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2007 Proved "eClinical Simply Works"
Friends of eClinicalWorks,
As we move into 2008, I'd like to take a moment to thank all of you for your
support and to reflect on some of the great accomplishments at
eClinicalWorks in 2007. Last year truly was a banner year for us; we
continued to grow steadily and explore innovative product design, all the
while remaining true to our commitment to customer service and support.
As the industry accolades rolled in, we remained grounded and looked to
improve existing workflow. We revamped the Support team with additional
staffing, expanded hours, and a proven business management formula. We
successfully launched eCW Version 7.5, Patient Portal Version 2.1, and the
Electronic Health Exchange (eHX). And, we continued to build on our solid
foundation of selling and deploying our unified EMR/PM systems to both small
and large physician practices.
Rather than rest on our laurels, we are excited about the challenges ahead
in the coming year. If 2007 was the year of building a solid foundation for
our services departments, then 2008 will be the year of product innovations.
The release of eCW Version 8.0 and products like Enterprise Business
Optimization (eBO) will raise the bar for the EMR/PM market, while
streamlining practice workflow with intuitive yet powerful tools for
practices of all sizes.
Industry recognition for excellence has been a part of eCW since its
inception, and last year was no different. Ranked #34 in Inc. Magazine's top
500 fastest growing private companies, eCW was once again certified by CCHIT
for Ambulatory EHR, and voted as one of the top 100 companies by Healthcare
Informatics. The success and innovation of eClinicalWorks is so profound
that it spurred the Harvard Business School to write a business case study
about eCW and its growth strategy and market potential. Awards and
recognition are nice, but they are meaningless unless you have the foresight
and drive to constantly improve, and we will continue to improve in 2008.
As many of you know, eClinicalWorks is the dominant vendor for small
physician groups; however, over the past few years we've secured a solid
foothold in the large physician group market as well. In 2007, 50% of our
business came from large physician organizations and the remaining 50% from
small physician practices - the ideal balance.
2007 also marked a year where the Stark Laws were relaxed, allowing
hospitals to financially assist community physicians investing in EHR
systems. Though these rules were originally supposed to help the legacy
in-patient vendors, the market realized otherwise. eClinicalWorks won
significant new hospital customers in this important market segment.
eCW is the only company in the ambulatory space that has the technology and
experience for deploying to large customers, yet still has the focus and
flexibility to deploy our solutions to small physician practices. These
results validate our decision eight years ago to design the architecture of
our product on open-system, web-based technologies (similar to other modern
web companies like Google™) using J2EE standards. Though eCW has grown big
we need to remain small and follow the old adage that "Every customer
counts."
eCW is now the right solution for customers of all sizes.
Company Expansion
 eClinicalWorks started 2007 with strong headwinds in the area of support and
implementation. Our exponential growth had placed great stress on these
critical departments. As a result, we addressed the situation and made huge
strides in advancing these departments last year.
Support Services
To alleviate the stress on the Support team, 100 new Support staff members
were added and a new set of processes were implemented. We introduced
after-hours support and yet did not charge additional fees for this service.
It should also be noted that, for eight consecutive years, we have never
increased our SMS fees. Customers can now receive support on weekends and
after business hours. The results of our efforts have been favorably
received and we are often complimented for the services we provide to our
customers.
eClinicalWorks greatly improved its educational resources this year by
releasing complete product manuals, and an online Wiki (www.ecwiki.com) as
an interactive and updateable resource to eCW product education. We
continued to offer Webinar classes, yet eliminated the fees to provide these
classes free of charge to our clients. In addition, we have started a new
beta program with Live Chat for "how-to" support questions, where you can
chat with an eClinicalWorks product expert in real-time.
Implementation Services
Our Project Management and Training departments have long been the strength
of our company. In a market where competitors take months or years to
implement their products, eClinicalWorks' turnaround time is often a matter
of weeks. This same market accepts 70% EMR adoption, yet eCW averages 95% +
adoption of our unified EMR/PM product. Our subscription and SMS renewals
are at an all-time high, confirming our confidence that "eClinical simply
Works."
When eClinicalWorks won the large Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative (www.maehc.org)
project, we were required to implement 200+ sites in 18 months. Many in the
industry felt that we would never be able to manage an implementation of
this size in such a short amount of time. The results are in, and
eClinicalWorks has successfully deployed all of the sites within a 13-month
time span.
eCW also opened a new implementation office in New York City with 30
employees to manage the deployment of 1500 providers as part of the New York
City DOHMH Primary Care Information Project (PCIP). We managed to do all of
this while still expanding the core business over the last year. eCW now has
an Implementation team of over 250+ full-time employees and we expect to
continue to add to our strength in 2008.
Product Releases
We released eClinicalWorks Version 7.5 and Version 2.1 of the Patient Portal
last year with both products being very well received. We also launched a
new product called eHX (Electronic Health Exchange) that allows clinical
integration of ambulatory practices. eHX went live with customers in 2007
and we expect a big year for this technology in the coming year.
We expect 2008 to start with the Version 8.0 release and follow it through
with new releases of the Patient Portal and eHX. Competitively, the bar will
be raised with V8.0 and we suspect our competitors will have to play
catch-up for a long time to come. V8.0 will be a big step forward and will
make the eClinicalWorks EMR become a valuable tool for improving the quality
of patient care.
We will also be launching a new product called Enterprise Business
Optimization (eBO) for improving our financial and clinical reporting with
the use of web-based dashboards and business intelligence technology. eBO
will allow for custom report writing based on metadata, serving as a
valuable tool for our entire client base.
eCW has always worked very closely with its customers to improve its
technology and service. In 2008, we will build on this success with
expansion of our annual roundtable sessions. This year's roundtables are
being expanded to 6 individual sessions focused on various topics from IT,
V9.0 planning, and hospital-based clients. We will also be holding a User
Conference open to all of our clients at the end of the year to allow you to
come together under a platform of education and idea exchange in both a
formal and social setting. The details will be announced in January of 2008.
Looking Forward
I see a very bright future for the company; our private, profitable, and
investor-free corporate structure allows us to be agile and look to
establishing long-term goals and working on long-term relationships versus
Wall Street-driven quarterly goals. Growing a business 2700% certainly
presents its challenges, and as a company we have continually met these
challenges head-on with overwhelming success. The growth of our company over
the last few years has established eCW as the large ambulatory EMR/PM
company, and going forward we need to stay committed to doing all the small
things for our customers.
And so, for the 8th year in a row, we successfully expanded eClinicalWorks
while making it stronger and smarter along the way. You can fully expect us
to stay focused and continue to transform the company and the industry. None
of it would have been possible without your continued support and trust.
Best wishes for a safe and prosperous New Year,
Girish Kumar Navani
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