Canadian HL7 Solutions Provider Strengthens Customer
Relationships With e/pop Web & Video Conferencing

Technology companies face special challenges when it comes to customer relationship management, which includes everything from pre-sale lead processing to post-sales training and support. Some software applications, especially data integration products, are highly complex and require hours of training to provide users with optimal results and return on investment. A good example of this is healthcare data integration. Toronto-based iNTERFACEWARE, founded by Eliot Muir, has spent the last 10 years helping healthcare providers, facilities and OEM partners to simplify the process of data interchange. iNTERFACEWARE is an HL7 solutions provider that counts IBM, Oracle, Sectra, Emageon, Datascope, Kodak and McKesson amongst its established customer base.

HL7 is a specification for a health data-interchange standard designed to facilitate the secure transfer of health data residing on different and disparate computer systems in a health care setting. HL7 facilitates the transfer of laboratory results, pharmacy data and other information between different computer systems. iNTERFACEWARE’s job is to make the data integration process faster, less complex and less costly for its customers.

Alan McLaren, vice president of sales and marketing at iNTERFACEWARE, is responsible for making sure the company’s customers are happy and satisfied with the results of both the award-winning Iguana and Chameleon products. McLaren believes that effective training is key to customer satisfaction and continued success in the industry.

“Our customers asked us to provide more flexible training options. We knew that in order to make training more available to our customers, and more convenient for our staff, we needed to provide an online training program,” said McLaren. “HL7 and data integration is complex, but with the help of web conferencing we are able to provide a rich training experience that includes the guidance from subject matter experts, such as our developers and our president, Eliot Muir. Much of what we wanted to accomplish in training could not be done in a traditional classroom setting.”

McLaren and his team found e/pop Web & Video Conferencing during an informal web search. Not only did e/pop provide the rich feature set they required, it was affordable, provided multiple language support and is offered as a hosted service which enables iNTERFACEWARE to focus on meeting customer requirements rather than administering and managing another communication application.

According to McLaren, the company’s project managers and developers, who are responsible for customer training, are able to accomplish more in less time, and customers receive better and more comprehensive training overall. Plus, training sessions can be recorded using the Record & Playback feature in e/pop to provide on-demand viewing for those who can’t attend the original training session.

“Shortly after we started using e/pop we were able consolidate two days of training into six hours. The results are far better than we expected,” he added.

Besides the U.S. and Canada, iNTERFACEWARE has customers in the U.K., France, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Australia and Japan. English is not always the first language for customers located in parts of Europe and Asia. e/pop supports many major European languages, including Portuguese, French, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, German, as well as Canadian French and Latin American Spanish. Pull-down menus, help files, and dialog boxes are localized in each language.

“e/pop provides us with the ability to share graphics and explain some pretty complex concepts in our customers’ language quite easily,” add McLaren. “Also, e/pop gives the meeting a personal feeling, as if we are in the same room, which also helps build a friendly working relationship with the customer – which is extremely important in the healthcare technology industry.”

e/pop is being put to good use in project management, sales and post-sales support to assist with follow up on trade show leads, conduct product demonstrations, and trouble shoot product issues in real-time. In fact, e/pop may become a critical application in iNTERFACEWARE’s marketing efforts as the company launches new programs such as webinars, user groups and enhances its training program by integrating pre-produced video segments into training sessions.

“Right now, e/pop is the principal tool helping us to enrich and strengthen customer relationships,” said McLaren. “As we grow, and these relationships intensify, it spawns new requirements and new opportunities for the company. e/pop is helping us to increase the touch and reach to customers that may be halfway around the world. I see e/pop as having an important role in our growth and continued success in the healthcare data integration OEM market."

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