"From the very start, the Provet Cloud team provided strong support, ensuring that practice staff are set up for success."
Graham Dodds
CVS Group’s Director of Innovation and Transformation
CVS Group PLC is one of the largest integrated veterinary services providers in the UK, operating over 500 veterinary surgery clinics in the UK, Australia, Netherlands, and the Republic of Ireland. Consisting of small animal, large animal and equine specialists, the group employs around 2,100 vets and 3,000 nurses.
With a strategic approach revolving around selecting a single practice management system tailored to each clinic’s specific requirements, CVS Group initiated a partnership with Provet Cloud in 2022. CVS sought a partner that could deliver on its vision of digital transformation to improve the customer experience via key technologies provided by an all-in-one-platform. Provet Cloud proved to be the modern solution they needed, offering deep integration and customization capabilities via our open REST API.
Harnessing innovation with a hands-on approach
The journey with CVS Group commenced with a meticulous discovery phase, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of their unique practice requirements. Leveraging our expertise, we focused on seamless integration and customization to address workflows. This involved incorporating features such as our master pricing solution and internal/external laboratory integrations, essential for optimizing operational efficiency.
Central to the successful implementation was the collaboration between Provet Cloud and the CVS team. Through a comprehensive training program, we empowered internal superusers and administrators, enabling them to spearhead the rollout and handle future configuration updates independently. This hands-on approach, coupled with meticulous data migration from legacy systems, ensured a smooth transition.
Migrating 350 practices in 8 weeks
Upon completion of the pilot phase, to ensure timely delivery, we adopted a “rapid rollout” model – encompassing configuration, data migration, and end-user training – which enabled our team to successfully migrate 350 practices in only 8 weeks.
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Configuration
We began the project by determining the platform configuration rules, including defining those universal-versus-local settings to be deployed as a best-practice template across the entire estate. This allowed new locations to be onboarded quickly and easily with minimum customization required beyond local printers and lab integrations.
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Data migration
We adopted a similarly efficient approach for data migration, utilizing an automated framework to transfer data at scale. This involved data migration scripts that facilitated import of key information, again using a predefined, best-practice template created in collaboration with CVS (such as the automatic mapping of a practice’s reminder rules). We were able to standardize the information that would automatically be transferred from the legacy platform. This component was delivered without any downtime and to minimize the impact to a practice's daily operations we leveraged the practices non-working hours.
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End-user training
Lastly, we scaled our training delivery to accommodate the large influx of new users by deploying our e-learning academy, providing on-demand resources to help clinic staff gain a strong foundation on the platform prior to their go-live. The self-paced learning was supplemented by virtual classroom events – allowing for real-time interaction with our product experts – as well as train-the-trainer programs whereby CVS employees can become subject matter experts to support their colleagues and eventually become responsible for future configuration changes.
Lessons learned and continuous improvement
Provet Cloud deployed our solution to a number of CVS practices in early 2024, helping the group meet their strategic goal of investing in technology to drive further growth. Adopting our enterprise change framework as part of our collaborative partnership ensured we stayed on track to deliver this project across their entire practice estate.
Collaboration, meticulous project management, and a shared vision – these were the pillars of our successful implementation. By aligning on clear objectives during the discovery and design phase, both teams mitigated scope creep, ensuring the project kept to schedule. Active engagement from senior stakeholders fostered a collective sense of accountability, facilitating swift decision-making throughout the implementation process.
As with any journey, there were challenges to overcome. Through a thorough retrospective analysis, Provet Cloud identified key learnings, laying the groundwork for an enhanced enterprise change framework. Notably, maintaining close involvement in end-user configuration and training, especially during the pilot stages, emerged as a crucial aspect. Facilitating meaningful engagement with end-users proved instrumental in refining the solution to meet their evolving needs, thus avoiding potential pitfalls during the deployment phase.
Driving efficiency and data-driven decision making
The partnership between Provet Cloud and CVS Group exemplifies a successful collaboration driven by a shared commitment to innovation and excellence in veterinary care. As our partnership continues to evolve and expand, the transformative impact of Provet Cloud on operational efficiency and data-driven decision-making remains a cornerstone of CVS Group’s success story.
