The verdict in three sentences
A home care director in Dublin who supports 160 clients with 28 carers and nurses, and spends 10 hours a week rebuilding rosters by hand, can commission a custom visit scheduling web app for 60,000 to 100,000 EUR excl. VAT, delivered in 5 months. The budget must include from day one EU-hosted, security-certified infrastructure at roughly 150 to 300 EUR per month, offline visit notes on mobile and an integration with the existing billing or rostering export. The target to write into the specification is 15% fewer kilometres and scheduling time under 3 hours a week.
Why home care scheduling defeats generic tools
A spreadsheet or shared calendar ignores the real constraints of a run across Dublin, from Tallaght and Clondalkin to Swords and Dún Laoghaire: fixed morning windows for personal care, double-handed calls for clients with limited mobility, nursing skills for certain tasks, continuity of the named carer and last-minute absences. The director ends up rebuilding the day after every sick call.
| Constraint | Manual handling | Handling in the app |
|---|---|---|
| Saturated morning slots (7 am to 11 am) | Phone negotiations the night before | Automatic allocation by care priority |
| Double-handed calls | Separate paper list | Hard rule in the algorithm |
| Skills (healthcare assistant, nurse) | Supervisor's memory | Qualification filter on every visit |
| Unplanned carer absence | 45 to 90 minutes to rebuild the day | Reallocation proposal in under 5 minutes |
| Travel | Visit order by feel | Geolocated optimisation with real travel times, including the M50 |
| Visit notes | Paper folder in the home or phone calls | Mobile entry, visible to the next carer |
Ireland is moving towards formal licensing of home support providers, with HIQA standards and HSE tender requirements already asking for reliable records of visits and care delivered. Clean scheduling data makes those audits far easier.
Detailed budget
| Module | Range excl. VAT, 2026 order of magnitude | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery, analysis of current runs, mock-ups | 6,500 to 10,500 EUR | Shadowing 2 to 3 real runs |
| Minimal client record and care plan | 8,500 to 14,000 EUR | Only data needed for the visit |
| Scheduling and route optimisation engine | 15,000 to 27,000 EUR | Time windows, double-ups, skills |
| Offline carer app and visit notes | 13,500 to 22,000 EUR | Encrypted sync when signal returns |
| Integration with billing, payroll or HSE reporting exports | 6,000 to 11,500 EUR | Depends on available APIs or files |
| Security, strong authentication, access logs | 5,500 to 8,500 EUR | GDPR Article 9 safeguards and DPIA |
| Testing, training for 28 staff, rollout | 5,000 to 6,500 EUR | Rollout team by team over 3 weeks |
| Total | 60,000 to 100,000 EUR | Excluding recurring hosting |
Ireland has no direct equivalent of the French HDS certification, but health data is special category data under GDPR. That means a data protection impact assessment, EU hosting with ISO 27001 controls, and a clear processor agreement. Expect 150 to 300 EUR per month for suitable hosting, or 1,800 to 3,600 EUR per year.
What the app must do offline
Carers enter basements, older terraced houses and rural parts of County Dublin and Wicklow where mobile signal drops. The app must show the day's run, the care plan and the latest notes without a connection, store entries locally in encrypted form, then sync automatically. If two carers edit the same record, a conflict rule must be designed from the start, or notes go missing.
Mini case study
Siobhán, director of a home care provider in Dublin, chooses an 80,000 EUR app and hosting at 220 EUR per month. Her 28 staff drive about 50 km a day each, or 1,400 km a day and about 511,000 km a year. With 15% fewer kilometres, the provider saves 76,650 km, or roughly 34,500 EUR a year at an order-of-magnitude mileage rate of 0.45 EUR per km.
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Scheduling time falls from 10 to 3 hours a week, freeing 364 hours a year for management, worth about 14,600 EUR at 40 EUR per hour. The total gain approaches 49,100 EUR a year, against 2,640 EUR of annual hosting. Payback arrives in about 21 months, and carers get time back for care instead of driving.
FAQ
Is there a mandatory health hosting certification in Ireland?
No HDS-style label exists, but GDPR Article 9 and HIQA expectations require strong safeguards. Budget 150 to 300 EUR per month for EU, ISO 27001 hosting.
Can the app connect to our current software?
Usually yes, through an API or scheduled exports. The integration work represents 6,000 to 11,500 EUR depending on how open the vendor is, to check during discovery.
Will staff who are less comfortable with technology adapt?
Large buttons, three main screens and a 2-hour session per team work in most cases. A gradual 3-week rollout limits errors.
What happens if a phone is lost?
Local data is encrypted and access can be revoked remotely from the back office. Strong authentication prevents anyone else from viewing records.
Can we start with scheduling only?
Yes, a first release covering the run, offline notes and reallocation can ship in 12 to 14 weeks, with integrations in a second phase. See our custom web apps page.
Let's scope your project. We map your scheduling rules, hosting requirements and integrations for a 5-month rollout. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
