Maree Care CEO Lucie Vano and Operations Manager Katrina Evans were looking for an easy-to-use system where they could log in and find rostering, statements, budgeting, care management and compliance all in one place. They found all this and more with Lookout.

The challenge

When Lucie and Katrina bought Maree Care, they were using a variety of different management and communication programs. They were spending hours on the phone or messaging people trying to organise rosters, care management and keeping track of budgets.

“We knew that the system wasn't efficient. We were looking for a way to make this all work. How can we do rostering, statements, budgeting? How can we do it in one place?” Lucie asked.

When they started looking into solutions, they realised that most were too complicated or weren’t modern enough to meet their needs.

“It became quite apparent that a lot of software providers were stuck in the traditional ways of doing things. So they were really just turning Excel spreadsheets and putting pretty interfaces over the top of them,” Katrina said.

The results

Maree Care came on board with Lookout because they felt heard.

“They asked us what we did, and they didn't make it seem like it was a solution that was outside of our reach. They really supported us, so we didn't need to jump in the deep end. It was a gradual thing that we could grow into Lookout as we needed,” Katrina said.

Onboarding was seamless, and they got instant support when they asked for it throughout the entire process. It didn’t take long for them to find the efficiencies they were looking for.

“We have very specific targets and have set up a goal system for us internally based on the insights and the reporting that Lookout generates,” Katrina explained.

One of those targets is when their overheads can increase, which will tell them when care staff and admin staff can also increase.

“We've almost doubled our members. Our support staff from clinical and Helpers has 200% increased,” she explained.

Despite such dramatic growth, they haven’t had to bring on more administration staff.

“The way that Lookout helps us in terms of onboarding new helpers and suppliers has meant that we don't need to hire more admin staff to onboard people,” Katrina said.

She also likes how she can quickly see how many members they have, what levels they are and what their fund levels are like.

“Just get a really quick insight pretty much instantaneously as to where the overall business is at from a quality perspective, but also from the perspective of running a business,” Katrina said.

“It just makes everything so much easier. It makes training easier, and it makes regulatory compliance easier...”

Their favourite feature is ticket templates. Maree Care has built out their own ticket templates with to-do lists, links to policies and other relevant websites.

“So if you want to do something for a member or a helper, you just type in the ticket template and then everything you need to know is in that one template.”

“It just makes everything so much easier. It makes training easier, and it makes regulatory compliance easier,” Katrina explained.

With Lookout, they have a system that is agile enough to meet their needs as they grow.

“It gave us a lot of hope that we would not get bogged down in old ways of doing things. And if we wanted to move on to CHSP or NDIS or anything like that, Lookout was going to be able to come with us,” she said.

For now, though, they love how Lookout has become a key part of the way they work.

“It has become ingrained in what we do. And it means that when we come in in the morning, the first thing we are talking about is Lookout and tickets and where is everything up to. It just has really become synonymous with Maree Care.

“It's part of our ethos, it's part of how we do things, and it really feeds into every meeting that we have, every goal that we set. How can we also bring Lookout and its functionality with us to help us in that,” Katrina concluded.

Words of advice

I think [Lookout is for] anyone who wants to try something new that actually focuses on people and care outcomes. The software does the red tape for you so the people can focus on the people,” - Katrina Evans, Operations Manager, Maree Care