Tesia-PCI was launched in 1991 to be a real-time connecting gateway between doctor and insurance provider adjudication process. Having the core technology to meet an industry need is one thing. Providing a comprehensive go-to-market strategy and orchestration to modernize technology, integrate into industry workflows, become profitable and scale to become the market leader takes know how and grit.
From the beginning, Tesia-PCI had the core technology needed to serve as the unification point for a vast ecosystem of dental payors, providers and vendors to bring Dental BPO services and EDI offerings to market. However, when I met Harvey Rock the CIO and interim CEO in 2000 the company had failed financially and needed an overhaul to achieve success.
Harvey and I brought the company out of bankruptcy and make a personal investment to evolve the technology framework from modem to modem, to broadband internet exchange with industry software systems integration. Leveraging the early market AOL & Earthlink internet capabilities we expanded the point to point, doctor to insurer model to expand to an all payor & provider ecosystem. We were also able to created batched based exchanges for HIPPA 837X12 medical invoice transactions.
We went on to create a diversified shared services business enterprise which could effectively scale. When originally acquired in 2001 Tesia-PCI was processing 700,000 dental claims annually while servicing 2,000 dental providers. By the time the company was sold in 2008, business had grown to over 20 million claims processed annually for over 40,000 dental providers. Growth trajectory continued over the years post-sale to over 55 million claims processed annually on behalf of over 60,000 dental providers and 1100 insurers.
The moral of this story is great tech is good. But to become great you must create and successfully execute a comprehensive go-to-market strategy in order to continually evolve technology, integrate into critical industry workflows, expand customer and partner ecosystems, achieve profitability and scale your success. Your personal investment of time, money, knowhow and daily focus on execution with grit is an important part of the “secret sauce” of success!
