ALLEGRA |
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Pursuing a strategy of driving value while lowering healthcare costs.
OVERVIEW
Allegra is a healthcare company that provides technology platforms for total patient care. The company creates software solutions that adapt healthcare providers to current and future customer care challenges. Allegra is assisting in driving down healthcare costs by facilitating a holistic view of the patient and reducing duplication across multiple systems.
The Allegra platform integrates healthcare stakeholders such as medical aids, insurance companies and healthcare providers. This allows for members of the Allegra Healthcare community to share a single patient health record for each patient, across the southern African healthcare network. Allegra solutions reduce risk, both in patient management, by enabling the patient to share their profile with relevant care providers; and actuarial risk, through providing biometric data exchanges to funders.
Value creation complements cost and risk reduction. Other systems in the Allegra stable include tools for practice management, dispensing and nurse practice management.
In the 2017 financial year, Allegra adopted “mutualism” as one of its corporate values.
PERFORMANCE SUMMARY
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Allegra signed an agreement with the Alpha Pharm network in 2015 to roll out its Allegra Clinic Management System across more than 800 Alpha Pharm branded pharmacies. 59 Alpha Pharm clinics have started to use Allegra. | ||
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Allegra signed an agreement with SmartHealth to connect the biokineticists in the Biokineticist Association of South Africa (“BASA”). Allegra developed a new digital contracting and onboarding platform, which has been used by 306 biokineticists to register online, while 193 biokineticist practices have subscribed to provide the Allegra wellness screening service to Medscheme and MMI Group members. | ||
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Through its interaction with BASA, Allegra was invited to partner with MMI to bring wellness screening to their new health insurance partner in India, Aditya Birla. This made the digital contracting and onboarding platform very valuable; 226 fitness trainers in India have now subscribed to the Allegra wellness screening service for new health insurance members in that country. | ||
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Allegra has been working on developing a new dispensing system for pharmacies since 2013; Pharmacy Direct is successfully using the system. In addition, Allegra has worked with a retail chain to test the system in a multibranch environment. This pilot has emphasised the need for improved user-onboarding strategies, which will inform future implementation approaches. The brand-new Allegra Retail Dispensing System is now ready for introduction to a range of new clients, and efforts are underway to introduce this system, which supports Allegra’s vision of “total patient care”, to the rest of the market. | ||
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Allegra has streamlined its acquisition process by developing an online contracting system, as well as integrating this with an easy-to-use online onboarding solution. This digital sales process is being optimised to further reduce costs and improve user adoption of Allegra technology. This has been developed in order to achieve two of Allegra’s strategic objectives, namely to offer lower cost-to-value ratio to our clients and to achieve high asset utilisation by selling the same product to many clients as quickly as possible. The successful implementation of this new digital system is a significant highlight for the 2017 financial year. |
STRATEGY
Allegra’s strategic focus directly supports AfroCentric’s strategy of reducing healthcare costs, and its activities align with this strategic objective. Allegra is diversifying revenue streams and continues to identify new opportunities for growth by entering new, non-pharmacy market segments, such as biokinetics, and dietician and GP practices. Allegra’s systems are capable of servicing those sectors and require only the development of interfaces to link with sectoral platforms. Allegra became active in these markets in 2017 and continues exploring additional markets.
We strive to enhance the customer experience of scheme members at the point of care by providing biometric data that will allow an interactive encounter with healthcare workers. Allegra is further working to empower patients to take ownership of their own health and lifestyle decisions. The intention is to enable individuals to “own” their own relevant data, while seeking assistance from the various healthcare service providers through an integrated health systems approach. The company is pursuing an innovative patient activation solution in order to achieve this.
During 2017, Allegra adopted a philosophy of on-selling other software, instead of developing everything in-house. It is now sourcing development partners and reselling their software under the Allegra brand, using the newly established digital subscription model. This enables future expansion into other industry segments.
| AFROCENTRIC STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES |
MEDSCHEME’S ALIGNMENT TO THESE | ||
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Enhance shareholder value |
Allegra strives to enhance shareholder value by reducing costs through mutually beneficial partnerships, and streamlining client acquisitions through a digital subscription system. This simplifies onboarding and lowers the financial barriers to entry to a larger market segment. It also increases the volume of users and turns the Allegra income model towards mass subscription at lower cost. | |
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Maximise growth opportunities |
Allegra is generating income beyond South Africa through new clients in Namibia and India, and is exploring other prospects in Africa. Allegra has entered the global market by establishing itself in India. We are positioning ourselves to reach further into Africa by partnering with clients who have the same objective and with existing service providers in those countries; and are working to sign additional contracts with providers in neighbouring countries. | |
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Improve efficiencies through cost consciousness |
Allegra has successfully implemented a digital subscription and onboarding process, which not only improves efficiencies, but also reduces cost-of-sales and training expenses across the entire Group. | |
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Promote transformation | Allegra is committed to transformation and has invested in enterprise development to assist black female clinic nurses to grow their own private primary healthcare clinics through the use of our software. We have secured the services of two more female developers and worked proactively to increase the number of black technical support agents. The company has designed an employment equity plan, and we are collaborating with various partners to promote supplier development and enterprise development among previously disadvantaged groups. |
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Diversify revenue sources |
We are committed to diversifying our revenue sources through on-selling other products under our own brand, and engaging in mergers and acquisitions to grow the company’s revenue streams. | |
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Deliver exceptional client service |
We have established an account management team, and our call centre has been expanded to provide access and ongoing support services to all users. Allegra continually strives to transform its clients into enthusiastic supporters of the company through exceptional client service which focuses on caring to help the client grow their healthcare practice or business. | |
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Reduce the cost of healthcare |
Allegra’s EHRs and clinical data switch enabled the sharing of relevant patient information. This prevents unnecessary healthcare spending. Healthcare practitioners have no need to perform unnecessary diagnostics tests because this information is already available. By transferring clinical data to the relevant stakeholder, Allegra enables a preventative care model which results in patient lifestyle interventions, lower hospitalisation rates and fewer severe health incidents. |
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Uplift our people | Employees form part of self-managed teams within the different business systems. Team Leaders facilitate the decision-making process and decisions are taken when sufficient consensus is reached. These decisions are guided by the principles as established by the leadership team. The development of leadership skills is a continuous process using a 360-degree assessment whereby areas of development are identified. These development areas are then addressed through personal development plans. | |
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
Allegra has an integration team who proactively facilitate integration with other technology providers in the market. These efforts are driven through Allegra’s commitment to mutualism. We are planning to expand and improve our portal to provide access to a digital sales channel. This will open doors for both improved innovation through integration with other software industry players, and an increased footprint in established markets.
We have expanded Allegra’s wellness screenings into Namibia and India. The company will continue pursuing this expansion across borders and industries through building strategic partnerships.
The impending NHI presents an opportunity for Allegra’s software solutions to create an EHR that links the public sector to primary health clinics. Patients will be able to easily access care on the move. The uncertainty surrounding NHI represents a risk and a challenge. However, Allegra is confident that we have the expertise and resources to be a key service provider to this critical initiative.
As an innovative front-runner, we are the first to market, but carry the burden of paving the way for client adoption through extensive investment in market education. By developing intuitive applications and improving the quality of software, Allegra is making technology adoption easy for end-users. Training our call centre support employees is cost-intensive, but it is critical. Allegra has also implemented processes to facilitate pilot software and enable volume testing (load, stress and endurance testing) prior to deployment, in order to identify and address issues before the client is billed.
OUTLOOK
Allegra continues working towards bringing the philosophy of “total patient care” to life by developing and providing strategic information technology. In the 2017 financial year, Allegra adopted “mutualism” as one of its corporate values. The mutualistic partnership collaborates with clients to better address their needs and those of other stakeholders in the software industry. Going forward, we are incorporating four core agile values:
- Value individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Provide working software instead of comprehensive documentation
- Focus on customer collaboration as opposed to contract negotiation
- Respond to change, rather than to follow a fixed plan
Visit the Allegra website, http://www.allegra.co.za/