Based on decades of business intelligence know-how, ProVision has launched ProIntel – offering elevated business analysis capabilities for individual independent practices.
Optometrist Mr Stephen Lucas from Somerville & Merrin Optometrists in Tooowoomba, Queensland, was among the 50 initial practices piloting ProVision’s new ProIntel system and says it has helped him visualise and track business data on a scale he hasn’t been able to before.
The program, unveiled in May 2024 at O-SHOW24, performs practice performance reporting and benchmarking that independents part of the network can leverage to identify strengths and weaknesses within their business.
Typical collation of data such as KPIs, categorising sales based on product type, consultations and visualising business progression since the previous year, was a lengthy process for Lucas. Now, he can view dashboard reports, filter and organise information as he wishes – with 24/7 mobile access.
Systems of this calibre and nature are commonplace in corporate optometry, but ProVision has embraced the challenge to create a system that its practices – each with unique ways of operating – can leverage as well for a data-driven business strategy.
“It’s such a useful way to visualise the data. Before, it would take me a very long time to sit down and drill into the data, whereas now, it can literally be done in minutes,” Lucas says.
He says ProIntel has been easily integrated with his current Optomate Touch system – which transferred the plethora of data his practice had accumulated over the span of 24 years. Today, he can look at different facets of the business from several angles and at an unprecedented speed.
The system also protects patient information as it’s based on de-identified data only. Moreover, Lucas has found utility in appointment hotspotting across his practice’s two locations, where he can analyse trends in consultations and patient demographics – something he wasn’t easily able to do before.
“We’ve looked at what our fill rates are like and our appointments across days, months, weeks, years. We can see what percentage of our available appointments are taken up,” Lucas says.
“You can see where your patients are coming from via postcode and track your patient demographics so you can see the age group of the patients. We’ve got two practices so we can compare one to the other,” he says.
The data can also be drilled down to individual optometrists, to identify patient demographics that each practitioner tends to see – which has also proven useful to Lucas with multiple optometrists across different locations.
Fact-based decision making
ProVision business systems manager, Mr Andrew Parker, has been accountable for delivering the ProIntel project. He says the tool was born out of an industry need for the system.
“One of the big things we’re seeing is that we have a huge amount of data that’s living at an individual practice level,” Parker says.
“Therefore, we can give that tool to our practices so they can start to analyse their information and make fact-based decisions as opposed to gut-feeling decisions.”
Parker understands that business acumen may not come naturally to some, so ProIntel can bridge these knowledge gaps and guide practices through these learning curves.
“Over the years, ProIntel will grow and continue to improve based on member feedback and what they want out of a business intelligence system,” he says.
The underlying motive for ProVision is to provide business leadership and support for its practices – which it has embodied in ProIntel.
“From a marketing perspective we can analyse sales by postcodes, and combine this with age group and gender, and so we can start to analyse information combining a whole raft of relevant data dimensions. Ultimately, that’s the beauty of business intelligence,” he says.
Clear sales progression
For Lucas, ProIntel will allow him to identify areas of weakness and opportunity within his practices. This information can be extracted from product trends and seeing what works for patients.
“For example, ProIntel can help us when trying to promote contact lenses in the practice because we can gauge over time whether certain types of contact lenses or certain modalities of contact lenses are worn more than others,” he says.
“You can track the brand, the type of contact lens and even the package size of the lenses if you want.”
Beyond product, opportunities can also be found by breaking down appointments and identifying what services patients are mostly using.
“Over time, you can track whether patients are making use of extra scans for example, so it provides a lot more flexibility to drill down into the data in a way that we haven’t had access to in the past.”
Although this information has always been available to Lucas, it has not been readily accessible. Prior to ProIntel, he would have needed to dedicate hours to extract any meaningful data from previous practice management software.
Visualisation of data is key for Lucas as he can clearly see sales progression in graphical format.
ProIntel offers users nuanced visualisation – as opposed to basic sales figures – and the ability to deconstruct figures into specific groups or categories to create a personalised business analysis.
Patients can also be organised into age brackets, postcodes, new versus existing, health funds and more. Users can combine multiple dimensions which are then cross examined with sales.
ProIntel also plugs into the other ProVision services – such as Business Coaching. This can be described as a “hand-in-glove” relationship between information data and the Business Coaches. These coaches can provide guidance and leadership around how to take the practice from where it is currently, to where the owners want it to be.
Currently, the pilot program is being used as a sales performance reporting system so practices can visualise their sales history, appointments and inventory.
But performance benchmarking is soon to follow. Unlike traditional benchmarking initiatives that are run infrequently and can take considerable resources to deliver, ProIntel will provide a daily view of comparable groupings, allowing practices to see changes in real time with real market feedback to gauge their relative performance.
“Our Business Coach’s role is to try and help us improve as a business and with more access to more data and more benchmarking that just allows for better comparisons between practices,” Lucas says.
“It shows us trends and gives us encouragement or ideas as to how to improve on business based on the benchmarking of us versus others.”
Benchmarking will also show the identified groupings of practices to be able to see how the rest of the population went when it comes to sales trends. This may include looking at specific areas within the practices, such as billing, or the trends in mixed billing between Medicare and private health insurance.
Although in the preliminary stages of system use, Lucas is eager to see how benchmarking will elevate the practice.
“It gives you confidence that you’re moving in the right direction and confirmation that what you’re doing is actually working,” he says.
Parker adds: “Rational, fact-based decision making coupled with industry leading Business Coaching allows ProVision independent practices to tap into similar capabilities that large scale organisations use to build their strategic goals and measure their progress.”
“They can track progress using ProIntel and continuously adapt and improve along the journey.”
More reading
How ProVision’s calculator boosted an optometrist’s revenue by $60K
How ProVision’s business coaching can grow a practice
ProVision’s new handbook helps practices re-think inventory management
