“In the end, no tool or technology will be transformative unless we are looking more broadly at how it will enhance and empower those using it.”

By: Cindy Phillips | Managing Partner, K4Advisors

February 14, 2020

Early this month, I began an exciting new venture with K4Connect, coming aboard as Managing Partner of K4Advisors. K4Advisors is the professional services division of K4Connect, working with senior living providers on plans for and the implementation of technology to drive resident engagement and improve staff productivity and efficiency.

On a personal note, starting K4Advisors is the perfect opportunity to bring together the diverse experiences of my early career in technology, a decade of consulting in my own start-up business, and my most recent years in senior living management. Blending those skills with my passion for helping front-line employees and older adults, this new role provides me a chance to continue making a difference in the lives of those who need it.

Our driving philosophy at K4Advisors is that when technology is done right in Senior Living, it has the power to dramatically improve the daily life and experience of residents, offset critical caregiver shortages, and create new revenue streams for community operators as they seek to better serve the evolving needs of seniors in diverse living locations. 

But we believe that technology alone will not make us better, it is how we introduce it, how we implement it, and how we use it to impact our business processes that will determine our return on investment.  In the end, no tool or technology will be transformative unless we are looking more broadly at how it will enhance and empower those using it.

At K4Connect, we live at the intersection of technology, communication and engagement – we call it the Smart Senior Living Community. Proudly, we help community operators integrate and leverage digital technologies to create simpler, happier and healthier lives for their residents and families, and to provide a platform for them to engage other stakeholders such as prospects, caregiver staff and even donors.

Since 2015, K4Community has been the flagship product for K4Connect providing an enterprise level platform including a Community App, Digital signage, Voice controls using Alexa, Resident Check-in using Smart Home technology, and providing back-end Data and Insights using an embedded analytics tool. I was the executive director of a large CCRC at the time and was an early adopter of K4Community. I learned firsthand the value it could bring to our residents.

In just a few years, K4Community has accelerated the realization of the Smart Senior Living Community, helping many clients integrate the ways they communicate and engage with residents and staff.  Yet, a recent research study from MIT Sloan Management Review (SMR) and Deloitte reminds us, a focus on only selecting and implementing the right technologies is not likely to lead to success.  We must also work with the people and the processes that surround them.

K4Advisors was founded because we realize that some communities need support beyond a successful implementation.  There are so few professional services firms that truly understand the workflows of this industry or who can provide support with a team who knows the challenges facing operators today. K4Advisors wants to be the partner to help guide you and ensure you are leveraging as much as you can from each step on the journey of digital transformation.

Find out more about our services on www.K4Advisors.com, and look for the follow-on article explaining more about Smart Senior Living Communities and what digital transformation means to senior living.