Off the Server: How Milestone Veterinary Centre Planned its Move to Provet

"Every process is a few clicks less. And if we have more time on reception, it means we can spend more time with the clients and their patients. That's our goal really." – Sue Towers, Practice Manager, Milestone Veterinary Centre

Milestone Veterinary Centre is an independent small animal practice with two sites in South Devon. In June 2026 it replaced an end-of-life server with Provet, the all-in-one veterinary PIMS. The practice’s records moved across to Provet while the old system was still running, so there was no bulk export to hand over. 

Director Charlie Withers set the practice up in 2012 with business partner Angela Harvey, two veterinarians from the same Exeter practice. More than a decade later it runs two sites with 10 veterinarians and a team of around 50.

Moving from outdated servers to the cloud

Milestone had been on RoboVet since the day it opened, and the server underneath it was slow and needed more space. "We kept getting the wheel of doom," says Charlie.

"The staff were fed up at that stage," echoes Sue Towers, Practice Manager. 

The server had also reached the end of its life. "We were potentially going to have to spend another great chunk of money to replace it," says Charlie. What he really wanted was to "take some of the stress and strain off the day for the team," he says. 

So in September 2025 he started talking to suppliers.

Why Milestone chose Provet

Charlie brought the team into the decision rather than announcing it to them. What he wanted was veterinary practice management software that would keep getting better and AI was a large part of that. "I personally really like AI and it was essential for our PIMS to be forward thinking.” Client communication mattered just as much, along with stock control they could keep running as tightly as before. Payment was the obvious gap, since Milestone took payment on card machines only. 

The decision came in January with a go-live date set for June.

A conventional PIMS migration means extracting the data, running a test migration, waiting for the practice to check it, then running the whole thing again for real. Milestone's move skipped that second pass, so the time went on setting the system up rather than waiting on data. 

Rather than hand the project to one person, Milestone built an implementation team of three, each owning what they knew best. Sue took the communication tools, forms, and tags. Charlie took stock. Janet Withers, Director and Administrator, took the diary and loyalty schemes. They worked through the training videos stage by stage, then came together with Jae Kingswell, a Senior Onboarding Specialist at Provet, to compare setups and ask questions.

The cadence mattered as much as the content. "Spreading it over six months gave us an opportunity to revisit certain areas and ask questions," says Sue.

Milestone prepared for the week itself. On Jae's advice it stopped taking bookings from midday on Monday and ran on Microsoft forms for the afternoon, "so we weren't completely pen and paper," as Sue puts it. Go-live was Tuesday, with every other appointment bookable. Jae was on site from Monday through to Thursday: four days in total, and provided all of the on-site support the move needed.

Go-live week was busy. "It was a bit chaotic at first," says Sue, "and I kind of half expected it." The two systems worked very differently, and 50 people were learning in public at once.

Having Jae in the building changed who could absorb that. "It allowed me to still be on the desk, but not serve the day-to-day customer," says Sue. Jae took on the front-of-house questions that would normally have landed with her. "If Jae wasn't there, it probably would have felt so different. Having them there was such reassuring support, especially for my colleagues that were front facing." 

Preparation and groundwork was key. "My advice to anybody is give yourself the time," says Charlie. "You have to be thorough, putting in the work in the first place, in order to get the best out of it when it goes live," adds Sue.

What changed day-to-day

Milestone kept its diary page close to the old layout. What changed was the number of steps inside it.

"Every process is a few clicks less. And if we have more time on reception, it means we can spend more time with the clients and their patients. That's our goal really," shares  Sue.

Now when the team checks in a patient, the PIMS prompts them for a weight; before, that meant dragging and dropping, then opening the record. Where the patient is waiting – the car park, the waiting room – is a drop-down rather than something to type. Scanned documents reach the record via the patient ID in the subject line. "It's so much slicker, and we appreciate that," says Sue.

The clearest win is at checkout, where sending a client a payment request used to mean working across several screens.

"The checkout process is swifter because the card machines automatically talk to Provet," says Sue. "What we love is the Provet Pay link. You can include or not include clinical notes, a receipt or invoice, and then you can write your own message. And that's all on one screen. We couldn't do that before, it would take us probably five minutes. Now we can do it in 20 seconds." 

Milestone is putting Provet's AI Agents to work too. AI Scribe drafts the consultation notes, using a template the practice built itself so the output matches how its team already writes them. Half of Milestone's veterinarians are using AI Scribe so far. 

For Charlie the value starts with the record, and it matters more now that the CMA expects practices to show clients their options and document the choice. "If you've asked the question, the AI has picked up on it. It's in the notes," he says. "Those notes reflect what you've said, which protects you." 

This has taken on more weight since the CMA Veterinary Ruling 2026. "One of the things that came out of the CMA Ruling is the importance of good strong communication with your clients," says Charlie. "Give them choice. Be seen to be giving them choice." Estimates go out the same way, quick to build and email, so what was offered is on the record. 

AI Scribe has changed something in the consult room too. Because the veterinarian talks the examination through aloud, the client hears each check as it happens. "Even just a basic exam, looking at the teeth. If you say aloud, 'The teeth look healthy and good, no tartar there,' the client knows you have checked." 

AI Actions works alongside AI Scribe, picking up what was agreed and getting ahead of the admin. "We've said about a wormer, AI Actions has pre-populated it," says Charlie. "It's thinking ahead for you. It's a tool to help you." 

Six weeks in, the muscle memory is arriving, and Sue is clear about where it has landed. "If somebody is looking to become more efficient in all aspects of veterinary practice management software, you should consider Provet. We're definitely seeing the results now."

Thinking about moving off a server-based system? Book a Provet demo and we'll talk through what your timeline should look like.

FAQs

What did Milestone Veterinary Centre use before Provet?

Milestone ran RoboVet, a server-based system, from the day it opened in 2012 until going live on Provet in June 2026.

Can you keep using your existing records while you migrate?

Milestone's data moved across while RoboVet was still in use, and the practice kept its old server available afterwards for a short period as a cross-check for earlier invoices, insurance claims, and pre-op notes. 

How do you keep a team of 50 on board through a system change?

Milestone used an implementation team of three, each owning the areas they knew best, and a single form for collecting questions and suggestions from the team, rather than fielding them ad hoc.