Dean Hirata, left, the president of ‘ike, and Creighton Arita, the CEO of ‘ike, which is the parent company of DataHouse, TeamPraxis and Sagely. They have created companies that deliver services nationally and globally by leveraging Hawaii’s unique attributes. Photo: Dean Kaneshiro
Being in Hawaii is built into local tech and health holding company ‘ike’s DNA (the name is the Hawaiian word for “insight” or “knowledge”). ‘Ike started more than a generation ago as IT solutions company DataHouse, says CEO Creighton Arita, whose father, Dan, founded the company. “My dad had a vision of wanting to stop the big brain drain,” says Creighton Arita, describing his father’s work as head of IT at UH and then in state government: “The state would often bring in mainland consultants, who would learn and gain expertise, and then leave at the end of the engagement. My dad saw a lot of opportunity that could stay here in Hawaii. The whole mission behind starting DataHouse was to be able to retain the best and the brightest – to create high-value opportunities in the community.”
So, with headquarters in Hawaii as a given, how do ‘ike’s companies (which include DataHouse, TeamPraxis and Sagely) thrive? They turn Hawaii’s self-containment into a virtue, and then find partners that can benefit from it. “Our model is built on creating (national) partnerships that will continue to allow us the ability to scale,” says Dean Hirata, ike’s president.
Take TeamPraxis, a national health information technology provider founded in 1992 by Creighton Arita. In the tradition of tech entrepreneurs, Arita looked for a “vertical” – access to an industry with a deep, preferably world-class wellspring of knowledge and practice –and found health care. “Heath care was a great vertical,” says Arita, and Hawaii was also “a great demonstration site, because of the Prepaid Health Care Act,” the state’s 1974 first-in-the-nation law that required companies to offer health insurance to all employees working 20 hours a week or more. Arita says Hawaii also had a good demographic spread, another asset for a demonstration site: “Most of the population was on Oahu, but we still had a rural component.” TeamPraxis partnered with multibillion-dollar company Allscripts in 2005, and today serves about 15,000 health care providers across the United States.
Advances in communications technology play their part in the company’s growth. “Our ability to collaborate (digitally) has really shrunk time and space barriers,” says Arita. TeamPraxis offers national round-the-clock service by “leveraging time zone differences” and offshoring the “graveyard shift” to India, says Arita, who adds that “it would be literally impossible to hire the same quality and amount of labor in Hawaii” for a night shift.
Another ‘ike company, ‘Ekahi Health System, is a healthcare delivery organization that coordinates care among small, independent providers. ‘Ekahi partners with HMSA and national well-being and healthcare company Healthways. A third ike company, Sagely, offers a mobile, cloud-based app that serves the growing number of caregivers with a loved ones in a senior living community, allowing them to see what the senior’s day was like. “The social aspect is a real indicator of a resident’s health,” says Hirata. Sagely, too, is creating partnerships beyond Hawaii.
Today, ‘ike’s health and tech companies employ around 300 people locally, and they are growing. Arita says that in the last six months they have made “several” acquisitions.
“It is a challenge (to do business in Hawaii),” says Arita, “but our success is grounded in the ways Hawaii is unique. With technology, it’s possible for us to leverage the unique attributes Hawaii has to offer, and to be able to create scaleable IP (intellectual property) that can compete nationally and globally.”
Learn more about Hawaii’s innovative and fast growing local companies like Hawaiian Airlines, Uncle Clay’s, ‘ike, and Contix – Read original article on HawaiiBusiness.com