Web tool gives wellness coaches a major efficiency boost.
Promoting the wellbeing of staff has become increasingly important in various industries. Healthy and happy employees have a strong work drive and this affects work atmosphere as well as productivity. Ixonos delivered to Excenta, a company providing wellness coaching to businesses, a web-based tool that improves the work efficiency of coaches.
Wellness development with an eye to work-drive and individuals
Excenta, a Finnish company, provides businesses with coaching and rehabilitation services related to personnel health. Excenta’s wellness coaches create coaching programmes for their corporate customers’ employees. They encourage the employees to exercise and track their progress.
Due to the popularity of Excenta’s wellness coaching, the company needed to rationalise the way its coaches worked. Excenta wanted to develop its tools so that its coaches would be able to more efficiently manage their groups of coachees, create coaching programs and communicate with their coachees. The objective was to double the number of coachees without compromising the quality of the coaching. Ixonos was chosen to implement a turnkey service-development project.
Solution
Working hand in glove with Excenta, Ixonos developed a web-based special-purpose application matching Excenta’s needs. The solution Ixonos delivered gives wellness coaches advanced tools with which to manage their groups of coachees more efficiently.
The Wellness Management Platform application (WMP) allows Excenta’s coaches to plan wellness surveys, to create coaching programmes and weekly schedules and to track the individual progress of their coachees. The web-based tool was designed also to incorporate results analysis as well as systematic reporting to client-organisation HR and management.
To facilitate communication between coaches and their clients, the solution was connected to the customer’s email system as well. The solution was also designed to satisfy stringent information security requirements as it is used to process information related to the personal wellness of coachees.
Software version updates as well as e.g. new language options can be implemented quickly. Ixonos maintains the software on its own servers and continues to develop the solution further together with Excenta.
Benefits for the parties involved
Ixonos’ team of experts worked closely with the customer, and the software was developed based on the wishes of the coaches. This collaboration was the key to creating a userfriendly solution that matches the specific requirements of the coaching company. The day-to-day work of Excenta’s wellness coaches reached new levels of organisation and efficiency, and they can now better focus on actual coaching.
The intuitive, web-based user interface gives coaches a graphic view of the progress their coachees have made as individuals and groups. The tool also provides reminders and guidance regarding various tasks such as sending reports and arranging appointments. Thanks to the tool, Excenta’s wellness coaches can coach more and larger groups with increased efficiency and without compromising either the high quality of their service or their individual approach. The increased efficiency contributes directly to the company’s overall profitability.
The solution also helps the management of Excenta’s client organisations by generating clear indicators to support strategic and operational monitoring and decision-making. The wellbeing of employees can now be developed in a more comprehensive manner while catering to individual needs. Wellness coaching participants receive even better service and clear instructions as well as up-to-date information on how their health is developing.
Technologies used
Wellness Management Platform (WMP 3.0) is a specialpurpose application created by Ixonos for Excenta. The following technologies were used to develop the software:
- Grails application framework
- JasperReport and BIRT reporting tools
- Java programming language
- MySQL database management system
- JBoss SOA platform
Ixonos’ expert team
Ixonos’ team used agile methods in this service development project, enabling the core features of WMP to be readied for release in just three months.
“By choosing tools suited for agile web-application development, we achieved a rapid and flexible development process. After preparing an extensive statement of requirements and designing the architecture of the system, we were able to focus entirely on developing the software and adjusting its functionality and services. It was great to have Excenta’s wellness coaches, the product’s end users, attended the development meetings.”
Ilari Heikkinen, Lead designer for the project, Ixonos
“Our team’s primary focuses were the quality of the product as well as keeping within the budget defined by the customer. It is rewarding to know that the solution we developed has allowed the coaches to triple the number of their own clients without compromising the quality or individuality of their service.”
Dastagiri Komali, Project Manager, Ixonos
“One of the most challenging objectives in this project was to shape large amounts of information into a meaningful and manageable format for the users. The project was divided into several iterations and the customer was able to provide step-by-step feedback as we advanced. I believe that our iterative approach and collective commitment were central to such a successful outcome.”
Jarkko Lunnas, GUI Designer, Ixonos
About Excenta
Excenta is a service company in the field of strategic wellness. The company provides wellness measurement tools, trains managers in wellness leadership and carries out activities to improve the health and wellbeing of employees. Excenta’s concept is that the health and wellness of employees should be managed methodically, as part of each company’s operations.
“In practice, the new service solution constitutes our enterprise resource planning system: we use it to keep our various target groups up to date regarding groups, coachees, the work of coaches and the progress and results of coaching.”
Topi Valtakoski, Managing Director, Excenta
“When we sought a partner, we chose Ixonos because of their strong commitment, their collaborative approach and the extremely high quality of their work. We have become convinced that selecting Ixonos as our long-term partner in product and service development was the right choice for developing our business operations.”
Sami Alkio, Project Manager, Excenta