Reporter's notebook: Universal's 'spot in life'

The software market for HME has gone through a whirlwind of consolidation in the past few years, but not everyone is caught up in buying and selling, says David Golen of Universal Software Solutions.

“We want to stay independent,” said Golen, vice president of business development. “Our customers don't want to be part of that.”

Here's what Golen had to say about the benefits of staying under the radar in the fast paced and quickly shifting world of HME software.

Our spot in life

Universal has found its niche providing software solutions to larger providers, many of whom have won bids as part of competitive bidding, like Home Care Delivered, Golen says.

“Our target has been the top 5% of the market,” he said. “That's kind of been our spot in life.”

But Universal Software Solutions believes it has a lot to offer providers of various sizes. It already provides software solutions to many of The VGM Group's Platinum members, Golen said.

“That's one of the things we need to do better, because a lot of people don't know who we are,” he said.

Playing nice

If larger providers are Universal's niche in customers, interoperability is its niche in software, Golen says.

“You want it to play nice with the network of other software a customer is using,” he said. “Ours is designed to be built-in to their operation. It's more about plugging our software into a large suite of software and having data move back and forth.”

Problem free

By staying independent, there's one thing Universal doesn't have to worry about: melding different software solutions.

“At some point, the company will say, get off that and get on ours, which upsets people who may have just bought it,” Golen said. “Some of them decide to see what's out there, which is an opportunity for us.”