Suggest a Software Programme

WhyTheFace

Hi,

I have recently started a new job in a company that provides medicines to residential care facilities. To my astonishment all orders are faxed in from different care homes, the faxes are then cut out and placed in a hard back A4 scrapbook. The technician who processes the order then hand writes what they have done. My colleagues must then flick through a number of pages and tick off the orders once verified.

As you can imagine this is an un-necessarily laborious process. Especially as we received orders from up to 20 homes per day and there can be up to 10 divisions within certain homes. If we need to verify an order from weeks ago we then need to flick through theses scrap books. I am genuinely shocked how backwards it is in this day and age.

I hope to move the homes over to emailing their orders in. This will mean they can be more easily tracked, however the techs will still need to print for us to check against the items collected.

To cut a long story short I would love to know if there is a programme that exists that could modernise this entire process? One where the techs can type what work they have done and then my colleagues and I could just tick off as we do it. Each day would have it's own list and we could quickly click back to previous days/weeks work as well as readily carry unfinished tasks through to the following day etc.

Thanks in advance for your time.

W0LFMAN

There are programmes, but what's your company willing to pay?. Custom software can cost 1000's if you want the job doing right.

WhyTheFace

Not looking at having anything bespoke developed. Just wondering if there are any generic programmes out there to download?

gctest50

Hylafax

or some printers with fax capabilities can save the incoming as a picture / pdf

or you can get a liitle box that saves incoming on the network somewhere

circadian

You can get fax to email software but be wary as one of the big players is known for their less than stellar cancellation/customer service.

28064212

Sounds like something most ticketing or issue tracking systems would be capable of doing. The specific software is also one of the least important parts of changing something like this. The current process exists because it's been tested over and over and over again. Every link in the chain knows exactly what the steps are and how to do them. Developing and implementing a new process is something that takes a huge amount of planning.

That's not to say it shouldn't or couldn't be done, but it's not a software problem, it's a business one

GreeBo

You could probably do it with a Jira workflow or any workflow software to be honest.

No matter what product you choose, its going to need to be setup and need someone to admin it.

WhyTheFace

Thank you all for your responses.

I fully appreciate this is a massive task to implement.

The care facilities are also not very open to change or innovation. In my previous role all the homes were happy to scan and email their documents using a GDPR compliant email programme.

I can live with continuing to receive faxes as the technicians still have to print them, I just need some kind of a system where the tech's can type what they do for each home and then I check off their work as done. Also that a historical record is kept should we need to check an order that was sent in the past.

WhyTheFace

28064212 wrote: »

Sounds like something most ticketing or issue tracking systems would be capable of doing. The specific software is also one of the least important parts of changing something like this. The current process exists because it's been tested over and over and over again. Every link in the chain knows exactly what the steps are and how to do them. Developing and implementing a new process is something that takes a huge amount of planning.

That's not to say it shouldn't or couldn't be done, but it's not a software problem, it's a business one

TBH the current role was set up 20 years ago when faxes were cutting edge and nobody decided to modernise it. It is causing a lot of issues and complaints as a result.

ballyargus

The fax to email software as mentioned. This will get you pdfs of the submissions. The techs can then annotate or add notes to the pdf. The use a filing system or better yet, a CRM with the appropriate docs logged against contacts for easy reference.

WhyTheFace

ballyargus wrote: »

The fax to email software as mentioned. This will get you pdfs of the submissions. The techs can then annotate or add notes to the pdf. The use a filing system or better yet, a CRM with the appropriate docs logged against contacts for easy reference.

It's not so much the fax that is the problem, even if we receive a pdf they still need to be printed.

It's more a system for the techs to type up the orders they have processed. We would then tick off these orders as done when we check against paper work. It is important that we have a chronological record of all orders where unfinished orders can be carried forward and referred back to should any issues arise.

circadian

You really need to look at the workflow overall, there are plenty of options out there than can extract information from pdfs or images of scan and input them into Excel or whatever.

Looking for a solution to one part of the problem and not addressing the entire process will lead to headaches and bigger issues further down the road.

lawred2

GreeBo wrote: »

You could probably do it with a Jira workflow or any workflow software to be honest.

No matter what product you choose, its going to need to be setup and need someone to admin it.

And even more time and effort to institutionalise it

PhoenixParker

Sent you a pm there.

BGate would do it.

https://www.bgate.com/go/

terenurebob

I would keep this simple and start off with a basic solution that allows you to easily build a form that captures the information you need. Take a look at Office365. You can sign up for a free trial. I would create a simple Sharepoint list and put together a small demo to show people. If they liked it then maybe look at using Powerapps to add some workflows. There are plenty of online videos that show you how to use Sharepoint and Powerapps.

antoinolachtnai

There is specialized equipment and software for dispensaries all the way to full automation.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmacy_automation

A vertical (sector specific) solution that is appropriate to your business is what you need. By the sounds of it you would benefit from this type of full automation solution. However, it’s a big investment.

I would be loathe to mess with your processes too much without specialized advice. The problem is that your scale is so large and the work you are doing is so safety critical.

I anticipate that there might be an operations manual somewhere to cover the process you briefly describe. If there isn’t then there probably should be. That should be the starting point.

This sounds a bit defeatist or limiting, but human life is at stake and extreme care is needed here.

If you really want to re-engineer sonething I would find something at the ‘edge’ of the process which is not too safety critical and start there.

Not gonna lie. I could build that in Drupal in a couple of hours and have it look good in a couple of days.

Going with an established solution is preferable. There are many I'm sure.

SilverSideUp

Having the customers email the orders in so that you can easily keep track of the orders? Nooooooooo! Nightmare! You need a customer facing website. Let the customer log in and place their order on a standard form. Then they submit their order form. The order form is saved to your database. You receive an email alert when you get an order. You then log in and process the order. Thats the workflow I see. Get a developer to write the software.