eClinicalWorks Aims To Be A Game-Changer In EMR
Published: 2010-01-18 12:05:00By: Brandon Butler | Worcester Business Journal | January 14, 2009
Girish Kumar Navani didn’t exactly plan on starting an electronic medical records company.
When he came to the U.S. from India in 1988 to study towards a master’s in engineering at Boston University he wanted to “do something significant.”
But it was not until the mid 1990s when he was in Geneva at a conference on the use of wireless technology in health care that the idea hit him.
“Health care is still on paper?” Navani remembers thinking. “That’s a golden opportunity. We took that opportunity and ran with it.”
Now, Navani’s company, eClinicalWorks in Westborough, serves more than 30,000 physician practices all over the country with more than 100,000 users in all 50 states. 2008 revenues topped $85 million, up from $4 million in 2004.
Navani, this year’s Worcester Business Journal Big Business Leader of the Year, said it comes down to a simple formula that has worked since the day he started the company: customer service, price and functionality.
“If you look at the sales model, it’s about word of mouth,” Navani said. “We have one customer that tells five others, and 100 customers telling 500 others. It works great. Sometimes I don’t even believe it myself.”
Tough Choices
Navani said it wasn’t always that easy.
“The first 100 customers is the hardest,” he said. “It takes perseverance.”
The executive team at eClincialWorks has so far resisted taking any venture capital funding or going public. But that choice to remain independent has made the company stronger, he argues. eClinicalWorks’ independence from fililng quarterly earnings statements has allowed the company to focus on its products and customers, Navani says.
Talk to someone that knows Navani and they’ll tell you another secret to the company.
“He’s an unbelievable salesman,” said Micky Tripathi, CEO of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative. “He himself used to do the demoing of the product. He would come in alone, do a session, answer technical questions, business questions, anything. He was just incredibly good at selling the products. A big reason this company is here is because of that man.”
Tripathi’s nonprofit collaboration works with health care and insurance providers as well as EMR companies to expand electronic medical record offerings around the state. He also has a for-profit consulting firm that provides technical assistance and preparation for EMR transitions.
eClinicalWorks’ market
audience also has allowed the company to grow rapidly, Tripathi said.
Navani targeted small physician practices instead of the larger
hospitals. That gave eClinicalWorks an almost unlimited customer supply
base with the thousands of physician practices in the country.