CarePlanner: Shake improves our everyday communication and bug resolution

CarePlanner is the market-leading fostering and care management SAAS platform in the UK. Social care agencies use their system to manage their staff, clients, schedules, compliance, invoicing, and payroll. Founded in 2012, they are one of the largest digital suppliers in the social care sector.

To achieve the desired impact and efficiency, CarePlanner has its eyes set on users and their specific needs. Mark Anslow, CTO of CarePlanner, revealed how Shake, a pivotal tool in their app development toolkit, played an important role in achieving company goals.

CarePlanner was looking for a comprehensive tool for mobile bug and crash reporting, distinct from their existing ticketing system for web apps. Their biggest challenge was finding a tool that would be simple, yet powerful enough to fit different sets of user profiles.

In essence, they needed a tool that could be used not only by devs or QA – but by end-users as well, on an everyday basis. While such tools exist on the market, Mark highlighted both price and tool adoption as challenges they faced while researching the market.

Before integrating Shake, CarePlanner utilized another bug and feedback monitoring system. Mark noted that while the team has grown used to having such a tool around, several things made it wholly impractical to use. 

The restrictive nature of the tool regarding user licenses has led to data being redirected to a whole other platform. This resulted in a disconnect in communication between support agents, developers, and customers. It ended up being a deal breaker for us, concluded Mark. 

Looking around the competitive landscape, Shake seemed like a good alternative in terms of simplicity and the number of user licenses. Mark noted that he found it to be much more fair-priced than the other tool, which initially drew them to try it out.

Mark describes the initial experience of adding Shake as positive, emphasizing its simplicity, clear documentation, and seamless integration. These align with the core requirements CarePlanner was aiming for from the start. 

Originally, CarePlanner integrated Shake into their React Native application for a test run. After a short period, they noticed a positive company-wide feedback. It’s been a wholesome moment seeing the tool adopted by QA, first-line, and second-line support – added Mark. 

This led to Shake making its way to all CarePlanner apps – including native iOS and Android. Its impact was positively felt across the entire organization, so it wasn’t long before results started to show and made the effort worthwhile. 

The implementation of Shake brought about several notable improvements in processes, communication, and bug resolution throughout CarePlanner. Mark also noted that their overall experience with Shake as a product, and as a company, has been extremely positive. 

Currently utilized in both Android, iOS, and React Native mobile apps, Shake’s features, including metadata, logs, and ticketing functionalities, have been leveraged extensively to maintain seamless user interactions and quality. 

Shake has proven important in enhancing CarePlanner’s operational efficiency, fostering better communication, and ultimately contributing to its success in the social care sector. The great relationship between CarePlanner and Shake is poised for further growth and innovation.