After a recent systems review, Medical Council management felt their existing financial system (Greentree´s legacy product CBA), was increasingly unable to meet their functional requirements. This prompted a thorough review of the Council's business systems and a comparison of competitive products, including Greentree (who were recently recognised as one of 25 global rising stars by MIS magazine), against a set of criteria. 

Upgrade goals

The Council's main aims were to upgrade to a more modern system using Windows functionality and to have that system provide more reporting flexibility and better data management.

"We needed to update our system from DOS to Windows," says data controller John De Wever,"for ease of use and advanced capabilities. We chose Greentree, which uses a JADE database, as it provides a sound technology with new levels of data integrity and flexibility. Also, we already use a JADE system in-house and we wanted compatible technology."

A key driver for moving to Greentree was the need for more financial and business management tools with flexible reporting structures. The finance team produce monthly accounts and management information for the Council's regular meetings, as well as for the periodical meetings of the Audit Committee. 

De Wever says, "CBA was unwieldy in terms of meeting our reporting requirements. The report writer in Greentree is very flexible and we have found this to be a great benefit." Providing timely and informative reports helps ensure the organisation is operating effectively. 

All standard reports within Greentree have been designed to provide key information in a logical and easy to read format that can be tailored to suit the organisations particular requirements. 

"We can now deliver a far superior product to Council," says De Wever, "which they find really constructive. We can quickly present clear and accurate information in a tailored layout to show the many and varied views of our organisation."

Logical analysis

The finance team extensively use analysis trees, which allow them to classify or group information in ways that are logical to them. These trees are used at report time for sorting and sub-totalling at any level.  This powerful feature means they can easily tailor many standard Greentree reports to provide key information in exactly the format they require, particularly for management reporting. "Using Greentree 'trees' is an excellent way to organise our information,"says De Wever. "We're more productive and efficient with the tools we have available. It's more complex than CBA but allows us to do so much more."

With over 10,000 doctors in New Zealand on the medical register, Council needed a system to record key financial information on doctors' competence reviews and investigation of complaints. The Greentree Job Cost module has been designed to provide an efficient and effective system for managing such jobs, and the Council is monitoring over 400 of these in the Job Cost system.

By using the strong integration with the core financial system, they are able to track the costs and present the information in pivot tables in Excel. Greentree's enquiry facility allows the team to view an entire project, with all costs summarised on screen and can easily "drill down" through the defined job structures.

Using Job Cost has made the monitoring and reporting of the financial management side of competence reviews and complaint investigation much easier. "We can use trees in the General Ledger to sort expenses," says De Wever, "and we're able to see all levels of financial information for each cost centre, which is invaluable.

 "Greentree has made us better and smarter at what we do. We now have a multifaceted system, with the flexible structures we need to manage our information, on a modern platform."

About The Medical Council of New Zealand

The Medical Council's core business is the registration of doctors to practise medicine in New Zealand. Registration is evidence that a doctor has met a certain standard and is the means by which they achieve their primary purpose - protecting the health and safety of the public.

The Medical Council operates under the Medical Practitioners Act 1995. In addition to registration, they have responsibilities in the areas of doctors' education, standards, conduct and health. The Medical Council is not only a regulatory body - guiding doctors on medical practice issues is an important part of what they do. The Chief Executive and 35 staff support the work of the Council in offices based in Wellington. For more information visit: www.mcnz.org.nz

For more information

www.greentree.com/customers/profiles/medical_council.cfm

Graham Hill
Ph: 0800 313 313
Fax: 09 366 3889
graham.hill@greentree.com
www.greentree.com

January 2004

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