Helping SecurMEDIC deliver more care in more places with connectivity that reaches farther
“Our mission is to improve quality of life and wellbeing for people in every community. Bell is our partner of choice because their commitment to reliability, innovation and customer support aligns perfectly with our values.”
Louis Tremblay
Executive Vice-President, Sales and Corporate Development, SecurMEDIC
SecurMEDIC is on a quest to support health and wellbeing with Internet of Things (IoT) solutions that provide clients across Canada with a direct line to medical care wherever and whenever they need it. That goal depends on excellent connectivity with far-reaching coverage. Louis Tremblay, SecurMEDIC’s Executive Vice-President of Sales and Corporate Development, says Bell’s network was just what the company needed to support their mission and fuel growth.
Healthcare when (and where) it’s needed most
SecurMEDIC’s suite of remote medical alert and monitoring devices enable clients to call for help with the press of a button and be promptly connected with a certified care specialist. This gives clients – and their loved ones – peace of mind knowing that if something happens, like a fall or a sudden change in heart rate, they can be instantly connected to someone who can help.
Some devices also track vital signs and can transmit that data to SecurMEDIC’s specialists or even to the client’s healthcare provider. Sending this data in advance allows both patients and providers to be better prepared heading into appointments. It also helps more seniors age in place, enabling them to live at home while sending medical data to remote nurses and care teams that is just as accurate as any data collected in a hospital.
“Even if nothing bad happens, connectivity issues can shake customer confidence. If they’re not confident, they’re not satisfied.”
Connectivity is the backbone of remote monitoring
Persistent connectivity is vital to ensuring SecureMedic’s IoT devices can communicate seamlessly and reliably with the company’s contact centre and the healthcare providers it partners with. Since partnering with Bell, SecurMEDIC has experienced reliable connectivity across its devices—reducing the network issues and dropped connections that previously impacted operations. This increased stability ensures their critical services run smoothly and without compromise.
“Even if nothing bad happens, connectivity issues can shake customer confidence,” says Tremblay. “If they’re not confident, they’re not satisfied, and then we see higher equipment returns – even though there’s nothing wrong with the equipment.”
Network issues also limited SecurMEDIC’s options for expanding to serve larger clients, like governments and health authorities, particularly those located in remote areas of the country. The company needed a partner that could provide high-quality connectivity in more parts of Canada. They found it in Bell.
“When people’s lives are on the line, any downtime is simply not an option. Bell understood that and worked closely with our team to improve network performance.”
End-to-end support for a seamless migration
To help make the switch, Bell managed the migration of all SecurMEDIC’s devices to its network, providing hands-on support from planning to deployment. This included proactively testing and optimizing devices to ensure they ran smoothly on Bell’s network, then resolving any compatibility issues to make the transition as seamless as possible. Bell also ensured data backups were in place before the transition was implemented. This made the change imperceptible for SecurMEDIC’s customers, with no service interruption at all.
“When people’s lives are on the line, any downtime is simply not an option,” says Tremblay. “Bell understood that and worked closely with our team to make sure it didn’t happen.”
Because connectivity is baked directly into the company’s pricing model, as part of the migration, SecurMEDIC also moved their SIM and device management to the Bell Control Centre, powered by Cisco. Although the SecurMEDIC team has the expertise to build their own connectivity management platform, they were impressed with how easy the Bell Control Centre made device activation, deactivation and configuration, as well as data usage management.
“The difference in performance was noticeable immediately. We rate our service on metrics like number of disruptions, connectivity issues and waiting time – and all of them have improved.”
Better service for more customers across Canada
Switching to Bell opened new growth opportunities for SecurMEDIC, with the company now able to serve more customers in more places. Thanks to the substantially increased network coverage and reliability, they’ve been able to attract new clients, including public sector health agencies focused on Northern and remote communities. Bell provides the IoT network coverage needed to serve clients in these areas – and nearly everywhere else in the country – with fast, reliable connectivity to SecurMEDIC’s contact centre.
“The difference in performance was noticeable immediately,” says Tremblay. “We rate our service on metrics like number of disruptions, connectivity issues and waiting time – and all of them have improved.”
Since switching to Bell, the company has experienced a close to 30% reduction in connectivity-related support tickets and an almost 20% increase in overall device uptime. This has resulted in higher customer satisfaction, with lower churn and fewer returned devices.
“We see Bell as a strategic partner that can support our ongoing innovation and expansion goals. We’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished with the Bell team so far. And we’re excited about what’s coming next.”
More features for an even better customer experience
On top of performance improvement, Bell’s network has also enabled SecurMEDIC to expand device functionality. They can now offer near real-time location tracking for faster emergency response, with plans to add even more features in the future. That includes fall prediction, more advanced geo-tracking and geo-fencing capabilities, continuous biometric data transmission (such as 12-channel electrocardiogram monitoring in real time), smart medication dispensing and patient environment monitoring.
These new features will increase the demands on SecurMEDIC’s connectivity, requiring more bandwidth and lower latency. However, the company looks forward to working closely with the Bell team to ensure these new demands are well supported by the Bell network. Looking even further ahead, beyond adding new IoT-related services for the Canadian market, SecurMEDIC also sees opportunities to grow internationally thanks to Bell’s extensive global roaming and carrier relationships.
“We see Bell as a strategy partner that can support our ongoing innovation and expansion goals,” says Tremblay. “We’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished with the Bell team so far. And we’re excited about what’s coming next.”
To learn more about Bell’s Internet of Things solutions, visit our website or speak to your Bell representative.