Acacia Plan Management currently operate a certified NDIS plan management operation. Their biggest obstacle was their systems were not capable of handling intense growth without adding more human resources.
APM needed a holistic management system that created many more efficiencies in workflow then they had. The ultimate goal was to increase their ratio of plan managers to participants, opening growth opportunities whilst maintaining their excellent customer service.
Acacia Plan Management
NDIS plan management -creating a scalable ecosystem
Project Brief
Client
Acacia Plan Management
Scope
- Full client management system
- Client mobile apps
- iOS & Android OS
Services
- Product Discovery
- UX/UI Design
- Mobile App Development
The Challenge
As APM had existing systems and processes there was a significant benefit to the discovery process. The NDIS is a regulated industry and APM didn't want to completely change their process- just make it more efficient. We were able to map out workflows and add valuable insights into optimising them for efficiency and speed.
We identified the process of submitting payment requests to the NDIA was a very manual process, Services Australia had at the time recently released an API for developers to submit Bulk Payment Requests. The challenge was that SA did not supply the usual API documentation to be able to connect correctly to the endpoints. The App Team carried out the necessary R&D to make the connection and successfully create bulk requests. We were the only developers who had successfully connected to the API at that time!
Product Design
As mentioned the NDIS is a regulated industry which required our team to immerse themselves in the business to really understand the systems and processes- and to create meaningful change. The rules around participant budgets are strict on what can be allowed for provider payments so we became somewhat experts in the NDIS field.
With a deep understanding of the systems and processes, we were able to identify where we could apply technology solutions to create efficiency and reduce the manual touchpoints as much as possible. Building a holistic operating system and moving away from a fragmented management practice created many opportunities to automate processes. These efficiencies were carefully considered for the user experience to ensure the product was readily adopted and added value to all stakeholders.
The Solution
The platform was delivered and there were many areas of the business benefiting from positive impacts. The bulk payments process meant that a process to manually input requests had been reduced from many hours of manual work to an automated daily process handled completely by the new system with only discrepancies requiring human intervention.
The mobile apps for participants allowed them to scan and upload directly into the system for their plan manager to review. Once reviewed and approved for payment the request was finalised and the provider received their payment in a matter of days rather than weeks in some cases.
The larger scale benefits are too great to list, however broadly it has allowed for sustainable business growth without significant impacts on increased head count.
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