Welcome to Interpreter, the Damovo ICT e-newsletter designed with you, our clients, in mind.

ICT in healthcare…What is the diagnosis?

The healthcare profession serves those at their most vulnerable, so any plans to implement new ICT must centre on how patients, carers and healthcare professionals interact to overcome medical problems.

Upgrading an ageing infrastructure with a new IP network can help bring hospital treatment into the 21st Century, as well as cutting administrative time and costs through a single converged medical grade network infrastructure.  St Mary’s NHS Trust recently began upgrading its communications infrastructure, which will be managed remotely by Damovo.  The upgrade is part of a five-year plan to become a fully mobile site, which will allow for a step change in what clinicians can do with the Trust’s systems. By being able to access data from wherever they are, for example through a PDA, rather than be constrained to fixed terminals, will improve both processes and efficiency, and ultimately the level of care given to the patient. 

The Royal Society, in December 2006, explored the future of digital communication in healthcare in “Digital Communication: the impact of information and communication technologies on health and healthcare”.  Focusing on changes that are expected to occur in the next 10-15 years, the report covers the greater convenience and management that can be achieved through effective communications systems.  Increased mobility, for example, brings greater access and speed that can be mission critical in making accurate and well-informed diagnosis.

At any one time a patient may be under the care of several practitioners, based in different healthcare centres.  Making decisions effectively is dependent on a number of different stakeholders and on access to a patient’s records in their entirety.  Computerised records and worldwide access to them makes this possible by ensuring that all parties are “present” when previously this may not have been possible. 

Chronic conditions could also be managed and monitored remotely.  Sufferers of asthma and diabetes, for example, will be able to use mobile devices to pass on, and gain access to, their personal data for processing.  This means less face-to-face time between the patient and the practitioner will be required, freeing up clinic time for more time-critical conditions.  Such innovations impact beyond simply clearing appointment schedules of routine visits, as they improve the patient’s overall care experience.

The move to IP has many tangible benefits. Damovo and the healthcare sector are working together to make best use of the technology to offer truly innovative patient care.

For information on Damovo solutions and services for healthcare contact Kevin Little, Sector Business Consultant.

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Damovo out and about

Come visit us at GC2007expo on 12th and 13th June, the single largest gathering place for the public sector ICT community in the UK with over 4,000 public servants and 250 exhibitors participating. This year’s GC2007expo is co-located with Smart Healthcare 2007expo and Procurement Solutions 2007 OGCbuying.solutions, the main event for all Catalist suppliers. Read more...

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Cisco System moves into Unified Communications

As Unified Communications (UC) is principally about more effective personal communication and collaboration, Cisco's recent announcement of their intention to acquire WebEx also indicates how serious Cisco is about their participation in the market for collaborative technologies.

As it is not yet entirely clear how the proposed acquisition of WebEx will influence Cisco's product strategy, for the moment we'll take a more in depth look at the news about Cisco Unified Communications version 6.0 that emerged from the recent VoiceCon event in Orlando.

In effect, this is an update and re-branding of Cisco's products covering IP Telephony, Messaging, Conferencing, Contact Centre, and so on; for example Cisco CallManager is now known as Cisco Unified Communications Manager. 

Probably the most significant step forward is the ability to better integrate mobile devices such as smart-phones into the UC environment. This is based on technology that Cisco acquired from the purchase of Orative in November 2006, and is now known as Cisco Unified Mobile Communicator. From a Cisco press release – ‘this allows access to presence-enabled enterprise directories, sending secure text messages, viewing business email voicemail messages from Cisco Unity and selecting individual messages for playback". Cisco are collaborating with Nokia for handsets (based on the Symbian OS), but also include support for BlackBerry devices. 

For further information on Unified Communications contact Paul Meakin, Head of Portfolio Management.

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How satisfied are you?

Damovo’s client satisfaction programme has been running since the company’s inception, with the consistent objective to truly understand our client’s perceptions of Damovo and the solution and services we provide. With an ever-increasing demand for superior service and added value, this forum for measurement enables us to understand and focus on areas for improvement, so that we can continuously strengthen our client’s experience, and most importantly, meet their needs.
This satisfaction programme is extremely high on our management agenda and a number of client surveys are conducted each year through an independent channel. The results of these surveys are reviewed weekly by the Damovo UK Management Team and any resulting actions are implemented.

Below is a snapshot of some of the results from our 2006 surveys:

Ratings are based on 1 - 5 (1 being very dissatisfied and 5 being very satisfied)

• Account Management (includes contact, responsiveness etc) - 77% of clients rated 4 or 5.

• Solutions (includes reliability, technology, matching business need etc) - 92% of clients rated 4 or 5.

• Services and Support (includes fault reporting and resolution, remote diagnostics, field engineers etc) - 87% of clients rated 4 or 5.

• Overall Rating of Damovo as a supplier - 90% of clients rated 4 or 5.

The above results have increased on previous years, proving that constant assessment of our services and the implementation of changes as a result of these is necessary and beneficial to our customers. Those areas that have not scored as highly are a particular focus in our mission to strive for satisfaction success in all areas.

We have recently undergone an analysis of our survey programme to both simplify and strengthen the questions and also increase the number of clients surveyed. If contacted this year, we hope you will participate in a survey and help us gain real client insight and ensure future satisfaction. Thank you for your support.

For further information on the Damovo client satisfaction programme contact Tom Gutteridge, Head of Marketing and Business Development.

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Damovo Online Technical Services Help Desk

A key service provision offered by Damovo is our Online Technical Services Help Desk, which supplements our leading Managed, Maintenance and Support Services, developed as part of our ongoing commitment to client care.  The value of this is demonstrated by the fact that currently in excess of 300 registered users utilise this system.

A facet of this is our Damovo E-Service Portal, a 24x7 secure service which enables you to view your open faults on line – meaning you can find out at any time where your fault is in the system and how close it is to resolution.

The benefits of the Damovo Online Technical Services Help Desk are clear and indicative of the added value we can provide.

Why
The Help Desk has been designed to improve the speed at which technical enquiries are answered and demonstrate our commitment in developing and improving our client services. Subscription to the service includes:

• A single point of access for technical help and information 24x7

• Information on all Damovo maintained products and any enquiries will be answered

• Ability to log support requests online

• Up to date product news and downloads

• User guides

     
Who
Calls are routed by product type to the Damovo Technician best qualified to answer this question. To date nearly 500 technical questions have been asked and many trouble tickets logged via this medium.

When
We understand that time is of the essence in fault resolution and if the question is not answered in 4 hours, it is re-transmitted every 15 minutes until answered by a Technician. All questions asked are monitored by the Service Managers and used in the assessment and improvement of our service.
  
How
We will assign you a secure, personal user ID and password. You can also opt to receive an email notification when any of your fault calls are closed down by the Service Engineer. The email will contain important information from that fault call including the call number, details of what was originally reported, who did the work, when it was carried out, and what was done to resolve the fault. This is a free service, and can be stopped at any time by contacting the Damovo Client Service Centre.

To use this service you must register for access, or if you would like further information about becoming a Damovo Managed Service, Maintenance or Support Client, please call us on 0870 420 6184.

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London Underground’s communications are back on track with support from Damovo 

We are delighted to announce a new case study outlining our partnership to date with London Underground. Damovo was selected to design, manage and support a new and improved communications infrastructure offering greater resilience and operational efficiencies for its mission critical systems. Read more...

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IT is full of complex decisions, this is not one of them

As data networks become ever more mission critical, including carrying your voice traffic, it becomes essential to ensure that your network runs at peak efficiency at all times. ‘Best effort’ is no longer good enough.

So isn’t it time you converged your data and voice support?

Damovo can provide the convenience of a single point of contact for any problems, and help you to see the bigger picture when you’re planning expansions and upgrades to your systems and networks.

Damovo’s service ethos is meticulous, ensuring every eventuality is covered. Our modular approach allows us to provide flexible services that best suit our clients’ needs. We deliver against some of the highest service level agreements in the country, whilst also providing one of the largest range of services, from reactive maintenance to full system and network supervision.

The right decision - merging your data and voice maintenance with Damovo is a smart decision. As your trusted voice partner today we bring over 30 years’ experience in supporting complex voice and data networks. We have the highest level accreditations with leading data network vendors such as Cisco Systems and Extreme Networks. We have been working with Extreme Networks since the late 1990s, and have been a Cisco Gold Partner for 10 years. We have also been recognised by Cisco as offering excellence in customer satisfaction, a distinction achieved by very few of Cisco’s UK partners.

Added to this, Damovo is also a Microsoft Gold Partner, and our combination of voice, data, and IT skills uniquely positions us to support you as the Unified Communications revolution takes hold.

We will aim to give you better value and what’s more, help you plan and prepare for the future.

Call your Damovo account manager or email talktous@damovo.com for more information.

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Thank you to all of you who have forwarded suggestions for subsequent instalments of Interpreter, these have been duly noted. Please keep up the suggestions and feedback to talktous@damovo.com