The Client
Australia has a growing elderly population, with 4.3 million Australians (the population of Perth and Brisbane combined) currently aged 65 and older, and one in three seniors experiencing social isolation and loneliness.
Dossy is committed to changing this statistic and transforming the lives of Australians through its intuitive one-tap-to-connect video conferencing platform designed specifically for seniors to foster meaningful conversations.
As people age, they face unique obstacles to social connection. Dossy redefines elder care by addressing the critical challenge of social isolation among seniors. This is especially important for those with dementia, depression, or mobility issues and particularly those who are technologically challenged, socially isolated due to small personal networks, or who live in remote areas.
Families are often busy, and it’s common for seniors to be reluctant to ask for help so as not to burden their families. To further compound the issue, there’s a growing shortage of volunteers in aged care, with numbers dropping by 50% over the past four years.
For most adults, technology closes the communication gap. However, for those in the older generation who have never used a smart device, the rapid advancement of technology can be extremely daunting.
Navigating technology, understanding its unique language, and trying to operate “apps” with small fonts and buttons can feel overwhelming for seniors. Many just find it easier to ignore technology altogether and not ask for help to avoid feeling inadequate.
Dossy was inspired by CEO and Founder Kristen Graham’s grandmother, affectionately known as “Dossy”. Like many seniors, Dossy struggled with loneliness, especially throughout the COVID pandemic and lockdowns.
Adapting to constantly changing and increasingly complex technology to bridge social connections without the close support of family and loved ones was intimidating and impractical for Dossy. Kristen was passionate and committed to finding a simple and more effective way for senior Australians to feel and stay “connected”.
Seamlessly integrating with existing healthcare systems, Dossy extends the reach and capabilities of the aged care workforce. It will enrich and further personalise care delivery for seniors and significantly improve their quality of life. Dossy combines innovative technology with a human-centric approach to preserve and improve seniors' independence and wellbeing.
The Challenge
Dossy presented three key challenges to V2 Digital that inhibited Dossy’s ability to scale and onboard more service providers and users onto the platform.
The first challenge was to ensure all users could join the platform, regardless of mobile device.
Android devices operate at a lower price point and therefore are a popular alternative to Apple devices, particularly mobile phones. Dossy needed to develop an Android application that replicated the same functionality they already had available via Apple iOS.
However, the existing iOS application had problems upon initial deployment and so there was also a requirement to resolve those integration and interfacing issues. Achieving secure, consistent and reliable operability with a simple and intuitive user experience across the Dossy platform was critical to ensure that there was full market coverage and no user access constraints.
The second challenge was to ensure the Dossy environment was secure and reliable.
In addition to the app development, the existing AWS infrastructure and server-side architecture needed a thorough review. It was critical to confirm that all key tenants were fit for purpose, well-architected and “future-proofed” to support expanded functionality and a fast-growing user base.
The priority technical objectives were to;
Keep all users across the platform safe and secure, especially elderly users, who are typically more vulnerable and susceptible to being taken advantage of.
Optimise system and application performance and reliability to deliver a superior end-user experience.
Enhance security to protect the privacy of elderly users.
Optimise, minimise and effectively manage operational costs.
Provide scalability for future growth, ensuring that both the paid and volunteer subscription base could grow quickly and sustainably.
The third challenge was to enable closer connections ensuring interactions that are personalised and directly relevant. This is crucial for seniors, including those with dementia who benefit from engaging in or being prompted to regularly engage in a familiar context. It also benefits those with mobility challenges who cannot participate in social activities outside their homes.
The Solution
Dossy partnered with V2 Digital to solve these three challenges. Our common mission was to deliver a comprehensive solution that;
Incorporated a new Android end-user application for use across compatible smart devices.
Is consistent with AWS Well-Architected best practices and remediates a number of legacy integration and interfacing issues.
Achieved closer, more relevant connections for all users across the globe by leveraging AI.
V2 Digital developed an Android application, replicating all the features and functionalities of the existing iOS application. V2 Digital utilised a React Native framework, which not only ensured that the Android application mirrored the iOS experience but also facilitated a single, cross-platform development approach.
This framework positioned Dossy to more efficiently port the native iOS application to other platforms in the future, promoting a more sustainable development strategy.
In parallel, V2 Digital performed an in-depth cloud review and optimisation of Dossy’s AWS cloud infrastructure. The primary objective was to align the AWS environment with AWS’s Well-Architected standards.
This included recommending immediate changes to improve performance, security, and cost-efficiency, implementing configuration adjustments, and providing future recommendations for both AWS infrastructure and server-side application architecture.
V2 Digital provided a vision for the future state of the AWS infrastructure and the server-side architecture, aligned with long-term scalability and efficiency, that will support Dossy's future growth and operational excellence.
The V2 Digital team began developing an AI-driven matching algorithm targeted at ensuring more personalised and directly relevant interactions between users across the platform.
This innovative technology solution leveraged existing data from user profiles such as availability captured via smart calendars to help the Dossy system more efficiently and effectively match elderly end users with the right profiles of other users, caregivers and volunteers.
Business Outcomes
V2 Digital successfully improved Dossy's customer onboarding and accessibility capability which enabled Dossy to accelerate the time needed to sign up new corporate paying customers and start using the platform. In addition, all users can now join the platform regardless of mobile device without compromising security or reliability.
AI technology has been successfully leveraged to facilitate closer and more personalised connections in shorter time frames, leading to more regular and meaningful interactions for elderly users.
As a result, the measurable business outcomes included:
Optimised AWS Cloud Infrastructure to Reduce Costs and Increase Reliability
Through effective AWS environment optimisation, V2 has reduced the usage costs of the Dossy platform by 70%. This will ensure the platform's long-term viability and strengthen Dossy’s long-term partnership with AWS and V2.
Uptime increased by an additional 56% which has created more opportunities across geographies outside of Australia.
Demonstrated a focus on rapid collaboration and delivery, unlocking pragmatic outcomes and enabling continuous feature development at speed, while staying true to the core values of the Dossy Mission.
Improved User Experience to Drive Engagement
Enhanced workflow functionality for existing Aged Care, Volunteer Provider and Family Dashboards driving actionable data insights for AI-specific use cases that will foster closer connections amongst groups and individuals. This provided healthcare providers with the ability to connect to the system, adding additional care features for the elderly.
Simplified and accelerated user and volunteer sign-up processes, resulting in a larger user base than before. Additionally, the social inclusion time for Dossy users, from sign-up to their first use of the Dossy app, increased substantially.
Enabled activation and connection with loved ones via the Dossy Platform, regardless of device type.
Leveraging AI to Drive More Meaningful Connections
By leveraging common interest tagging and AI-powered insights, we significantly improved the quality of the matching of volunteers to Dossy users. Key trials of individual conversation matches in AI have increased by 78% compared to the previous version.
In Summary
Social isolation amongst senior Australians is a growing concern, especially noting the evidence of our ageing population and increased life expectancy metrics.
Dossy’s vision is to minimise the impact of social isolation with a simple, intuitive communications platform that combines innovative technology with a human-centric approach to preserve and improve the independence and well-being of older adults.
Dossy partnered with V2 Digital to solve three key challenges; ensuring their platform is accessible to all users across devices, providing a secure and reliable platform that is cost-effective and fostering closer connections.
By leveraging smart interfaces and AI, Dossy now enables a larger number of more deeply meaningful interactions between elderly citizens, their families, friends, and carefully matched volunteers - creating strong connections and community support.
Dossy provides proactive, data-driven insights to detect health concerns early, facilitating timely and effective interventions. This strategy not only alleviates loneliness but also boosts cognitive and emotional health.
All of these tangibles contribute to a markedly enhanced quality of life for our senior Australians and their loved ones.
“Working with V2 Digital has been a true partnership, setting Dossy up for scalable, future-proof growth. Their expertise has strengthened our infrastructure, optimised cloud performance, and aligned us with Well-Architected standards, driving efficiency and reliability. Together, we’ve planted the seeds for AI enhancements focused on improving human-centric connections, ensuring that as we grow, Dossy continues to foster meaningful relationships that combat loneliness and isolation. Most importantly, we’re creating a powerful social impact, helping older people around the world feel less alone.” Kristen Graham, CEO and Founder of Dossy.
