Highland and healthcare communications specialists X‑on Health have an established relationship dating back to 2017. Marketing director Paul Heeren provides an insight into the working relationship.

Tell us a bit about X-on Health and Surgery Connect

X-on Health started more than 20 years ago with hosted billing and downloadable content services and went on to pioneer what is now known as cloud telephony in the UK.

We built a broad, multi-sector client base that ranged from small businesses through to large corporates and then, in 2012, a GP practice became a virtual PBX customer. This catalysed X-on Health to tailor the service into a healthcare communications system called Surgery Connect.

Since it was launched in 2015, Surgery Connect has become the UK’s premier GP telephony solution. We work with GPs, practice managers and IT leads and with commissioners and trusts at all levels of the NHS. We also engage with senior decision makers on digital and communication issues.

What was the requirement from X-on Health for PR and marketing support?

With Surgery Connect gaining traction in the healthcare sector, X-on Health needed an agency that could build its product profile and raise the level of enquiry from potential customers. We felt this would take the form of outbound marketing activity, such as garnering press coverage, while also reviewing and refining our ‘branding’ and sector facing profile.

Why did you turn to Highland?

In 2016, we turned to a high-profile marketing agency. It delivered some good, initial results with regard to branding, but failed to raise company profile, particularly within the healthcare sector. In early 2017, a friend of our chief executive, Paul Bensley, with a background in marketing, recommended Highland because of its healthcare focus. X-on Health has been working with Highland ever since.

What services does Highland deliver for you?

Marketing! Working in close collaboration with Paul and myself, the team at Highland regularly develops opinion and messaging pieces that reflect both the current ambitions of the NHS and the response of X-on Health. For instance, we’ve explored the impact of the GP Forward View and the NHS drive toward digital and online solutions, and how we’ve developed Surgery Connect to best meet those ambitions.

Highland disseminates that messaging via online and printed publications and via social media, building X-on Health’s profile and making sure that Surgery Connect is recognised as the premier GP telephony solution.

In tandem with that activity, X-on Health’s customer facing branding is honed by ongoing discussion with Highland. We constantly review our website, collateral, and the delivery of content to ensure the best engagement with potential customers.

In addition, in 2019, a decision was taken to submit X-on Health and Surgery Connect to reputable awards. The marketing teams at X-on Health and Highland worked exceedingly well together, producing some excellent results in awards that were chosen as being in sync with our healthcare sector ambitions.

Can you say a bit more about the ‘right’ award entries and preparation?

We all work in an environment awash with awards, many of them meaningless revenue generating ‘vanity awards.’ Highland helped us to identify which awards would effectively enhance our company’s reputation and be a good fit for Surgery Connect.

And what ‘excellent results’ have you achieved?

We have been crowned the Technology/Digital Solution Provider of the Year at the 2019 General Practice Awards and declared winners in the ITSPA 2020 Awards: Best Software and Best Vertical Solution. We were also highly commended in those awards for Best ITSP – Mid-Market.

We are included in the 2020 Tech East 100 as “one of 100 innovative, ambitious and eye-catching digital tech businesses in Norfolk and Suffolk” and we were also a finalist in the Suffolk Business Director of the Year and Innovation in Business 2020 awards.

What has it been like to work with Highland?

For many years, we felt that understanding how to present our company and brands was best handled internally, given we understood our services and the nature of the sectors with which we were engaging. It worked.

Once we decided to focus on the healthcare sector, we wondered if we could benefit from external marketing advice and it eventually became apparent that while we did, we needed an agency with specialised, in-depth understanding of the healthcare sector.

After nearly four years, we’ve developed a great relationship with Highland. The team working with X-on Health has changed over the years, but everyone has been very professional, friendly and a pleasure to engage with.

They’ve also exhibited a high level of knowledge and understanding of the healthcare market and the ongoing evolution within the NHS. So, we value their advice and respect their opinions, just as they respect ours. It’s symbiosis.

Has the Covid-19 pandemic changed your market?

The crisis has led to significant changes in how practitioners interact with patients. Now, they’re often working remotely and with an increase in the use of video and online engagement.

X-on Health was very quick to respond, developing remote working communications fully integrated into Surgery Connect, while acknowledging that the telephone remained the primary form of contact. Highland assisted us to get that message out to our market.

What comes next with Highland?

X-on Health is growing at a rapid pace while developing new Software as a Service, or SaaS, solutions which continue to address the digital ambitions of the NHS. The advice of Highland on targeted messaging and subsequent dissemination will continue to add fuel to that growth.

We’re all expecting to emerge from the pandemic into an uncertain marketing landscape, given the cessation of physical events such as industry exhibitions. So the value of an online presence, using the most effective messaging, is of primary importance. We’re confident Highland will continue to effectively develop that messaging and then push it through new marketing channels as they become available.

What would you say to others considering using an agency to support their PR and marketing?

After many years of handling marketing internally, X-on Health has created a marketing strategy with Highland that far exceeds what would have been achieved without the help of an agency.

We just needed to find the right agency – an agency that understands our market and how best to engage with that market. We found Highland.