Smart Square
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Subject Expert
Niel Oscarson
Research Director
Commentary Summary
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User Commentary
Functionality and Upgrades
Smart Square is doing really well. I love the product, and we like the data analytics piece. We...
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Technology
We do some optimization upgrades with Avantas, and parts of the optimization have gone well, but...
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Other Observations & Comments
There are a few things that we have asked for that aren't available in Smart Square yet, but the...
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Service and Support
Avantas’ workforce optimization advisors are wonderful, and the vendor truly does have the ability...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Ultimately, our administrators who used the system daily had to be the ones to put in tickets to let...
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Functionality and Upgrades
We built most of our Smart Square units under an old configuration. The solution has been quite...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Smart Square has everything that other scheduling systems have, and it isn't bad for end users who...
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Service and Support
One of the major strengths of Avantas is the customer service of their organization overall. If we...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Avantas is continuing to do upgrades. They continue to make Smart Square a more web-based and...
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Functionality and Upgrades
There are still opportunities for Avantas to make improvements to Smart Square within certain...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Avantas rolled out some new UI things, and there were mixed reviews about that partly because the UI...
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Relationship
I have regular meetings with Avantas, and the vendor is more of a partner. We have core team calls,...
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Other Observations & Comments
Because of my role, I mostly hear the bad things about Smart Square. However, the system is better...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Having more opportunities to recruit shift admins at hospitals to do some of Avantas’ testing for...
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Service and Support
Avantas communicates about updates and upgrades. Some of the upgrades have had a couple of glitches...
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Functionality and Upgrades
A lot of Smart Square's reports export out to Excel and CSV files, and the data has to be mined so...
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Interfacing and Integration
Smart Square is integrated with our system well. The product allows us to utilize the tool so we can...
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Future Outlook
The tool was very effective and helped us with our response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even on the...
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Functionality and Upgrades
I am happy with Avantas. They do lots of things well. The software works for what we need it to do....
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Relationship
I feel that some things may be starting to fall through the cracks when it comes to our relationship...
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Relationship
Avantas works well with us. We always have an open line of communication. A positive thing is that...
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Functionality and Upgrades
The biggest pain point right now for frontline staff and end users is that Avantas is rolling out a...
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Service and Support
When Avantas started talking about their new rollouts, we had phone calls with the vendor along with...
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Relationship
We use Smart Square for workforce analytics, so we know where to focus. Avantas has helped us with...
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Relationship
I have dealt with my representative for a very long time. When I call that person, I don’t have any...
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Service and Support
In terms of support, sometimes it is difficult to get people on the phone. There is a lot of email...
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Functionality and Upgrades
I am not tech savvy, but Smart Square is easy for me to use. Avantas has always delivered. I don't...
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Implementation and Training
The vendor tries to be proactive and follow the changes in the medical field. Avantas actually does...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Smart Square works really well in terms of the things that we deal with every day. But there is...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Avantas is glacially slow with changes. They are not familiar enough with their own software and how...
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Implementation and Training
Avantas is pretty good at producing training materials. They have free online training sessions, so...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Smart Square lacks modern APIs and does not allow for direct data access. There is no room for any...
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Lessons Learned
I would recommend Smart Square to certain small organizations. Smart Square is a nice product for...
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Service and Support
Avantas’ frontline support is very good, but issues that are beyond their scope take an...
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Future Outlook
Avantas has consistently been unable to deliver the reports and metrics that are necessary to...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
I like Smart Square a lot. It is very easy for our typical staff members to use. The updated version...
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Interfacing and Integration
We have been trying to get Smart Square to work with our HR software, and the systems are still not...
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Service and Support
I do not like the way Avantas does their ticketing system. We send a request for support through...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Avantas keeps their promises most of the time, but they are going through a modernization program,...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Avantas tries, but whenever we get updates, there are always problems and bugs to be fixed; things...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Smart Square doesn’t have everything we need, but Avantas is working on things. They are putting in...
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Functionality and Upgrades
When the system is slow, Avantas can’t work proactively, so we don’t know whether the issues are on...
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Relationship
Avantas keeps their promises. For example, if we ask them to create a certain report, they do...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
Avantas does charge us for some things, but when we ask for little things, there is a lot that they...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Sometimes when the vendor pushes out a new enhancement, things go wrong the next day, and then we...
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Functionality and Upgrades
I like Smart Square because it is pretty easy to use. It is very easy to view the schedules, edit...
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Service and Support
I am pretty much in touch with Avantas every day. We have many facilities now on the system, whereas...
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Functionality and Upgrades
One of the biggest issues that we have with the system's functionality is with its open-shift...
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Interfacing and Integration
Smart Square doesn't communicate well with our HR system or our time-and-attendance system. Part of...
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Relationship
The direction that the vendor is heading in and a lot of the changes that they are making are very...
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Functionality and Upgrades
One thing that Avantas needs to consider is that we don't just have to schedule things for inpatient...
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Relationship
We have a very good relationship with Avantas. They help us work on issues, and they try to improve...
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Relationship
Avantas has kept the majority of their promises. I understand that they have to develop a system for...
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Service and Support
Avantas changes our support person frequently. We feel like as soon as we get someone up to speed...
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Functionality and Upgrades
When the different feeds that we use to connect to the system fail, we usually have to notify the...
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Technology
There haven't been any major changes or improvements to the system in the time that we have worked...
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Functionality and Upgrades
The vendor doesn't do versions of Smart Square, so whenever something new is pushed out for the...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
The vendor's charges depend on what we are asking them to do. There have been certain COVID-19...
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Future Outlook
Avantas is revamping the product, and they have some really great plans for new features. If they...
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Implementation and Training
Some of Avantas’ education resources are not very clear to the staff using the product. The...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Smart Square is easy to read. The schedulers are able to have the entire hospital up on one screen,...
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Lessons Learned
I would tell a peer about Smart Square’s ease of use from a staffing office perspective and about...
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Functionality and Upgrades
The upgrades bring everybody in our system across multiple hospitals to the most up-to-date version....
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Relationship
There was a bug in an update that duplicated different data such as worked hours, scheduled hours,...
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Technology
People can use the system on their phones or their computers. Most associates in the building use it...
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Relationship
Avantas didn’t just walk away once we were up and going. I still have frequent meetings with them....
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Functionality and Upgrades
Smart Square has helped us to better align our staffing and to see what each unit or area actually...
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Relationship
Smart Square hasn’t turned out as the vendor promised when they sold it to us, and we have run into...
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Implementation and Training
Avantas' ongoing training has started to go downhill, especially after COVID-19. The vendor used to...
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Implementation and Training
The upgrades are difficult because we have to do them when Avantas says to. We were in the middle of...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Smart Square is not very flexible, and that makes the system difficult to work with. For example,...
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Other Observations & Comments
An area of opportunity for Avantas would be managing expectations when it comes to what they can do....
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Implementation and Training
Avantas was great during the implementation. They really helped us get through by bringing in their...
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Other Observations & Comments
There have been a few delays with support tickets, but Avantas eventually gets back to us. I know...
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Future Outlook
As we continue to grow with the vendor, they are starting to bring in some of the things that we...
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Relationship
Avantas is a great vendor to partner with. Some of their strengths are that they are very much...
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Service and Support
We don't get executive involvement from the vendor, but we don't really need it. We have a fairly...
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Functionality and Upgrades
We have already done assessments on the system to see the time savings. I am extremely satisfied...
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Future Outlook
I think my satisfaction will be down a little in a year not necessarily on the fault of the vendor...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
I think the vendor avoids charging for every little thing, but their pricing is a little tough....
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Implementation and Training
The vendor does a fantastic job with training. The vendor backs up the trucks and unloads the...
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Functionality and Upgrades
There are limitations in what customers can do with the analytics of the system and do within the...
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Interfacing and Integration
We integrated this application with our time and attendance application. That integration worked...
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Functionality and Upgrades
The biggest gap in terms of our organization's immediate needs is the analytical capability to track...
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Service and Support
The vendor does a nice job delivering new technology, and we have an incredibly responsive support...
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Future Outlook
Smart Square was built for inpatient nursing, and it isn't equipped for everything that we want it...
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Implementation and Training
There is a lack of communication on Avantas' part in the implementation process, but the vendor does...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Smart Square is working as advertised, and the system does fairly well. My nursing coworkers may say...
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Functionality and Upgrades
A lot of our end users are not very savvy with Smart Square. The system does not have a mobile...
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Service and Support
Avantas is proactive and does a good job with support. I can get in contact with the vendor even...
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Lessons Learned
My recommendation of Smart Square would depend on what a client needs the system for. If the use...
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Relationship
The vendor goes out of their way to find out what the customer wants and needs. Avantas has a new...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
I wouldn't buy the solution again. It requires an interface with our scheduling system, and that has...
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Relationship
The vendor hasn't really kept their promises. They may not have known what they were promising in...
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Relationship
I am not sure that Avantas was ready for the big leagues. We are a complex medical center, and we...
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Functionality and Upgrades
The system has some reports that help us track our gaps and fill our rates. That is helpful.
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Other Observations & Comments
I think that the vendor has done everything that they can do for us. I don't expect anything to get...
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Implementation and Training
I think the vendor provides a lot of resources and trainings. They have a lot of information on...
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Service and Support
I think the vendor’s team is their greatest strength. I have not worked with them directly, but I am...
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Win/Loss - Why they were selected (by current clients)
Our previous vendor’s product was not advanced enough to meet our unique needs. Avantas was an easy...
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Relationship
The implementation was pretty smooth overall, and the communication with the vendor has been pretty...
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Functionality and Upgrades
The product is mostly meeting our needs. There are still a few things we wish we could customize a...
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Functionality and Upgrades
We still want a few functionalities that the system doesn’t have yet. We would like a little more...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
There was some confusion with the pricing. We were told one thing during our discovery call about...
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Functionality and Upgrades
The vendor needs to make sure their trainers and those who are building their system have all the...
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Service and Support
Avantas is good about communicating exactly what they can do for an individual organization. They...
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Functionality and Upgrades
We are able to have multiple unit schedules with the product, and it covers all the areas that we...
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Relationship
Avantas is always trying to modernize their product, and they always have different options that...
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Service and Support
It is very easy to get ahold of a support person from the vendor, even if the person is not our own...
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Service and Support
We have a lot of ongoing calls with Avantas. Even after several years of having the product, they...
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Functionality and Upgrades
The product is very user friendly. I have used other scheduling software in the past, and I would...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
The product helps us monitor the commitments that our employees make as well as the ones that our...
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Other Observations & Comments
We have had some issues with our timekeeping software, none of which has been primarily the fault of...
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Service and Support
The customer service people are extremely timely. The help desk is responsive.
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
We have a lot of analysis coming from the vendor; it is fantastic. If organizational leaders...
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Functionality and Upgrades
The technology of the system is wonderful. There can be difficulties moving to different platforms...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Avantas does grow, and they are making changes. There are some things I want Smart Square to do that...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
We purchased Smart Square because we wanted a computerized scheduling system. We wanted transparency...
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Implementation and Training
I haven’t done training with the vendor since going live with the system, but some of the other...
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Service and Support
The vendor has great customer service. We can call their phone support line and talk to some of the...
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Service and Support
Avantas does a really good job of working around problems and issues. But when there is a problem...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Our biggest pain point with the system has been around enhancements. The vendor seems to put a lot...
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Future Outlook
The product is part of our long-term plans. There will always be something bigger and better that...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
The vendor doesn’t nickel-and-dime us to death, and that has been really refreshing.
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Functionality and Upgrades
Smart Square is great for tracking employees’ hours. The brownie point of the product is that we...
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Functionality and Upgrades
A really big downside to Smart Square is the reporting system. For custom reports, the system is...
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Relationship
The vendor does their best to accommodate us and resolve any issues we have.
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
With Avantas, anytime we want to add a unit, there is a cost. Anytime we start something up, there...
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Functionality and Upgrades
The vendor is pretty good about showing us upgrades to the system. They give us a lot of information...
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Implementation and Training
I don’t know whether there was a miscommunication, but my understanding was that the training would...
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Relationship
The vendor is meeting our integration needs about halfway because there is still a good bit that we...
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Functionality and Upgrades
With the pandemic and staffing shortages, there is an opportunity to create new modules to do some...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Some of the system is intuitive, and some of it is a struggle. Some of the issue is not people are...
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Service and Support
If something is broken and we need help, we can either start a ticket or an email, but we have to...
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Functionality and Upgrades
On occasion, the vendor is proactive. Our feeds sometimes get stuck, and the vendor will ask to run...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
I don’t know how much we spent to start, but I don’t think we got our money’s worth on the system....
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Other Observations & Comments
We had a recent upgrade, and our users are getting used to the new user interface, but once we are...
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Lessons Learned
I would recommend the system to others, but I would want to discuss the expectations others should...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
For the value that is provided with the tool, the ROI pays for itself relatively quickly. The...
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Other Observations & Comments
There is a nagging issue that no one seems to be able to solve. On our end, it seems like that is...
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Other Observations & Comments
There is really nothing earth-shattering coming from the updates. I might not see everything that...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
I personally would buy this system again. We would have to have discussions internally if we did...
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Functionality and Upgrades
This system was more designed for an inpatient world. We tried to get it into surgery and some...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
The vendor works with us on the cost of the system and every time we need to do something. They have...
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Service and Support
Our enhancement requests take a long time or don't ever come to fruition. I get that Avantas has to...
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Relationship
The vendor's executives are all well polished and very transparent. It isn't a smoke-and-mirror show...
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Service and Support
We don't really use the phone support system yet. But we do use the text paging system, and we think...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
We get our money's worth. Especially during the COVID-19 times, the system made a huge impact.
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Relationship
Avantas has been a great partner, especially over the last two years. Especially with the pandemic,...
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Interfacing and Integration
We don't rely on Avantas to help us integrate anymore. We have gone to collecting all of our own...
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Relationship
We used to have frequent meetings with the vendor's leadership. COVID-19 may have played a factor,...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Avantas was far superior to the other options that we could find at the time. Avantas has served us...
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Functionality and Upgrades
I wouldn't say that the vendor outright lies, but they just cannot deliver the entire package as...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
There are things that Avantas provides to us while waiving their fees. But then there are also times...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Smart Square is extremely clunky. Avantas will fix something, and then we will notice that the fix...
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Future Outlook
I do not like this application, and that is because we manage it ourselves. Some other customers...
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Relationship
In the past, there was a product update that we didn’t want to take. The vendor said they would...
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Win/Loss - Why they were selected (by current clients)
We started using the product because another vendor we use didn’t have the functionality. We wanted...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
The vendor charges us for anything we want, so we have learned not to ask them for things.
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Implementation and Training
We implemented something from the vendor a while ago. The process didn’t go badly, but it was like...
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Implementation and Training
Our trainer from the vendor is good at training and explains things well. They get down to the user...
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Service and Support
The product support has gotten better. The person we had before was personable and did the best they...
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Interfacing and Integration
This product is the only thing that is holding us from interoperability, and we are thankful for the...
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Lessons Learned
Our end users like the product, especially since the vendor is coming out with an app, but our...
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Relationship
The vendor’s executives attended user-group meetings so that we could meet them. At those meetings,...
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Relationship
I think Avantas keeps their promises. But I find that they have delays sometimes in service. I also...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
There are multiple reporting functionalities that we can get for Smart Square, but they are à la...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Smart Square does not drive outcomes for us. We have had to create the way the system can work for...
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Functionality and Upgrades
Smart Square has a new user interface that has gone live, and they have archived and bookmarked the...
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Relationship
We are often the ones telling Avantas when there is an issue in the system. The vendor has used us...
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Other Observations & Comments
Our contract isn't up for a while, but we are definitely open to seeing what is on the market. My...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
I wouldn't buy Smart Square again. Smart Square was created for a specific clientele, and Avantas...
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Functionality and Upgrades
End users need to be able to use the Smart Square functionally from a mobile perspective,...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
Several years ago, the vendor's payment model changed. We are getting our money's worth much more...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
I actively recommend Smart Square to others. It is data driven. It helps us understand our staffing...
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Interfacing and Integration
Avantas has been very good about not charging us extra for integrations we have had to do to make...
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Technology
Avantas’ delivery of new technology is good. Avantas is working on a project that they are calling...
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Functionality and Upgrades
It is very challenging to pull data out of Smart Square and create reports. The request piece of the...
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Relationship
There has not been anything negative about Avantas’ executive involvement. They have a team of...
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Relationship
The vendor organization doesn’t really make promises. We have discussions, and they make it pretty...
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ROI / Cost (care and feeding)
We heavily rely on the system, but it is more expensive than many of the other products on the...
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Functionality and Upgrades
The ability to get data out of the system for reporting capabilities is challenging. The data in the...
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Implementation and Training
The vendor mostly provides webinars. They have highly experienced people doing their training, and...
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Service and Support
The vendor's phone and web support people are relatively available. I text them, and they text me....
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Functionality and Upgrades
I recommend the system all the time. I fully support the system. There are some things that the...
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Relationship
We have been a partner of the vendor's for a very long time, and the vendor organization has come a...
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