Sara and Rich McNeil, the founders of Boston Software Systems, were no strangers to the Science and Technology field. Sara McNeil earned a BA in Chemistry at Mount Holyoke College, an MS in Medicinal Chemistry from Northeastern University, and an MBA from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College. Rich McNeil was a nuclear engineer and served four years in the Navy as an officer aboard nuclear submarines. He graduated with a BA in Physics from Dartmouth College and earned an MBA at the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College. Boston Software Systems was their 2nd entrepreneurial endeavor, their 1st being the development of one of the very first practice management (PM) systems for physicians, built in 1981 on the first IBM PC, and run off of two “floppy” disk drives.
Providing a Toolkit for Healthcare’s Pain Points
According to Sara, “Boston WorkStation was born from necessity, when one of our first customers came to us with a problem. They wanted to interface their physicians with the hospital system without having to go through a complicated vendor customization process. We came up with the idea of moving data from the User Interface (UI) of these applications so that it did not require vendor involvement. This is how Boston WorkStation was born.” The McNeils wanted to develop a toolkit for healthcare, allowing end users to build the workflows themselves. There were no other RPA vendors in healthcare at that time, and they were familiar with the technical work requirements necessary for success. They licensed the software to Microscript and became their primary development group for the next 10 years. Boston WorkStation was deployed throughout the United States, Canada, and other countries, and continually optimized to work with all the various EHR systems as they entered the market.
Meeting the Needs of People, Through Core Values
While their 35-year journey has been about adapting and growing, their core values have remained consistent. Boston WorkStation was created to meet the needs and challenges of people working in the healthcare sector. Their goal was to insert automation technology into operations and workflows in order to make healthcare delivery more efficient, improve financial retention, reduce burnout, and optimize the patient experience. With the use of Boston WorkStation, clinicians are able to reach out to patients in a more efficient way, eliminating repetitive, manual tasks. Reimbursement challenges are improved, and patient care is enhanced by cutting the rising costs of inefficiency and improving the time associated with manual data transactions.
Making Customers’ Lives Easier Was Our Mission
The McNeils envisioned less of a need for the software after HL7 was introduced. Yet, the opposite became true, as there is a greater need than ever today, for healthcare automation. Sara goes on to say, “We chuckle to ourselves about the recent attention our small corner of the market has received as new players come in to make RPA the “next shiny object” that it is today. We have been making healthcare RPA solutions make sense for the last 35 years. Our greatest satisfaction to this day is still in making our customers’ lives easier, by reducing the tedious tasks that they have to do.” Boston WorkStation supports a resilient, scalable, and adaptable healthcare operating model, and has been the global leader in healthcare automation for 35 years.
Culture: The Heartbeat of the Business
The McNeils built and maintained the business model for Boston Software Systems by placing the needs of people at the epicenter of every project, and delivering an exceptional customer experience. A strong company culture remains the context for every accomplishment. In a survey of approximately 700 business professionals, only 15% said their organization is currently effective in delivering a relevant and reliable customer experience. Boston WorkStation surpassed competitor rankings in the “Best in KLAS 2022” report, with a final total score of 93.8. 100% of customers interviewed gave Boston WorkStation a solid 100% rating in product value, delivering a money’s worth return on investment, and driving tangible outcomes. Boston WorkStation outperformed industry giant, UiPath, and hundreds of other vendors in most categories.
Passion, Purpose, and Integrity
Let’s face it, creating a company is hard work, and most entrepreneurs fail. In fact, only 341 technology companies have been in existence for more than 35 years. Founders give us a reason to look back and ponder. They give us a reason to look forward with hope and aspiration from their initial footprints. To the McNeils, thank you for creating a successful business model through passion, purpose, and countless hours of hard work. Your solid foundation and unified vision to improve the lives of people working in the healthcare industry continues to this day. To our many customers, thank you for your support and your loyalty over three decades of service. If you’re not a customer yet, we invite you to check out our blog, our website, or give us a call to see how you can benefit from using the latest version of Boston WorkStation 20, because when the path isn’t clear, you’ll want a team that you can count on to lead the way.