PointClickCare: Creating trust among users with Paligo

PointClickCare is an innovative, cloud-based technology advancing the senior care industry. The PointClickCare platform helps healthcare providers meet the challenges of senior care by enabling them to achieve the business results that matter – enriching the lives of their residents, improving financial and operational health, and mitigating risk.

When talking about PointClickCare, three things come to mind; accuracy, reliability, and trust. As a leading software used by healthcare providers and organizations around the world, customers depend on the information they provide. Customer trust is crucial, and PointClickCare keeps this trust by having accurate and reliable information available.

With a business model based on these principles, a user-friendly Component Content Management System is a necessity. This is especially true in the case of PointClickCare, as they manage content for 4+ markets, dozens of user roles, hundreds of sub-products, and thousands of instructions for millions of users.

So there was a need for enterprise-level content management, but that wasn’t all. The team working with this data lacked a clear process regarding content creation and review. Above all, the most precise information would need to be delivered in a structured, user-friendly interface.

When Emma Pindera started at PointClickCare in 2015, the content team consisted of subject matter experts who would write wiki articles for the website. Emma, and the head of technical development, would then build the help file by copying and pasting sections into Robohelp, and then structuring and managing multiple versions of the content.

Robohelp was a really great tool for simply building the help file. However, it was not good when it came to having multiple authors.

The team also found it difficult as there were no practical solutions for variables or branching. The need to copy and paste led to unnecessary duplicated content.

We would have to create content twice because a few words might be different or part of the article was not the same. So, we were dealing with a huge structure where we needed to build help files completely from scratch.

Obviously, this was a lot to manage. Emma and her team needed a more modular way of managing the help content, while also keeping it easy for users to get the necessary data. To do this, they had to make sure their time was spent as wisely as possible while keeping the information in the help file up-to-date. Users would need to be able to find the information they needed in a fast and easy manner.

But that wasn’t all. To put the content into the help file, they had to create separate PDFs. The content from articles and from other spaces had to be rewritten from scratch and then turned into a PDF. Because of this, the content was dispersed and separated to be put into the delivery outputs. This cumbersome process resulted in very long help files which were hard to search and navigate.

One more thing that defined PointClickCare’s challenge was the need to ensure a streamlined workflow with a clear-cut review process, so that authors and contributors could have defined standards and guidelines. Everything published would need to be up to strict standards and approved by content experts.

In the previous process where we were copying and pasting, if something was missed there wasn’t another review process. So when we started working in Paligo, it was very helpful to be able to focus our time on publishing the content instead of spending most of our time verifying information.

Keeping all of this in mind, a new solution would need to include the following:

• Is it able to reduce the amount of work?
• Is it able to manage our customer-specific content more efficiently?
• Is it able to manage the amount of variables, namely the amount of markets, regarding customer-specific output?”
• Is it able to support a comprehensive review process?

PointClickCare started their search for a content management solution in 2015. A technical specialist took a look at the different kinds of content management tools the company could employ to make their content better for everyone, while saving time and money. It was important to make the most out of the amount of information provided, because the PointClickCare software could be a bit complicated depending on the user. There were a lot of different processes that people needed to be aware of for a variety of needs. For instance, nurses would be using PointClickCare in a different way than a business office manager.

Being able to structure the content in a way that made sense, such as with variables and tagging, was crucial for delivering the help file experience across the board. With these considerations in mind, the Paligo Component Content Management System was a great fit.

We used to have a crazy amount of unique topics because of the different regional verbiage and type of care. The user might work in a ‘skilled nursing facility’, which is heavily nursing-oriented versus what we call a ‘senior living community’, which is more of a retirement home. Also, the people under care are referred to in different ways; residents, patients, etc.

So being able to put those differences into variables in Paligo was very helpful. Plus, they could publish PDFs and help files on their own in a quick and consistent manner.

One of the things that excited us most about using Paligo was the ability to structure and reuse content. It was so much more efficient to be able to reuse fragments in multiple topics and then reuse those topics multiple times in PDFs and help files. We could also reuse topics within other publications going out to other markets. Now, we can make the most of our time and we know that the information we deliver is up-to-date.

The structure for each product now fits into different categories, making it much easier to find the particular information for which a user may be searching. To sort through the sea of help information, experts have created taxonomies to organize the way help is presented. Long-form texts, videos, quick guides, and FAQs are just a few of the ways help information is now organized. In addition, users have a much clearer picture of what type of help each subject has to offer.

“If any variables or fragments need to be changed, we know that it will be updated across the board. All we need to do is make the update in one place and it’s automatically updated everywhere in Paligo and in our help files. That makes a huge difference because with a platform as large as ours, we have multiple names of products in multiple areas. And as we develop and innovate, some things get combined and get renamed. Sometimes phone numbers or addresses change. So the fact that we can update or replace a variable or fragment just once, and know that all of our content in Paligo is immediately updated, gives us peace of mind.”

So having a single source solution was critical for PointClickCare, especially with a large software portfolio and multiple changes. Additionally, setting up long-term management of the entire content process was also important.

Since the introduction of Paligo a few years ago, the team is now much more collaborative, with clear processes for authors, reviewers, and validation. Paligo has also added many new features, of which PointClickCare takes full advantage. And for a company focused on healthcare, accessibility options are greatly appreciated. “We can make sure that our content is more accessible by aligning our typography across all channels and using the more accessible layout options.”

I really appreciate the roles and the processes that are integrated within Paligo. Being able to create a reviewer license relatively easily and share the content with people who are outside of our team for review is invaluable.

Emma’s team would like to expand and get additional departments on board within Paligo as well, to make sure everybody has a single source of truth. “Seeing the value in reusing the content the other teams produce, as opposed to copying and pasting the content from other sources, is something that I see in our future.”

There are about nine people on Emma’s team currently using Paligo, and the number of authors and contributors is around 14. “There are a few people on the customer support team that also have access, plus other people who create content, like other technical writers within other areas of the company.”

The team can invite reviewers to make sure everything is accurate and aligned with PointClickCare standards. In a reviewer role, one can reject, approve, or make comments. The function of this role is important for verifying the accuracy of the information PointClickCare offers to users. Having a clearly defined role and process to validate information before publishing protects the credibility of the content.

And finally, we come to contributor licenses. These are mostly used in the company for those who, for example, have an item included in the release newsletter every month.

“We create content that we release every month, which is sent out in a newsletter for our users with information on updates. We’ve streamlined the process to such a point that the customers have confidence in the content that we give out. And we’ve been fortunate that time and time again people trust our content because they know it’s always correct and up-to-date.”

To be able to create content from scratch, update the content, reuse what we already have, and then be able to publish without needing developer skills is huge for us.