The Schumacher Group Eyes Opportunities for Collaboration with Salesforce for Google Apps

“With Salesforce for Google Apps, we see real opportunities for collaboration. Users will be able to work and store documents wherever they are. These are the kinds of benefits software as a service brings to the table.”

Overview
Challenge
  • Develop new efficiencies in processes and workflow to support this fast-growing medicine practice management company
  • Leverage the knowledge and best practices of its physician network
  • Continue to extend its software-as-a-service strategy instead of installing client software on each PC
Solution
  • Using Salesforce for Google Apps, The Schumacher Group can boost collaboration via a customized portal that lets 2,700 participating physicians easily create documents that are readable, printable, and transferable.
Results
  • Because users can work and share documents wherever they are with Salesforce for Google Apps, The Schumacher Group believes the result will be greater collaboration and operational efficiencies throughout organization.
  • The company sees Salesforce for Google Apps as an excellent business continuity solution because it provides the mechanism to build an instant intranet/extranet solution in the event of a hardware failure or virus outbreak.
Full Story

For Douglas Menefee, software as a service (SaaS) is a way of life. The CIO at The Schumacher Group, one of the largest and fastest-growing emergency medicine practice management companies in the United States, relies on Salesforce and the Force.com platform to deliver the kind of innovation that helps his company maintain its 30 percent annual growth rate. By giving physicians access to Salesforce for Google Apps, Menefee will boost collaboration and efficiency.

What’s your software-as-a-service strategy?

Software as a service takes up approximately 50 to 60 percent of our processes at The Schumacher Group. We use Salesforce for SFA. We do all our recruiting through the system and are in the process of integrating our Cisco IP telephony system so recruiters can make outbound phone calls from Salesforce using the computer telephony integration tool.

We maintain our relationships with physicians using Salesforce. We get them credentialed with insurance carriers and manage all the credentialing in Salesforce.

How does Salesforce for Google Apps play into this strategy?

Salesforce for Google Apps is directly in line with our software-as-a-service strategy. We are building a portal to distribute information to the 2,700 physicians we work with. Included in that portal is a document management solution where users can upload a document. We’ve already started writing some hooks into the Google API for documents and architected a little system so that physicians can create a Google document directly from within the portal without having to launch a word processing application.

Once a physician has created a document, someone at The Schumacher Group can then pull up that physician’s account and see what other types of documents that person has created, such as best practices or presentations. This allows us to leverage the strengths of group knowledge and apply best practices across the company.

How are Salesforce and Google changing the SaaS game?

The important takeaway is that the information is held inside this great container called the Force.com platform. With the flexibility of the Force.com platform, we’re able to take that data and move it into all these different systems either through the Google API or through direct connects inside the applications.

As soon as I heard about Salesforce for Google Apps, I immediately started thinking about how I could tie that back into Salesforce data. In only a couple of weeks, we put together something that would take months of development time using a traditional development approach. That’s the power of SaaS.

How will Salesforce for Google Apps change the way people work at The Schumacher Group?

Our physicians are independently contracted to work inside hospitals where they don’t have dedicated PCs. Without a computer, they can’t save files.

With Salesforce for Google Apps, we see real opportunities for collaboration. No matter where they are, users will be able to work and store documents. They’ll be able to share their Google calendar with their spouses. These are the kinds of benefits software as a service brings to the table.

How else will you use Salesforce for Google Apps?

Salesforce for Google Apps will give everyone better insight into documents being created by physicians. The ability for people to see those docs should help increase collaboration. I also see Salesforce for Google Apps as an excellent business continuity solution in the event our file server goes down or we have a massive virus outbreak. It’s a great failover option for us, too, because it lets us create, store, and build an instant intranet/extranet solution in the unlikely event all our equipment is totally annihilated.

What are the benefits of Salesforce for Google Apps?

Right now, we have to install client software on each PC, so there’s a maintenance issue to consider. Our users want documents that are readable, printable, and transferable. They don’t want software. From the end user’s standpoint, this means that you never have to worry about version control or e-mailing attachments to colleagues. From an administrative standpoint, centralized solutions give you better control and efficiency.


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