It’s pretty clear who Barbara Warren is the second you clap eyes on her LinkedIn profile – a successful consultant with years of experience working with Telstra, IBM and BP as a System Accountant, Business Analyst, Project Manager, Data Analyst and more before coming on board as a Senior Business Analyst at Rohling. 

That, however, is only part of the story. 

Barbara, who has a 26-year-old son who lives with disability and whose mother required home care services from aged care providers, is also an experienced carer. 

“That’s what drives me in what I do, because I know how important it is to clients and their family and friends,” Barbara says.

When it comes to implementing change with aged care and disability service providers, Barbara not only knows exactly how each facet of the solution will impact an organisation’s clients end-to-end, she anticipates pain points and opportunities for improvement from a client perspective when initially tailoring it. 

“The more time we can spend with service providers to provide that support – safety, quality, a deep understanding of their clients, that’s what drives me,” she says. 

“If we can free up frontline workers to get on with their work supporting clients, rather than worrying about their processes and systems, that’s what drives me.” 

Using strategic digital transformation to better care, not disrupt it

It’s not business for Barbara, it’s personal – but the CPA’s high degree of knowledge in finance, data and business processes, specifically aged care billing, claiming, funding and finance, also serves her to navigate complex business landscapes and drive positive change. 

“I can use all the things I have learned in the corporate world and in IT and industry, and benefit people who are helping other people, that’s my driver,” Barbara says.

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Such was the case with a recent regional aged care provider, which saw Barbara, as project manager, deliver a replacement system in a small time frame ahead of the then-current system going end of life. 

Barbara’s background in IT was crucial in this project delivery, as was her first-hand experience as a carer – they helped her quickly drill down on the functional elements that needed to be developed immediately and identify three core areas that needed to be in the new system and working before the official migration. 

“Analytical skills learnt from IBM and at BP and to look at the core of what the business is, that’s what was needed,” Barbara says. 

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Barbara knew what was needed to keep the business going during the system migration, from a finance and operations perspective, but also from a client perspective. 

“We needed to be able to have carers out and provide care, so they needed a roster, we needed to pay those workers, we needed to bill the clients for the services they were receiving,” Barbara says, noting how there were additional aspects needed in the system such as reporting, but those were the priorities that would keep all stakeholders happy. 

“If it was my mother, and she lived in the region… I knew that those families would want to know that their family member was getting ongoing care with the same workers that they know and trust, and that the care would be ongoing and not disrupted by a system,” Barbara says. 

“That was critical for me, that the clients’ care wouldn’t be disrupted.” 

Get in touch to speak to us about your organisation’s specific needs.