Care Consultant Edward has been with GHM for nearly 6 years and so many of you will have met or spoken with him over this time. Here, Edward gives his insights into what the hot topics are for care home owners and managers when it comes to their tech plus a bit more about the man himself.
Q&A: Edward Parker, Consultant
What's been your biggest achievement this year?
As many of our customers will know I have just completed the London Marathon, raising funds for the GHM chosen charity Helen & Douglas House. Thank you so much to all that sponsored me or gave words of encouragement. I needed them all!
What's top of the list for care homes when it comes to telephony right now?
Definitely shifting to hosted telephony. The big switch off of analogue lines is a driver for some but the features and benefits you get from a hosted telephone system are just so much better and you can control your costs a lot more too. It also gives residents really flexible options for their own handsets and free calls.
Consolidating the number of devices that carers carry is also high on priorities for many. The mobile handsets we provide can now integrate with loads of third party applications and can also receive nursecall alerts directly using our own messaging app. Care homes are loving the ability to silence their noisy alarms in favour of this.
And how about IT Support?
Again, it’s all about consolidating everything into one place and many of our customers are seeing the value of having both their telephony and IT Support with us. There are clear overlaps between the technologies and so it makes a lot of sense and savings can be made too.
Care homes are also wanting to provide even better internet coverage, not just inside the home but also in outside areas and so we are doing a lot in terms of recommending the best options available for each home or group.
Keeping residents and staff safe from malware and phishing attacks is becoming really important, just because there are so many tactics to watch out for these days.
Where do you feel GHM is adding a lot of value at the moment?
GHM Care is able to broker some really good Business Energy deals and this is a hot topic for obvious reasons! I would say that we are able to reduce the cost of Business Energy for 1 in 2 care homes asking us for quotes and for the other half it’s also reassuring to know they are on the best tariff from a completely independent source. It’s the care homes and groups that are just out of contract where we are adding most value here.
What's the most exciting thing in your diary right now?
Not training for the London Marathon and all of the England World Cup matches.