Meals on Wheels SA (‘MoWSA’) is a not-for-profit organisation providing support to more than 11,000 members of the South Australian community to live independently. It does this by preparing and delivering fresh, seasonal and nutritious dishes to maintain health and wellbeing; offering regular social contact; and recognising, responding and building people’s capacity to meet nutritional and other needs that increase wellbeing. MoWSA has 100 staff and more than 7,000 volunteers supporting 84 metropolitan, rural and regional branches across the State.
Each of MoWSA’s branches had been operating on stand-alone direct telephone connections with the day’s meal orders received and printed out via fax. The reliance on paper-based communications is two-fold, explained MoWSA’s ICT Manager Nayan Perera:
“Our heritage is in the healthcare sector and paper-based faxes have traditionally been the safest way to communicate. Also, in our cohort of 7,000 volunteers the average age is 70, so most are not necessarily tech-savvy or comfortable using a computer.”
A disconnect between the hours that the branches and head office operate was a third reason necessitating asynchronous communication. The branches typically start preparing meals from 6am and work through until 2pm, while head office works to standard business hours. In the past, that disconnect also meant direct calls to the branches later in the afternoon weren’t being answered.
