CSW named SME of the year

John Chelsom recieves the award (right)

Oxford-based health software firm CSW has been named ‘SME Organisation of the Year’ at the British Computer Society (BCS) IT Awards.

CSW’s winning entry entitled ‘Taking Electronic Health Records Worldwide’ was said by the judges to have “demonstrated strong company growth in a difficult market, with staff and investors working closely on product development.”

John Chelsom, managing director of CSW, told E-Health Insider: “We were a bit chuffed really. The BCS awards are like the ones you see on the telly.”

CSW’s Case Note electronic health record product is incorporated into the NHS IT programme’s summary care record and into other key services of the NHS Spine, under the health service IT programme run by Connecting for Health.

However, faced with a difficult home NHS market, CSW has been successful in selling consultancy services, knowledge management and XML expertise into other industries and winning business in the US health IT market.

“Since NPfIT we went from £2m a year to £8m a year, but we’ve had some big ups and downs within that. It’s been very difficult to achieve,” said Chelsom.

The awards, which took place at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, were presented by BBC news broadcaster Kate Silverton in recognition of excellence, professionalism and innovation in IT.

The cross-industry awards recognise, promote and acclaim excellence, professionalism, innovation and the outstanding achievements to which individuals and groups contribute.

CSW’s award winning entry for ‘SME Organisation of the Year’ was selected amongst over 600 nominations that were received for the 23 awards categories.

Since the original product development of Case Notes began in 1999, CSW has sustained growth over a number of years and has transformed its business from a consultancy and services based enterprise, to a leading product development company for standards-based electronic health records and knowledge management in the UK.

At the end of 2006 CSW extended its operations with the incorporation of its US subsidiary, based in New York, as part of its strategy to become a global market leading product supplier for electronic health records and knowledge management.

Chelsom added: “This award is a huge achievement for CSW and is recognition once again of our ability to successfully manage and deliver innovative IT products for our customers, achieving impressive growth and performance in a challenging market. The hard work and dedication of everyone at CSW has succeeded in creating a company that is quite special.”