HealthTrio

Challenge

Unify and streamline processes throughout disparate company teams

Solution

Serena TeamTrack

Results

• Improved operations throughout the organization
• Streamlined development
• More efficient communication
• Better management of internal support issues
• Enhanced customer care operations
• Crucial tracking of company assets

“TeamTrack is the critical path for everything we do in our company. TeamTrack is completely ingrained in the way we work.”
- Rudy Hilado,Vice President of Technology, HealthTrio

Web-based Model Unites Disparate Company Teams, while the Software’s Flexibility Streamlines Processes for Multiple Departments

Health plans today operate in an increasingly challenging environment. They must attract and retain employers while market conditions continuously force premiums upward. Having the right technology in place is key for health plans looking to gain a competitive edge.

HealthTrio provides e-health applications and core business systems that help health plans and other care management organizations operate more efficiently and serve their constituents more effectively. The company’s software application, HealthTrio connect™, provides Internet communication channels for providers, members/patients, brokers and employers. HealthTrio xpress™ is a managed care administrative system that replaces health plans’ legacy systems with a fully integrated, end-to-end administrative infrastructure. Both HealthTrio products help health plans meet HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations quickly and cost effectively.

Though HealthTrio is based in Nashville, Tennessee, its approximately 100 employees are widely distributed around the country. Even members of the same team, such as IT, can be found from coast-to-coast. To manage its business processes and support communication among the staff, the company previously used an internally developed system. But as HealthTrio grew, the company realized it needed a more powerful method of managing and documenting its processes.

Web Model, Extensibility Fit HealthTrio’s Needs

In 2000, HealthTrio formed a selection team to look at business process management solutions. After comparing several options, the group chose Serena TeamTrack due to its web-based model, similar to its own products, as well as the product’s extensibility and automation capabilities.

“We didn't need a tool to dictate our software development process. We knew the way we wanted to work,” Rudy Hilado, vice president of technology explained. “TeamTrack’s ability to mold to the way we wanted to run our business, rather than forcing a paradigm on us, was crucial. We also wanted to automate all workflows in our company. While other systems dealt primarily with development and customer care, TeamTrack automates processes for IT, HR and marketing as well.”

Bringing Communication, Organization to Product Development

Since then, HealthTrio has relied on TeamTrack to manage all development of its products, HealthTrio connect and HealthTrio xpress. Hilado considers TeamTrack the key to the development process, with all releases and configuration management documented in TeamTrack. This centralized management helps distributed teams work in a unified, interconnected manner, which keeps projects on schedule and ensures no issues go unresolved.

Development also created a sub-workflow for its product demonstrations. It designed a simple interface to enable staff in other departments to submit requests easily into the workflow. With all requests coming in through TeamTrack, the team ensures that it addresses every request.

“Engineers specifically tell other employees that for an issue to be addressed, it must be submitted through TeamTrack because they can’t keep track of anything outside of it,” Hilado said. “It’s integral to what they do.”

Enhancing Internal and External Customer Support

With TeamTrack well entrenched in its development department, HealthTrio rolled the software out to manage both internal and external customer support. IT relies on TeamTrack for all internal IT service requests, from printer issues to troubleshooting system failures. All HealthTrio employees have a TeamTrack log-in that allows them to submit requests directly in the system. With those requests already in TeamTrack, the help desk doesn’t waste time answering calls or creating tickets, and can immediately begin resolving IT issues. This results in faster service
to internal customers, which minimizes employee downtime.

Similarly, HealthTrio relies on TeamTrack for managing external customer care issues. HealthTrio gives its customers, health plans and payers, direct access to the TeamTrack system to submit service requests into one of two sub workflows, for HealthTrio connect and HealthTrio xpress. At any time, they can enter issues into the system, view the status of existing service requests, or edit and update requests. Through unique TeamTrack functionality, they see only the issues that they or someone else in their company submitted.

TeamTrack automatically takes care of routing customer care issues to the right HealthTrio individuals. With TeamTrack as the powerful backbone of its whole customer support operation, the company resolves issues more quickly, leading to happier customers.

“TeamTrack has become a selling point when we talk about customer support,” Hilado said. “We say, ‘It’s all automated, auditable, and online.’ It’s a significant part of what we offer to our customers. At any instant they can see the status of their requests.”

With cross-posting capabilities in TeamTrack, HealthTrio can also turn customer requests into tickets for development. As a result, customers often see their concerns and requests integrated into future releases.

Additionally, HealthTrio stores all details on company assets, such as IT systems and furniture, in a separate TeamTrack workflow. When an asset is given to an employee, the information is entered in TeamTrack. As a result, HealthTrio always knows the location of assets. Plus, on internal service requests, IT can look up the details about assets to support troubleshooting.

TeamTrack ‘Ingrained’ in HealthTrio’s Processes

As HealthTrio has expanded its use of TeamTrack, the software has proven its flexibility by enabling the company to create customized workflows to fit its established processes. The software's momentum will soon extend to HR and Administration, which will use TeamTrack to keep up with tasks such as hiring and other employee management processes.

The centralized, web-based workflow capabilities keep HealthTrio’s very distributed teams in sync, which contributes to smoother projects. It’s become so integral to the company's processes that Hilado can't imagine doing business any other way.

“TeamTrack is the critical path for everything we do in our company,” Hilado said. “It’s that important to us. TeamTrack is completely ingrained in the way we work.”