The ScerIS Story

Herein lives the story of ScerIS.  As we endeavor to create "live" information, this is a living history, maintained to reflect a path from our beginnings to our present state.


 

The Beginning

The company was incorporated on March 11, 1993 by James “Jim” Walckner to provide electronic document repositories to healthcare, business and government organizations.  Jim was enamored with the technology when he first saw it in 1992 and immediately saw the potential for significant improvements using this technology at his previous employer, Digital Equipment Corporation.  ScerIS has changed since its founding, as its focus has expanded to include solutions that address business process optimization with a wide perspective.  Jim has directed this change and is still with us today as the company’s president and CEO.

Leveraging his experiences at subsidiaries within Exxon Corporation and later at Digital Equipment Corporation, the company was started with one thing in mind – to always be customer-centric.  As a customer of purchased IT services at both companies, he realized the difficulty with accountability of large IT projects which were often over budget, plagued with change orders, and delivered late.  The keys to managing these projects were ensuring the involvement of the right people, planning, more planning, and attentive execution. 

In the beginning, most of the company’s work involved document scanning, COLD (Computer Output to Laser Disk) and automated data capture systems.  Technologies were combined to address the business needs of our clients.  To accomplish this, the company resold numerous products including Filenet, Optech, Teamworks and more, including some custom implementations.  For recognition systems, we resold the Microsystems Technology products (now known as AnyDoc), which we consider to this day to be a “best of breed” product and continue to include in our composite solution offerings.  Our role in selecting these products was to help each customer assemble and implement a system that exactly met their requirements. 

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The First Customers

The Company’s first customer was Consolidated Group Trust (CGT), a third party administrator (insurance benefits management).  Of the 15 vendors evaluated, we stood out as the only vendor that designed a solution to meet CGT’s requirement involving Xerox Metacode Forms in an electronic repository solution.  Shortly after the CIO selected us, this solution was rolled out to 125 customer service personnel who could directly relate to customer inquiries as the data on the screen was in the exact format the customer saw on paper.  Communication between the parties was simple.  Call backs were virtually eliminated as the information was available instantly and the customer was serviced on their inbound call.  Eliminating the need for call backs saved over $6,000 per month in phone charges in addition to all the savings of employees’ time. 

The client had a performance requirement in the contract of no more than 5 seconds to retrieve a document.  Previously, these documents were stored in a basement archive and took days or weeks to access.  On one Saturday in September of 1993, 45 customer service representatives all retrieved documents at exactly the same time to test the system; sometimes accessing the same document, sometimes different documents.   It never took more than 1 ½ seconds to present images of text dynamically combined with Metacode forms at the desktop.  Customer service was improved.

Almost immediately following CGT, St. Vincent’s Hospital purchased a system to manage all the print file output from their proprietary billing system and source documents for the Patient Accounting Department.  One of their biggest problems had been the purge of “zero balance accounts” which was managed with paper print-outs.  The system selected for St. Vincent’s automated indexing of purge files to the account level, which meant that patient accounting employees could retrieve purged data for a specific patient in about 1 second.

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Building the Service Center

Perhaps the most notable work in the first year occurred when a client (not one of the clients named above) that we were building systems for called and asked if we could automate a process to extract fields of information from 1,400,000 documents.  It turned out that this client had lost all detail information from these documents but had the summary information.  Their external auditors were considering a qualified opinion if the detail couldn’t be recaptured.  Our service center was created.  Servers, scanners, PCs and recognition technologies were purchased and installed.  A semi truck arrived at our small office, and several hours later there was barely a place to walk for all the boxes.  Staffing was hired for three shifts seven days a week from several temporary staffing agencies.  Just 4 ½ weeks later, all the documents had been processed and summaries created that validated the client’s summary data.  All was well.

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Acquisition of Information Bridge Technologies

In February 1995, the opportunity arose to acquire a software company that produced document imaging and COLD applications.  Shortly thereafter, customer-centric ideals were redefined and reapplied as product changes that previously required months or years to acquire through software vendors were now available to our customers in weeks.  Our customers are a priority, and as such their needs take precedence with our software development team.  Even with the much greater organization and planning involved in software development efforts at the company today, the customer’s needs continue to be immediately addressed.

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A Decade of Growth & Development

 

The Team

A Key element to our success is our team.  Some members of our team today have shaped our direction and abilities throughout their career with ScerIS.

Jan Sickenberger joined the company in 1996.  Jan was with Fallon Clinic, a customer.  Eleven years after joining us, Jan is Division President of Healthcare Solutions. 

Kevin Grooms also joined the company in 1996.  Kevin was previously with CGT, a customer.  CGT was acquired and at that time we had the opportunity to have Kevin become a part of our team.  Today Kevin is a senior consultant for business and government solutions.

In 2000 Dan Furbush joined the team as Division President of what is now ScerIS Informatics.  Dan manages our business unit serving businesses and government entities.

Joe Havelick joined the company in 2004 as our Operations Manager, and currently serves as our Chief Technology Officer.  Joe is responsible for technological innovation and development at ScerIS. 

Ben Little came to ScerIS in 2007 as the Corporate Marketing and Communications Manager.  Ben and his team focus on educating customers and prospects to help them envision new opportunities.

Also in 2007, Bob Borr joined the company as Vice President of Hospital Solutions.  His experience over many years as a CIO in hospitals is a valuable resource for our medical center customers.

In 2008, John Nelson joined ScerIS as the Vice President of Professional Services.  With an impressive background in technology and business, John is a tremendous asset to our customers.  .  He is responsible for professional services, customer support and our service center. 

 

 

The Products & Services

During this time product development continued and the capabilities of the company’s core products were expanded.  There were three major rewrites of the company’s products, one addressing the database environment and two focusing on migrations into Microsoft development environments.  Today, the company is a Microsoft Certified Partner and the products are Microsoft .NET based applications.  This is important, because this development environment helps us deliver more functionality faster and at a reduced development cost.  We are also able to bring customer unique requirements into product releases faster and provide rapid deployment of changes and upgrades, not to mention how well this environment helps to protect our customers’ information. 

The company continued to grow as it moved from a regional customer base to serve customers across North America.  These customer experiences through multiple markets and organizationally unique challenges have helped to expand and refine the capabilities of our professional services teams.  We found that no matter how much two or more organizations use the same financial systems, ERP, or other host applications, each customer’s implementation was different because their business processes are still unique.  This is why our applications have been developed to be easily configured – so that we can serve a marketplace with expectations that are both high and wide. 

 

 

The Customers

Throughout this timeframe we secured relationships with many new customers and have expanded the relationships over time.  In about 40 percent of our implementations, we find that we are replacing prior technology investments where our prospects have determined that the solutions they purchased don’t meet their current or planned needs.

A partial list of customers who are more noteworthy because they have received national recognition for their work with us includes:

Alamo Rent-A-Car
Recipient of a Process Innovation Award from Kinetic Information. 
Installation received national honors as the top document management solution in transportation.  Over 2,000 agents, 6,000 agent employees and Alamo employees around the globe access travel voucher information and rental agreements on-line through our web based solution.  This solution automatically stores 32.5 million additional documents annually; and provided Alamo Rent-A-Car a cost savings of $1.3 million annually.

State University of New York – Stonybrook – Clinical Practice Management Plan (CPMP)
Recipient of a Process Innovation Award from Kinetic Information. 
Installation received national honors as the top document management solution in education.  Clinical Practice Management Plan implemented document imaging and ScerIS CAP2 (automated payment posting system for EOB processing).  The system saved countless hours researching payment information in payment batches, and hours of work at copier machines.  The redesign of mailroom activities, payment posting and bank deposits resulted in automated and streamlined processes.  Additional systems were installed for Finance, Human Resources, Legal, and Physician Credentialing.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts – Public Safety – Firearms Records Bureau
Recipient of the Vision Award from Kinetic Information and AIIM
Our solution with the Commonwealth was nationally recognized as the top document management initiative with the most potential for the greatest social impact.  This system has saved countless lives.  One of several solutions for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this solution tracks the ownership of firearms.  The cost of gun traces when performed manually was about $5,600 each.  After the implementation of this system that cost was reduced to just $.09 each.  The system has been used to identify over 35,000 disqualified license holders which resulted in over 7,400 revoked licenses, confiscation of over 8,500 guns, and 1,200 arrests.  The system is integral to providing police officers with on-line information about gun ownership (useful when responding to calls such as domestic violence or certain emergencies).

Northwood Health Systems
Recipient of a Process Innovation Award – Kinetic Information
This solution received national honors as the top document management initiative in all of healthcare - achieving a 142% Internal Rate of Return.  Additionally this solution was recognized by AIIM and Business Solutions Magazine as an innovative solution to real world problems.  The redesign of business processes, medical records processes and the introduction of electronic forms all contributed to the success of image enabling the medical records at Northwood’s thirty locations.  This solution eliminated five records management locations (originally six consolidation locations across the health system), identified lost revenue, and authenticated supporting detail for billings (mitigating negative Medicare/Medicaid audit findings).  The index values for all stored documents are automatically validated for 100 percent accuracy.  Today, Northwood is considered one of the most financially sound institutions of its type.

There are more awards, but perhaps more notable is our client list.  Although there are some well known names in this list, some names are not printed due to confidentiality agreements.  It is certainly a compliment that these and other companies have chosen to work with us.  The skill set of our people and the diversity of our work is obviously quite broad.  Below is a partial list of organizations we helped over these years:

 

  • ACS (unclaimed property management)
  • Admiral Metals (metals fabricator and distributor)
  • ADP (outsourced services subsidiary)
  • Advest (securities)
  • AIG (insurance)
  • Associated Pathologists (laboratory)
  • Athena Diagnostics (laboratory)
  • Bank of Boston (bank)
  • Bloomberg Financial (financial)
  • Boulder Community Hospital (hospital)
  • Bridgeway Center Inc. (behavioral health)
  • BrownCO (securities)
  • Cambridge Healthcare Alliance (group practice)
  • Central Plains Laboratories (commercial laboratory)
  • City of Boston (municipality)
  • Clinical Practice Laboratories (commercial laboratory)
  • Commonwealth of Massachusetts (state agencies)
    • Department of Public Safety
    • Department of Environmental Protection
    • Office of the Jury Commissioner
    • Military Division
    • and more
  • Community Counseling Centers of Chicago (behavioral health)
  • D&H Distributors (high tech distributor)
  • Dedham Medical (group practice)
  • Delta Wye Federal Credit Unition (credit union)
  • Dunkin Donuts (franchise)
  • Eastern Utilities (utility company)
  • EF Education (travel and student exchange programs)
  • Elmhurst Memorial Hospital (hospital)
  • Eltrax Systems (hospitality software and solutions)
  • ENZO Clinical Labs (clinical laboratory)
  • ETRADE (securities)
  • Fall River 5 Cents Savings Bank (bank)
  • First American Title (title insurance company)
  • Fleet Capital Corp (bank - lease contract management)
  • Florida Hospital (hospital)
  • FTS Industries (freight payment and transportation logistics)
  • Garber Travel (travel company)
  • Georgetown University Medical Center (university group practice)
  • H. P. Hood (dairy manufacturer / distributor)
  • Hale Hospital (hospital)
  • Hayt, Hayt and Landau (law firm)
  • HELP USA (not for profit, housing and reeducation)
  • Hendrick Health System (hospital)
  • Histopath (commercial laboratory)
  • Home Care Concepts (HME / DME)
  • Hudson Savings Bank (bank)
  • Island Oasis Frozen Cocktail (manufacturer / distributor)
  • JC Lincoln Medical Center (hospitals)
  • JUNO Lighting (manufacturer)
  • JPMI (securities)
  • Kenneth Cole Productions (retail)
  • Landauer Metropolitan (HME / DME)
  • LIMRA International (association)
  • Lockheed Martin (manufacturer)
  • McLean Hospital (hospital)
  • Medical College of Geogia (university – group practice)
  • Merit Brass Company (metals fabricator / distributor)
  • Methodist Hospital (hospital)
  • Metso Automation USA, Inc. (manufacturer)
  • Middlesex County Sheriff’s Department (law enforcement)
  • Midwest Behavioral Healthcare (behavioral health agency)
  • Milford Federal Savings Bank (bank)
  • Musculoskeletal Tissue Foundation (life sciences)
  • National Dentex (dental products manufacturer)
  • New England Health – Pratt Associates (group practice billing company)
  • Newport Hospital (hospital)
  • News Bank (online news service)
  • NRF Distributors (flooring products distributor)
  • Oak Park Hospital (hospital)
  • Oxford Health Plans (healthcare insurance)
  • Physician Practice Support (group practice billing company)
  • Pioneer Investments (asset management)
  • Pitney Bowes (office products and outsourced services)
  • Polaroid (manufacturer)
  • Prestera Center for Mental Health Service (behavioral health agency)
  • Princess House (direct sales)
  • Rapids General Hospital (hospital)
  • Reading Municipal Light (utility)
  • Ross Laboratory (laboratory)
  • Ryerson Tull (steel distributor)
  • Seminole Community Mental Health Center (behavioral health agency)
  • South Nassau Communities Hospital (hospital)
  • Spectrum Laboratory Network (laboratory)
  • Sunrise Medical Labs (laboratory)
  • Swank, Inc. (apparel distributor)
  • Textron (DOD manufacturer)
  • Thypin Steen (stainless steel distributor)
  • Time Warner Cable (television cable utility)
  • Travcorps (temporary help – nurses)
  • United Way (fund raising)
  • University of Miami – University Behavioral Health (university MSO)
  • University of South Alabama (university medical center)
  • University of Wisconsin (university group practice)
  • Vanguard Car Rental – USA (car rental company)
  • Verto Cable (television cable utility)
  • Virginia Mason Medical Center (health system).
  • Western Carriers (warehouser)
  • Wing Memorial Hospital (hospital)

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Now

Through these many years we have enjoyed some incredible experiences and continue to find challenging situations to tackle.  Our team has kept its entrepreneurial drive for creativity and we are still developing new solutions to optimize work processes.  Our initiatives typically target enterprise-wide bottom-line improvements of between $1,000 and $2,000 per employee or more.  Our departmental initiatives can sometimes yield more benefit than the entire cost of the department.

We think that it is important to note that:

  • ScerIS has had the same leadership in place since its founding.
  • ScerIS has no outside investors.
  • ScerIS has no debt.
  • ScerIS is profitable.

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