ASP Business Experts Build Online Community For Caregivers | Networking & Communications | bMighty.com

[Guest guest]

I haven't really checked this out since I just found out about it, but

it sounds promising.

jeff

Lotsa Helping Hands - Home

<http://www.lotsahelpinghands.com/>

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Networking & Communications | bMighty.com

ASP Business Experts Build Online Community For Caregivers

August 21, 2007

By Ferrell

Two IT professionals used their ASP skills to build Lotsa Helping Hands,

a free Web community designed to help manage logistics for caregivers

After building Massachusetts-based Xevo Corp. into a late-'90s

application service provider (ASP) powerhouse, only to see the company

dissolve in a financial tangle just a few years into the new century,

Hal Chapel and Barry Katz decided to apply skills honed in a small

business to a higher calling.

Katz, whose wife, Carol, died in September 2003 after a protracted

battle with breast cancer, and Chapel were well aware of the logistical

challenges that caregiving during an extended illness places on spouses,

family members, friends, co-workers, and employers. The two men thought

they could use their business experience to come up with a way to help

others better meet those challenges.

" Arranging meals, rides to schools and children's events, baby-sitting,

doctor visits, housekeeping -- all of these and more need to be

addressed constantly when you're dealing with a significant illness or

ongoing disability, " Chapel says.

Lotsa Helping Hands

Keeping track of who's doing what, and when, was exactly the sort of

endeavor that a well-thought-out and implemented online community Web

site could make simpler.

Which is exactly what Chapel and Katz created with Lotsa Helping Hands,

a free-to-the-public venture unveiled in late summer 2005. Chapel is the

project's CEO; Katz is its president. Although they designed it

primarily for individuals, the project also has implications for helping

businesses to manage the caregiving commitments of their employees.

The core of the project is the online community of caregivers focused on

each patient. The Lotsa Helping Hands Web site offers each such

community a private mini Web site, created and managed by the

community's coordinator. The coordinator assumes responsibility for

maintaining the site's membership list, adding new events to the

calendar that's the caregivers' focal point, and adjusting the site's

content as volunteers sign up for specific tasks at specific times.

Once a task is spoken for -- the volunteer fills out a simple form

agreeing to provide, say, a Friday evening meal or be a Saturday

chauffeur -- the calendar is instantly updated, avoiding duplication of

efforts. Volunteers also receive e-mail reminders of their commitments

at regular intervals.

As they put the program together using both custom and public-domain

code, Katz and Chapel paid special attention to details familiar from

Carol Katz's illness.

" Things like children's food preferences, " Chapel says, " as well as

simple ways to keep track of which menus have been delivered when, helps

make sure the right food gets delivered -- and that the family doesn't

get spaghetti three nights in a row. " The site shares all such

information with the volunteers.

In addition to the calendar and coordination tools, the site provides

message boards, photo-posting, and other features designed to increase

the sense of community.

Their ASP experience made Katz and Chapel relentless in ensuring each

community site's security and privacy. " We were used to highly secure

data environments and brought that to the endeavor, " Chapel recalls.

Each community's coordinator sees to it that only authorized volunteers

have access to the community site. Member names and e-mail addresses are

never shared.

A Home Run

In just two years, thousands of communities have been created, and more

than 200,000 meals provided by volunteers -- and Lotsa Helping Hands

continues to grow. A major revision to the program is due to be released

in late-August, adding more custom sections, better calendar

functionality, blogging, and other features.

Initially funded by the founders and private investors, the project's

business model sees it becoming a self-sustaining business by late this

year as a result of branding/licensing to for-profit organizations.

Whatever happens, the co-founders are determined that Lotsa Helping

Hands remain free to caregiver communities and non-profits.

Among its current partners are the American Lung Association, the ALS

Association, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the official

hospital of the Boston Red Sox.

Chapel and Katz also see potential for the concept in the business

community. " There's a huge HR realization that loss of productivity from

caregivers is a substantial financial drain. Some studies under way now

should generate outcomes data that shows businesses that if they spend

this much on implementing Lotsa Helping Hands for their employees,

they'll save this much, " explains Chapel. Smaller businesses can be

particularly vulnerable when a key employee must devote significant time

to being a caregiver.

Focus On Usability

The results of such studies, and more aggressive business-to-business

marketing of the Lotsa Helping Hands concept, remain in the future. For

now, every aspect of the project is, for Chapel, Katz, and their

five-person team, focused on making their creation more functional,

easier to use, and more helpful to the thousands of caregiver

communities they serve.

" Whenever we're looking at an enhancement, we make sure we're avoiding

overkill, " Chapel says. " Usability rather than features is what's most

important for the people using the site. They have enough on their minds

without having to wrestle with too many unnecessary features. We remind

ourselves all the time that what we do and what we add needs to be

life-critical more than mission-critical. "

Ferrell is the author of a dozen books and countless magazine and

newspaper articles. The editor of OMNI Magazinefrom 1990-1996, he is

also a frequent speaker for business and institutional audiences.