By David Blackburn, Community Director and Co-Founder, G2Xchange Health
I recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Frank Tucker, CEO and Co-Founder of MicroHealth and former Deputy CIO for Strategy for Army Medical Department (AMEDD), to gain his insights on starting up a federal healthcare small business in today’s market. Dr. Tucker has over 20 years’ experience in delivering healthcare, project management, and health information management & information technology; specializing in Electronic Health Records. He carries a Doctorate of Health Science, dual Master’s in Procurement & Acquisition Management and Computer Resources & Information Management, and a Master’s in Physician Assistant Studies.
Congratulations on the news of achieving CMMI-DEV Level 3. That is a big step. When did you start the process to get CMMI certified?
[su_quote]Thank you. We really started from day one and did everything that SEI has said that a business should do to operate. We defined our processes and tailored our development efforts with that in mind. Within seven months of opening our doors we got CMMI Level 2 and it probably took us a couple of years after that to get to Maturity Level 3. One key point that we learned as a new small business… the certification process never ends. Each certification is just a milestone. We have to commit the resources to the next step in a series of milestones, in order to keep progressing and stay competitive.[/su_quote]
In your opinion, how critical is it for companies to achieve and maintain these certifications in this competitive marketplace?
[su_quote]It is important. Most solicitations require some level of CMMI, but look at it this way: If you say all the right buzz words, but you don’t have the proof points to show that you’ve been recognized by industry with a quality approach that is easily repeatable… you’ll be competing against companies that do have proof. Your competition will be able to show that they have the processes and abilities in order to consistently complete projects.[/su_quote]
