MedicWare Chooses Award-Winning Linktivity® WebDemo® Web Conferencing Software Over Competing Hosted Services For Its Pricing And Ease Of Use

The Situation:

For more than a hundred years, the pen and paper have been a physician’s best instruments for tracking a patient’s medical record. But over the last 15 years some pioneering doctors have begun adopting an innovative and more efficient system that uses Electronic Medical Record (EMR) software, sometimes referred to as Electronic Health Record (EHR) software.

According to a 2003 Forrester Research report, “ as [most medical doctors] embrace EMRs, their requirements will reshape a market that will reach $1.4 billion by 2007." MedicWare, Inc., with more than 1,500 customers, has helped contribute to the growth of this market and recent healthcare technology trend.

For more than 14 years, MedicWare has provided outpatient clinics and private medical practices with a comprehensive and accurate EMR system. Developed by physicians and software engineers to simplify the medical records process, MedicWare’s two key products are MedicWare® EMR and MedicWare® Mobile.

These products help physicians and their staff focus on patients instead of paperwork. While almost 100% of medical practices have automated their billing or accounting parts (the “front office”) using practice management systems (PMS), less than 10 percent have automated their clinical records and order entries (the “back office”). Many physicians realize that by tackling their “back office” they can increase profitability and efficiencies while enhancing patient care.

California-based MedicWare, a small but burgeoning business, realized that in order to better compete with established brands in the EMR market it needed a powerful online Web conferencing presentation vehicle to demonstrate its software on demand to busy physicians and its reseller partners. Unfortunately, the firm’s initial experience with other Web conferencing services proved costly and detrimental to its own software’s reputation.

The Solution

MedicWare’s staff needed a Web conferencing solution that would allow it to stand out in a highly fragmented market. It had used two respected application service provider (ASP) vendors in the past, but found that each solution wasted MedicWare’s time, cost too much, and limited its ability to react quickly to the needs of its busy clientele.

Juswan “Jay” Ichwan, President and CEO of MedicWare, lamented that one product the firm used for five years required MedicWare to ship installation CDs to its prospects before an online demo could take place. “In the late 1990s, we didn’t have many choices among new collaboration and Web conferencing technologies, but today there are many more affordable options to enable smaller firms to compete with larger enterprises,” said Ichwan.

“Too often we played physician phone tag, resulting in cold sales leads after repeated attempts to reschedule an online demo failed. But perhaps the most negative consequence of using a large Web conferencing vendor’s product occurred when our prospects had to wait a very long time to download the client software required to begin a Web conferencing session. Prospects began to attribute those installation flaws to our software products, harming our reputation.”

MedicWare was also dismayed by the expensiveness of ASP or hosted Web conferencing services that charged a monthly rate on top of additional per-minute and per-seat fees. “We only remained customers of the industry heavyweight for six months before one of our resellers told us about Linktivity’s WebDemo® Web conferencing software. We were pleasantly surprised by how affordable and feature-rich WebDemo® and Linktivity’s remote support software, WebInteractive® were.”

Unlike hosted services, WebDemo® is installable Web conferencing software. Users pay a fixed, one time concurrent license fee. There are no surprises, complex billing arrangements, or hosted overage fees to worry about. In addition, no client downloads or plug-ins are required. To join a meeting customers need only a Web browser and an Internet connection.

The award-winning WebDemo® is part of Linktivity’s line of browser-to-browser communications and control software. It’s an affordable way for small- to medium-sized businesses and enterprise organizations to connect and collaborate over the Web. Available as a server-based and integrated system solution, WebDemo® Web conferencing software allows users to easily present and share information and ideas in real-time over the Internet. Customers have used WebDemo® to meet a wide range of needs including conferencing and collaboration, sales meetings, training, online technical support and remote control. WebDemo® provides users with optimal security, stability, scalability, and data confidentiality in all configurations.

The Results:

MedicWare has used Linktivity’s WebDemo® and WebInteractive® for more than two years and has benefited from the new features in both products’ December 2004 version upgrades.

“I’d recommend Linktivity’s WebDemo® and WebInteractive® over the self-proclaimed industry leaders in a heartbeat,” said Ichwan. “WebDemo® not only saves us money, it has shown a tangible return on our investment. Within 3-4 months, we got our initial investment back.”

No longer does MedicWare inconvenience their prospects with a mandatory client software installation. Today, MedicWare uses WebDemo® for all of its online product demonstrations with doctors and its channel partners. WebDemo® helps the firm close more than 50 percent of its business.

“WebDemo® is very easy to use and the installation was a snap. It is a convenient and intuitive way to gain the attention of busy physicians who typically see 30 patients or more a day,” added Ichwan.

About Linktivity
Linktivity, a technology leader in real-time communications software, provides server-based communications and control products that enable person-to-person interactions through a browser window. Linktivity products include WebDemo, a Web-based, real-time conferencing-and-collaboration software tool, and WebInteractive, a real-time software tool that gives support and sales professionals an efficient way to manage and resolve online requests for service and support. The Linktivity technology and other select assets were acquired by Inter-Tel on October 8, 2004 and join Inter-Tel’s portfolio of business communication software and systems. For more information, visit www.linktivity.com.

About Inter-Tel
Inter-Tel (Nasdaq: INTL - news) offers value-driven communications products; applications utilizing networks and server-based communications software; and a wide range of managed services that include voice and data network design and traffic provisioning, custom application development, and financial solutions packages. An industry-leading provider focused on the communication needs of business enterprises, Inter-Tel employs over 1,900 communications professionals, and services business customers through a network of approximately 57 company-owned, direct sales offices and over 350 authorized providers in the United States, United Kingdom and Japan. More information is available at www.inter-tel.com.

About MedicWare, Inc.
Established in 1991, MedicWare, Inc. offers the most comprehensive and accurate Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system for medical practices. MedicWare abides by governmental guidelines for privacy and documentation, making the products HIPAA and CMS compliant. For more information, visit www.medicware.com.

MedicWare® EMR

MedicWare EMR, allows medical professionals to save time and money, enabling them to better care for their patients by centralizing patient medical records and streamlining the diagnostic and treatment processes. MedicWare EMR allows physicians to efficiently and cost-effectively manage their patients’ full clinical experience, including appointment scheduling, office visits, labs, health maintenance, referrals, authorizations and medications.

MedicWare® Mobile

MedicWare Mobile is the next-generation handheld solution for intuitive and accurate patient tracking, charge capture and electronic prescribing. With easy to find Procedural codes and cross-linked Diagnosis codes, along with real time medical necessity verification, MedicWare Mobile makes patient tracking and charge capture complete and accurate in the out-patient or in-patient environment. MedicWare Mobile includes the complete drug database with interactions and warnings that enables physicians to accurately write and fax or submit prescriptions to pharmacies anytime, anywhere.