My Plan Manager partners with Tecala in multi-year IT program to support Australia’s A$26 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Tecala’s modern cloud borne services are providing My Plan Manager (MPM) with all the support the organization requires to deliver experience and know-how to build an inclusive Australia and take the stress out of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
A winning combination which incorporates the provision of comprehensive managed services, communications, cybersecurity and data protection provides MPM with the support it requires to manage a hybrid workforce environment and support those with a disability to lead active lives in their communities.
Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) provides crucial support for over 466,000 people with disabilities. MPM offers client-focused services enabling users more choice and control over their support services, while saving them time and effort in managing their NDIS funding. From its headquarters in Adelaide, MPM staff work with clients on an individual basis to ensure that the support services they receive assists them in achieving their plan goals.
The challenge of rapid growth
Established in 2014, My Plan Manager has grown swiftly, ranking second overall in the 2020 Deloitte Tech Fast 50 Awards with growth of 1621% in the prior three-year period.
“This rapid growth rate was putting significant pressure on the IT systems that we had in place within the company,” said Richard Hilliard, Chief Technology Officer, My Plan Manager. “Systems that had worked well initially were no longer providing the level of support that we needed.
“We also needed to find a way to provide the level of technical support that new staff hires required as they settled into their new roles. In this area, the internal IT team was starting to struggle.”
A new technology partner
After recognizing that external assistance would be required, the My Plan Manager management team assessed a range of options. After carefully vetting a shortlist of prospective Managed Service Providers (MSPs), a contract was signed with Tecala in late 2019.
“We were very impressed with Tecala’s industry insights and they were also prepared to invest time in getting to understand our organization and how it functions on a day-to-day basis,” said Hilliard.
The first project undertaken by Tecala for the company was the replacement of its ageing IP Office telephony system which was increasingly unable to meet the demands of staff and clients.
“We had realized that we needed more flexibility when it came to staff mobility and servicing our multiple office locations,” said Hilliard. “We felt a cloud-based system would be a better fit.”
Tecala investigated a number of unified communications replacement options with the project to implement and subsequently manage the platform completed in late December 2019.
“Tecala worked to configure the new platform so that it closely met our requirements,” said Hilliard.“We were also able to readily integrate it with our recently introduced Salesforce CRM system which provided additional benefits.”
Hilliard said the cloud-based unified communications platform made flexible working easy for staff, something that became vitally important when the initial COVID-19 lockdowns happened in early 2020.
“We are also benefiting from new features provided by the platform, including electronic boards that display incoming call queues and wait times,” he said. “We also have sophisticated analytics capabilities that allow us to monitor and report on how our Client Relationship Consultants are tracking.”
On-going technical support and guidance
With the unified communications system bedded down and fully functional, attention turned to other ways in which Tecala could support My Plan Manager’s activities. One was through the provision of managed services to support the MPM team.
“When you have a high proportion of people working in a hybrid environment, ensuring all equipment is operational at all times can be challenging,” said Hilliard. “Tecala assists by providing all our service desk support around the clock.”
Another area of focus has been My Plan Manager’s data backup and recovery capabilities.
In line with My Plan Manager’s cloud first architecture, the organization had a business requirement to ensure that it followed industry best practice around cloud services, risk and compliance. Tecala deployed a modern cloud borne service to provide backup for My Plan Manager’s data across the entire organization and protect all critical data assets in a simple affordable pay per use consumption model. In addition, this service delivered data protection, restoration and key reporting capabilities.
More recently, Hilliard says cybersecurity enhancements have been one area of focus with a Netskope Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) and AlienVault Security Information Event Monitoring (SIEM) solution having been seamlessly deployed and integrated into their managed services. This will ensure the company’s infrastructure will continue to be as robust and protected to withstand any threats that might arise.
“With Tecala, we now have in place a valued technology partner,” said Hilliard. “As well as meeting our requirements today, we are confident they will continue to add significant value as our operations grow further in the future.”
