Status: Not Active
Partnership: 3.5 years
Resources: 3 FTEs
The Challenge
Decrease training time and turnover
VGM Homelink helps patients secure in-home medical services, equipment, and supplies at the best prices by connecting insurers with providers. To support this work, more than 500 employees relied on VIPER—Homelink’s desktop software—to manage orders and serve customers.
When we began working with Homelink, VIPER was already a decade old. It was built on paper-based processes and aging technology. New features were added over the years to keep up with the company’s growth. The result was a complex and confusing system with inconsistent information structures and workflows. Training new employees took nearly six months, and most team members stayed in their roles for less than a year, costing VGM Group substantial time, money, and resources.
Knowing the system was a key to their success, they partnered with us to reimagine the experience. What resulted was a platform that’s easier to learn, more intuitive to use, and better connected to the full lifecycle of a patient’s care.
The Work
Here’s how we helped the VGM Group
From initial concepts through implementation, we partnered with VGM stakeholders to shape a product strategy rooted in clarity and usability—validating every step through hands-on testing with real users in a working environment.
“They asked the right questions to learn things about our business that even we didn’t know.”
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Mike Mallaro CEO, VGM Group
Strategizing beyond a UI refresh
Instead of simply refreshing the VIPER interface, we reimagined the entire system around workflows and mental models of real employees across departments.
Stepping into the shoes of the employee
To build real empathy, we immersed ourselves in the employee onboarding process, completing training and observing users in action.
Crafting a design system that scaled
We established a scalable design system and a structured information architecture to support growth, automation, and customization.
“Give me thirty minutes to learn this and I can do it. This will be better for younger, new people, since it’s user-friendly and web-based.”
VGM Homelink Employee
The breakthrough: providing the right data at the right time
We streamlined the intake and referral process into a single, unified screen—used by anyone, anytime a new order is created. What was once a sprawling 12-tab form packed with hundreds of fields is now a dynamic, context-aware experience that shows only what’s relevant based on order type, such as work comp or group health.
Instead of overwhelming users with excessive data entry, we surfaced only the essentials—condensing hundreds of fields into a clean, focused workflow. Supporting details, like payer or physician info, are now handled through modals that appear only when needed. This clarity not only accelerates the process for experienced users but dramatically reduces the learning curve for new employees—driving greater accuracy and confidence from day one.
“I liked the visual aspect of all of the data. It’s so much easier to read and see the information. There are very few items that I don’t need—only the ones I use.”
VGM Homelink Employee
The Impact
After the first release, 78% of users said the system was easier to use
We redesigned the interface from the ground up with smarter dashboards, focused workspaces, and flexible launch points tailored to how users actually work. Clearer language and thoughtful guidance reduced errors and boosted confidence, while our holistic approach ensured the new system fit seamlessly into VGM’s broader tech ecosystem.
The result? 78% of users said the new experience was easier to use, eliminating training woes and laying the foundation for long-term employee satisfaction and efficiency.
