Anglicare Southern Queensland is one of Australia's largest home care providers, supporting over 25,000 older Australians. They use the Umps Home Alarm across their retirement villages and provide personal alarms to clients under Support at Home.
In 2021, Anglicare SQ and Umps signed a Letter of Intent to explore what new services could be delivered over the same device already sitting in clients' homes. The partnership focused on developing new software and services that would run on the existing Umps Home Alarm.
The Approach
1. Embedded Research
Umps' product team spent months embedded within Anglicare SQ's operations. This included over 30 interviews with leadership, frontline staff, and administrative teams, on-site observations, and client focus groups with older adults of diverse abilities.
2. Problem Statements and Solution Design
Together, the teams developed a set of problem statements and opportunities drawn from the research. Among the most significant of these opportunities related to improvements in client communication. Anglicare SQ delivers up to 100,000 home visits and receives over 30,000 phone calls each month. The research team also noted that communication complaints are the most common issue raised with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission about home care providers.
Based on these problem statements, Umps proposed new software and services that could be delivered over the Umps Home Alarm.
3. Build, Test, Deploy
Umps developed a range of new features to improve client communication, culminating in a concept called the 'Anglicare Home Hub'. The Home Hub was co-designed with input from older adults including people living with dementia, hearing or sight impairments, and mobility challenges. After a small-scale trial, it was deployed to 55 Support at Home clients.
Hear What Clients Think of the Anglicare Home Hub
Headline Results
| Stat | Label |
|---|---|
| 97% | Adoption rate |
| < 30 min | Response time (down from 24 hrs) |
| NPS 69 | Client satisfaction score |
| 15–20% | Increase in staff capacity |
What Was Delivered
Four new services were launched over the Umps Home Alarm, each addressing a specific problem identified during the research phase.
Service Reminders (Integrated with AlayaCare)
Anglicare SQ integrated the Home Hub with their AlayaCare scheduling system. Each day, clients receive a reminder directly to their Hub if they have a service booked for the following day. This addressed the single biggest driver of calls to Anglicare SQ's Client Service Centre.
Client Requests
Clients record and send voice messages to their care team by pressing a button on the Hub. Messages are transcribed and delivered via email and the Umps Portal. Staff respond by typing messages into the Portal, and the reply is converted to audio and sent back to the Hub. If a specific staff member is unavailable, requests are routed to the wider care coordination team.
Translation
The Home Hub supports over 100 languages. Clients speak in their preferred language, and messages are translated into English for care staff. Before the Hub, non-English speaking clients were interacting with their care team as infrequently as once every three months, compared to monthly for English-speaking clients.
Broadcast Messaging
Anglicare SQ can send a single message to all clients at once through their Home Hubs. During Cyclone Alfred in 2025, this feature was used to deliver urgent communications directly into clients' homes, reaching people who didn't have access to SMS or mobile phones when they needed information most.
Results in Detail
97% Adoption, Deployed by Existing Staff
Umps trained staff on the first installations, but the majority of Home Hubs were set up by Anglicare SQ's own care workers. Only two clients were unable to use the device. Four months post-deployment, Anglicare SQ received over 30 client requests per week through the platform, and service reminders maintain an open rate above 90%.
Response Times: 24 Hours to Under 30 Minutes
Previously, clients called Anglicare SQ's centralised 1300 number, where requests could take up to 24 hours due to staff availability, peak call periods, and identity verification. With the Home Hub, response times during business hours dropped to under 30 minutes. Staff action requests between client visits through the dashboard, and simple requests can be picked up by any available team member.
81% of Clients Prefer the Hub Over Calling
Clients using the Home Hub for more than four weeks reported a Net Promoter Score of 69. When surveyed, 81% said they preferred contacting Anglicare SQ through the Hub rather than calling the Client Service Centre.
30-120 Minutes Saved Per Request
Care staff reported that each request delivered through the Hub saved between 30 and 120 minutes, mainly by eliminating "phone tag" that previously consumed hours each day. This translated to a 15-20% increase in Client Liaison capacity, the equivalent of adding one extra day of client support per staff member each week.
Client Stories
David's Story
David has aphasia. For years, he had never been able to contact Anglicare directly. He couldn't verify his identity over the phone, so every call went through his wife. Every request, every question, every change to his care. When the Home Hub was installed, David recorded a voice message and sent it to his Client Liaison on his own. It was the first time he had ever communicated with his care provider independently. For David, it was a moment of dignity. For his wife, it was relief from a burden she had carried quietly for a long time.
Marie's Story
Marie is a care coordinator at Anglicare SQ. One evening, a client's hospital visit scheduled for the following morning was cancelled. The client pressed the button on their Home Hub and let Marie know. The message landed in her inbox within minutes. She cancelled three hours of pre-arranged transport, then rebooked the client into a respite activity they had been wanting to attend. Without the Home Hub, the message would have come through the central phone line the next morning, too late to change anything. Instead, a cancelled appointment turned into a good day.
Now Available to All Umps Clients
The services developed with Anglicare SQ are no longer a pilot. Client messaging and broadcast messaging have been fully integrated into the Umps Portal and are available to all Umps clients across retirement living and home care.
The Home Alarm is a platform that continues to evolve, with new services launched over the same device as they are developed. The Anglicare SQ partnership is an example of how Umps works with clients: embedded research, co-designed solutions, and new capability that rolls out across the entire client base. Organisations interested in a technology partnership can get in touch below.
See Umps in Action
Book a demo with our team and we'll walk you through the Portal, the devices, and how we'd set things up for your organisation.
Request a Demo