SweetTree Home Care Services

The Challenge

A boutique care service that delivers personal support and assistance to people in their own homes, SweetTree provides specialised home care services for individuals with a wide range of unique needs. Providing 24 / 7 support to clients and their families, a reliable telephony and communications infrastructure is vital for ensuring first-contact resolution and peace of mind for service users.

With up to 450 care assistants in the field and 70 office-based staff, communication technologies are also central to the day-to-day activities of SweetTree personnel.

Especially when it comes to enabling those all-important interactions with clients, social workers, district nurses, care managers and GPs that make the delivery of joined-up and informed care possible.

However, an ageing telephone system was inhibiting SweetTree's ability to make its workforce more productive and efficient. Worse still, having reached maximum capacity, the platform was no longer suitable for a rapidly expanding organisation. With new NHS contracts waiting in the wings, SweetTree wanted a solution that would deliver the resilience, agility and scalability it needs to cope with future demands.

"We took the decision to review the entire communications infrastructure - we had an extensive shopping list of requirements," explains Phil Bones, IT Manager at SweetTree Home Care Services.

"The ability to configure call groups was essential as was the ability to monitor and record calls for reporting and compliance requirements. We also needed to be certain we could seamlessly deal with out-of-hours calls in the event of a disaster or system failure scenario," he explains.

The Solution

The Results

Today, the organisation's staff can instantly tell which colleagues are in the office or out in the field, thanks to presence technology, and toggle their communications to follow them from the desktop to the field.

"We've empowered our people with the latest voice telephony that enables them to work on the move, get messages and stay connected with colleagues, the wider social and care community, and of course, clients," says Phil.

Focus Group has played a key role in helping SweetTree evolve its communications infrastructure. So much so, that today Focus now also looks after the organisation's data circuits and mobile phone agreements.

"Alongside responding fast to our every need - whether that's advising us on the right solution or providing tech support - Focus Group has helped us streamline our operations. Most importantly, we now get a simplified single bill for all our communication services. Whether it's initiating a new handset and SIM for an employee or dealing with BT to get a new lease line installed, I know I can depend on Focus to make things happen - and make my job easier," says Phil.

It's this commitment to care and attention to every little detail that's made for a lasting and deeper relationship with Focus Group, as Phil explains. "The Account Team at Focus add a huge amount of value to the way our organisation operates. They totally understand how we work and always give us highly personalised yet totally professional service - I know that within minutes of talking to them, things will start to happen and that they're working hard on our behalf to find the best solution to any challenge I bring to them."