Ticker symbol: ECLP

Where traded: Nasdaq

Chief executive: R. Andrew Eckert, 46

Headquarters: Atlanta

Business summary: Eclipsys provides integrated information software and professional services to hospitals and other healthcare organizations in North America, designed to improve financial, clinical and administrative activities. Eckert spoke recently about the company's success and its outlook.

Q: After five years of steady growth the economy started to slow in 2007, due mainly to a slump in home construction and a crisis in the sub-prime

mortgage market. The economy shows signs of slowing even more in 2008.

How has that affected your markets and strategy for growing the business?

A. We sell mission-critical clinical and financial IT systems to health care institutions. This is an area that has been underinvested in for decades. Over the last few years, we've seen a real accelerated level of investment in information technology.

Certainly while no industry is immune from the macroeconomic factors at work, which haven't been favorable in the last few quarters, health care is a safe haven for investors and in terms of capital spending.

Some individual hospitals may see their finances affected, but by and large we have not seen any significant impact from the downturn in our market at all.

Unfortunately, people keep getting ill and the health care system is one that clearly requires a very steady and in our case, an increasing level of investment to support transitions.

Hospitals today are using IT to drive efficiencies and in many ways to improve their competitive positions. Piedmont and Dekalb hospitals operate in a competitive health care environment, trying to provide better health care and get more patients and grow their businesses. They are competing with other institutions right across the street. IT is a major lever the senior management team can use to improve their competitive positions.

Q: What is there about your business or your business strategy that resulted

in a Top 10 performance?

A: In addition to operating in a pretty healthy marketplace, we focus our message. We help our clients deliver improved health care outcomes.

In the IT business, typically in a lot of different areas, people spend a lot of money and then wonder what they've got.

These are incredibly and very closely watched metrics. We are really focused in on success. It isn't just getting a new system, but adopting it so that people use it and it can demonstrate qualified quality improvements in various metrics.

We show clients clearly the path they will take and if they do certain things and monitor performance using our system, they can drive up their outcomes, quality metrics and things they have to report to the public and regulatory agencies.

Q. One source of strength for many companies hurt by the domestic economy

has been the continued growth of foreign economies. How much of your success was due to foreign sales or investments? Is this an area for future growth and investment by your company?

A. Up until the last year, we were 100 percent focused on North America. We are strong in the United States and Canada. Now in the last year, we have been expanding our market efforts in Asia Pacific and the Middle East; those are growing areas for health care.

Given that we have so many very well-known clients in the United States, that gives us a very successful calling card when we are introducing ourselves in a new part of the world.

– Tenisha Mercer