Aged care industry opts for NEC-hosted cloud based apps

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 27 July 2010 19:17

Business IT - Networking

Australia's two peak aged care bodies have chosen cloud-based applications hosted by NEC as the preferred means of meeting the IT needs of member organisations in the aged care industry.

The two organisations – Aged Care Association Australia (ACAA) and Aged & Community Services Australia (ACSA) - went to tender for an IT partner and NEC proposed the cloud based approach.

An NEC spokesman told iTWire, "This was regarded as the best option for the industry [because of] its ability to reduce the cost of IT and provide the applications and computing power in a way that is cost effective and simple to consume. Many of the aged care organisations have little or no IT expertise."

Rod Young, CEO of Aged Care Association Australia, said: "Many aged care providers have been introducing IT systems to support staff in daily care and administration activities. However, making decisions about software products can be difficult and once IT systems are in place, they can be even more difficult."

Greg Mundy, CEO Aged & Community Services Australia added: "The aim of the partnership is to help aged care providers gain better access to software products, reduce the need for costly capital investment in hardware and to provide seven day a week remote technical support for staff if the computer system crashes for some reason."

The NEC spokesman said that NEC had signed a memorandum of understanding with the two bodies making it the preferred vendor for IT services across all member organisations.

"The peak bodies want to use technology to meet the increasing demand for aged care, control regulatory risks and reduce the cost of care delivery. They will recommend and facilitate the use of NEC's offering to their members and encourage them to adopt this service across the board."

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