• innovations
  • standard features
  • compare
  • acclaim

referral's innovations

Other systems have tried to imitate Referral's flexibility and ease of use. None has surpassed it. When you read through the list below, you'll see why the Resource House solution continues to have the highest ratings in the industry.

  • Work from anywhere. Referral is a Web-hosted application, which means you can log in from any Internet browser. So now illness or disaster needn’t shut you down.
  • Forget about backups. With "cloud computing," your storage and backup worries are over. You also save money on IT costs and reduce your equipment needs. Referral stores all your client and inquiry data in a HIPAA-compliant hosting facility, where it’s routinely backed up.
  • Create as many fields as you want. Organize them on any number of screens. Referral lets you configure unlimited custom fields per screen—with no limit to the number of screens. Plus, you can create independent collections of screens for inquiries and follow-ups. Want a survey to use only during follow-ups? Add it to your follow-up collection.
  • Display custom operator prompts, style guides, and help files to guide staff through calls. Training new staff? Referral displays your own best-practice script for operators to recite during the call.
  • Determine your own call procedures. You decide which data fields are required. Referral will automatically bundle up and display any incomplete required fields as ticklers before the record can be saved as complete. You can also configure fields to be required only under certain circumstances, such as when certain other fields have a specified value.
  • Support teamwork without compromising security. Configure role-based permissions. Fields can be private or shared within subgroups, so specialized units inside your organization can work with their own, unique sets of data fields not seen by anyone else.
  • Ensure uniform data. Referral lets you create a custom pick list (single or multi-selection) for any client field to ensure your data is entered consistently.
  • Determine your own field formats. Date, phone, currency, text, numeric, checkbox … you can apply predefined field formats to any field to ensure consistent reports.
  • Save time with default values. Are some fields filled in with the same value over and over? Just set a default value. Referral makes it easy!
  • Track caregivers independently from clients. Support one-to-many relationships by configuring separate client and caller tables, each with a unique field structure.
  • Filter search results based on client preferences. View only the services that match the client’s preferences. Payment options, language spoken, accessibility requirements—there’s no limit to the number of preferences you can use to filter your search results.
  • Automatically filter results by client demographics, e.g. gender, age
  • Filters can be automatically generated from data you enter in the client form. You can easily back off any filter to broaden results.
Referral 4.0 - a true web-based system.

referral: designing for flexibility

by David Greene

Vice-President for Product and Customer Development

testDesigning a user-friendly information and referral system is an exercise in imposing simplicity upon complexity. Checkers provides an interesting example of this combination. The design of the game is fairly simple. There are a series of known pieces that behave in established functional ways within a well-defined game board. But of course the game provides complexity depending upon how each player’s moves unfold.

We’ve designed Referral 4.0 so that it provides a series of configurable functions that sit on forms that live within a well-defined sequence. You can create unique, even complex, combinations of these functions: text boxes, pick lists, check boxes, etc. to customize your version of Referral to meet your data collection goals. In this way the complexity of your unique needs can be expressed inside a simple platform that brings logical order to the process of finding information for callers and collecting data about each inquiry.

standard features

With all those innovations, you’d think there wouldn’t be any room for the basic features you expect in a referral system. But you can rely on Referral to deliver on the fundamentals—with the same intuitive acumen we’ve built into its many advanced functions.

  • Trust our comprehensive security options. Referral's security system offers four permission categories for each client or caller field—plus the option to restrict record deletion privileges.
  • Keep on top of staff follow-ups. Operators can create follow-up tasks within any call session. Supervisors can monitor staff follow-ups.
  • Allow one-to-many relationships. With up to five custom fields for each call record, you can track unique call data each time a client calls.
  • Monitor call timing. All calls are timed automatically. Referral's Pause Timing feature ensures accurate reporting.
  • Search for it your way. We give you flexible ways to search: taxonomy code, keyword, geographic area. And you can add any number of search features, such as wheelchair access, languages spoken, etc.
  • Jump to agency Websites for even more information. Search results include direct links to agency Websites so you can browse them in a separate window.
  • Customize your unmet needs, problems and outcomes. Create your own lists of problems, unmet needs or outcomes to track. Operators can add optional comments to any problem, unmet need or outcome selected.
  • Customize your screen names. You get to choose your own names for all client and caregiver screens—and for all client and caregiver fields.

referral: joint application development

by David Greene

Vice-President for Product and Customer Development

testWhenever we add an enhancement to our software, we always look to see how the functionality being sought can be generalized so that the capability the enhancement seeks to provide can be used by all of our customers. Using this principle we’ve added generalized solutions like universal prompts, style guide and help. We offer configurable ways to search for and list both calls and follow ups, and clients and callers. Our “features” sub-system is simple and generalized in its structure. But this simple structure—in which you can create any number of “feature categories” which in turn can contain any number of “features”—allows you to create just about any conceivable combination of filtering items that operators can use to pinpoint the best service for a caller’s needs.

Satisfied I & R Specialist

A satisfying user experience is our highest goal.

 

compare referral's features

Organizations that want more freedom to customize and fewer limitations choose Referral. With this chart, you can see at a glance why that is.

Referral Features Referral Exclusives Referral Originals Standard Features
Create an operator prompt for any client fields—toggle between prompts, help and style guide—prompts displays your best-practice script Check
Configure any client field as either required before proceeding or to display as a tickler before the record can be saved as complete Check
Meet HIPAA requirements without sacrificing reporting, by designating any client field as identifying or non-identifying Check
Provide subgroups within your organization with access to private or shared field collections Check
Create unique field collections for sub-groups in your office, which only they can see Check
Configure unlimited custom client fields per screen—with no limit on the number of screens Check
Create a custom pick list for any field Check
Apply predefined field formats to any field, e.g. date, phone number, numeric checkbox, etc. Check
Set a default value for any field Check
Automatically filter results by client demographics, e.g. gender, age Check
Search with feature preferences in unlimited categories: accessibility, languages spoken, payment options, and any others you choose Check
Customize "nag" features to control when client fields must be filled in before a call is completed Check
Link directly to agency Websites and to Google or Yahoo maps from within search results Check
Enjoy excellent security, with four categories of permission for each client or caller field—plus options to restrict record deletion privileges Check
Assign follow-up tasks within any call session Check
Give your client screens whatever names you like Check
Configure unlimited custom fields in each call record, facilitating a one-to-many relationship between clients and calls Check
Control call timing with a Pause feature Check
Filter results by county with the Find by Agency Name or Program Name option (including aka names) Check
Choose from a variety of search parameters: taxonomy category, keyword, geographic area, and any number of desired features, such as wheelchair access, languages spoken, etc. Check
Track unmet needs, problem/needs and outcomes from your pick lists, and add optional comments for any call Check

web-based cloud computing

Referral is a Web-hosted application, which means you can log in from any Internet browser. This kind of flexibility has many benefits.

Web Referral cloud computing diagram
  • If it’s web-based, there’s nothing to install on your office computers—which saves IT time and expense.
  • Sign in and work from anywhere, and be able to work from home in emergencies or disasters.
  • Predictable budget, with no limits on the number of clients, callers and inquiry records you store—no matter how big you grow.
  • Share client and inquiry data across your region or state system.
  • Manage call volume by routing overflow calls to anywhere in the region.
  • Don’t worry about IT security issues ... instead feel confident your data is being maintained confidentially at secure HIPAA compliant hosting facility.

 

acclaim for referral

Referral users are happy to spread the word. Here’s just one of the many plaudits we’ve received for this versatile application.

"Your understanding of human services was important to us: that insight into what it takes to provide effective I&R really complements the technical expertise you bring to your products. We were very impressed with your approach to the technology and the product itself—the way you take requirements and feedback from all your clients and incorporate the best of them into the base product."

Anthony Vellucci

North Carolina NC CareLink

"Our staff has found that they can manage high call volumes and track ongoing cases effectively because of the various ways Referral lets us sort calls—incomplete, complete, by week, by month, etc. Being able to set follow-ups is another big boost to efficiency."

Pam Zimmerman

Senior LinkAge Line, Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging, Minnesota

"North Light has done an AMAZING job [with accessibility]. This is what we should expect, but it is still too infrequent that we see this level of attention paid to the details."

Independent Section 508 accessibility analyst

Senior LinkAge Line, Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging, Minnesota

referral: interoperability

by David Greene

Vice-President for Product and Customer Development

testInteroperability is another hallmark of flexible design. A single resource database of agencies and services sits behind all of our applications, including Referral, for I&R centers, and tools for the public like Public Portal and Resource Advisor. Currently we are designing interoperable modules that will handle search set up and search results—but which will be shared across all our applications, for the public, for the I&R center and for agencies. These search setup and result modules will combine the best features from all of our tools into a single set of functions.

Brainstorming at a North Light in-house design session.

Brainstorming at a North Light in-house design session.