Uncovering the Needle in the Haystack

When the U.S. government passed a stimulus plan in 2009 that set aside more than $27 billion for hospitals and healthcare providers that made the switch from paper-based records systems to an Electronic Health Records program, it sent the health information technology market into a full-blown frenzy.

It also left Houston-based EHR provider Prognosis Health Information Systems at a tipping point.

“There were significant opportunities for us in the market,” says Prognosis CEO Ramsey Evans. “But we needed more bullets in our gun. We had to get out there, let our prospects know that we existed, and do all of that while lowering our cost of sale.”

Heading in to 2011, Evans and his team quickly realized the need to build a lead generation and qualification program within their sales organization that could start the conversation with Prognosis’s target customers – a relatively small and very specific segment of hospitals and healthcare providers. But doing it on their own required more time than they had with the government’s deadline for acquiring EHR stimulus money less than a year away.

Thankfully, the company had a secret weapon: OpenView Venture Partners, a Boston-based firm that made a capital investment in Prognosis in November 2010.

Just before Q3 of 2011, OpenView’s Labs team – its highly skilled consulting arm – helped recruit, train, and deploy two new lead generation reps that were making calls, creating opportunities, and forging relationships within a matter of weeks from the date of their hire.

“At the moment, our 2012 Q1 pipeline is bigger than it’s ever been,” says Evans. “We have leads in eight new states and I expect that footprint to continue to expand as we continue to refine our lead generation and management processes. We owe so much of that success to our work with OpenView.”

For more on how OpenView and Prognosis teamed up on the company’s new lead generation and qualification program, download the full case study.