Don't Miss the B.O.A.T.

Did you miss the boat for the 2007 Operating and Performance Compensation (OPC) report? If so, you have another chance to get on board!

B.O.A.T., the Business Optimization Analysis Tool, launches in January 2008. This Web site will expand on the insight into your business provided by the OPC report, helping you compare your facility’s performance to the benchmarks of the best in O&P.

This Web site, put together by the B.O.A.T. workgroup from AOPA’s board of directors and Industry Insights, the company that oversaw the OPC report, “will go beyond the numbers and put it all together to show how a business becomes more viable,” according to Scott Hackworth, senior project director at Industry Insights.

B.O.A.T.’s three primary categories include “Practice Management,” “Market & Competitive Analysis,” and “Financial Management.” From the “B.O.A.T. Dock,” the index page of the site, you can access many analytical perspectives on your business.

For instance, “Financial Management” allows members to compare their sales and expense data with that of the top 25 percent of this year’s OPC report respondents. As more members input data, the comparative statistics will shift to reflect the new information.

The  “Market & Competitive Analysis” section analyzes the demographic trends and market size of your business area. It includes aspects like the number and relative importance of referral sources.

“Practice Management” incorporates data on billing, accounting, administration, and patient satisfaction.  Its “Overall Health”  tab looks at the trend of your business relative to competitors. In the future, the page will incorporate predictive reports as well.

“Ultimately, people could do simulations of how changing certain elements would affect their business,” says Tom Kirk, a member of the workgroup.

One of the benefits of B.O.A.T. is the ability to track your progress by accessing your accumulating statistics. Saved data from each transaction provides a guide to how your business is improving from year to year.  
 
B.O.A.T. is available for the first six months at no cost to 2007 OPC respondents. If your company took part in the OPC report, you won’t even have to fill in all the fields. Sixty to 70 percent of your OPC data will automatically populate many of the financial pages.

After that, it’s open to all members for a $500 annual fee, and to non-members for a $1,500 annual fee. Industry Insights will send an e-mail in January to all 2007 OPC participants, with a user ID and a password they can use to log on to the B.O.A.T. site.

For more information, contact Don DeBolt at (571) 431-0876, ext. 214, or ddebolt@AOPAnet.org.