Ability8 utilises the power of low code to help disabled Australians
With a professional background in enterprise software development and telecoms, the eventual founder of Ability8, Mark Condon, was well-placed to apply his knowledge to the important and personal topic of disability care. Driven by the experiences of his own family in caring for their daughter Briana, Mark sought to develop a platform that would assist people in similar circumstances. As a result, the development of his proprietary application, Ability8, represents a significant innovation in the management of disability care plans.
Ability8 aims to empower people with disabilities (PWD) and their families by providing a comprehensive toolset to manage their care journeys easily, efficiently and effectively.
Business Challenge
Navigating the complexities of disability care, particularly the intricate funding and support issues, is a daunting task for many families. Mark, with his firsthand experience, recognised the inefficiencies and challenges inherent in managing disability care without specialised training.
Families and caregivers often find themselves overwhelmed by administrative tasks such as scheduling care, paying for services, arranging payroll, and ensuring compliance with tax and superannuation obligations. The need for a streamlined, user-friendly solution was apparent. Furthermore, the potential for improving continuity of care through better coordination among carers, contractors, and direct employees highlighted the necessity of a robust platform that could cater to the diverse needs of the disability community.
Integrating with the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is an integral part of the application, with the government body playing a crucial role in the lives and well-being of PWD across the country.
However, developing an application of this nature traditionally takes more than knowledge and good intentions. To plan, design and implement a framework that integrates third-party solutions has, until recently, required a development team and several months of highly focused work. Utilising traditional methods would require the hiring of a third-party service provider, with many elements of the design outsourced to coding teams, often off-shore.
This process would have taken more time and resources than Ability8 could easily muster and would have moved the essential planning a step further away from Mark's core vision – which was firmly based on his own deep empathy for the situation.
Based on his previous experience running the development team at a large enterprise, Mark was familiar with OutSystems and its platform and selected the solution to increase the efficiency of migrating legacy systems. Furthermore, he recognised the value in an application that was powerful and intuitive enough to help with the change management his team required, coupled with significant positive impacts on other parts of the organisation's development.
Relying upon this professional experience, Mark decided to use the OutSystems platform to power the design and build of Ability8, understanding that it would provide the flexibility and scalability he required, coupled with a fast, intuitive user experience.
The OutSystems Solution
After extensive research and testing of various software platforms, Mark found that the OutSystems platform best met the requirements for creating a secure, scalable, and adaptable application. The Ability8 application leverages OutSystems to provide a full-service self-management tool for PWD and their families. The platform includes features such as invoice payment processing with OCR/AI, care scheduling, payroll management, timesheet establishment, tax, Single Touch Payroll (STP) and super contribution compliance.
"This successful project is the perfect example of what a high-performance low-code platform can do, putting fast, powerful and intuitive tools into the hands of motivated individuals to enable their vision," said Paul Arthur, VP for Australia and New Zealand at OutSystems. "Seeing this type of development come to life and help people with their daily challenges is gratifying and rewarding."
Ongoing development and testing will hopefully see the Ability8 application integrate seamlessly with the NDIS mobile application, bringing the financial support and services of the national provider directly to the inclusive functionality of Ability8. This remains the only element of the application that currently requires manual inputs.
The use of OutSystems enables rapid development and deployment of new features and allows for user feedback and evolving needs to be one of the main drivers of the application. The ability to quickly build, test, and implement new capabilities ensured that Ability8 could continuously improve and adapt to meet the demands of its growing user base.
"As more users have gravitated towards our Ability8 application, we have received dozens of new feature requests. The OutSystems development platform allows us to quickly build new capabilities and thoroughly test them before deployment," says Mark. "Further to this, inbuilt security is constantly checking in the background to ensure the build is safe and stable."
With approximately 540 PWDs and over 3,000 supporting users, Ability8 now functions as a highly intuitive tool that is closely aligned to the needs of users, and as such, it has demonstrated the power of the OutSystems platform in delivering a reliable and user-centric solution – within the budget and limited resources of an entrepreneur.
Ability8 app is one of the very few applications in the disability sector that is addressing web content accessibility for users, with aims to be WCAG 2.2 compliant by the end of 2024.
On the partnership with OutSystems, Mark shared "The OutSystems platform enabled the development process to be quick and efficient. The graphical interface makes it so much easier to take a design to a developer and explain exactly what stage the project is currently at. Plus, the intellectual property is protected, as you cannot run the code in another environment."
Return on Investment
The implementation of the OutSystems platform for the development of Ability8 has yielded significant returns by enhancing the quality of life for PWDs and their families. The platform's user-friendly interface and comprehensive feature set have simplified the management of disability care plans, reducing the administrative burden on families and caregivers. This has not only improved the efficiency of care management but also ensured better compliance with regulatory requirements. The scalability of the OutSystems platform has supported the growth of Ability8, accommodating an increasing number of users and feature requests.
Most features of the Ability8 platform are automated, with many layers of cross-checking to ensure that customers using the platform have the vast majority of their daily to-do list completed for them. This extends to invoices for example, with machine-learning able to double check the ABN, bank details, names and other data to ensure the credibility of the company involved.
Mark Condon's vision of providing a better way to manage disability care has been realised through the application, which continues to evolve and meet the ongoing and changing needs of its users. The application's success underscores the impact of leveraging advanced technology to address real-world challenges, particularly in the realm of disability care.
"With the OutSystems platform, it is possible to build enterprise-grade software without an enterprise team," concludes Mark.
As Ability8 grows, it remains a testament to the potential of combining personal experience with technological innovation to create solutions that significantly improve lives. The journey of Mark Condon and Ability8 highlights the profound difference a well-designed, adaptable, and user-focused platform can make in the disability care sector. Through the strategic use of the OutSystems high-performance low-code platform, Ability8 provides an essential service that resonates deeply with its community.
