Agile Digital

About Meals on Wheels (MoW) Australia

Meals on Wheels (MoW) is a nationwide Australian network supporting over 200,000 clients with nutritious meals and social connection. With over 35,000 volunteers, MoW plays a vital role in keeping older Australians healthy and independent at home, especially under the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP).

MoW is more than just food delivery — it is a daily reminder that each person is valued, seen, and supported, embodying the Australian spirit of community, compassion, and looking out for one another.

Background

Founded in 1952, MoW was inspired by a UK wartime initiative and grew into a national essential service. Government reforms following the 2021 Aged Care Royal Commission introduced new compliance and reporting requirements. Fragmented systems and manual processes placed a heavy burden on MoW branches, threatening service delivery and growth.

Agile Digital has deployed its decade-long expertise to develop an Agile Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software for the benefit of at-home care providers like MoW.

Mission

MoW’s mission is to do more than just deliver food—it provides dignity, safety, and connection. The Newcastle branch wanted to modernise while preserving its human-centred ethos.

The mission was to create an easy-to-use online portal to empower clients to manage their meal plans with their local MoW service, tailored to preferences based on local meal suppliers and fostering a greater sense of control and independence. Creating standardised and automated workflows was crucial to enable each MoW service to make the most of its volunteer workforce, so that each client receives an increasingly higher quality of service.

Approach

Newcastle Meals on Wheels partnered with Agile Digital to implement the Agile Care ERP. The ERP is an Australian-built, cloud-based software platform tailored for non-clinical in-home care.

Discover

Agile Digital participated in the user research phase to scope out the requirements for MoW, and ensure these requirements were met. The Agile ERP faces unique UX/UI challenges given it is designed with the Aged Care sector in mind, and accessibility was at the forefront of all development. 

Design

To ensure the long-term sustainability and scalability of MoW in Australia, Agile Digital designed an ERP for the organisation, supported by a secure cloud-based platform that empowers MoW services via easy-to-use web interfaces. 

Roll Out

Our initial site to demonstrate the power of the Agile ERP is the Whitehorse branch of Newcastle MoW, the largest MoW hub managed from NSW.

Outcome

The Agile Care ERP platform is supporting Newcastle Meals on Wheels’ future vision by streamlining processes and allowing staff and volunteers to focus more on their mission of supporting independence, quality of life, and social connections at home. ERP development is ongoing to adapt to the evolving demands of the Government’s aged care reform agenda.

For clients

The Agile Care ERP platform helps MoW match clients with appropriate meals by understanding medical and dietary needs, including challenges like swallowing difficulties, while integrating seamlessly with existing systems for greater efficiency. Its flexible menu planning, automated invoicing, and expanded ordering options have improved client choice and increased meal offerings by 20%, empowering older Australians to take more control over their care.

For volunteers

The system also shortens volunteer travel routes for care visits using geospatially optimised delivery route planning – this maximises the invaluable time spent in the living room with clients rather than driving a circuitous route.

For government reporting

Under a CHSP contract, MoW services must report on the number of CHSP meals delivered each month via the government’s DEX regulatory reporting. The Department monitors DEX reporting against each funding contract to ensure organisations are delivering on meals as contracted. The Agile Digital system automates this DEX reporting to ensure compliance with the New Aged Care Act’s transparency goals as it prepares the service for the Government’s emerging reporting requirements.

Overall, the innovation pilot run by Newcastle MoW has seen a significant reduction in costs and improvements in productivity. The Agile Care ERP platform roadmap includes further enhancements for this in-home care technology, including to offer clients full online self-service, and even more seamless AI-powered volunteer management.

Supporting the RMIT Human Impact of Social Policy Research Project

The Agile ERP plays a crucial role in advancing research into the broader intended and unintended societal impacts of at-home care service policies. Agile Digital has partnered with RMIT University to leverage data from the Agile ERP to provide policymakers and researchers with evidence-based insights into the effectiveness of social care initiatives.

By analysing anonymised and aggregated data on key Impact Factors- such as Social Connection and Access to Services- Agile Digital has developed a Human Impact Dashboard. This powerful tool enables policymakers to make data-driven recommendations to adapt and refine relevant policies in real-time. This collaboration ensures that the MoW network continues to evolve in ways that enhance operational efficiency and drive meaningful improvements in the quality of life for those who rely on its services.