Case Studies
IVG
Established in 1979, Woburn, MA-based InTown Veterinary Group (IVG) is comprised of accomplished veterinary professionals dedicated to providing compassionate care to pets and their families using the most advanced medical solutions available. The growing group currently operates four treatment facilities—three in Massachusetts, plus one in nearby New Hampshire—and employs some 300 professionals and support staff. IVG values long-term relationships with pet owners and family veterinarians; they are committed to maintaining the highest standards of compassion, empathy and medical care.
With team members at four locations, "we had a hard time keeping up with everyone's needs," said hospital manager Luanne Barry. "We needed a tool that would simplify communication between team members and support departments; one that would allow everyone to see what was happening; the status of issues, as well as a database to store our support issues so we could measure effectiveness and minimize the problems associated with communicating by email." The Group had been using a limited, off-the-shelf help desk tool for basic IT and facilities maintenance. They needed a help and ticketing system flexible enough to handle their growing team's internal communications, "one that could service a variety of help needs, but also be used on our external website to service clients." TeamSupport had "all the features, along with the progressive, user customizable options we needed and its cost was reasonable; we knew TeamSupport was the right company and product for us!"
IVG rolled-out TeamSupport's Enterprise Edition with a general announcement to staff in mid-2010. The system proved itself to be very intuitive, "We turned it on and people started using it ... we've had little need for formal training; they use TeamSupport without assistance and it's [become] our preferred method of intra-company communication," declared Barry. Other key areas of hospital administration, such as inventory management, are on the docket to become TeamSupport users in the coming year, adding to the 23 user licenses already deployed.
Has TeamSupport made a difference? Barry's old help desk tool had limited functionality and lacked customization. With TeamSupport, "we've expanded into areas such as finance, client feedback, and discrepancy reporting for controlled drugs. We even use it for our peer-to-peer recognition system: Team members can enter a 'thanks' ticket to share good works with everyone."
Improved communication throughout the IVG organization may be TeamSupport's greatest benefit. "We haven't measured man-hours ... the system was more of an investment for us than a [tool for] savings. Our members know more about what's happening in the hospitals; they keep up-to-date on important issues by reviewing open, previously answered and complex help responses."
TeamSupport's staff has been extremely responsive to us, "not only with everyday questions, but more importantly, adapting to our unique challenges and modification requests; Group Assignments and visible description templates on the portal, for example." Both were quickly completed and installed. Next on Barry's "to do" list will be implementing TeamSupport's survey feature to collect user feedback.
Would she recommend TeamSupport? Definitely, "for its ease of use, customizable features, database management, exceptional support services and intuitive multi-user features."
Barry—with a background in help desk management and operations—joined IVG in 2006 as client services manager. She was soon promoted to hospital manager of IVG's largest facility in Woburn, MA. With thirty years of experience in facility, technology and staff management, she is responsible for maintaining and developing new procedures for efficiency while ensuring clients receive the highest standards of service and care.
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