Hiring an external consultant or trainer for your practice software: what to check first

4 mins

More external parties are offering to help veterinary practices get more out of their practice management system: consultancies, independent advisors and trainers, and companies selling add-ons such as connections and integrations. If you have wondered whether bringing one in is worth it, here is what tends to go well, and what to settle before anyone gets near your system.

Where an external advisor genuinely helps

A practice management system is only as useful as the way your team uses it, and between consultations and surgery there is rarely time to step back and look at how it is set up. Features that would save you time quietly stay switched off.

That is the gap an outside advisor fills. Practices that have done it point to three things:

• Someone whose only job that day is to watch. An advisor spending a day with your team notices the workarounds you stopped seeing years ago.
• A view wider than the software. Good advisors look at your processes and your team, not only your settings. Sometimes the gain is a different way of working, not a different configuration.
• Support at your team’s pace. If your staff get more from being shown than from working through a course alone, a trainer on site can be what finally moves a feature into daily use.

What to check before you commit

Are they actually connected to your software provider?

Independent advisors act on their own behalf. Most providers, ourselves included, only work with an external party when they say so explicitly, and when they do it is obvious: the partnership is listed on the provider’s own site, products appear with proper brand marks, and it is announced through official channels. If that is missing, assume nothing the advisor tells you has been reviewed or endorsed by the provider.

Is this a project, or a permanent connection?

A one-off review ends when the advisor leaves. An integration does not. Connections into your system, or extensions added to your team’s browser, can hold access to your data for as long as they stay switched on. Stick to official integrations where you can, and check with your provider’s support team before granting access to anything else. Our guidance on official integrations and on changing security standards covers what to look for.

How current is their knowledge?

Software changes with every release, and independent parties work from the same public information you can see. Ask what they know about recent changes, so you are not paying for advice that was accurate two versions ago. The same goes for advisors who position themselves on past experience at a software company: that experience can be real and useful, but nobody outside has a view of the roadmap.

What happens if they are unavailable?

Many advisors work alone. That makes the relationship personal, and also fragile. Ask who could take over during illness, holidays or a busy spell, and how a handover would work. Ask as well who else they work for, including other software vendors, so you know which seat the advice is coming from. A professional will answer both plainly.

Can you actually give them access?

Check your software agreement before you promise anyone a login. Some contracts limit accounts to named users you have trained and supervised, and most cap the number of users you are licensed for. Whatever the terms say, activity under your account is treated as yours, so set an advisor up with their own named access rather than sharing anyone’s credentials, and remove it when the work ends.

Is the paperwork in place?

Your system holds personal data about your clients, and under the UK GDPR your practice is the data controller for it, including while someone else is working in the account. Whatever agreement you have with your software provider covers what they do, not what an advisor does. Before access is granted, put in place:

1. A data processing agreement setting out what may be done with client and patient data, and what happens to it afterwards. This matters most for integrations, where data keeps flowing. The ICO sets out what such a contract has to contain.
2. A non-disclosure agreement, particularly where the advisor will see your pricing, revenue or business operations.
3. A written service agreement covering scope, duration, liability and completion, including revoking access and returning or deleting data.

A professional party expects all three and often brings them to you. Hesitation here tells you something.

Who fixes it if the advice is wrong?

Changes an external party makes in your account are not reviewed by your provider. A misconfigured reminder or a pricing error is not always quick to undo, and some corrections are chargeable. Agree upfront who is responsible if advice does not work out, and test far-reaching changes, particularly to your product database or financial settings, on a small scale first.

What will it cost, and measured against what?

Rates run from a few hundred pounds for a one-off review to several thousand for a programme spanning a year. Write down what you want out of it before you start, whether that is fewer no-shows, faster invoicing or tighter stock control, so you can tell afterwards whether you got it. Check too what your subscription already includes, because help resources, online courses and a provider’s own training team usually cover more than practices expect. If you are not sure what you have access to, it is worth a look at your software and services before you commission anything.

One good sign throughout: serious advisors are upfront about their limits. They will tell you themselves that they are not a helpdesk, and that implementation, migration and support sit with your software provider.

In short

An external advisor or trainer can be well worth the money, especially if you suspect there is more in your system than you are getting out of it. What separates the projects that work from the ones that do not is rarely the advisor’s expertise. It is whether access, data and expectations were agreed before the first day on site.