, existing tool with custom elements that would help fulfil Ingeus’ requirements. Using this combination meant that the solution could not only be delivered quickly, but would be simple and cost-effective for the Microsoft Cloud specialist to support going forward.

To facilitate this, Transparity created a secure location within Microsoft Azure to house the  exported patient data, which would be easy to synchronise with Power Apps and thus make the automation possible. This would deliver patient progress updates to surgeries more quickly and accurately via the existing and trusted secure mail platform.

Additionally, Azure’s enhanced Microsoft Cloud Security features make it an ideal repository for sensitive patient data, so Ingeus could be confident that anything confidential would remain completely secure. With ongoing support from Transparity, the organisation knew that should any issues arise, swift remediation from Microsoft Power Platform specialists would be available.

The outcome

Ingeus’ new Cloud-based solution from Microsoft Gold Partner Transparity removes any need for manual data updates to take place, with patient information now sent automatically to GP surgeries and securely added to the database via Ingeus’ CRM platform. This not only improves security and significantly reduces admin time for staff, but saves on the cost of printing and postage associated with their previous physical method, leading to a complete ROI within the first year of deployment and cost savings thereafter.

Additionally, Transparity’s Application Support Managed Service assists with managing  the new solution, meaning that Microsoft Cloud experts are on-hand to help should it be necessary. This frees up Ingeus’ in-house teams to focus on delivering internal projects.

“Transparity took time to understand our challenge at both a technical and operational level.  They proposed a solution that provided us with the appropriate level of controls post go live. The project team were supportive and ensured project milestones were achieved. The overall outcome for our business was much more effective and a much better service for our end customers.”

Joanne Lewin, Director of Supply Chain