In this commemorative blog, BridgeHead’s President and CEO, Jim Beagle, offers insight into how the company has evolved to the growing health tech business it is today. And he also reveals the ‘secret sauce’ behind BridgeHead’s success. Over to Jim…
Happy birthday BridgeHead
On August 26th, BridgeHead Software celebrates its 30th birthday. This is a momentous occasion for us; and what a journey it has been thus far. For a specialised Health Tech business, the path to success is rarely a straight line. But it’s testament to the company’s vision, our evolution, and the dedication of our teams that has enabled us to not only stand the test of time, but thrive in what can be a challenging market.
One of my colleagues recently asked me, “after all these years, what is it that ‘gets you out of bed every morning’ to run BridgeHead Software?” After a moment’s reflection, I answered, “our work is really important – our solutions improve the quality of caregiving and directly impact the lives of patients.”
My personal motivation
Now, some might criticise this answer as ‘glib’ or ‘hackneyed’. Isn’t this what all Health Tech companies would say? Well, my motivation for this answer is deeply-routed and personal. Back in 2012, my sister Susan was diagnosed with bowel cancer. Her condition went mis-diagnosed for a long time so that when she eventually presented in A&E (the ER) the cancer had already progressed. Following her diagnosis, she underwent numerous consultations, tests, and treatments. Her care plan involved moving between different hospitals within the network; and an array of clinicians all of whom were to play their part in her treatment. But, her care was stifled when her complete patient record was not accessible between these various care settings and caregivers. Ill-informed decisions were made as a consequence of not having the right information available, to the right staff, at the right time. In April, Susan lost her battle to cancer and was taken from us. This experience underpins my passion to ensure that BridgeHead’s solutions provide a data management platform that prevent patients from enduring the issues that my sister did.
The secrets of BridgeHead’s success
I’ve been asked on many occasions, “what are the secrets to BridgeHead’s success?” My belief is our success and longevity stem from three core elements, but all reinforced by a simple, but powerful mission, which is ‘to make a difference for caregivers and patients’. These three elements are:
Our customer focus
At BridgeHead, we have a deeply-held commitment to serve our customers – putting them at the heart of everything we do. Our customers are not just a number on a spreadsheet! We genuinely care about their progress and success. Our customers’ input also shapes our strategies and influences our product roadmaps with our ultimate aim to provide technological solutions that solve tangible, real-world problems for them. Our goal is to develop long-term, meaningful relationships with our customers – to become an extension of their team, helping them to achieve their strategic objectives. Without them, BridgeHead wouldn’t be the company it is today – I can’t stress enough how important they are to us. And, in return, we continue to drive for excellence in all that we do to ensure they have the best experience working with us.
Our staff
Throughout my career, I can honestly say it’s difficult to find more committed, motivated, and loyal staff than the team we have at BridgeHead. Their dedication and hard work is on display every day, with everyone pulling in the same direction towards our long-term success. We have a great blend of employees, some boasting over 25 years of service complemented by a new generation from graduate programmes, apprenticeship schemes, and more. Our staff are the lynchpin to BridgeHead and are an essential component to our evolution as an organization.
Our solutions
Lastly, our job as a software provider, dedicated entirely to healthcare, is to ensure we stay at the cutting edge and develop pioneering solutions that truly make a difference for our customers. We have always and continue to believe that data is the lifeblood of healthcare organizations. Data is the strategic asset that underpins the consultancy, diagnoses, and treatment of patients. After all, data leads to information, which leads to knowledge, which leads to better clinical decisions and patient outcomes. For us, at BridgeHead, this sometimes means disrupting the status quo – coming up with new and innovative ways to tackle healthcare problems with a different approach. That ingenuity is core to our product management and development ethos and is critical for our ongoing success.
The future is bright…
Our 30 years has truly been a journey of discovery and evolution, which has all led to where BridgeHead stands today. And it’s never been more clear about the value of data in healthcare – but not just any data, I’m talking about high quality, patient-centric data that our customers can rely on.
We’re seeing an ever-growing requirement from our customers on how they can better protect their systems and information – especially given the increase in global cyberattacks specifically targeting healthcare. There are a wide range of initiatives emerging on how healthcare organizations can leverage their data – not just locally, but regionally and, in some cases, nationally. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning has also risen higher up on the agenda and we’re doing our part to explore opportunities to take advantage of these technologies – both from a product perspective, but also how we utilize these tools internally to drive efficiencies and hone operations across the board.
Healthcare is ever-changing and we’re in exciting times. I believe BridgeHead is well positioned to make great strides in addressing the challenges our customers face as we continue to try and make a difference now and in the future.
Jim has worked in the technology, distribution and consulting markets for more than 25 years in director-level positions. As President and CEO Jim brings his expertise of delivering business growth and profitability to BridgeHead worldwide.
He previously was executive vice president of worldwide sales and services at CarbonFlow Corporation. Prior to that, he served as CEO of Extraprise International; divisional vice president of Object Design, Inc.; European director of UIS (one of the companies that formed Sprint) and a number of sales and marketing roles at ICL (now part of Fujitsu).
