How we’re making Animana better for you – September 2020 update

2 mins

Have you ever wondered how Animana features get from the drawing table to your practice? How features are prioritised, or what’s coming in future releases?

We want to share some insights on the process we go through when developing Animana. Did you know for example, that as we’re launching a new version, the development team is already knee-deep coding features for the next version?

The development process

Our development work always starts by prioritising which areas to address. This is done based on several factors, including customer research. By talking to customers, we get a better understanding of their needs, allowing us to focus on which feature is most important.

Once we have identified a feature or improvement, potential solutions are researched and then validated with the help of a customer focus group. Once approved, the development team works on coding and implementing the feature, which is reviewed and released only after being thoroughly tested by our Quality and Assurance team.

As a cloud-based platform, we can continuously improve our product, deliver updates, security patches, optimisations, and bug fixes seamlessly to users regularly, without any of the hassle, expense and downtime associated with the server-based management software of the past.

Looking forward to the coming releases

IDEXX Reference Laboratory charge capture – Never miss an external laboratory charge again!

Animana already integrates well with the IDEXX Reference Laboratory – users can select and request tests directly from the patient file in Animana, thanks to integration with VetConnect PLUS. This order is then sent to the IDEXX Reference Laboratory, and recorded in the patient file. When the results are ready, the patient file is updated with the results.

We’re now looking to take this integration to the next step so that after ordering a test, it will automatically be added to an open invoice which can then be emailed, posted, or paid immediately. This means one less manual step for you while reducing and ensures you do not forget to invoice a test, which is something that can happen in a busy clinic.

This automation, not only removes a handful of manual steps but reduces missed charges in your practice, which can account for up to 20% of practice revenue – less work and more revenue, a match made in heaven!

Improvements to the credit page – making it quicker and easier to create a credit invoice.

The ability to perform an accurate credit is of paramount importance for any practice. Recognising this, the Animana credit feature was released over a year ago to ensure credits can be managed easily. Since then, we have collected feedback and spoken to customers to gain further insights into how credit functionality is used by users. From this feedback, we have identified ways to improve the experience, in particular for those customers using monthly accounts.

These improvements will make the page faster to use, reducing the wait when making crediting large or complex invoices.

 

 

We hope you’ve enjoyed this look inside our process. We can’t wait to get these features (and others) into the hands of our users, but please understand that due to our rigorous research, development and Q&A process, features can sometimes, unfortunately, take time to reach the software.

Please keep an eye on the Animana start page for further release information. Meanwhile, if you have any queries regarding the process, please feel free to reach out to our product team.