The Adventist National Aged Care Network by IT Integrity.
Australia’s aged care sector is highly fragmented. Many providers operate independently across multiple sites, systems and governance structures. This can limit access to modern technology, reduce purchasing power and slow the adoption of innovations that improve care delivery.
Within the Adventist aged care community, five separate conferences across Australia historically operated their own technology environments and infrastructure. While these organisations shared a common mission, their systems were disconnected, limiting collaboration and preventing the group from leveraging collective scale.
The creation of the Adventist National Aged Care Network (ANACN) has set a new precedent to transform this landscape. Rather than simply modernising infrastructure within one organisation, the initiative created a shared digital ecosystem connecting multiple independent providers. Today ANACN represents a “network of networks” – where organisations retain their autonomy while collaborating through shared technology, governance and innovation initiatives.
“Our sites were operating almost like separate businesses - separate networks, separate systems, even separate ways of working. What we’ve built now is a network of networks – where each organisation keeps its independence - but through shared technology, can collaborate, innovate and move forward together.”
The Challenge
Like many aged care providers, Adventist Retirement Plus reached a point where its technology infrastructure required significant renewal.
Multiple communities were supported by separate networks and legacy systems. Collaboration between sites was limited, technology standards were inconsistent and infrastructure investments were often reactive.
At the same time, the broader Adventist aged care community had long discussed opportunities to collaborate more effectively. Leaders recognised the potential to share knowledge, coordinate technology decisions and leverage collective buying power.
But without shared digital foundations, these ambitions remained difficult to realise. Initiatives such as deploying modern collaboration tools were challenging: “Before this, we had challenges rolling out things like Microsoft Teams because every site was operating its own domain and environment.”
The Vision
When Adventist Retirement Plus began planning its infrastructure renewal, CEO Eric Anderson saw an opportunity to create something bigger than a typical IT upgrade.
Rather than designing a solution solely for his own organisation, he envisioned building a platform that could support collaboration across the broader Adventist Aged Care community, stating: “I saw this as an opportunity to build something that other organisations could benefit from as well.”
Working with IT Integrity as the strategic technology partner, Adventist Retirement Plus began designing a digital foundation that could support multiple organisations while maintaining operational independence.
The goal was ambitious: create an environment that would enable organisations to collaborate, share knowledge and coordinate innovation while still retaining their own identity and autonomy.
This vision became the Adventist National Aged Care Network (ANACN): AKA The Network of Networks.
What is the Adventist National Aged Care Network?
Shared Microsoft 365 collaboration environment | National collaboration between aged care CEOs | ||
Converged enterprise infrastructure | ICT governance across conferences
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Shared cybersecurity and governance frameworks | Shared innovation and procurement initiatives | ||
Tangible Outcomes
The “Network-of-Networks” model has already delivered significant benefits.
Today four of the five Adventist aged care conferences nationally are operating on or transitioning to the shared platform, creating a connected digital ecosystem across the group.
Financial benefits have also emerged through shared infrastructure and collective procurement.
In the first half of 2025 alone, the network achieved around $50,000 in measurable savings through national purchasing arrangements and shared technology services, thanks to volume discounts.
Measurable Impact
- $50k savings achieved in the first half of 2025
- Shared infrastructure reducing operational cost
- National collaboration across multiple providers
- 4 conferences now connected through ANACN
- Improved cybersecurity posture
One organisation can trial something, and the rest of us benefit from that experience. The network dramatically speeds up how we innovate.
The Underpinning Technology
The transformation began with the creation of a modern digital foundation. Working with IT Integrity, Adventist Retirement Plus implemented converged infrastructure and a shared Microsoft 365 environment designed to support multiple organisations securely and efficiently.
The platform enables:
- Secure collaboration across organisations
- Shared governance and knowledge sharing
- Coordinated technology decision-making
- Collective innovation and procurement initiatives
At its core, ANACN functions as a network of networks. Each organisation maintains its own operational environment while connecting through a shared digital ecosystem that enables collaboration across the group.
What we’ve created is a network of networks - where each organisation keeps their independence, but are connected through shared technology and shared thinking.
Strengthened Security
“As we progressed on our cybersecurity journey with IT Integrity, we were able to address gaps within our infrastructure that could present risk to sensitive information. While no environment can ever be completely immune, we’ve significantly matured our security posture, increased our security awareness, and implemented capabilities that would be difficult for most small organisations to achieve independently.”
Through this partnership, the organisation has evolved its approach to cybersecurity – moving beyond baseline protection to a more mature, proactive, and resilient security framework.
Accelerating Innovation in Care
One of the most powerful outcomes of ANACN is its ability to accelerate innovation across the network.
Technologies can now be evaluated collaboratively, allowing organisations to share lessons learned and avoid duplicating effort.
For example, emerging care technologies such as advanced nurse call systems, sensor-based monitoring and digital safety solutions are now being explored across the group.
These innovations can:
- Improve resident safety
- Reduce unnecessary overnight disturbances
- Support more responsive care delivery
These technologies allow us to support residents more safely while also giving them greater dignity and independence.
Partnership with IT Integrity
Throughout the initiative, IT Integrity has played a critical enabling role.
Beyond implementing technology, IT Integrity has supported governance, strategy and innovation across the network, helping organisations navigate complex technology decisions within the aged care sector.
IT Integrity has been the enabler of this journey. Without them, we simply wouldn’t be where we are today. Having a technology partner who truly understands aged care makes a huge difference. They understand the pressures we’re operating under.
A Model for the Future of Aged Care
The Adventist National Aged Care Network (ANACN) demonstrates how technology can enable a new model of collaboration within the aged care sector.
By creating a network of networks, independent providers can work together to strengthen governance, reduce cost and accelerate innovation while maintaining their autonomy.
As financial and regulatory pressures continue to grow across the sector, collaborative models like ANACN offer a pathway for providers to remain sustainable while continuing to deliver high-quality care for older Australians.
“This journey has created something much bigger than technology. It has created a platform for collaboration across our organisations.”
