Uniting Care Through Technology: Better Health Network’s Seamless IT Transformation

Formed from the merger of three community healthcare providers – Star Health, Central Bayside, and Connect Health – Better Health Network (BHN) is a not-for-profit organisation that, for nearly 50 years, has provided primary and allied health care services to communities across south-eastern Melbourne.

Bringing together over 850 professionals, support staff and volunteers across 23 locations, the merger aimed to streamline operations and improve service delivery to some of the most vulnerable communities. But it also introduced significant operational and technical complexities, requiring an integrated and innovative approach to ensure the success of the new organisation.

The Background

For nearly 50 years, Better Health Network (BHN) has been at the heart of Melbourne’s south-eastern community, delivering health equity and wellbeing with compassion and expertise. From specialist medical services to counselling, aged care, and disability support, BHN’s mission is clear: to help people lead healthier, more connected lives.

As a registered provider of both the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and My Aged Care, BHN empowers some of the region’s most vulnerable populations with services ranging from support coordination and therapy to dementia care and social programs. But while their reach and impact are vast, unifying the operations of three organisations – Star Health, Connect Health, and Central Bayside – under one roof created a unique challenge.

This was more than an IT project. It was about ensuring continuity for services that thousands of lives depend on.

“The consolidation was a monumental task, but the team delivered beyond expectations. They navigated complexities, worked collaboratively, and kept our services running without interruption. We now have a robust platform that’s transforming how we operate, setting us up for long-term success.”

David Bellchambers
Director Strategic ICT and Asset Management
Better Health Network

When Star Health, Connect Health, and Central Bayside merged to form BHN in 2021, they brought with them 23 locations, over 850 users, and three separate IT ecosystems, each with its own quirks, processes, and pain points.

What they didn’t bring was a single digital platform capable of supporting their newly unified organisation. Blended families don’t always gel immediately. But vulnerable community members in south-eastern Melbourne were reliant on this union working.

Without consolidation, BHN faced inefficiencies and roadblocks at every turn – think misaligned workflows, redundant applications, and silos that prevented teams from working together seamlessly. And the stakes couldn’t have been higher. Interruptions to BHN’s services would mean thousands of vulnerable clients left without support, missed healthcare appointments, delayed medical services, and stalled communication between staff and their communities.

Compounding the challenge was the competitive nature of the tender process. Each of the three original entities had its own MSP, none of which was Brennan. Winning the project required BHN to see us not just as a provider but as a partner willing to go above and beyond to deliver results.

Then there was the timeline – or its limitations. After months of internal delays, BHN was rapidly approaching an immovable date for tenancy consolidation. We believed we could deliver in 16 weeks. Ambitious? Absolutely. Impossible? Not so.

Our solution started with a bold idea: rather than trying to shoehorn three legacy systems into one, we proposed building a brand-new Microsoft tenancy from scratch. It was a clean break, one that gave BHN the flexibility to design their future without the baggage of the past.

We utilised the best of Microsoft's cloud technologies and modern platforms, whilst incorporating the existing networking and security technologies that BHN had invested in and were serving them well. And we committed to delivering it in all within an accelerated timeframe of 16 weeks to allow BHN to kickstart other application integration and consolidation projects.

But the path wasn’t without its twists. Early in the project, BHN’s lead contact retired unexpectedly, taking with him years of accumulated knowledge about the organisation’s IT infrastructure. It was a setback, no doubt, but it didn’t slow us down. We rolled up our sleeves, implemented a manual discovery process, and worked shoulder-to-shoulder with BHN’s internal engineers and their existing MSPs to piece together the puzzle.

Our approach was all about collaboration. We set up shop alongside BHN and their partners, ran daily stand-ups, and launched a 24/7 Teams channel to keep everyone connected and moving forward. From device deployment to data migration, we took on the messy, complex work of consolidating three organisations into one unified whole—all while keeping the lights on and services running.

By the end of phase one, BHN had a stable, scalable IT platform designed not just to support their current operations but to grow with them.

BHN now has what modern organisations aspire to: a cohesive, future-ready digital foundation. No more siloed systems or patchwork processes. No more guesswork around scheduling, booking, or communication. Just one unified experience powered by the Microsoft ecosystem.

For staff, this means less friction and more time spent on what matters most: delivering exceptional care. Shared calendars, streamlined booking systems, and Teams telephony have transformed the way BHN works, making collaboration seamless across their 23 locations.

And the benefits extend beyond the immediate. With over 200 critical applications now ready for deployment on their new platform, BHN is poised to unlock new efficiencies and capabilities in phase two of the project. They’ve not only caught up – they’ve pulled ahead, setting the stage for long-term success.

The feedback from the customer has been overwhelmingly positive, with one summing up the experience: “You didn’t just solve our problem. You built something we’re proud to use.”

To find out more, visit Brennan.