Technology is evolving at warp speed, but here's the plot twist: not all SaaS companies invest in R&D enough to keep their products from gathering cobwebs. Or worse, they've got so many products that their R&D budget gets sliced thinner than deli meat across all their offerings. This happens a lot with occupational and employee health software providers.
So how do you know if your vendor is actually investing in the software you rely on so heavily? Watch for these tell-tale signs:
The vendor can pivot when life throws curveballs
Hard to believe the pandemic was more than five years ago, right? But the lessons from that wild ride still shape how employers approach employee health. Top of the list? The importance of being flexible and adaptable.
Being able to reconfigure functionality during those turbulent times was absolutely critical for clients. The ability to quickly roll out features for symptom monitoring, contact tracing and vaccine administration (once those became available) helped them keep essential workers on the job and operations humming.
Even without an active pandemic breathing down your neck, today's organizations face mounting pressure to protect employee health, meet regulatory standards and deliver data-driven insights. The right technology — especially one that's anticipating future needs instead of playing catch-up — can make all the difference.
The solution provider has a product roadmap and actually shows it to you
When you're evaluating occupational health IT solutions, don't just look at what the system can do today. You need to understand how it'll evolve to meet your needs tomorrow and years down the road. That vision and direction lives in a product roadmap, which serves as your guide and proves the company is investing in ongoing R&D, listening to client feedback and anticipating market shifts.
When a vendor has a roadmap, it's a clear signal their solution will grow with you and keep your organization ready for whatever's coming. No roadmap? That's a giant red flag waving in your face that the vendor has no clear direction and their product might stagnate like last week's coffee.
R&D done differently
At Enterprise Health, more than 80 percent of our 175 employees are involved in development/software engineering, deployment and client support roles. We spend nearly 30 percent of our total expenses on R&D, which is why Enterprise Health is the most comprehensive occupational and employee health solution on the market.
Over the years, instead of cobbling together technologies through acquisitions (the corporate equivalent of duct tape and hope), we've intentionally built Enterprise Health in-house from the ground up. This philosophy and our culture of continual innovation documented in our product roadmap enable us to deliver the toolsets and functionality our clients need to improve health, wellness, productivity and efficiency throughout their organizations.
We develop and maintain our product roadmap based on client requests and feedback, direction from our Advisory Board, compliance and regulatory requirements and an anticipation of market needs. It's updated each quarter to show what we accomplished and what new initiatives have bubbled to the top. We categorize initiatives into major initiatives, ongoing enhancements and evergreen improvements.
One example of a major initiative this year? Integrating Ozwell AI into Enterprise Health. Our investment in AI matters because Ozwell is specifically built for occupational health to help clinicians by automating documentation, flagging compliance risks and highlighting patient insights for proactive care.
And, even better, Ozwell AI is the first AI for occupational health dPSI-certified by Drummond, which means you check all the boxes with Enterprise Health: risk mitigation, added productivity and the power of AI to streamline operations with confidence.
Standing still? Not an option.
Organizations need technology partners who aren't just keeping pace but actively driving innovation. A strong commitment to R&D ensures your software continues to evolve with changing regulations, emerging health challenges and new opportunities to improve employee well-being and organizational resilience.
Having a partner with a proven commitment to research and development gives you confidence that your occupational health solution won't just meet today's demands — it'll anticipate and prepare you for whatever the future throws your way.
Ready for a technology partner who's always moving forward? Contact us to see how Enterprise Health's commitment to innovation can transform your occupational health program.