The DSO’s COO identified tab32 as an ideal centralized PMS early on. “Migrating to a single PMS was something that we had always talked about. And so we thought making the move to the cloud and just getting all [of our practices] onto the same platform would be beneficial. That way, our regional managers know how to pass along information and train,” the COO said. Now, they felt they needed to take action at the scale they had grown to.
The DSO’s team and the tab32 team undertook a thorough assessment of their operations. “The team from Tab was awesome. They were very structured when we had our meetings daily or weekly. With tab32’s Director of Implementations getting things set up, everything was laid out nicely. She could say, ‘This is what you're going to need to know,’ and walk us through the steps very clearly.”
When it comes to deployment, some dental practices or DSOs prefer a slow, steady approach, piloting and finalizing one office before moving on to the next. This DSO had different needs. They wanted to fully migrate all of their offices as quickly as possible and so they opted for a single organization-wide migration. Fortunately, tab32’s deployment process was adaptable and could be adjusted to fit their business needs.
“We knocked them all out on the same day,” the COO said happily. “Tab might’ve thought we were crazy, but to us it was more just a ‘rip the bandage off’ situation at that point. Our teams were ready for it. They were up for the challenge.”
The COO’s goal was to reduce six sets of records to one as efficiently as possible, especially since they dealt with so many managed care plans that received so many regular updates. The sooner they could consolidate to one PMS in the cloud, the sooner they’d reclaim all their work hours manually updating codes.
The DSO wanted to take the same approach to training, too: get everyone up and running as fast as possible. “When we got to the end [of the migration], we said, ‘You know what? Let's just train them all together.’ Let's rip the band-aid off again and make it happen.”
So tab32's training team assembled a library of training videos for their staff. “Our offices aren't all right next to each other, so having the training beforehand was huge. Getting our teams together and having your trainers come out and walk them through it in person helped a lot for sure. Day one will be a shock no matter what, but it helped. Having them there and then having them in the office when I went live to help walk people through as well was important.”
The COO’s trainers found that library helpful both during the migration and after the fact. They also appreciated the in-app walkthroughs embedded throughout the tab32 PMS. These allow users to search how to specific tasks right in context. “We just hired someone new a couple of days ago,” the COO said. “I went back, and we pulled out the training videos and said, ‘Go look at these.’ Having those available is immensely helpful.”
Major projects—like cloud software migrations—are complex, with many moving parts. Things will never go perfectly smooth. Instead of eliminating every possible point of failure, it is best to remain adaptable and prepare contingencies. The COO agreed. “You migrate one office, it's not fun. I've done that, and I've migrated multiple times. It's never an easy lift. We are realistic in knowing it wasn't going to be perfect. But the team from Tab was very organized. They were able to roll with all the little surprise issues.”
