Breaking The Silos: Donwood’s Shift To A Smarter, Connected Aged Care System
Background
Donwood is a respected aged care provider located in Croydon, Victoria, operating 107 residential aged care beds, six retirement units, and a community care day centre. With plans to triple in size over the next decade, Donwood is focused on sustainable growth, operational excellence, and delivering high-quality care. Under the leadership of CEO Natasha Wilkinson, Donwood has built a strong reputation for community engagement, staff retention, and resident satisfaction.
"Consolidating our vendors into one platform with Inerva cloud ERP gave us real efficiencies, especially in payroll and finance."
Natasha Wilkinson
CEO of Donwood
The Challenge
When Natasha joined Donwood, they were juggling disconnected systems for finance, payroll, and rostering. The lack of integration created inefficiencies, manual workloads, and limited visibility.
Key challenges included:
- Siloed systems causing operational friction.
- Manual processes for tasks like journal entries and care minute reporting.
- Stagnant tech that couldn’t keep up with sector reforms.
- Hard-to-access data that slowed decision-making.
The Solution
Donwood selected Inerva cloud ERP as its strategic technology partner to consolidate its financial, payroll, and rostering systems into a single, integrated platform. The decision was driven by two key objectives:
- Future-Ready Infrastructure: Partnering with a platform provider that could evolve alongside the aged care reforms and support long-term growth.
- Vendor Consolidation: Reducing complexity by unifying core operational systems under one provider.
“My board talks about Inerva cloud ERP at every meeting. That’s how important the relationship is.”
Natasha Wilkinson, CEO of Donwood
The Results
Donwood has already realised several key benefits:
- Improved Data Access: The implementation of a data warehouse (Inerva Cloud Data) has enabled more robust data analysis and reporting.
- Simplified Management Reporting: Monthly financials, accounts payable, and receivable processes are now faster and more reliable.
- Strategic Insights: Inerva’s data capabilities are helping Donwood prepare for upcoming reforms, including care minute tracking and prudential reporting.
- Streamlined Financial Operations: Integration of payroll and general ledger eliminated the need for manual journal entries and reconciliations.