Hospice Care Ottawa
Transitioning to Greater Efficiency
NeoLore was awesome!
Formed in 2013, Hospice Care Ottawa is a community-based, charitable organization, offering palliative and end-of-life programs and services to people living in the City of Ottawa. All services are offered at no charge to clients and their families. Similar to all businesses, from daycare centres to automotive manufacturers, Hospice Care Ottawa is impacted by the consistent evolution of technology. Improvements in hardware, software and processes serve to increase efficiency—lowering costs and streamlining service delivery.
In addition to upgrading older operating systems, the Hospice wanted the ability to work anywhere securely, and take advantage of cloud computing. NeoLore suggested transitioning to Terminal Services. Among many benefits, a terminal server gives end-users access to company resources from anywhere and from any device. Also, it facilitates a single point of maintenance and permits monitoring of infrastructure from a central dashboard.
“NeoLore helped us transition”
“NeoLore helped us transition into a terminal server setup.” says Melissa Morningstar, Data & Operations Coordinator, at the Hospice. “It was going to be very different workplace and meant a lot of changes for our staff.”As part of the project, the Hospice moved its email to Office 365, experiencing such benefits as enhanced accessibility, automatic backup of files, and high-end security.
When Microsoft retired Skype for Business Online, in July, 2021, it offered customers the option to upgrade to Microsoft Teams, the core app for communication and collaboration in Office 365—a suite of cloud-based productivity and collaboration applications that integrates Microsoft’s online applications into a cloud service. “It all came together and it was a good time to implement Office 365 and Microsoft Teams for the Hospice,” says Melissa. Microsoft Teams provides workspace chat and videoconferencing, file storage, and application integration.
“NeoLore is vital”
“NeoLore was brought in over five years ago,” Melissa explains. “Back then, we needed more desktop support. We required someone to manage our servers/workstations, ensure backups succeeded and monitor the firewalls. We had internal IT support, but it didn’t work out. Now, NeoLore is vital in everything related to I.T. support for everyone at the Hospice.”
“They really have special kinds of skills”
Melissa adds that the support continues with Office 365. “We use NeoLore support every day. They’re great. Support is a tough job and NeoLore is professional, and they get the job done. As for the people that take those calls—they really have special kinds of skills.” NeoLore Network’s Help Desk operates 24/7—together with W.A.D.E., an artificial intelligence support team member. W.A.D.E. is able to quickly identify technical problems and find efficient solutions.
“We are definitely more secure”
I.T. security is a concern for every organization, regardless of its size or line of business. “Certainly we have cyber security issues,” says Melissa. “Healthcare, unfortunately, seems to be a target—so there are a lot of phishing emails that come. We completed the NeoLore Cybersecurity [Maturity] Assessment—because we started to use Clinical Viewer in eHealth Ontario—and when we implemented that, we needed to make sure certain workstations were encr ypted. NeoLore analyzed our whole setup. They told us about actions we could take right away—that were easy—and other issues that we could evolve over time .”
“With it came our two-factor authentication, so we are definitely more secure.” With the combination of cloud computing and two-factor authentication, the Hospice staff are able to securely work anywhere in the world. NeoLore offers different tier levels of cybersecurity support, enabling clients to obtain features best suited to their needs. Organizations can anticipate threats, detect issues, log important events, optimize network uptime, and move from reactive to preventive maintenance.
“NeoLore was awesome”
Technology upgrades should be seen as opportunities, not just challenges. NeoLore has helped many organizations take full advantage of the benefits offered by IT innovations.
Reflecting on NeoLore’s assistance in transitioning to new IT environments, Melissa sums it up simply—“NeoLore was awesome.”
