Lifeline Speeds Critical Services with RightFax Automated Universal Information Exchange
"After my surgery … I kept falling down. I was scared and couldn't call anyone. Now I know I can get help when I need it.
They call it ‘Lifeline,’ I call it my ‘Life Saver’!” (Judith, Lifeline subscriber since 1977)
Judith and thousands of other subscribers rely on personal emergency response from Lifeline Systems. To maintain status as
North America’s leading supplier of such critical services, Lifeline depends on effective technology solutions. Accordingly,
when the company updated its call center platform, it also searched for an automated enterprise fax solution that would support
its mission to improve, even save, lives.
BACKGROUND
For close to 30 years and affecting more than 5 million subscribers, Lifeline Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: LIFE) fosters independence
for elderly patients and peace of mind for their caregivers. Through Lifeline services, seniors have 24/7 access to help:
They simply press a personal alarm button to connect to a professional who will assess the situation and link the caller to
assistance.
Lifeline (www.lifelinesys.com) services are distributed through more than more than 2,500 healthcare organizations, community agencies and senior living
facilities.
Headquartered in Framingham, Mass., with three additional offices in the U.S. and Canada, Lifeline employs more than 750 and
operates monitoring facilities that handle 21,000 calls per day.
THE CHALLENGE
Commitment to excellence is expected at Lifeline, from interaction with customers to efficient technology solutions. Recent
awards include the Laureate in the 2003 Computerworld Honors Program, a nomination-based award recognizing companies who use
information technology to benefit society.
Handling information for hundreds of thousands of customers requires robust technology solutions—an area in which Lifeline
demands excellence. “We work to marry innovative proprietary technology with existing best-of-breed information technologies,”
Ken Kwa, Manager of Voice and Data Services for LifeLine, related.
In the center is Lifeline’s Care System service offering that controls customer data. It depends on technologies from Cisco,
Oracle, HP/Compaq, Intel, Microsoft, Xerox and others. When Lifeline needed to add faxing to Care System, it looked for innovative
design, flexibility and high reliability.
Faxing is a critical communication method for Lifeline services. When a Lifeline subscriber pushes his/her personal help button,
a watch-sized pendant worn around the wrist or as a necklace, a radio frequency signal activates the subscriber's home communicator,
which transmits an identifier used by a Lifeline agent in the response center. Upon receiving the alert, the agent determines
if there is an emergency and dispatches appropriate help.
Such incidents create “end-of-event” reports that are faxed to program managers, Lifeline’s partners in healthcare organizations
across the U.S. and Canada. Accessibility and security requirements necessitate reports to be sent to managers via fax: Some
hospitals rely on fax exclusively and find it to be an easier method for meeting HIPAA guidelines as compared to encrypted
emails.
Faced with a daily volume of close to 7,000 end-of-event report faxes, Kwa outlined the need for a dependable fax system.
“Lifeline could have serious repercussions without a reliable solution,” he said. “Program managers need quick information
to follow-up with subscribers.”
While an unofficial service level requires the reports are sent within two hours, the actual expectation is that the documents
are distributed nearly instantaneously, according to Kwa. One day without service would delay thousands of reports. “Because
of our critical volume, we can’t afford to get behind,” Kwa said.
While automation was Lineline’s top priority for a new fax system, employees also recognized the need for improved interdepartmental
communication. For instance, orders would be faxed and re-faxed by the sales and data entry teams. Although the departments
were in the same building, the data entry unit handled as many as 3,000 faxes per day, so 50 feet proved far enough for papers
to be misplaced. Lost faxes resulted in lost sales.
To manage its faxing needs, Lifeline looked for a reliable fax solution that offers scalability and useful features at an
affordable price.
THE SOLUTION
As an organization recognized for effectively using technology to benefit society, Lifeline knows a useful solution when it
sees one. “We liked Captaris RightFax right away,” Kwa said. “It made a lot of sense: RightFax fulfills a critical business
need for automatic end-of-event reporting, plus desktop faxing adds several other benefits.”
Lifeline installed RightFax in 1997 at the recommendation of inTouch Technology Corp., a Boston-based solutions provider.
"inTouch always provides expertise and clever solutions to Lifeline,” Kwa said. “We get significant value from our relationship
with inTouch."
Growth at Lifeline has been met by scalable RightFax capabilities. Most recently, Lifeline upgraded to RightFax Enterprise
Integration, a full-scale, automated e-document delivery solution within the RightFax Universal Information Exchange (UIX)
suite of products.
Lifeline found RightFax effectively integrated with its Care System for the automatic faxing of critical end-of-event reports.
Kwa explained: “Our Care System subscriber data has built-in triggers so if something happens to a subscriber, a report is
generated and sent as a ‘print job’ to RightFax. Embedded code in the report is also pulled by RightFax automatically extracts
the fax recipient and number embedded in the report.”
Without an automated, electronic process, end-of-event reports would not be distributed within the required timeframe or cost-effectively.
This reality was a deciding factor for Lifeline when it compared fax systems. “RightFax seemed to have more robust capabilities,”
Kwa said. And, unlike other solutions, RightFax works across a range of technologies and architectures, such as Unix, NT,
Windows 2000, Actuate, HTML, Postscript, PDF, email, printer spools, etc.
Since RightFax was initially installed for automatic outbound reporting, efficiencies from sending and receiving faxes at
the desktop have been an added bonus in the form of time and productivity savings, HIPAA compliancy and even additional sales.
Approximately 3,000 pages per week are sent to several internal customer service staff members who act as program managers
for hospitals. Before RightFax, the team would print reports and a supervisor would collect the papers to hand out. After
annotating, the staff would return to machines and manually fax the documents—a problem recognized by managers who did not
like to see several people waiting at fax machines rather than working at their desks.
With RightFax, employees receive documents at their desktop computers through integration with Microsoft Exchange. In fact,
for the customer service members handling communications logs and new subscriber reports, RightFax is set to automatically
distribute data to the next available agent—a more balanced approach for efficient follow-up with customers. Faxes are delivered
directly to users’ Inboxes alongside emails and may be managed with similar point-and-click forwarding and storing.
“Now, we see a lot of benefit with RightFax to electronically send the documents to customer service representatives who annotate
and file them for long-term storage and archival—all electronically,” Kwa related. “The documents never hit paper.”
While electronic storage leads to “nice and neat” filing, Kwa mentioned several helpful results of the streamlined process,
including HIPAA compliancy benefits. “The audit trail is important and a huge aspect of HIPAA,” he said. “It is easy to use
RightFax to see when faxes were sent and to whom.”
RightFax has also streamlined efforts to complete sales. “Once we got away from someone grabbing papers off a machine we gained
more control over faxes,” Kwa said. Electronic faxes never get lost in a pile or dropped on the floor, and various teams—such
as sales and data entry—can view faxes simultaneously, resulting in faster response.
Quick service in the sales and installation process is critical. To meet its commitment to offering exceptional customer care,
Lifeline works to install services within a few days after it has been ordered. Kwa explained: “Some subscribers are concerned
using emergency response services will make them appear less independent. As a result, if our sales team doesn’t get a sold
system installed quickly, subscribers who would benefit from the system may cancel.” In addition to ensuring customers are
protected, Lifeline avoids penalties by installing systems within set times.
Using RightFax, Kwa said the Denver office implemented a 24-hour turnaround to install service for customers, resulting in
tremendous success and growth.
Speaking of timing, Lifeline is glad to receive 24/7 reliability and room to grow with RightFax. The latest RightFax inTouch-architected
design provided needed dependability, according to Kwa. “Other solutions would have doubled the cost for redundancy and scalability,”
he said. “RightFax allows us to split board server components from the main server to create redundancy and fault-tolerance.”
Lifeline uses two RightFax Enterprise Integration servers on standard Dell Poweredge Servers split between its redundant facilities
in Framingham, Mass.
THE RESULTS
In review, Kwa said Lifeline has not tracked specific return on investment statistics, however he has noticed various project-related
benefits. “Certainly it’s fulfilling a critical business need, then, there are benefits such as the reduction of machines
and wasted time using hard copy faxing technology, the simplification of fax distribution, the improvement in clarity of inbound
faxes for our data entry team, the handy audit trail and long-term retention of files … even less filing cabinets for storing
paper!” Kwa laughed.
Future plans using RightFax and integrated technologies include advancing paperless initiatives, adding Captaris FaxFiler
(an add-on archival utility for RightFax), and using ACXION, (an inTouch workflow add-in for RightFax).
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Captaris is a leading provider of business information delivery solutions that integrate, process and automate the flow of
messages, data and documents. Captaris produces a suite of proven products and services, in partnership with leading enterprise
technology companies, delivered through a global distribution network. Captaris has installed over 80,000 systems in 44 countries,
with 93 of the Fortune 100 using the company's award-winning products and services to reduce costs and increase the performance
of critical business information investments. For more information please contact www.captaris.com or 1.520.320.7000.
About inTouch
inTouch Technology Corporation helps companies achieve higher returns with software automation that leverages existing information
infrastructure. With inTouch, companies merge email, fax and paper-based processes into a streamlined managed work process
delivered via Web Services. For close to a decade, a loyal multi-national customer base has enjoyed inTouch’s commitment to
quality, service, customer satisfaction, and strong leadership from M.I.T. graduate Ira Hochman. For more information about
this Boston-based company, contact: www.intouchcorp.com or 617.475.1500.
|
