By Bonnie Adams, Government Editor
Westborough – By his own admission, Girish Kumar Navani, the CEO and co-founder of eClinicalWorks, acknowledges that the road to his company's success has not been what many would consider traditional. But what all would agree on is the company, which is a market leader in electronic medical records management, is one that continues to thrive, even in a still subdued economy. And with a new deal with the National Football League just announced, the future continues to shine brightly for the former software engineer and the Westborough-based company.
Navani discussed the rise of eClinicalWorks at the Nov. 27 Corridor Nine Area Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting held at the Doubletree Hotel. He noted the company started 13 years ago with five physicians as clients; there are now over 70,000. Currently there are 2,000 employees working in four North American offices and one in India. The company now posts more than $200 million in sales annually.
In spite of that, eClinicialWorks does not have a large corporate or sales hierarchy. Rather, it relies, Navani said, on the concept of “Customers sell your business, not your sales force.”
Instrumental to this, he said, was listening and responding to client complaints. When a client started a website forum to talk about the company's products, Navani said he encouraged him to do so.
“It's best to be open and it's OK to have your weaknesses exposed,” he said. “It's good to hear what they are so you can deal with them and then your customers can see that, too.”
Navani said he has also secured several large deals without the help of marketing consultants. Instead, he relies on believing that the company's track record and creditability will speak for itself.
Competition from other companies is not a concern, Navani said.
“People can steal my ideas, but not my execution,” he added.
eClinicalWorks employees work as teams he noted, instead of having “silos,” with top-heavy management hierarchies.
“We have goals as a team and we find ways to meet those as a team,” he said. “We take things one step at a time. We don's look back – we just see what we can do better tomorrow.”
Navani said he believes the problems with the nation's current healthcare will “change with the next generation.”
“It will be fixed,” he said. “It has to.”
As part of that change, patients should at all times have complete access to their medical records, he added. That would allow them to then share correct, pertinent data easily with other providers and family members when warranted.
“Records belong to patients – not doctors or attorneys,” he stressed.
As someone who is an avid fantasy football player, winning the NFL contract was especially sweet, Navani noted.
“It's going to be fun!” he said. “I have already visited six of the teams.”