ArgusConnect announces a new pricing policy for GPs, Specialists and Allied Health

Attached Files
Communique - Argus Pricing - 2 July 2008.pdf

Changes to the ArgusConnect Support Services Policy

Because of the dramatic and continuing increase in the adoption of Argus by a broad range of healthcare providers and organisations around Australia the demand for ArgusConnect resources to install and support these sites has increased far beyond our expectations.  ArgusConnect now runs an excellent Support Team of seven full-time people and we are proud of the quality of support that we provide and of the client expressions of appreciation regarding our service. 

It is clear however that now is the time to re-assess our introductory policy of providing these support services free of charge as the cost of doing so has escalated to a point where this will soon be unsustainable. If the cost of these services is not recovered, our ability to provide ongoing support and technical assistance to our users in the future would be compromised. A more detailed background on the factors that have precipitated this decision is given in Annex A.

What is Changing?

Effective from 1^st September 2008, ArgusConnect will be changing its model for providing support and software upgrade services for the Argus range of products so that Argus users more appropriately share the costs of maintaining a support capability.

The new Support Services Policy will apply to ArgusConnect support arrangements for Argus freeware products installed in GP, Specialist and Allied Health practices.

Our fast response Priority Support service, based on telephone and remote computer connection will now be provided under a chargeable annual support agreement. The standard support cost will be $121 per year per practitioner in an Argus-user practice.  (GPs, Specialists and Allied Health practitioners that have had Argus installed through a GP Division involved in Argus Affinity program will receive a discounted rate of $99 per practitioner).

N.B. Practices that take advantage of an early-bird option by applying via the ArgusConnect website www.argusconnect.com.au/earlybird and who pay prior to 1^st September, will receive a substantial discount on these rates for the first year.
 
Argus users that do not wish to pay for support may do so and will continue to have rights to use and operate Argus in their practice, however they will need to obtain their own technical assistance for any problems or else may submit support requests via the ArgusConnect email notification system. Provision of technical assistance through this channel will be on a first-come-first-served basis and the ArgusConnect response time will depend upon available resources after servicing Priority Support clients.

Exceptions

The following cases are exempt from the above changes:

• Practitioner sites that already have their support funded or pre-paid as part of a major project, such as the Northern Territory's Secure Electronic Messaging Service (SEMS) and Health Hub in Queensland;
• Allied Health practices and HMR Pharmacy Consultants will continue under their current support arrangement  until their anniversary of their current support agreement is reached, at which time the new Support Services Policy will apply; and
• Sites covered by existing support arrangements through other corporate healthcare providers[1].

We wish to emphasise that ArgusConnect continues its commitment to providing Argus as a freeware product to our GP, Specialist and Allied Health clients.  We also continue to not charge for message traffic volume and maintain our commitment to provide a free support option for those who are not prepared to pay for any technical assistance or service.

By applying a modest charge for Help Desk and technical support, ArgusConnect will not only be able to assure clients of continued excellent service and technical support but will also be able to offer improvements to our services that have been suggested from time-to-time by our users. We will inform you of these exciting improvements and new facilities in the coming weeks.   
 
Kind regards,
Ross Davey
CEO
Ph: 03 5335 2220

 

Annex A: Background to the Decision

Users of any software product must have access to a sustainable and skilled technical support facility supporting that product as well as a capability that continues to develop the product in a coordinated and market-informed manner.  The provision of these resources is costly.  Even on a non-profit basis an organisation such as ArgusConnect must continue to receive a dependable revenue stream to ensure continuity of staff resources, up-keep of skills, responsiveness to demand and appropriate infrastructure to support this resource.

ArgusConnect is a not-for-profit company which to-date has adopted a business model that has allowed it to provide support to GPs and Specialists at no cost, subsidised by revenues received from:

• larger users of Argus (eg State Health Departments, hospitals, pathology labs) through licence fees and annual support fees;
• major projects such as HealthConnect; and
• other regional initiatives such as the Managed Health Network Grants projects where the managers of these projects have contributed to the Argus support infrastructure for the benefit of everyone in their project.

To date ArgusConnect has found this business model adequate for its needs and has been able to manage and tolerate the uncertainties of securing support revenue from major projects as they arise, despite this being a difficult environment in which to be able to plan and build company resources to support the growth of Argus.

At the close of 2007 ArgusConnect conducted a review of the sustainability of this business model and the validity of the assumptions on which the model was based. A number of facts became clear.

1.       Because Argus is available as ‘Open Source' and our messaging standards are open and transparent to the entire sector, it is possible for larger healthcare organisations to build their own capability for sending to and receiving from the large base of Argus users around Australia without installing Argus.  Hence these organisations are quite capable of avoiding the cost of Argus licence and support fees and thus avoiding contributing to the support costs of GPs and specialists.  This trend has commenced and it appears to be on the rise.  The end result is that ArgusConnect is bearing the cost of supporting a growing user-base from whom it receives no income and yet other larger organisations are receiving benefit from the fact that these Argus users are supported and accessible for their use.

2.       ArgusConnect has depended on the recognition by projects under HealthConnect and similar funding initiatives that they have a stake and duty to set aside a component of their funding to contribute to the Argus support infrastructure when their project benefits from their ability to communicate with the Argus user base.  The rationale of this is that these projects benefit directly from accessibility to the GP, specialist and allied health sites maintained by ArgusConnect and hence it is in their interests to ensure that the support of these sites continues to be viable.  Although this enlightened approach has been recognised by a number of major projects (e.g. the NT HealthConnect/SEMS project and the southern Queensland HealthHub project) others have not recognised that this is both sensible and necessary.  There appears to be a growing trend for project proponents to capitalise on the large existing Argus user-base and yet not provide for or see any responsibility for contributing to the sustainability of that client base.

The management of ArgusConnect has concluded that the current dependence on the good will of major healthcare providers and their readiness to financially shoulder their share of the cost of support the of Argus user-base is not going to be sufficient for the future. Hence the management reluctantly must move some of the cost of user technical support to a more equitable and even basis of funding.

Consistent with the not-for-profit and cost-recovery financial ethos of the Argus initiative, ArgusConnect has struck a support cost that is as affordable as possible and which works out to be approximately 45 cents per doctor per day (less than 25 cents per day cost after tax).  It does not seem unreasonable that healthcare practitioners should shoulder a small amount of their support infrastructure cost roughly equal to one postage stamp per day.

We trust that most Argus users will recognise the need for a sustainable and competent technical support facility and will be prepared to shoulder some of their own cost responsibility for a facility from which they enjoy direct day-to-day benefit.

 

 

[1] Major Argus report-sending clients, such as hospital, pathology, radiology, other diagnostic services and large specialist organisations can choose to include their client GPs, specialists and allied health practices in their own Argus group client support program called ‘Argus Assurance Client Network Support Program'.  ‘Argus Assurance' provides for monitoring of message sending between the major client and a referring practice to ensure that reports are received successfully by the referring practice.  Restricted support will be provided to the recipient practice on behalf of the Argus Assurance major client; however, this does not cover support for Argus communications undertaken by the practice with other third party Argus sites.  Check with your major report-sending providers to ascertain if they offer this option.