How “Configurable” Technology Transformed Pennsylvania’s Center for Community Building’s Operations

 Foundation to ITS Success

Center for Community Building (CCB) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, extensively researched as many ITS applications as possible before investing in an intelligent transportation system.

With the assistance of an IT specialist from a local health center who had worked with multiple ITS systems in the past, CCB was able to avoid the headaches that could erupt if the software purchased was too rigid and lacked the ability to easily import and export information between different systems. The ability to scale was particularly critical given the center’s new customer growth rate and coordination plans the agency had underway.

With eight employees comprising of the CEO, mobility coordinator, three call center operators, two drivers, and one receptionist, CCB’s eligibility demographic coverage had expanded to manage the Medical Assistance Transportation Program (MATP) in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, as well as trips for Capital Area Transit inHarrisburg.  Three to four hundred trips were assigned to Capital Area Transit in Harrisburg each day.  CCB handled 500 calls a day and 200 new customers were added per month.

“We really needed flexible technology and chose RouteMatch due to the architecture and because it was so user friendly,” said William Peterson, CEO.  “Having one single database meant all information and updates could be done from one place.”

Data Management and Reporting Benefits Realized

Upon adopting RouteMatch technology, CCB quickly realized the benefits of having configurable technology.  RouteMatch’s customizable fields, designed through powerful algorithms and flexible parameter settings, allowed CCB to accommodate the center’s multiple rules and requirements.  Slicing and dicing information by category and creating meaningful reports became easier.

Trips also became better defined.  Extra configurability allowed CCB to assign trips based on previous addresses saved and seamlessly book more logistically complex “three legged trips” – where passengers needed to be picked up at different locations throughout the day. Timing of pick- ups could be more easily negotiated and the type and purpose of each trip could also be quickly defined.  CCB could now choose the mobility type for each customer.

By using RouteMatch’s technology, CCB was able to cut down the time spent on trip scheduling by 50%, without adding more overhead.

Said Vernae Patterson, Mobility Coordinator:  “These configurations and categorizations are beneficial as they help us with compliance and save us time.  Visibility into customer interaction and history also gives us an opportunity to explain information a little differently to our customers. We are now able to suitably match vehicles with the customer.”

RouteMatch’s technology has additionally allowed CCB to expand their business and serve customers seeking to travel to areas beyond the Dauphin County radius.  For example, CCB’s “Premium” trips are dedicated to Lancaster,York, and Philadelphia and subcontracted to a taxi cab company.  By using RouteMatch’s system, CCB has been able to centralize all touch points and cut back on time- consuming reconciliation.  Faxing and printing manifests have been replaced with more environmentally-friendly and more efficient automated scheduling, dispatching and emailing.  At the end of the month, reports can be easily generated for greater collaboration and centralized management.

“On the reporting side, RouteMatch’s assistance with MATP reporting has been a tremendous help.  It has saved us 20 hours a month as a team.”

Looking forward – Expanded Coordination 

By using RouteMatch Software’s technology platform, CCB has achieved an enterprise standard that it can build its inter-agency coordination efforts around.  CCB can more quickly adapt to growth and changes, and seeks to open up its RouteMatch system even more than it has done in the past, by enabling partner providers to access the technology and receive some of the same benefits CCB has gained.  Current coordination between three counties has spurred tighter exchange of information under a shared vision to improve ridership services.

“We’ve been really pleased with RouteMatch’s technology.  It gets the job done,” said William.  “Vernae has attended RouteMatch’s User Conference for the past three years, and her entire team has attended the personalized “In the Field” training events which happen in our backyard.  The technology and the approach have worked well for us here.  They are a true partner.”