Sognos and Australian Red Cross collaborate to build a more connected foundation for care, services and billing
Sognos is proud to be working with Australian Red Cross on a major new Client Service & Billing Systems Program, creating a more connected foundation for the way services, client information and billing are managed across several important areas of the organisation.
The program officially kicked off on 24 September at the Microsoft office in North Sydney, bringing key stakeholders from Australian Red Cross, Sognos and Microsoft together to align on the program objectives, delivery approach and the work ahead.
Australian Red Cross has been part of Australian communities for more than a century and is part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Its work spans humanitarian and community services, supporting people through emergencies and disasters, migration and settlement, aged and community care, and other programs designed to help people and communities through periods of vulnerability and change.
Behind those services are frontline teams, volunteers, case workers, program leaders and support teams who need access to the right information at the right time.
That is where this program becomes important.
Creating a stronger foundation for complex service delivery
Australian Red Cross delivers services across different programs, funding arrangements and operational environments.
The Client Service & Billing Systems Program responds to several significant drivers, including changes under aged care reform, evolving requirements associated with humanitarian settlement services, continued growth within FAMH Training, and the need to better connect client and service information currently held across multiple systems.
The objective is not simply to replace technology.
It is intended to create a more consistent and scalable way of managing service delivery and billing as well support improvements to client records and reporting and reduce the fragmentation that can occur when teams need to work across different systems and sources of information.
For people working on the frontline, that means creating a stronger connection between the work being delivered in the community and the systems supporting it behind the scenes.
Supporting three key service areas
The program brings together three distinct areas of Australian Red Cross.
Aged Care
The program is intended to support a range of aged care and community services, including telephone support through services such as Telecross, TeleRedi and TeleChat, delivered meals, transport and visiting services.
SognosCare will provide the future service delivery platform for these programs, connected with Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations for billing.
Humanitarian Settlement
The solution design considers requirements associated with humanitarian settlement service delivery.
This covers a complex service journey from intake and arrivals through housing, orientation, case management and transition, together with assessment, outcome measurement and reporting requirements.
First Aid and Mental Health (FAMH) Training
For FAMH Training, aXcelerate will remain the core student management platform. The program will connect aXcelerate with Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations to strengthen billing and revenue processes as the training operation continues to grow and diversify.
One connected platform around the people delivering services
The target solution is intended to connect service delivery, client information, finance, mobile working, data and reporting while retaining the systems that continue to play an important role within Australian Red Cross.
SognosCare on Microsoft Dynamics 365 will sit at the centre of the service delivery environment, providing a common client and service delivery platform for the Aged Care and humanitarian settlement services.
The architecture is designed around the different people who need to interact with the system.
Staff and case workers will work through Dynamics 365 applications. Field staff and volunteers will be supported through mobile capability. Clients, carers and referrers can be supported through portal experiences, while program and finance leaders will have access to operational, compliance and financial reporting through Power BI.
Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations will provide the centralised billing engine, while Azure Integration Services connects the different parts of the environment. Microsoft Fabric and Power BI provide the foundation for enterprise data and reporting.
This creates one connected architecture while recognising that different services, people and teams have different needs.
A delivery approach built around what already works
The way the program is delivered is equally important.
Sognos is taking an accelerator-first approach, starting with the processes and capabilities already available within SognosCare and extending them only where Australian Red Cross has genuinely unique requirements.
That means the program does not begin with a blank page.
Where SognosCare already supports the required process, the focus is on configuration and adoption. New development is introduced where the operational or program requirements genuinely call for it.
The delivery approach moves through four clear stages.
Discovery and Design will use fit-to-standard walkthroughs to validate SognosCare processes against the needs of Australian Red Cross, confirm compliance and integration requirements, and establish the agreed solution design.
Build will then move into an Agile delivery model, with configuration and development undertaken across a series of three-week sprints. Sognos quality assurance is embedded throughout the process, with Australian Red Cross involved in reviewing and signing off progress along the way.
User Acceptance Testing and Train-the-Trainer brings testing and preparation for adoption together, supported by Sognos and led in partnership with the Australian Red Cross team.
Finally, the solution will move through three sequential releases, each supported by its own training, go-live and hypercare period.
It is a practical approach: start with what works, validate it against real services, build where needed and bring frontline and business teams into the process throughout delivery.
Starting with Discovery
With the program kickoff complete, the teams now move into a five-week Discovery phase.
The first step is understanding how Australian Red Cross services operate today, directly from the people who know those services best.
Australian Red Cross teams will walk Sognos through the current service and system processes. Sognos will then demonstrate the relevant SognosCare capabilities, working together with Australian Red Cross subject matter experts to validate where the platform already fits and where configuration or additional development is required.
The Discovery program deliberately follows the real service journey, covering areas such as enquiry and referral, client onboarding, assessments and support planning, service delivery, mobile working, client requests and program exit.
It reflects a principle that runs through the wider program:
Validate, don’t rediscover.
A significant amount of work has already been completed through the procurement, planning and validation process. Discovery is about taking that foundation and validating it with the people delivering and supporting services every day.
Designing around real work
For Sognos, this program reflects the kind of transformation we are built for.
Complex health, care and human services environments do not need technology for technology’s sake. They need systems that understand the realities of frontline work, connect information across the organisation and make it easier for teams to focus on the people they support.
That means bringing service delivery, finance, data and reporting together without losing sight of the person at the centre of the service.
We’re looking forward to working alongside Australian Red Cross as the program moves from Discovery into design, delivery and ultimately into the hands of the teams who will use it every day.