Observing a Happy New Year conjures images of great celebration and reflection. For Experior Corporation, it is especially meaningful this year as 2003 marks its 25th anniversary as one of the nation’s oldest and most trusted health care companies.

Founded in 1978 by its current President and CEO, J. Richard Presser, Experior’s achievement of this milestone is unusually significant in health care. “There are actually just a handful of companies that we competed with in the late 1980s and early 1990s that exist today,” says Presser. “Acquisitions, mergers, MSOs, HMOs all completely changed the landscape of both the supplier side and health care provider markets. Today, nothing is remotely familiar to what we encountered when we began.”

So, what’s the explanation for how Experior Corporation endured the turbulence of health care reform? Presser credits it to battening down the hatches and steering a straight course. “We knew what we were best at, and we wouldn’t veer off course,” says Presser. “I have always likened our company to a small ship with the agility that large freighters don’t have. We were able to respond much more quickly to the rapid changes that our clients faced, while retaining the integrity and mission of our core product. This wasn’t a time to get off course on new tangents.”

Experior’s reputation in the industry made it desirable for buyout several times. It’s niche market of large, multi-specialty clinics made them especially attractive to competitors. “It was important for our company to examine worthy offers, but it was never a matter of serious consideration,” says Presser. “We may be a bit unusual in corporate America today, but for that I don’t apologize. I am firmly committed to our loyal employees and clients, and I believe that includes providing them with a steadfast heading.”

All the while, Presser knew that one of the business decisions he must make was an expensive platform changeover to the Windows 2000/SQL Server, as the mainframes that served its client base were quickly becoming extinct. The most difficult challenge became the timing of this metamorphosis.

“In 1999, the vast majority of software companies were distracted from their product development to focus on Y2K issues,” says Presser. “We made our product Y2K-compliant many years earlier, so we exploited this window of opportunity for our own core redesign,” says Presser.
As has been a development precedent at Experior, what initially began as a two-year plan for product changeover occurred in little under a year. “We thrive in this atmosphere,” says Tim Kennedy, product analyst. “Give us a challenge like this and I don’t believe any company could work harder. That’s where our size has its advantage…we know that each of us directly impact our own futures.”

With the introduction of its new Windows 2000/SQL server product, Experior now entered an entirely new market - smaller health care entities. “When we launched our business in Fort Wayne in 1978, we began as a local service bureau with a few regional clients, but most of our turnkey clients were scattered across the nation. Fort Wayne just did not have the clinic size that matched our product,” says Presser. No longer the case: Experior’s own corporate headquarter home city now provides ample Opportunity for local expansion. “This is exciting for us, because this is where we work and live, and it’s been home for 25 years to both our staff and business.”

As is often the case, opportunity follows opportunity, arid in this situation it was perfect timing. As Experior launched its new Windows 2000 product, Presser and Experior Corporation began to strategic expansion into the ambulatory surgery center (ASC) market.

“Just as we began to develop a timetable and plan for our own development, we found an opportunity to purchase an existing ASC solution,” says Presser. In November 2002, Experior Corporation purchased Camberley Systems in Boston, Massachusetts, a premier provider of ASC solutions with over 160 installations in 32 states.

“Many of our existing clinics that have surgery centers had been asking for the solutions that our new ASC product provides’ says Presser. “Camberley’s SurgeOn software does more than surgery scheduling, with case costing, credentialing, and preference cards to name a few, so we are pleased we have exceeded their expectations.”

Experior Corporation will maintain its East Coast operations in Boston, where Camberley Systems staffs its own product development, support and sales staff. “It’s important to us that we continue an uninterrupted level of support to our new client base as well,” says Presser. “Stability throughout change is our hallmark.”

With reimbursement becoming a greater concern, to physicians and administrators, Experior’s products emerge as cause celebre. “Our system is designed for greater financial control and monitoring with all the hooks, such as electronic filing and remittance, Electronic Health Record, and Web-based tools, says Presser. “Our handheld PDA puts greater control into the physician’s hands for entering charges, diagnosis, hospital rounds, and consults. Health care is a developer’s dream today,” says Presser.

And, reminiscent of its service bureau origins, Experior’s new ASP (Application Service Provider) system can now provide clients with the latest in remote IS processing (for an on-line demonstration, visit www.experior.com and click on the ASP demo). Most everyone asks what the word Experior means. In ancient Greek it means “to prove, or be put to the test.” To Presser, this ideal doesn’t mean so much as an achievement, but rather an attitude that Experior has sought to impute daily, for 25 years.