Today's post was written by Microsoft Office 365 customers Mike and Dave Nespole, Co-Founders, CuraTx.com.

When we founded CuraTx, we saw a need in the market for economical electronic health records (EHR) software that's based on standardized components and common technologies. We wanted to avoid the extensive training and high operating costs that are common to other systems while at the same time delivering a superior product. We also felt that it would be important to offer a solution that could take advantage of the economies of scale inherent in the cloud, and be simple to customize and use.

To address this need, we chose to develop, deliver, and operate our medical software systems using Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 as the platform. We now make versions available on both SharePoint Server 2010 in addition to Microsoft SharePoint Online through Microsoft Office 365. Office 365 helps us deliver EHR systems at prices that nearly any small practice can afford while still meeting or exceeding industry security, reliability, and quality standards. The most important thing to us about Office 365 is the enterprise-class functionality of SharePoint Online. It's the perfect platform to deliver custom line-of-business applications that are sophisticated enough to handle end-to-end patient care and practice management.

For our internal operations, we use Office 365 as well, and Microsoft SharePoint Online in particular, to maintain and access our records, development documentation, meeting notes, legal materials-all in one place. Our SharePoint Online libraries help us maintain a history of projects, documenting everything that happens, why decisions were made, and giving us the ability to shelve a project and come back to it later.

We can use these centralized records anywhere in the country as we visit customer sites or work from remote offices. We always know where our company's critical information is and how to find it. We similarly use Microsoft Lync Online for highly secure instant messaging, video calls, and online meetings to collaborate across geographically disparate locations. The idea is the same: CuraTx employees can be in separate locations but still work together on the same projects at the same time, as if we were all in the same room.

Beyond the seamless functionality, we also chose Office 365 based on its cost. We have the same financial constraints as most new businesses, and we would rather invest in our own company and solution than hardware infrastructure. Before we gave Office 365 a look, we were considering using hosted servers from a third-party provider. To spin up that environment would have cost us at least $60,000 in the first year alone. However, by choosing Office 365, we eliminated these server startup costs and gained the rich feature set that we need to build our business.

Microsoft and Office 365 have given us the tools to deliver world-class EHR applications and to compete on a level with much larger organizations. We have a lower cost to market, lower operating costs that we pass on to customers, and increased peace of mind knowing that our software runs in a highly secure, reliable Microsoft-operated environment. That combination has helped our company get off to a healthy start.

Additional Resources:

______________________________________________________________________________

--Stephen Bury

See how customers are using Office 365 here.

Interested in trying or buying? Review plans or start a free trial now.

Just want to know more? Visit Office365.com.