In late 2021, Lutheran Care – the Lead Agency for Toward Home Alliance – engaged Pact IT to automate the collection, storage, and reporting of client data.

About the client

Toward Home Alliance, comprising Baptist Care SA, Mission Australia, The Salvation Army, Sonder, and Lead Agency Lutheran Care alongside government partner the South Australian Housing Authority, offers a range of services for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness in the Adelaide CBD, southern metro areas, and Adelaide Hills.

The Alliance’s philosophy is that every person is afforded dignity, respect, and quality of service and that no one should be without a safe, affordable, and secure home.

Alliance team members work with clients – including adults, children, young people, and families – to explore their individual needs and provide advice, information, and support to help them access and maintain safe, sustainable housing.

The situation

Lutheran Care had a very well-defined manual process for collecting client details (either over the phone or face to face), processing client requests, and managing follow-ups.

However, a very big upsurge in the number of new clients exposed the inefficiency of the original workflows:

• Up to 10 pages of forms with overlapping information
• Manual calculation of each client’s vulnerability index score
• The need to scan forms, save in client folders, and then email to the appropriate support agencies
• A time-consuming daily process for ensuring that clients were followed up in a timely manner

How did we help?

Pact IT developed a cloud-based solution using Microsoft Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Azure SQL Database.

The data is now stored within the Microsoft Ecosystem, behind their authentication, and onshore in Australia.

The system includes:

• One online form to capture all client scenarios, including basic contact details, financial situation, living arrangements, other complexities, and follow-up actions
• One-click export of multiple output templates for 3rd party recipients
• Detailed reporting, covering client onboarding, referrals to 3rd party providers, client trends, follow-ups required, action summaries, and more

The system took approximately 5 person weeks to build but saves something like 2 or more hours in setting up each new client, of which there are now thousands. This takes the pressure off staff members who previously struggled to keep up with their increasing workload.

In addition, client reporting is essentially a new capability that wasn’t possible before – at least not with a single click of a button. This makes it much easier to manage the portfolio of clients and improve customer service.

The benefits

• Saves 2 or more hours when onboarding each new client
• Reduces errors by having one consolidated 'smart' data entry form
• Improves efficiency by automating workflows
• Provides reliable management information quickly

In the client’s words

Easy to deal with
I really value the relationship with Sam (who developed the system) because he always gets back to us quickly, is very accommodating with any changes we need, and is easy to deal with.”

A real bonus for us
Having the running VI-SPDAT (Vulnerability Index) score calculated automatically makes it very easy for staff; this is a real bonus for us.”

Helped to reduce data errors
The system has helped to reduce data errors, which means we can be confident our management reports are true and reliable.”

Easy to use
The system is very easy to use, pretty much self-explanatory.”

Toward Home ACCESS Team leader

If you need help with process improvement, simply call 1300 897 228 and ask for Trevor Ainsworth.

Pact IT Solutions