Everon have always been a proud supporter of the International Technology Enabled Care Conference last year and we’re delighted to be back again for 2025 at The ICC in Birmingham.
If you’re going along, come and say hello to Mark Smith, UK Director of Sales and Marketing and the team at Stand Number 11 in the Exhibition Hall. We’ve got a lot of exciting news, tech and insights to share but we’re also keen to hear about the progress on your digital transformation journey.
In the meantime, we caught up with Mark to talk power of partnerships, and highlighting the unique Everon mesh capability on its solutions and why this is important. A discussion on why ITEC is such an important event for unlocking insights, building knowledge and improving outcomes.
What is key to success when it comes to digital transformation?
The key to success is partnership. Fitting kit and then leaving clients to it is not the way forward. We believe strongly in the importance of after-sales care so that clients are not only confident in the use of our cloud-based wireless systems but know they can rely on us to support them in future as technology evolves.
Everon is a supplier of cloud-based wireless solutions. What difference can these make to service delivery?
Digital transformation that includes Cloud-based solutions have been slow to catch on in community health and social care settings despite being successfully adopted in other industries. In our view, it’s the future of technology enabled care with the potential to transform the care of the most vulnerable people in our community for the better.
There’s a lot of jargon in technology enabled care. Explain the meaning of mesh capability?
In simple terms, unlike traditional dispersed alarms in supported housing settings as an example mesh capability ensures there’s no single point of failure. If a single hub stops working, the other hubs– in close proximity – will ensure alarm calls are always answered, without causing any break in service.
Everon provides a central portal for use by supported housing and care teams in other settings. What difference does this make to person-centred care?
The portal makes sense of central points of data, trends and insights from TEC devices that can help alert team to potential issues before they escalate. In our view, it’s key to driving change towards a more preventative model of care.
What other benefits are there with the portal led system?
It helps in areas, such as planned maintenance. So, as an example if you are managing a wide portfolio range of supported housing properties wouldn’t you want to know the ones that are efficient or inefficient, which ones are the coldest or warmest? With our cloud-based wireless system, it’s a true connected approach to delivering services. By putting a central portal in place, you can access data, trends and insights from multiple sites, providing a live dashboard of what needs fixing or checking.
Why will this year’s ITEC conference be one to watch?
Last year was a start of a digital transformation piece, driven by BT and other communication companies upgrading their analogue and digital lines. But I think we've now got probably just over a year left before switchover, and I'm still aware of a significant number of supported housing organisations that are still going through market testing and have not even started to upgrade yet. This is certainly helping to focus the mind and think, more than ever, there will be a focus this year of partnering with services to work to certainly start that journey.
What do you hope to get out of the day at ITEC 2025?
ITEC is a great event that brings everyone together to a common discussion point on issues affecting the sector. It’s also an opportunity to show how Everon is leading on these great conversations and sharing our emerging best practice.
It's a place full of like-minded people all trying to deliver the same goal which is how do we prepare and support our services to deliver the best outcomes as the move away from analogue accelerates.
What do you say to those supported housing providers and others who have yet to start? Is there still time?
There's absolutely time. I think there is real merit in a cautious approach by providers. They need to get this right. What's important is not just looking at changing the old from the new. There’s a real opportunity to future proof services.
In our view that goes beyond simply providing kit. We believe in a true partnership approach supporting you and your services as service demands change over time with data, trend and insight at its centre.
What are the considerations that supported housing associations and care providers should think about in in terms of deciding the best solution for them?
Cost
The challenge of being able to deliver more things to more people, often for the same, or indeed less, budget has put some real constraints on future proofing plans. However, having said that there are commercial options and partnerships available to help spread that cost.
Future planning
It's also thinking beyond the here and now. When it comes to investing in new services it can’t just be about changing your red one for a black one. That can mean you’re always going to get the same type of service – and it may not be the right way to go.
Think opportunity
There’s a real opportunity for you to at least put a foundation and platform into place to push off from and truly future proof your services. Your services certainly don't look the same as 10 years ago so it’s important to plan way ahead. Working with a partner that is flexible enough to be able to evolve as you do is key to that process too.
Why have the community health, housing and social care sectors been slow to see the potential of cloud computing and machine learning to improve outcomes?
Wireless cloud-based solutions give you real flexibility to scale and to access the very latest in technology, including a suite of machine learning and artificial intelligence led products.
You look at the industries around us at this moment in time, whether that be banking, holidays, parking, they are already operating in an app-led digitally cloud-based wireless world. Yet health, housing and social care, certainly in the community, you could argue has probably lagged behind these investments.
There are several factors why this might be including the culture of the organisation and the obvious risk management that come with supporting vulnerable clients. New technologies and services quite rightly need to be tried and tested. The sector is at last recognising the benefits they can bring – including reduced costs, greater efficiency, and improved risk management not to mention using credible rich data as the first step to the benefits and potential of AI.
Why are digital cloud-based wireless solutions the way forward for technology enabled care?
As an example: smart watches are now commonplace , which give a wealth of data around number of steps, how your wellness is, how you're feeling, etc., right through to passive fall detection that use artificial intelligence to map out almost a frailty register to show a person’s risk of falling as the first step to more proactive and early intervention considerations.
Every digital transformation strategy, without exception, talks about a coordinated and a true, connected approach to delivering services: following the patient, following the resident.
The only way you can do that is through data, trend and insight and a centralised port of information. Now, a good example of that is in hospital at moment in time they're investing heavily into an electronic patient record system, which is exactly that same concept, trying to pull lots of information through from different departments to have the patient and the resident at the centre. That's got to be key.
Everon Group solutions support the focus on strategies targeting net zero and reducing carbon emission plans. This is through 90% of maintenance, upgrades and increased features happening remotely, which from a sustainability point of view is good news in reducing the amount of vehicle call outs that would have been needed previously.
What about added social value as a business?
Adding social value is important to us as is doing all we can to reduce our carbon footprint. We’ve recently invested in two apprentices – Anna and James – who are now fully part of the team and looking forward to attending and being inspired at this year’s ITEC event.
Discover what Everon Group can do for your organisation. Book a free consultation today.
