Sangoma Boards Help Independent Pharmacies Effectively Compete

By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor

In an economy full of big box stores and multi-national retail chains, it can be a challenge for the small independent to effectively compete and maintain a loyal customer base. Same goes for independent community pharmacies.

While these entities play a critical role in the delivery of healthcare in the U.S., larger competitors are putting on the pressure, forcing smaller pharmacies to identify opportunities for differentiation that are not only effective, but affordable.

A recent case study involving Asterisk solutions developer, Sangoma, identified the necessity of customer responsiveness in this environment. Consumers are “always on” and “always connected” and expect the same from their pharmacy. They want to be able to receive automated refill reminders, gain direct access to personal information through self-service channels and essentially complete their pharmacy business without having to wait for a pharmacy employee with which to interact.

The retail pharmacy must be able to integrate communications so they can do much more than receive requests and process refills. The pharmacy must also be able to process phoned physician prescription orders, accept prescription orders via fax and maintain archived records so that every dispensed prescription can be validated.

If any one of these activities is automated, the time demands on pharmacy personnel are greatly reduced, allowing for more time to consult with patients.

For a number of smaller, independent pharmacies throughout the U.S., the competitive footing needed has been facilitated by TalkRx. The Vow Corporation developed an integrated telephony and pharmacy management platform that integrate Sangoma telephony boards. A server-based platform, TalkRx is installed onsite at the pharmacy to provide VoIP and IVR.

“Our customers are not IT or telecom specialists,” said Vow’s president and chief executive officer, Chip Simmons. “They need a solution that works right out of the box and provides the level of convenience, reliability and quality experience that most consumers have come to expect from a retail pharmacy.”

The key capabilities enabled through the TalkRx solution include and IVR for rapid refill, voicemail archiving for refill and prescription orders, Caller ID based routing for incoming calls, specialized alerts for incoming physician calls, easily customized prompts and greetings for the IVR, and flexible dial-out features to automate refill-ready messages or outbound customer messaging. 

The Vow Corporation relied on the experience and robust architecture in the Sangoma solutions to integrate directly with the TalkRx platform. Sangoma’s A200 or A400 analog interface boards can be integrated with the TalkRx product. Alternatively, customers may select the A10x series of digital interface boards to support as many as 4 T1 or PRI spans per system.

As a key developer in communications, based on the Asterisk (News - Alert) platform as well as other solutions depending upon the needs of the customer environment, Sangoma has a strong reputation in the industry as one delivering quality engineering in combination with reliable hardware.

It is this reputation that made the company’s solutions a good fit for Vow Corporation as they provide independent pharmacies with the differentiation opportunity necessary to compete effectively. 

Sangoma is a Gold sponsor of ITEXPO West 2012. To be held Oct. 2-5 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, TX, ITEXPO (News - Alert) is the world’s premier IP communications event. Visit Sangoma in booth #920. Jeff Dworkin, Director of Marketing, and Julian Nephtali, Product Manager, will also be speakers at the event.For more information on ITEXPO click here.

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