Important news about
VIN® Practice Communications
Dear Colleagues,
Thanks for your belief in and support of VIN® Practice Communications. Sadly, after 20 years, it’s become clear that continuing to provide VIN® Practice Communications (VPC) services is not sustainable. We (Paul Pion and the VPC team) have made the difficult decision to cease operations mid-2024.
This decision will not immediately affect any of your VetTools communications.
Depending on your currently utilized VPC services, your appointment confirmations, health service reminders, newsletters, text messages, etc., will continue to be sent out to your clients and PetSites will remain available throughout an upcoming transition period.
Also, please note that this announcement is specific only to your VIN® Practice Communications/VetTools client communication services. If you have an eVetSites website, it’s a separate service, provided by a separate branch of the VIN® family, and it will not be affected.
For 20 years, VIN® Practice Communications, under a few different names (VetVision, VetTools, VINx, VPC) has helped approximately a thousand practices thrive and grow. When VPC started, communication support services were new. The primary motivation for building VPC was three-fold:
- Colleagues were exploring the medium and many requested VIN provide this service so they could be confident their data was secure and not resold or used inappropriately.
- Aggregating practice data from a large sample of practices could help the profession improve medical care and practice operations, without selling that data or betraying the trust of colleagues.
- To enhance your VIN®/VSPN™ experience by integrating VIN® resources with your practice information systems.
Through the years, VPC has always run at a significant deficit. This was justified because the system was powerful, appreciated by those using it, with the potential benefits to the profession of data aggregation and steady progress toward operating at break-even.
Unfortunately, while VPC held steady, the world around us changed. Although new users were constantly coming onboard, a near equal number would leave. This didn’t detract from confidence in the system because few left due to dissatisfaction. In fact, because of the amazing software and personal service provided by the VPC team, we rarely heard anything but raving reviews.
Despite these positives, many practices left VPC because they were moving to cloud-based systems that were not compatible; even more left when sold to practice consolidators since most of the large consolidators had contracts with other providers of similar services.
As a result, and with a heavy heart because we hate disappointing colleagues, the time has come for VPC to cease operations. This will take place over the next 6 months, until the end of June 2024, to give all users a chance to transition from VetTools client communications to other systems.
What does this mean for you?
The VIN® Practice Communications team is ready to assist your practice with guidance, tips, and communications through every step of this transition.
Your VIN® Practice Communications support team will be in touch in the coming weeks with specific directions on what comes next. In the meantime, a good first step is to consider whether you’re interested in transitioning to a new client communications platform, and if so, which one. We recommend allowing yourself adequate time to do this and asking your colleagues for recommendations. The VIN® and VSPN™ message boards are a great place to do research and ask for ideas!
- For VIN® members (veterinarians), we recommend posting in the Vet-to-Vet —> “Practice Management” or “Computers in Vet Practice” folders. Click here to reach the VIN® message boards.
- For VSPN™ members (support staff), we recommend posting in the VSPN —> “Management Issues” or “Marketing and Social Media” folders. Click here to reach the VSPN™ message boards.
Once you’ve settled on your practice’s chosen path forward, please share it with the VPC team. They will do everything they can to help ensure a smooth transition for your practice, ending with the formal cancellation of your VPC services.
You and your team can likely expect a roughly similar process of onboarding with your new service provider as you experienced with your VetTools service: a data sync setup, training, settings review, and launch. The VPC team will be happy to assist you as you work with your new service provider in setting up your settings, preferences, and timing to match as closely to your current VetTools settings as possible.
Finding an ethical replacement
Many of you have already begun searching for a new client communications provider, and have shared some troubling stories with us involving sales ethics.
To be clear, no client communication companies were referred directly to you by VIN® or VIN® Practice Communications. And VIN® and VIN® Practice Communications are not recommending any specific company as replacements for VetTools.
You will likely hear directly from client communication vendors in the months to come; this is to be expected now that we’ve announced the cessation of VPC services. They may even specifically mention VetTools ending, but this shouldn’t be taken as any kind of endorsement from VIN® or VIN® Practice Communications.
If any vendors claim they were referred to you or given your info by us, please consider that to be an outright falsehood and let us know – and consider whether you want to conduct business with a company engaging in such behavior.
To be clear, no client communication companies were referred directly to you by VIN® or VIN® Practice Communications. And VIN® and VIN® Practice Communications are not recommending any specific company as replacements for VetTools.
You will likely hear directly from client communication vendors in the months to come; this is to be expected now that we’ve announced the cessation of VPC services. They may even specifically mention VetTools ending, but this shouldn’t be taken as any kind of endorsement from VIN® or VIN® Practice Communications.
If any vendors claim they were referred to you or given your info by us, please consider that to be an outright falsehood and let us know – and consider whether you want to conduct business with a company engaging in such behavior.
Your VIN® family knows you’re likely disappointed by this news and recognizes that this is a potential inconvenience for a busy practice. We’re deeply sorry for both realities. We can’t thank you enough for allowing the VIN® Practice Communications team to provide your practice with service and support. It’s been our honor and pleasure.
If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at 800-454-0576 or Support@vinpractice.com.
Sincerely,
Paul & your VIN® Practice Communications team
John, Carrie, Katie, Rae, Erica, Robin, Nikki, and Katy