When Mark Parianos entered the information management business, he sold data about everything from criminal records to credit reports to private sector businesses. But it soon became apparent that this shotgun-style approach was holding his small firm back.
So in 1994, Parianos changed gears. He founded Cleveland-based Innovative Data Solutions with plans to carve out a niche in supplying data to the health care industry — a sector that was in dire need of accessible information, but had no existing structures in place to collect and categorize the data. Specifically, physician credentials verification proved an especially lucrative market.
“We felt comfortable, we had the idea and we had the backing, so we sat back for a good 12 months and went into an R&D mode,” says Parianos. “We came in every day and basically talked about what we could do to make this concept better.”
The first hurdle was finding a way to categorize and store the information so it would be easily accessible. That resulted in the company’s customized Credential One software, which provides clients with continually updated information on physicians, dentists, registered nurses and other health care professionals.
As business migrated to the Internet, IDS did the same, trading the stacks of paperwork routinely delivered to clients for a password-protected Web site, www.idsconnect.com, where credentials can be checked in just a few minutes. Parianos believes it is the first system of its kind on the market.
“Our clients are dealing with thousands of doctors with numerous fields of information on each applications,” he says. “When all the information is verified, the file of each professional is usually about an inch thick.”
This market niche seems to be working well for the 20-employee firm. IDS is doing business with health care organizations in all 50 states and has landed contracts with heavy hitting clients such as the Cleveland Clinic Health System and Cole Vision Corp. Meanwhile, Parianos expects the next quarter will see IDS realize several more deals, which are currently being negotiated with big name organizations.
“There are a lot of larger companies that want strategic partnerships with us,” he says. “It’s kind of nice to be the small guy and be wanted because you always have that fear of whether what you’re doing is good enough and whether you’re doing what it takes.”
How to reach: Innovative Data Solutions, (216) 587-9440
Jim Vickers ([email protected]) is an associate editor at SBN.
