Tayyab Yunus began his healthcare IT consulting firm, Intuitive Solutions, about 4 years ago and has grown into the top AltaPoint Reseller in the country the last two years running.  I sat down with Ty, a personal friend, to discover some of his secrets and philosophies that have helped him succeed.

KB: How did you get started selling Medical Software?  

TY:  I used to be the Director of Information technology for a large healthcare organization here in Chicago.  My background is such that my entire family is in medicine.  Meaning, they are all Physicians.  While I was at the hospital, my father approached me and asked that I leave the job and begin developing an integrated PM and EMR system.  Now, writing your own software isn’t something simple, that’s what I explained to him.  The first thing I did was go out and do extensive research on what products were out there.  My goal initially was to see what products were out there and try to determine whether it was going to be feasible to build something from scratch.

KB:  So, what made you want to start in this business?

TY:  While I was researching the products out there, I found  that there was a huge market out there for medical software.  I also found that many vendors utilize resellers.  At first, I wondered ‘why do you need a reseller, why not shelf medical software at Wal-Mart and other department stores” and I came to the conclusion that medical software can’t be shelved at department stores because it takes a specialist to implement the product.  That’s where I thought I could really fit in and be successful. 

KB:  Now, tell me a little bit about your background.

TY:   Attended the University of Florida, graduated with a degree in Business administration.  I’m 6 of 8 siblings, everyone is a physician except me.  All my uncles/aunts are physicians and professors in the medical field.  I worked as a network administrator, project manager, liaison between developers and end users, consultant, etc.    

KB:  What products and services do you currently sell? What are your biggest revenue streams?

TY:   AltaPoint is our main product line.  However, our biggest revenue stream is from support and other training, installation, configuration services.  I also have a medical billing service, transcription service, software development team (that works on creating customized applications for my end users).

KB:  OK, so take me through your core business philosophies? What is your biggest motivation with your business?

TY:  I am not a salesman, I will not sell you software, I will implement a solution for your practice.    That is the business strategy.  This goes back to what I was saying earlier.  If medical software could simply be “sold” then it would be on the shelves at major department stores.  But, the thing is, it can’t be just “sold”  you have to really get down and find out the specific needs of the customer and draw out an implementation plan for them in order to transition into our “set of solutions”.  This set of solutions could be anything, credentialing services, billing services, training services, coding services, software services, EMR services, palm services, etc. etc.  in short….. we IMPLEMENT…. We don’t SELL.    

KB:  So what are some of your goals for the next two years?

TY:  We are in the process of developing specialty specific EMR packages.  I find that many vendors are trying real hard to create the ALL ENCOMPASSING EMR package.  Those EMR packages work great for some specialties.  Even AltaPoint has a fantastic EMR, however, it just doesn't fit all specialties.  Therefore, in order to capture that business, we are now focusing on building customized EMR packages on a case by case basis for our customers using our PM system and/or other suite of products and services. 

KB:  How many clients do you have? Do you have any interesting or funny client stories that you could share?

TY:  We currently cater to over 350 medical clinics.  I had a client who blindly purchased a 120k PM system.  They weren’t happy with the level of service they were getting from the company who sold them the software.   At the end of the day our package was less than 60k and they are one of our #1 referral sources.  Interesting stories? Hmm… several times in the middle of training a clinic I’ve had users walk out and say they didn’t want to learn.  My response to that is, “as an end user (secretary, biller, etc.) if you don’t learn the new software tools that are being utilized in medical clinics, then you’ll be soon out of a job.  So stick it out and learn the new systems, for job security”

KB:  What are some of the things that you have focused on in order to be successful? What are some of the things you have found to be ineffective in growing your business?   

TY:  We always try not to spread ourselves too thin.  Although we are a pretty general consulting firm, in that we will provide any service a medical clinic needs, we generally will subcontract to the specialists.  It is ineffective to try to “do it all”.  You have to keep those things in house that you can handle and can work on - the rest, try to outsource.