Scott Becker, JD, partner at McGuireWoods LLP and publisher of Becker's Healthcare, recently met with several companies and entrepreneurs developing software as a service models and applications.
Some of the companies had revenues already for their specific application, others are in beta testing with systems, and a few were in the early idea stage.
"It's amazing to me to see the level of greatness and the energy in what people are trying to accomplish," he said. "In advising, I've tried to develop a series of questions to help guide their and my thinking."
Here are nine of the key questions:
1. Does the product solve a problem?
2. Do health systems or providers care about that problem and how much do they care?
3. Will it make an operation lower cost, more profitable, safer or more efficient?
4. Who are the core competitors?
5. How easy will it be to implement the solution?
6. How will you sell or distribute the product? Do you need health system partners? Can you start with smaller customers? What is the sales cycle? Who are channel partners you can sell through or with?
7. What team will you need to develop, implement, support and sell the product?
8. Can you bootstrap the effort with limited outside investors? Do you need outside money early on? How much money do you need?
9. How committed is your leadership and team?
"We have found that with many software as a service models, it takes a handful of adjustments to get a product to what the market actually wants, to fine-tune the product and to figure out the channels by which to sell the product," Mr. Becker said. "This requires a high level of perseverance."