Item 1. Business
Overview
We are a provider of secure, integrated, intelligent communication and clinical workflow solutions, focused on empowering mobile workers in healthcare, hospitality, retail, energy, education and other mission-critical mobile work environments in the United States and internationally. The significant majority of our business is generated from sales of our solutions in the healthcare market to help our customers enhance quality of care, safety, patient and staff experience, and improve operational efficiency. Care teams at nearly 1900 healthcare facilities worldwide have selected our solutions to communicate with others, reduce alarm fatigue, enhance workflow, and help improve patient experience. Our solutions can also be found in luxury hotels, nuclear power facilities, schools, libraries, retail stores and other environments where mobile workers need to communicate and access resources instantly.
Our communication and collaboration solution enables users to connect instantly with other staff simply by saying the name, function or group name of the desired recipient. Our solution includes an intelligent enterprise software platform; lightweight, wearable, voice-controlled communication devices; as well as smartphone applications. It also delivers HIPAA-compliant secure text messages, alerts and alarms directly to the Vocera Badge, Vocera Smartbadge, smartphones and other mobile communication devices both inside and outside the hospital in order of priority, replacing legacy pagers and in-building wireless phones.
At the core of this solution is a patent-protected, enterprise-class server software platform. Our software platform is built on a scalable architecture and recognizes more than 100 spoken commands. Users can instantly communicate with others using the Vocera Smartbadge or Vocera Badge, or through smartphone applications developed for iOS and Android mobile devices. Our platform lets users communicate and collaborate with each other using voice or HIPAA-compliant secure texting, and unlike other solutions, allows users to reach people by their role, room assignment or department, without needing to know a person’s name or phone number. The system can also broadcast emergency messages to a single department or to an entire organization. Our solution can be integrated with other clinical systems, including Electronic Health Records (EHR), nurse call, patient monitoring and even some medical devices, to provide critical data, alerts, alarms and clinical context that enables better workflow. Our enterprise-class software platform also features an advanced clinical rules engine that unifies data from multiple sources simultaneously, enables prioritization of notifications, adds patient context, and sends messages to the right care team members on their mobile devices. Our platform allows clinicians to be away from the bedside while staying informed about their patients. Our portfolio of over 150 unique integrations enhances clinical workflow by enabling the interoperability of our solution with a significant number of clinical and operational systems used in hospitals today.
Beyond healthcare, our solutions are used to quickly and contextually connect staff in other mission-critical mobile-worker environments. In the hospitality industry, it is used to enhance guest experience, as well as staff productivity and responsiveness. In the nuclear power industry, our solutions are used to instantly connect people and resources. In education,
schools use our solutions to increase security, safety and staff communication and libraries use it to enable their staff to be more mobile and attentive to patrons. And, in retail, our solutions are used to enhance the customer experience by enabling store personnel to quickly connect in and across various locations.
Over our 21-year history, we have significantly enhanced and added features and functionality to these solutions through ongoing development based on frequent interactions with our customers. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic our solution has been used to simplify communication, preserve face masks and other valuable personal protective equipment (PPE), has allowed for the care teams to do remote rounding and even allow for a patient’s family to be included in a three-way call. We believe that these uses of our solution will become industry standard. During 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vocera added the following features and enhancements to our products and support:
•A COVID response bundle of our core solution was developed to enable rapid delivery to customers.
•New COVID-specific care team roles and groups were created within our software to extend care teams to include temporary workers and even reach outside hospital walls.
•We added a dedicated section on our website which details specific workflows that can be enabled in a COVID environment.
Vocera Care Experience is a hosted software suite that coordinates and streamlines provider-to-patient and provider-to-provider communication and clinical rounding to improve quality of care, patient and staff experience, reduce care provider's risk and improve reimbursements. The solution provides personalized patient instructions and education; provides alerts and notifications to physicians and caregivers of patients’ changing care plans or status; and tracks patient experience before, during and after hospitalization.
In August 2020, we expanded our solution through the acquisition of EASE Applications, LLC (now referred to as Vocera Ease). Vocera Ease offers a cloud-based communication platform and mobile application built to improve the patient experience by enabling friends and family members to receive timely updates about the progress of their loved one in the hospital. The Vocera Ease app enables nurses and other care team members to send HIPAA-compliant texts, photos, and video updates, putting family and friends at ease and saving valuable time. With this acquisition, Vocera further strengthened its ability to improve the lives of patients, families and care teams.
As of December 31, 2020, our solutions were selected by nearly 1,900 healthcare facilities, including large hospital systems, small and medium-sized local hospitals, clinics, surgery centers and aged-care facilities. We sell our solutions to our healthcare customers primarily through our direct sales force in the United States, with resellers for certain vertical markets as well as our U.S. Government business, and through both direct sales and select distribution channels in international markets.
We were incorporated in Delaware on February 16, 2000. Our corporate headquarters are located at 525 Race Street, San Jose, California 95126, and our main telephone number is (408) 882‑5100. We maintain a website at www.vocera.com. The contents of our website are not incorporated into, or otherwise to be regarded as part of, this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Vocera® is our primary registered trademark in the United States. Other trademarks appearing in this document are the property of their respective holders.
Industry overview
Vocera provides communication and workflow solutions for mobile workers in healthcare, hospitality, retail, energy, education and other industries. Healthcare is our largest vertical market.
Hospital communication is still predominantly conducted through multiple disparate, non-integrated systems, including pagers, overhead paging, portable in-building wireless phones and individuals’ personal mobile phones. These non-integrated communication methods are inefficient and often unreliable; lacking “closed loop” communication, workflow standardization, or the scale required by health systems. Further, they often contribute to noisy environments for patients and negatively impact healing, safety, quality of care and operational efficiency.
Broadly, we believe the healthcare industry is placing greater emphasis on the need for better communication and workflow to meet increasing requirements for care quality, efficiency, patient satisfaction and staff safety and resiliency. Healthcare providers also require greater coordination of care among clinicians as the industry shifts towards population health and paying for value instead of the traditional fee-for-service reimbursement model. This shift to value-based purchasing incorporates financial incentives for hospitals to improve the quality of care and patient satisfaction. A number of non-government organizations, such as The Joint Commission, are also requiring improvements in patient safety and quality of care. These forces are driving hospitals to invest in technology and process improvements to manage their operations more efficiently, improve quality of care, and increase patient satisfaction and staff resiliency. Our solutions help hospitals increase productivity and reduce costs by enhancing workflow and improving patient and staff satisfaction through secure, integrated and intelligent communication.
Our strategy
Our goal is to extend our leadership position as a provider of communication and workflow solutions in the healthcare market and add new customers in non-healthcare markets.
Key elements of our strategy include:
•Expand our business to new U.S. healthcare customers. We believe our solutions can provide significant value to health systems, hospitals and smaller healthcare facilities. We plan to continue to add new customers among hospitals of all sizes, and expand to outpatient clinics, aged-care and skilled nursing facilities.
•Further expand our footprint within our existing installed customer base. Many of our customers initially deploy our solutions in several departments of a hospital and gradually expand to additional departments as they come to fully appreciate the value of the solutions. We have a significant opportunity to up-sell and cross-sell to our existing customers, including into new hospitals that are part of an existing healthcare system customer. Key sales strategies include expanding our footprint at existing customer facilities and capturing additional revenue by cross selling additional solutions. We plan to continue expanding within our existing customers in order to grow our revenue and maintain and improve the customer experience.
•Extend our technology advantage and create new product solutions. We intend to continue our investment in research and development to enhance the functionality of our solutions and further differentiate them from other competing solutions. As we did with the 2020 COVID-19 related enhancements and features, introduction of the Smartbadge in January 2019, and the introduction of the new Vina Smartphone Application in September 2019, we plan to continue to invest in product upgrades, product line extensions and new solutions to enhance our portfolio, including further development of applications for iOS and Android devices.
•Increase our health system selling efforts. Our increasingly comprehensive product suite is enabling us to sell to more large health systems. These sales efforts typically involve conversations with senior decision makers and result in larger deals with complex and elongated sales cycles. We have invested and will continue to invest in our sales force and marketing to enhance our ability to pursue more of these opportunities in the future.
•Invest in partnerships. To create a more efficient communication and workflow system for the entire care team our solution needs to access clinical data and patient context. To enhance that access, we plan to continue to broaden our ecosystem of technology partners, including vendors that provide nurse call systems, patient monitoring systems, analytics and EHRs. We added new partnerships in 2020 and will continue to explore new relationships that broaden our overall market presence and accelerate the sales of our offerings.
•Pursue acquisitions of complementary businesses, technologies and assets. Over the last several years we have completed a number of acquisitions to help us achieve our strategic vision by enhancing our products and enabling us to enter new markets. Our acquisitions have expanded our solutions, demonstrating that we can successfully source, acquire and integrate complementary businesses, technologies and assets. With the acquisition of EASE Applications in August 2020, we further strengthened our ability to improve the lives of patients, families and care teams. We intend to continue to pursue acquisition opportunities that we believe can accelerate the growth of our business.
•Grow our international healthcare presence. Today, in addition to our core U.S. market, we sell into other English-speaking markets, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Middle Eastern countries including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar. We believe that the rapid pace of investment in new healthcare facilities in these developing international markets provides a significant opportunity for growth. As of December 31, 2020, our solutions were selected by nearly 350 healthcare facilities outside the United States. We plan to utilize both our direct sales force and leverage channel partners to expand our presence into other markets over time.
•Expand our solutions in non-healthcare markets. While our primary focus is on the healthcare market, our solutions also provide great value in non-healthcare markets. Our solutions have been selected by facilities in hospitality, retail, energy, education, and other mission critical mobile worker environments. Currently, this is not a material portion of our revenue, but in the long term, we believe these markets could represent potential opportunities for growth.
Our products, technology and services
Our solutions include the Vocera Communication and Workflow System, Vocera Ease Application and Vocera Care Experience. To complement our solutions, we provide services, support and education to help our customers optimize the benefits of our solutions.
Vocera Communication and Workflow System
The Vocera Communication and Workflow System is comprised of a unique software platform that connects communication devices, including our hands-free, wearable, voice controlled Smartbadge and Badge, and third-party mobile devices that use our mobile software applications. The system transforms the way mobile workers communicate by enabling them to instantly connect via voice or secure text messaging. With a portfolio of over 150 third-party party clinical integrations, our system also enables the intelligent delivery of alerts and alarms to a variety of mobile devices, providing real time situation awareness to care providers. Our hands-free voice capability allows mobile workers to connect with the right person simply by saying or selecting the name, function or group name of the person they want to reach, often while remaining at the point-of-care. Our system responds to over 100 spoken commands.
Some examples of common commands are shown below.
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Action
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Spoken commands
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Call by name
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Call John Smith.
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Call a group member
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Call an Anesthesiologist.
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Dial a phone number or extension
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Dial extension 3145.
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Initiate a broadcast to a group
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Broadcast to Emergency Response Team.
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Locate nearest member of a group
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Where is the nearest member of Security?
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Send a voice message
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Record a message for Pediatric Nursing.
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Components of the Vocera Communication and Workflow System include:
•Vocera Software Platform. At the heart of our Vocera Communication and Workflow System is a patent-protected, enterprise-class software platform. The intelligence of our client-server system is contained primarily within our server-software. This platform contains an optimized speech recognition engine, intelligent call routing and management functionality, reporting and analytics tools, clinical directories and user profiles. As part of this software platform, the Engage intelligent workflow engine allows routing, escalation and prioritization of communication and alert and alarm notifications that include patient content. In addition, our platform has the ability to integrate with a significant number of third-party clinical systems, including telephony, nurse call, patient monitoring and EHR systems. Our software platform features an advanced clinical rules engine that unifies data from multiple sources simultaneously, enables prioritization of notifications, adds patient context, and sends messages to the right care team members on their mobile devices, helping to improve patient safety and satisfaction and increase operational efficiency. By providing real-time situational awareness about the patients and care teams, we enable healthcare workers to be more effective and suffer less from alarm and alert fatigue. Recognizing the rapidly expanding footprint of care, our scalable software platform can support multiple geographic sites and multiple facilities within a healthcare system to help clinicians stay connected to the current status of their patients.
•Vocera Smartbadge. Our Smartbadge is the only wearable communication device purpose-built for patient care and can be used under PPE. Our Smartbadge is powered by the Vocera Software Platform and operates over customers' industry-standard Wi-Fi networks. The Smartbadge has a 2.4” touchscreen that enables the user to receive prioritized alert and alarm notifications with additional patient context. Additionally, users can make and answer calls hands-free or by holding it up to the ear for privacy, and send and receive secured text messages, using the touchscreen keyboard with no character limit. The Smartbadge also has a dedicated panic button and enhanced "do not disturb" functionality.
•Vocera Badge. Our Badge is a smaller and lighter hands-free wearable device that allows the users instant two-way voice conversations without the need to remember a phone number or use a handset. Similar to the Smartbadge, it is powered by the Vocera Software Platform and operates over the customers' industry-standard Wi-Fi networks and can be used underneath PPE. It has a small display that provides a concise amount of information and allows the user to receive prioritized alarm and alert notifications with limited context. The Badge has received the FIPS 140-2 certification from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. We have also received an Authority to Operate (ATO) certification from the U.S. Department of Defense for the Vocera software platform and badges. Both of these certifications are requirements to sell our solutions to U.S. government and military hospital and medical facilities.
•Vocera Smartphone Applications. Vocera's suite of smartphone applications enable a seamless multi-mode communications and collaboration experience; combining the unique calling, texting, alerting and content distribution capabilities of Vocera into a secure, easy-to-use smartphone application that presents incoming communication in order of
importance. Available and certified for use on commercially available iOS and Android devices, our smartphone applications support both personal (bring your own device or BYOD) and shared device usage models. Powered by the Vocera Software Platform, our new Vina Smartphone application delivers relevant context about clinical events, patient status and clinician availability, helping care teams improve safety, quality of care and experience for patients and care teams. The customizable communication application presents prioritized patient-centric calls, secure messages and alerts in a unified inbox and provides an intuitive user experience for clinicians inside and outside the hospital.
•Choice of Mobile Devices. We resell the Spectralink Versity Smartphone and Zebra Technologies TC52 Android mobile computer. These devices are offered as a bundled solution with our smartphone applications to provide a complete, turnkey solution for our customers’ clinical communication needs. We also deliver our solution on iOS devices. This gives our customers a choice of different devices to access the power of the Vocera software platform.
Services
Our customer-centric strategy is supported by our services and support capabilities, which help customers optimize their use of Vocera solutions and enhance users' experience with our products. Our services organization consists of the following:
•Professional services. Our professional services help customers successfully deploy, manage, update and/or expand their Vocera systems in order to gain the full benefits of our solutions. As of December 31, 2020, our professional services team consisted of 111 professionals with expertise in wireless communication, clinical workflow, end-user training, speech science and project management. We offer a full suite of services, including clinical workflow design, wireless assessment, solution configuration, training and project management, enabling customers to integrate our solutions and improve workflow efficiency and staff productivity. We also provide classroom and distance learning curricula for systems administrators, information technology professionals and clinical educators.
•Software maintenance and support. We provide 24x7 technical support to our customers through our support centers in San Jose, California; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Toronto, Canada and Reading, United Kingdom. As of December 31, 2020, our technical support team consisted of 77 technical support professionals with expertise in wireless, telephony, integration, servers and client devices. Our team utilizes remote diagnostic tools to proactively assess the performance of customer systems. We assign technical account management resources to our largest accounts to help them expand the use of our solutions and facilitate adoption of new functionality. Software maintenance entitles customers to unspecified upgrades, bug fixes and patch releases. Additional services, including an annual Remote System Health Assessment and biweekly technical webinar education, are offered as project-based consulting or through our membership collaborative.
•Vocera University. We provide hands-on, interactive educational experience through classroom training, distance learning or customized courseware covering best practices, implementation and use of our solutions. Training courses are provided for systems administrators, IT professionals and industry-specific, end-user educators.
•Subscription revenue.
◦Vocera Ease. Vocera Ease is our cloud-based communication platform and mobile application built to improve the patient experience by enabling friends and family members to receive timely updates about the progress of their loved one in the hospital. The Vocera Ease app enables nurses and other care team members to send HIPAA-compliant texts, photos, and video updates to patients’ loved ones, putting them at ease and saving valuable time.
◦Vocera Care Experience. Our Care Experience solution is a hosted software suite we developed to improve patient and staff experience, safety and operational quality in near-real time. Vocera Care Experience suite offers caregivers communication solutions that span the entire care continuum - before admission, during treatment and after discharge. This patient-centric solution is designed to enable hospitals and health systems to improve care quality and safety, enhance patient experience and satisfaction, simplify and automate manual tasks and procedures, improve patient satisfaction scores under the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey (HCAHPS), and otherwise increase revenue and decrease costs. Vocera Care Experience includes pre-arrival communications, patient family communications and rounding capabilities.
Sales and marketing
Sales
Our sales employees call on hospitals and healthcare systems in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and several countries in the Middle East. As of December 31, 2020, we had 174 sales and account support employees. The sales team is organized to allow us to better serve our customers and to support the different elements of our sales strategy. We supplement our sales organization by utilizing a U.S. government-authorized reseller to facilitate our sales to Veterans Administration and Department of Defense healthcare facilities. We also use resellers in certain vertical markets in the
United States, as well as in international markets to supplement our sales efforts. A specialized group of our sales team focuses on the development of new customer relationships with large integrated health systems and government healthcare facilities. We enhance our sales efforts by including in our sales staff individuals with nursing backgrounds to address clinical uses with, and provide utilization advice to, customers and potential customers. We have also staffed our sales team with system engineers who focus on the technical elements of system optimization, particularly wireless, and overall product configuration. We have a small direct sales team to focus on developing our non-healthcare business, including hospitality, energy, education and other mission-critical mobile work environments.
Marketing
Our marketing efforts focus on building awareness and generating demand. We believe that continuing to increase our brand recognition is important for the growth of our business as well as generating demand for our solutions. As of December 31, 2020, we had 33 employees in marketing, product management and business development.
Our customer-centric marketing strategy is important to generating new sales leads as word of mouth promotion and testimonials are some of our most valuable marketing tools. A number of our customers have agreed to participate in video testimonials, white papers and case studies that validate the efficacy and the financial benefits of our solutions. We have been featured in numerous articles and on network television demonstrating increased patient satisfaction, streamlined hospital operations and enhanced employee satisfaction and safety. Additionally, we sponsor numerous customer-led webinars to demonstrate customer success and to let prospective customers hear from their peer group about the positive impact that our solutions have made on their hospitals. Many of our sales leads come from referrals of existing customers or users who have moved from a hospital already using Vocera to a new facility or health system. We also invest in digital outreach to better influence buyers early on in their decision-making.
We have an integrated product management organization that manages the full lifecycle of our products and services; from strategy through execution to end-of-life. Our product roadmaps are driven by current and prospective customers and continually validated using primary and secondary research. We collect customer feedback through surveys and focus groups, customer visits, a customer advisory board, user forums and participation in industry standards organizations. Integral to this team are product managers and user experience designers skilled in clinical and operating workflows, and business development resources that create and manage the ecosystems of clinical and technology system partners.
Customers
Our solutions have been selected by more than 2,300 facilities worldwide. Of these, nearly 1,900 are hospitals and other healthcare facilities, and nearly 350 are outside of the United States. Our healthcare customers include national and international health and hospital systems, large and medium-sized independent and academic hospitals, small hospitals and healthcare facilities, and U.S. governmental hospitals and care facilities.
Competition
We do not believe any single competitor offers a similar intelligent communication system to the healthcare market that allows instant, hands-free communication through voice-activated, role-based and activity-based calling, secure texting, and clinical integrations and workflows, and that features an advanced clinical rules engine that unifies data from multiple sources simultaneously on a combination of dedicated, proprietary devices, as well as third-party smartphones and other devices.
At this time, the primary alternative to our system consists of a combination of traditional communication methods utilizing wired phones, wireless in-building phones, smartphones, pagers and overhead paging systems.
The most significant alternative with which we compete for new sales in hospitals are in-building wireless telephones and smartphone applications. While we compete with the providers of these wireless phones in making sales to hospitals, they do not at this time purport to contain the system intelligence, integrated workflow and convenience of our communication and workflow solutions.
Additionally, we compete against EHR companies, which have their own smartphone application for secure texting that they continue to enhance. We differentiate our solutions from these EHR vendors by enabling hands-free communication via our Smartbadge and Badge and offering a sophisticated rules engine to support more advanced clinical workflows with more than 150 system integrations.
We believe that the use of mobile smartphone apps for healthcare will continue to expand in our target market and may represent a source of competition, but this trend also represents an opportunity to expand our communication solutions with our smartphone applications, which enable all members of the patient's care team to connect to our software platform and participate as users on our Communication system.
We believe that the primary competitive factors at work in our market include:
•comprehensiveness of the solution, the features provided and the ability to purchase the complete solution from a single vendor
•product performance and reliability
•the initial cost and ongoing cost of ownership
•customer service and support capabilities
We may face increased competition in the future, including from large, multinational companies or private equity backed organizations with significant resources. Potential competitors may have existing relationships with purchasers of other products and services within the hospital, which may enhance their ability to gain a foothold in our market. In addition, the continuing expansion of our communication and workflow collaboration capabilities may introduce us to a broader set of competitors. These competitors may include companies that provide clinical workflow solutions, enterprise software, cloud-based solutions and electronic health records.
Research and development
Our continued investment in research and development is critical to our business. We have teams of engineers with expertise in various fields, including software, firmware, database design, applications, speech recognition, wireless communication and hardware design. We employ research and development personnel in San Jose, California; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Toronto, Canada and Bangalore, India. There were 203 full-time research and development employees as of December 31, 2020. Finally, we have periodically engaged outsourced development firms and contractors to help us with the development and quality assurance testing of certain elements of our software offerings.
Intellectual property
Our success depends, in part, upon our ability to protect our core technology and intellectual property. To accomplish this, we rely on a combination of intellectual property rights, including patents, trade secrets, copyrights and trademarks, as well as customary contractual protections.
We held 30 U.S. patents as of December 31, 2020, including patents on many capabilities of our software platform and wearable devices. The expiration dates of these patents range from 2021 through 2036. One or more utility patents have also been issued in Australia, Canada, India, Japan and the European Patent Office (with validation in Germany, United Kingdom and Netherlands). A European Community design patent has been issued that protects the design in multiple European jurisdictions.
In addition to the foregoing protections, we generally control access to and use of our proprietary software and other confidential information through the use of internal and external controls, including non-disclosure agreements and other statutory and contractual protections applicable to employees, contractors, customers and partners. These protections include U.S. and international copyright laws.
Our solutions include software developed and owned by us as well as software components we have licensed. These non-exclusive licenses are terminable by the licensor for cause. Certain of these licenses are for a contractually specified term and cannot be renewed without the assent of the licensor. In the event one or more of these licenses is terminated or is not renewed, we could be required to redesign substantial portions of our software in order to incorporate software components from alternative sources. An unplanned redesign of our software could materially and adversely affect our business.
Manufacturing operations and suppliers
We outsource the manufacturing of our wearable device products to original design manufacturers and contract manufacturers, including Sercomm and SMTC Corporation (SMTC). Our Vocera Smartbadge is built in Taiwan and our Vocera Badge is made in Mexico using custom tools and test equipment owned by us. Most of our accessories, including batteries, chargers and attachments, are built by original design manufacturers (ODMs) in Asia.
These manufacturers are responsible for procuring all the components included in our products, as specified and approved by us. Some of these components are sole-sourced off-the-shelf and some are custom components built exclusively for our products. In the event we are unable to procure certain components, we could be required to redesign some of our products in order to incorporate technology from alternative sources. An unplanned redesign of our products could materially and adversely affect our business.
We require our suppliers to perform both incoming and outgoing product inspections. In addition, we perform in-house quality control and ongoing reliability testing.
We also resell the Spectralink Versity Smartphone and Zebra Technologies TC52 Android mobile computer. These devices are offered as a bundled solution with our smartphone applications to provide a complete, turnkey solution for our customers’ clinical communication needs.
Employees and Workforce Management
As of December 31, 2020, we had 688 employees dedicated to our mission of improving the lives of healthcare professionals and patients. These consist of 19 in manufacturing and quality operations, 203 in research and development, 207 in sales and marketing, 188 in services and support and 71 in general and administrative. Our workforce is distributed globally across 6 countries with 547 employees located in the U.S. and 141 located outside the U.S. None of our employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement or are represented by a labor union. We consider our company culture to be a unique asset, and we believe our relations with our employees to be good.
Vocera’s workforce is governed by various federal, state, and local regulations. We monitor all key employment activities such as hiring, termination, and pay practices for compliance with established regulations globally. The Compensation Committee of our Board of Directors is responsible for monitoring our workforce management, including, among other aspects, management depth and strength assessment, leadership development, talent assessment, diversity, equality and inclusion, and our employee survey results. While workforce management is overseen at the highest level of our Company, it is woven into the everyday fabric of Vocera’s culture.
Our people are a core asset and a source of competitive advantage. The cultural values we put into action are: build with respect, embrace innovation, think customer first, drive for results and lead with passion. These values are the framework we use to hire, train, manage and assess the performance of our global employees. We believe these values differentiate us and, in part, allowed us to consistently retain our employees throughout fiscal year 2020, as our attrition rate continues to be substantially lower than benchmark data. Our employee average tenure globally is 4.8 years.
We foster a culture where our employees can thrive both at work and at home. We apply a systemic approach to culture and people and align performance with pay and rewards. As part of Vocera’s dedication to and investment in its employees, we conduct organizational health surveys designed to assess employee engagement, leadership, work environment, and culture.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: We embrace diversity and inclusion and strive to provide a rich environment with diverse skills, backgrounds, and perspectives. As of December 31, 2020, 32% of global employees, 27% of leadership positions, and 33% of our board of directors identified as female. In terms of racial and ethnic diversity, 28% of our employees in the United States self-identified as part of a minority group. At Vocera we are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. In 2020, we measured our employee’s perceptions on this topic and scored at or above our benchmark.
Employee Well-being and Resilience: We provide comprehensive benefits related to health, wellness, mental health and family resources designed to meet the needs of our diverse global workforce. Employee resilience, physical and psychological safety is of paramount importance to us in any year and was of particular focus in 2020 in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. We enhanced and promoted programs to support our employees physical, financial, mental, and family’s well-being through our Vocera on Wellness and Employee Assistance Programs. In response to the pandemic, we provided PPE to our frontline employees, implemented new safety protocols, enhanced utilization of existing productivity and collaboration tools, and established structures for timely communication and decision making throughout the changing environment. We facilitated frequent town halls to clearly articulate expectations and engage in meaningful dialogue with all employees. As a result of these efforts, our overall employee satisfaction increased over the previous year.
People Development: We believe in investing in our employees, and their professional growth and development is a priority for our company. At all levels, we engage in detailed discussions around succession planning and talent development to achieve business results. We have robust employee development review discussions where high-performing and high potential employees are identified for future growth opportunities, as well as succession planning for future critical leadership positions. There are actions and development plans as a result of this work that are ongoing throughout the year. With an added focus on developing our leaders, our people managers attended management essentials sessions, and we hosted a customized year-long leadership development program focused on our top talent and future leaders.
Community and Social Impact: Vocera strongly believes in giving back to the local communities by volunteering and making direct donations where our employees live and work. While the global pandemic limited our ability to volunteer in-person, our employee-run community involvement council held virtual charitable events and was able to make several donations to food banks and other regional non-profit agencies.
Backlog
Our backlog of undelivered orders was $109.2 million and $75.0 million at December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. Of the current backlog, all but $46.0 million is expected to be delivered in 2021.
Government regulations and standards
Nearly all of our revenue is derived from the healthcare industry. The healthcare industry is highly regulated and is subject to changing political, legislative, regulatory and other influences. These factors affect the purchasing practices and operations of healthcare organizations, as well as the behavior and attitudes of our users. Representatives of the U.S. federal legislature and agencies have announced plans to reform or revise aspects of the U.S. healthcare system and we expect these efforts to continue over the next several years. We also expect federal and state legislatures and agencies to continue to consider new programs to reform or revise aspects of the U.S. healthcare system. These programs may contain proposals to increase governmental involvement in healthcare or otherwise change the environment in which healthcare industry participants operate.
HIPAA privacy and security standards
In connection with our healthcare communications business, we access personal health information on behalf of our customers. Accordingly, in the United States, we are subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), and its implementing regulations, which established uniform standards for certain “covered entities” (healthcare providers engaged in electronic transactions, health plans and healthcare clearinghouses) governing the conduct of certain electronic healthcare transactions and protecting the security and privacy of protected health information. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 included sweeping expansion of HIPAA’s privacy and security standards as reflected in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, (HITECH). Among other things, the law makes certain HIPAA privacy and security standards directly applicable to “business associates” - independent contractors or agents of covered entities that receive or obtain protected health information in connection with providing a service on behalf of a covered entity. HITECH also increased the civil and criminal penalties that may be imposed against covered entities, business associates and possibly other persons, and gave state attorneys general new authority to file civil actions for damages or injunctions in federal courts to enforce the federal HIPAA laws and seek attorney’s fees and costs associated with pursuing federal civil actions. Most of our customers are covered entities under HIPAA and, to the extent that we access personal health information on their behalf, we are their “business associates” and are subject to HIPAA and associated contractual obligations, as well as comparable state privacy and security laws.
In addition, we are subject to privacy and security regulations in other jurisdictions. For example, in May 2016, the EU formally adopted the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which became effective in May 2018. The regulation introduced new data protection requirements in the EU and substantial fines for breaches of the data protection rules. It increased our responsibility and liability in relation to personal information that we process and we put in place additional mechanisms to enhance our compliance with the new EU data protection rules. Additionally, Canada’s Personal Information and Protection of Electronic Documents Act provides Canadian residents with privacy protections in regard to transactions with businesses and organizations in the private sector and sets out ground rules for how private sector organizations may collect, use and disclose personal information in the course of commercial activities. While the United States does not yet have an overarching federal privacy law, several states have enacted or are in the process of enacting state privacy laws. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, or the CCPA, came into effect on January 1, 2020, and became enforceable by the California Attorney General on July 1, 2020, along with related regulations which came into force on August 14, 2020. Additionally, although not effective until January 1, 2023, the California Privacy Rights Act, or the CPRA, which expands upon the CCPA, was passed in the recent election on November 3, 2020. The CCPA requires covered companies to provide new disclosures to California consumers about their data collection, use and sharing practices and provide such consumers new data protection and privacy rights. The CCPA does have an exemption for HIPAA-covered protected health information, however, the CCPA may still apply to other personal information that we collect and process.
These statutes, regulations and contractual obligations impose numerous requirements regarding the use and disclosure of personal health information with which we must comply, and subject us to material liability and other adverse impacts to our business in the event we fail to do so. These include, without limitation, civil fines, criminal sanctions in certain circumstances, contractual liability to our customers, and damage to our brand and reputation. We endeavor to mitigate these risks through measures we believe to be appropriate for the specific circumstances, including storing personal information under our control on password-protected systems in secure facilities, counseling our customers as to best practices in using our solutions, encrypting such information, and training our personnel. We are committed to protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of personal health information we may encounter in the course of our business activities. Accordingly, we have adopted specific policies and procedures addressing the conduct of the company, employees and specific other third parties regarding how to appropriately safeguard such information in the course of daily activities, and our mandatory annual training includes courses on data security and our code of conduct and policies. All employees are required to sign a certification of completion with respect to such training on an annual basis.
Medical device regulation
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates certain products, including software-based products, as “medical devices” based, in part, on the intended use of the product and the risk the device poses to the patient should the device fail to perform properly. We have concluded that our communication products are general-purpose communication solutions and are not subject to FDA regulation. However, either the FDA could disagree with our conclusion or changes in our product or the FDA’s evolving regulations could lead to the imposition of medical device regulation on more of our products. In this event, we would be subject to additional regulatory requirements, including the expense of compliance with Medical Device Reporting and Quality System regulation and the potential of liability for failure to comply, and we could be required to obtain 510(k) clearance or premarket approval of those products from the FDA prior to commercial distribution. Some of the products acquired as a result of the Extension Healthcare and mVisum acquisitions are regulated by the FDA as Class II medical devices under applicable law and FDA regulations. Class II devices are devices classified by the FDA as posing a moderate to high risk and therefore subject to both “general controls” and “special controls,” as such terms are defined in the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act.
Electrical standards and FCC regulations
Our products emit radio frequency energy in the 2.4 and 5.0 GHz spectrum bands for which licensing by U.S. and other regulatory authorities is not required, provided that the products conform to certain requirements, e.g., maximum power output and tolerance of interference from other devices sharing that spectrum band. We subject our products to testing by independent testing laboratories for compliance with the relevant standards issued by various U.S. and international bodies, including the EU (with respect to the “CE” mark), the International Electrotechnical Commission, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, Underwriters Laboratories and CSA International.
Executive officers
The names of our executive officers, their ages as of February 25, 2021, and their positions are shown below.
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Name
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Age
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Position
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Brent D. Lang
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53
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Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
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Justin R. Spencer1
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49
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Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
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Douglas A. Carlen
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51
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Vice President Legal and General Counsel
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M. Bridget Duffy, M.D.
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61
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Chief Medical Officer
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Paul T. Johnson
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57
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Executive Vice President of Sales and Services
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(1) On January 25, 2021 Justin Spencer provided notice that he will be resigning from his positions. Mr. Spencer will remain with the Company through June 2021 to facilitate a smooth transition.
The Board chooses executive officers, who then serve at the Board’s discretion. There is no family relationship between any of our directors or executive officers.
Brent D. Lang assumed the role of President and Chief Executive Officer and a board member effective June 1, 2013. He assumed the role of Chairman of the board effective June 2018. Mr. Lang served as our President and Chief Operating Officer from October 2007 through May 2013. From February 2007 to October 2007, he served as our Executive Vice President, from January 2007 to June 2007, he served as our Acting Chief Executive Officer, and from June 2001 through January 2007, he served as our Vice President of Marketing and Business Development. From September 1995 to June 2001, Mr. Lang served as senior director of marketing for 3Com Corporation, a networking company, where he was responsible for 3Com’s digital home products. From June 1991 to June 1993, Mr. Lang worked as a strategy consultant for Monitor Company, Inc., a consulting firm, advising Fortune 500 companies. Mr. Lang earned a B.S. degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan and an M.B.A. degree from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Justin R. Spencer has served as our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since August 2014. From September 2008 to November 2013, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Symmetricom, Inc., a provider of precise timekeeping and synchronization solutions, which was acquired by Microsemi Corporation in November 2013. From June 2007 to April 2008, Mr. Spencer served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Covad Communications Group Inc., a provider of broadband integrated voice and data communications. From November 2002 until May 2007, Mr. Spencer served in various positions at Covad Communications Group Inc., including Interim Chief Financial Officer, Vice President of Finance and Director of Corporate Development. Mr. Spencer served on the Board of Directors of iPass Inc., including as Audit Committee Chair, until its sale in early 2019. Mr. Spencer holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Utah and a master’s degree from The Wharton School.
Douglas A. Carlen has served as our General Counsel since July 2016. From August 2012 to June 2016, Mr. Carlen was the Vice President of Legal Affairs at Liquid Robotics, an ocean data services provider and developer of the Wave Glider. Prior to Liquid Robotics, Mr. Carlen served from August 2010 to August 2012 as Senior Vice President and General Counsel at MegaPath, a provider of data, voice and cloud-based communications services. From September 1999 to August 2010, he worked at Covad Communications in three corporate counsel roles, with the last three years as Senior Vice President and General Counsel. Mr. Carlen also specialized in corporate law and litigation at various firms from 1994 to 1999. Since 2011, Mr. Carlen has been on the board of directors for the Lupus Foundation of Northern California. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California and a law degree from Hastings College of the Law.
M. Bridget Duffy, M.D. has served as our Chief Medical Officer since January 2013. Previously, Dr. Duffy was the co-founder of ExperiaHealth, Inc., which became a subsidiary of Vocera in November 2010. Dr. Duffy served as ExperiaHealth, Inc.'s Chief Experience Officer from July 2009 through October 2010, and as its Chief Executive Officer from November 2010 through July 2013. From July 2007 to June 2009, Dr. Duffy served as Chief Experience Officer of the Cleveland Clinic, a non-profit academic medical center. Dr. Duffy earned her Doctor of Medicine in June 1991 from the University of Minnesota and currently holds a Physician and Surgeon license in both the states of Minnesota and California.
Paul T. Johnson has served as our Executive Vice President of Sales and Services since October 2013. From August 2013 to October 2013, Mr. Johnson served as Vice President of Sales at Digital Insight, a provider of online and mobile banking solutions. Mr. Johnson served as Vice President of Sales and Relationship Management at Intuit’s Financial Services Division (which was renamed Digital Insight following Intuit’s sale of this business in August 2013) from January 2011 to August 2013. From November 2007 to December 2010, he served as the Executive Vice President, North America, Sage Business Solutions for Sage Software, Inc., a provider of business management software and services. In addition, Mr. Johnson previously served in various sales and services functions at International Business Machines Corporation. Mr. Johnson earned his M.B.A and B.S degrees in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.
Available information
We make available our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or Section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act), as amended, free of charge on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov and on our website at www.vocera.com, as soon as reasonably practicable after they are electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The contents of our corporate website are not incorporated into, or otherwise to be regarded as part of, this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below, together with all of the other information set forth in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our business, financial condition, results of operations or future prospects could be materially and adversely harmed if any of the following risks, or other risks or uncertainties that are not yet identified or that we currently believe are immaterial, actually occur. The trading price of our common stock could decline due to any of these risks or uncertainties, and, as a result, you may lose all or part of your investment.
Summary of Risk Factors
Our business is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those risks discussed at-length below. These risks include, among others, the following:
•The COVID-19 outbreak has had a material impact on the U.S. and global economies and could have a material adverse impact on our employees, suppliers, manufacturing and customers, which could adversely and materially impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
•We have incurred significant losses in the past and will likely experience losses in the future.
•We depend on sales in the healthcare market for the majority of our revenue, and a decrease in sales in the healthcare market would harm our business.
•Our sales cycle can be lengthy and unpredictable, which may cause our revenue and operating results to fluctuate significantly.
•If we fail to offer high-quality products and services, our operating results and our ability to sell these in the future will be harmed.
•We depend on some sole source and limited source suppliers, and if we are unable to source our components from them, our business and operating results could be harmed.
•Because we depend on contract manufacturers and original design manufacturers, our operations could be harmed and we could lose sales if we encounter problems with these manufacturers.
•If we fail to forecast our manufacturing requirements accurately or fail to properly manage our inventory with our contract manufacturers, we could incur additional costs or experience manufacturing delays that could impact the timing of our revenue recognition and adversely affect our operating results.
•Our business has gone through cycles of expansion, relative stability and contraction, and if we are not able to manage such cycles effectively, our operating results may suffer.
•Our revenue and operating results have fluctuated, and are likely to continue to fluctuate, making our quarterly results difficult to predict, which may cause us to miss analyst expectations and may cause the price of our common stock to decline.
•Developments in the healthcare industry and governing regulations have negatively affected and may continue to negatively affect our business.
•If we fail to increase market awareness of our brand and solutions, and expand our sales and marketing operations, our business could be harmed.
•Failure to protect our information technology infrastructure against cyber-based attacks, network security breaches, service interruptions, or data corruption could significantly disrupt our operations and adversely affect our business and operating results.
•Our efforts to sell our solutions in non-healthcare markets may not be successful.
•Our international operations subject us, and may increasingly subject us in the future, to operational, financial, economic and political risks abroad.
•If we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights, our competitive position could be harmed, or we could be required to incur significant expenses to enforce our rights.
•We have indebtedness in the form of convertible senior notes. The provisions of indenture for the Notes, accounting method for the Notes and capped call transaction entered into related to the Notes could have a material effect on our operating results, value of the Notes and our common stock or may deter or prevent a business combination.
Risks related to our business and industry
The COVID-19 outbreak has had a material impact on the U.S. and global economies and could have a material adverse impact on our employees, suppliers, manufacturing and customers, which could adversely and materially impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.
The outbreak of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, or COVID-19, is a global pandemic and both a public health and economic emergency. Many federal, state and local governments and private entities have mandated various restrictions, including travel restrictions, restrictions on public gatherings, stay at home orders and advisories and quarantining of people who may have been exposed to the virus. As the COVID-19 pandemic is complex and rapidly evolving, our business may be negatively affected for a prolonged period of time. Since our last filing, COVID-19 infections have continued and are increasing in many geographies of the world. These rates may continue to increase further. At this point, we cannot reasonably estimate the duration and severity of this pandemic, which could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, financial position and cash flows.
The pandemic has affected, and may continue to adversely affect, our customers’ operations, our employees and our employee productivity. It may impact the ability of our customers, subcontractors, partners, and suppliers to operate and fulfill their contractual obligations, and result in an increase in payment defaults, collection costs and/or delays or disruptions in performance. In particular, hospitals and healthcare facilities have prioritized the care and treatment of COVID-19 patients above all other actions and have suspended many activities, restricted most visitors and reduced spending unrelated to COVID-19. These customers have also had to suspend elective procedures, which generate a majority of their profits, adding to their financial difficulties. While some elective procedures have resumed, it is uncertain whether consumers will seek those procedures due to concerns about COVID-19, and it is also uncertain if elective procedures will be suspended again if cases increase. In response, some have furloughed staff, including those we ordinarily work with to sell and implement our offerings.
Outside of healthcare, some of our clients in the hospitality and retail industries have suspended operations until stay-at-home orders are lifted, and potentially beyond. Even once lifted, as with healthcare, it is uncertain whether consumers will return to those establishments and how successful these businesses will be. As a result, we have experienced delays in planned deployments and changes in customer demand, and could experience additional delays, discounts, customer payment issues, bad debt, potential terminations and unpredictability as our customers continue to respond to the challenges of treating and containing the COVID-19 pandemic.
We have also experienced some disruptions in our supply chain and our manufacturers have similarly experienced disruptions in their supply chains. To the extent our suppliers prioritize the manufacturing of other products or experience facility or
business disruptions due to sick employees, stay-at-home orders, supply chain disruptions or otherwise, we may be unable to maintain a sufficient supply of our products to meet demand. Additionally, our employees, in many cases, are working remotely and using various technologies to perform their functions, which may create security risks, inefficiencies and reduced productivity, and reduce the effectiveness of our sales team.
These effects on our business, and the direct effect of the virus and the disruption on our employees and operations, may negatively impact our revenue, profit margins and liquidity. Additionally, the disruption and volatility in the global and domestic capital markets may increase the cost of capital and limit our ability to access capital.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also caused us to modify our business practices including employee travel, customer visits, employee work locations, and cancellation of physical participation in meetings, events and conferences which are important to support our sales approach, and we may take further actions as may be required by government authorities or that we determine are in the best interests of our employees, customers and business partners. A prolonged disruption or any further unforeseen delay in our operations or within any of our business activities could result in reduced revenue. We could also be adversely affected if government authorities impose additional restrictions or extend the length of restrictions on public gatherings, human interactions, mandatory closures, seek voluntary closures, restrict hours of operations or impose curfews, restrict the import or export of products or if suppliers issue mass recalls of products. There is no certainty that such measures will be sufficient to mitigate the risks posed by the virus or otherwise be satisfactory to government authorities.
Both the health and economic aspects of the COVID-19 virus are highly fluid and the future course of each is uncertain. For these reasons and other reasons that may come to light as the coronavirus pandemic and associated protective or preventative measures develop, we may experience a material adverse effect on our business operations, revenues and financial condition; however, its ultimate impact is highly uncertain and subject to change.
We have incurred significant losses in the past and will likely experience losses in the future.
We have incurred significant losses in the past and reported a net loss of $9.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2020. As of December 31, 2020, we had an accumulated deficit of $160.0 million. If we cannot make consistent progress toward future profitability, our business and our stock price may be adversely affected.
Our ability to be profitable in the future depends upon continued demand for our solutions from existing and new customers. Further adoption of our solutions depends upon our ability to improve quality of care, enhance patient and staff satisfaction, increase hospital efficiency and productivity, and bring value to customers outside of healthcare. In addition, our profitability will be affected by, among other things, our ability to execute on our business strategy, the timing and size of orders, the pricing and costs of our solutions, competitive offerings, macroeconomic conditions affecting the health care industry and the extent to which we invest in sales and marketing, research and development and general and administrative resources.
We depend on sales in the healthcare market for the majority of our revenue, and a decrease in sales in the healthcare market would harm our business.
To date, substantially all of our revenue has been derived from sales to the healthcare market and, in particular, hospitals. Sales to the healthcare market accounted for 98%, 96% and 97% of our revenue for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively. We anticipate that sales to the healthcare market will represent a significant portion of our revenue for the foreseeable future.
Most of our solutions require a substantial upfront investment by new customers. The cost of the initial deployment depends on the number of users and departments involved, the size and age of the hospital and the condition of the existing wireless infrastructure, if any, within the hospital. Even if hospital personnel determine that our solutions provide compelling benefits over their existing communications methods, their hospitals may not have, or may not be willing to spend, the resources necessary to install and maintain wireless infrastructure to initially deploy and support our solutions or expand our solutions to other departments or users. Hospitals face significant budget constraints from the COVID-19 pandemic, as they have had to postpone elective procedures that provide a significant portion of their revenue. Hospital budgets are also constrained by unpredictable patient population trends and commercial reimbursements, and increasing demands from, and competition for, patients. In addition, both governmental and commercial hospitals are experiencing lower Medicare reimbursement rates and higher compliance demands, which add to these budget pressures. Also as part of the tax reform law that came into effect in December 2017, the tax penalty for violating the individual health insurance mandate under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) was set to zero effective in 2019, essentially repealing it. In November 2020, the United States Supreme Court held oral arguments on the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision that held that the individual mandate is unconstitutional. It is uncertain how the United States Supreme Court will rule on this case or how healthcare measures of any new administration will impact the ACA and our business. It is uncertain if there will be changes to the ACA with any new administration, but there have been attempts in the past to repeal or amend the ACA, as well as continue to undertake other healthcare reforms. As a consequence of these regulatory and other factors, hospitals may delay or reduce their
spending, which may cause slowdowns and deferral of orders for our solutions, or customers may choose other less expensive solutions, both of which could negatively impact our sales. We might not be able to sustain or increase our revenue from sales of our solutions, or achieve the growth rates that we envision, if hospitals continue to face significant budgetary constraints and reduce their spending on communications systems.
Our sales cycle can be lengthy and unpredictable, which may cause our revenue and operating results to fluctuate significantly.
Our sales cycles can be lengthy and unpredictable. Our sales efforts involve educating our customers about the use and benefits of our solutions, including the technical capabilities of our solutions and the potential cost savings and productivity gains achievable by deploying them. Customers typically undertake a significant evaluation process, which frequently involves not only our solutions but also their existing communications methods and those of our competitors and can result in a lengthy sales cycle that sometimes exceeds twelve months. We spend substantial time, effort and money in our sales efforts without any assurance that our efforts will produce sales. Similarly, our increasing dependence on larger, hospital-wide deployments may increase fluctuations in our revenue and operating results because the failure to complete a significant sale, or the loss of a large customer, will have a greater impact on those results. In addition, purchases of our solutions are frequently subject to budget constraints and shifts, multiple approvals, and unplanned administrative, processing and other delays. We have experienced and may continue to experience elongated sales cycles due to ongoing uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as past and future healthcare reform legislation, the impact of shifting federal government budgets, changes to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement and potential future statutes and rulemaking.
If we fail to offer high-quality products and services, our operating results and our ability to sell these in the future will be harmed.
Our ability to sell our solutions depends on our ability to offer high-quality product and services. Our solutions incorporate complex technology, are deployed in a variety of complex hospital environments and must interoperate with many different types of devices and hospital systems. While we test the components of our solutions for defects and errors prior to release, we or our customers may not discover a defect or error until after we have deployed our solution, integrated it into the hospital environment and our customer has commenced general use of the solution. In addition, our solutions in some cases are integrated with hardware and software offered by “middleware” vendors to interoperate with nurse call systems, device alarms and other hospital systems. Our software may be partnered with third party software to provide for potential joint solutions with such third party. Our software may also be deployed on third party devices, including devices we resell, which creates additional complexity because we share control of the customer experience. If we cannot successfully integrate our solutions with these vendors as needed or if any hardware or software of these vendors contains any defect or error, then our solutions may not perform as designed, or may exhibit a defect or error.
Our professional services team assists our customers with their wireless infrastructure assessment, clinical workflow design, communication solution configuration, clinical integration, training and project management during the pre-deployment and deployment stages. Once our solutions are deployed within a customer’s facility, the customer typically depends on our technical support team to help resolve technical issues, assist in optimizing the use of our solutions and facilitate adoption of new functionality. If we do not effectively assist our customers in deploying our solutions, succeed in helping our customers quickly resolve technical and other post-deployment issues, or provide effective ongoing support services, our ability to expand the use of our solutions with existing customers and to sell our solutions to new customers will be harmed. If deployment of our solutions is deemed unsatisfactory, we may incur significant costs to attain and sustain customer satisfaction or, in extreme cases, our customers may choose not to deploy our solutions. As we hire new services and support personnel, we may inadvertently hire underperforming people who will have to be replaced, or fail to effectively train such employees, leading in some instances to slower growth, additional costs and poor customer relations. In addition, the failure of channel partners to provide high-quality services and support in markets outside the United States could also harm sales of our solutions.
Any defects or errors in, or which are attributed to our solutions, or to products or services we resell, could result in:
•delayed market acceptance of our affected solutions;
•loss of revenue or delay in revenue recognition;
•loss of customers or inability to attract new customers;
•diversion of engineering or other resources for remedying the defect or error;
•damage to our brand and reputation;
•delay in delivery of information;
•increased service and warranty costs, including potential replacement costs for product recalls or returns; and
•legal actions by our customers and hospital patients, including product liability claims.
If any of these occur, our operating results and reputation could be harmed.
As we continue to pursue opportunities for larger deals that have greater technical complexity, including deals that require more complex integrations with our customer’s workflows, we may experience a longer time period for our solutions to deploy and as a result, our revenue recognition for these deals may be delayed. These complex deployments may also be delayed as our customers focus on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, as we enter agreements with new and existing customers for larger and more complex deals across multiple sites, we have been, and may continue to be, required to agree to customer acceptance and cancellation clauses. With acceptance clauses, delays may occur in obtaining customer acceptance regardless of the quality of our products and services, and may cause us to defer revenue recognition where such acceptance provisions are substantive in nature, or they may require us to incur additional professional services or other costs in an effort to obtain such customer acceptance. Cancellation clauses may result in a customer canceling an order for our hardware, software and services, which could impact our revenue.
We depend on some sole source and limited source suppliers, and if we are unable to source our components from them, our business and operating results could be harmed.
We depend on sole and limited source suppliers for several hardware components of our solutions, including our batteries and integrated circuits. We purchase inventory generally through individual purchase orders. Any of these suppliers could cease production of our components, cease to provide the necessary levels of support for our use of their components, experience capacity constraints, material shortages, work stoppages, epidemics or contagious diseases, such as the coronavirus outbreak, that negatively impact them and their suppliers, financial difficulties, cost increases or other reductions or disruptions in output, cease operations or be acquired by or enter into exclusive arrangements with, a competitor. For example, we have experienced periodic delays in deliveries from our suppliers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. These suppliers typically rely on purchase orders rather than long-term contracts with their suppliers, and as a result, the supplier may not be able to secure sufficient materials at reasonable prices or of acceptable quality to build our components in a timely manner. Any of these circumstances could cause interruptions or delays in the delivery of our solutions to our customers, and this may force us to seek components from alternative sources, which may not have the required specifications, or be available in time to meet demand or on commercially reasonable terms, if at all. Any of these circumstances may also force us to redesign our solutions to incorporate a component from an alternative source if a component becomes unavailable.
Our solutions incorporate multiple software components obtained from licensors on a non-exclusive basis, such as voice recognition software, software supporting the runtime execution of our software platform, and database and reporting software. Our license agreements can be terminated for cause. In many cases, these license agreements specify a limited term and are only renewable beyond that term with the consent of the licensor. If a licensor terminates a license agreement for cause, objects to its renewal or conditions renewal on modified terms and conditions, we may be unable to obtain licenses for equivalent software components on reasonable terms and conditions, including licensing fees, warranties or protection from infringement claims. Some licensors may discontinue licensing their software to us or support of the software version used in our solutions. In such circumstances, we may need to redesign our solutions with substantial cost and time investment to incorporate alternative software components or be subject to higher royalty costs. Any of these circumstances could adversely affect the cost and availability of our solutions.
Third-party licensors generally require us to incorporate specific license terms and conditions in our agreements with our customers. If we are alleged to have failed to incorporate these license terms and conditions, we may be subject to claims by these licensors, incur significant legal costs defending ourselves against such claims and, if such claims are successful, be subject to termination of licenses, monetary damages, or an injunction against the continued distribution of one or more of our solutions.
Because we depend on contract manufacturers and original design manufacturers, our operations could be harmed and we could lose sales if we encounter problems with these manufacturers.
We do not have internal manufacturing capabilities and rely upon two contract manufacturers, Sercomm and SMTC, to make our wearable devices. We have entered into manufacturing agreements with Sercomm and SMTC that are terminable by either party with advance notice and may also be terminated for a material uncured breach. We expect to enter into additional contract manufacturing agreements as we expand our business. We also rely on original design manufacturers, or ODMs, to produce accessories, including batteries, chargers and attachments. Any of these suppliers could cease production of our components, cease to provide the necessary levels of support for our use of their components, experience capacity constraints, material shortages, work stoppages, epidemics or contagious diseases that negatively impact them and their suppliers, financial difficulties, cost increases or other reductions or disruptions in output, cease operations or be acquired by, or enter into exclusive arrangements with, a competitor. If Sercomm, SMTC, or another contract manufacturer or an ODM is unable or unwilling to continue manufacturing components of our solutions in the volumes and timeframes that we require, fails to meet our quality specifications or significantly increases its prices, we may not be able to deliver our solutions to our customers with
the quantities, quality and performance that they expect in a timely manner. As a result, we could lose sales and our operating results could be harmed.
Sercomm, SMTC, other contract manufacturers or ODMs may experience problems that could impact the quantity and quality of hardware components of our solution, including disruptions in their manufacturing operations due to equipment breakdowns, labor strikes or shortages, component or material shortages and cost increases. The majority of the hardware components of our solution are manufactured in Asia or Mexico, and adverse changes in political or economic circumstances, or health related issues such as epidemics or contagious diseases, in those locations could also disrupt our supply and quality of components of our solutions. In addition, U.S. government officials have imposed changes in trade, tariffs, fiscal and tax policies and may do so in the future, and any such changes in the U.S. or in other countries from which we source components of our products could adversely affect our business.
Companies occasionally encounter unexpected difficulties in ramping up production of new products, and we may experience such difficulties with future generations of our products. Sercomm, SMTC, other contract manufacturers and our ODMs also manufacture products for other companies. Generally, our orders represent a relatively small percentage of the overall orders received by Sercomm, SMTC, other contract manufacturers and these ODMs from their customers; therefore, fulfilling our orders may not be a priority in the event Sercomm, SMTC, other contract manufacturers or an ODM is constrained in its ability to fulfill all of its customer obligations. In addition, if Sercomm, SMTC, other contract manufacturers or an ODM is unable or unwilling to continue manufacturing components of our solutions, we may have to identify one or more alternative manufacturers. The process of identifying and qualifying a new contract manufacturer or ODM can be time consuming, and we may not be able to substitute suitable alternative manufacturers in a timely manner or at an acceptable cost. Additionally, transitioning to a new manufacturer may cause us to incur additional costs and delays if the new manufacturer has difficulty manufacturing components of our solutions to our specifications or quality standards.
If we fail to forecast our manufacturing requirements accurately or fail to properly manage our inventory with our contract manufacturer, we could incur additional costs or experience manufacturing delays that could impact the timing of our revenue recognition and adversely affect our operating results.
We place orders with our contract manufacturers, including Sercomm and SMTC, and we and our contract manufacturers place orders with suppliers based on forecasts of customer demand. Because of our international low-cost sourcing strategy, our lead times are long and cause substantially more risk to forecasting accuracy than would result were lead times shorter. Our forecasts are based on multiple assumptions, each of which may introduce errors into our estimates affecting our ability to meet our customers’ demands for our solutions. We also may face additional forecasting challenges due to new product introductions, product transitions in the components of our solutions, or to our suppliers discontinuing production of materials and subcomponents required for our solutions. If demand for our solutions increases significantly, we may not be able to meet demand on a timely basis, and we may need to expend a significant amount of time working with our customers to allocate limited supply and maintain positive customer relations, or we may incur additional costs in order to source additional materials and subcomponents to produce components of our solutions or to expedite the manufacture and delivery of additional inventory. If we underestimate customer demand, we and our contract manufacturer may have inadequate materials and subcomponents on hand to produce components of our solutions, which could result in manufacturing interruptions, shipment delays, deferral or loss of revenue, and damage to our customer relationships. Conversely, if we overestimate customer demand, we and our contract manufacturers may purchase more inventory than required for actual customer orders, resulting in excess or obsolete inventory, thereby increasing our costs and harming our operating results.
If we fail to successfully develop and introduce new solutions and features to existing solutions, our revenue, operating results and reputation could suffer.
Our success depends, in part, upon our ability to develop and introduce new solutions and to add features to existing solutions that meet existing and new customer requirements. We may not be able to develop and introduce new solutions or features on a timely basis or in response to customers’ changing requirements. Similarly, our new solutions and features may not sufficiently differentiate us from competing solutions such that customers can justify deploying our solutions. We expect to incur costs associated with the development and introduction of new solutions before the anticipated benefits or the returns are realized, if at all. We may experience technical problems and additional costs as we introduce new features to our software platform, deploy future models of our wireless badges, or deploy new smartphone apps, which can require customers to perform software upgrades to their systems, and integrate new solutions with existing customer clinical systems and workflows. In addition, we may face technical difficulties as we expand into non-English speaking countries and incorporate non-English speech recognition capabilities into our solutions. We also may incur substantial costs or delays in the manufacture of any additional new products or models as we seek to optimize production methods and processes at our contract manufacturers. In addition, we expect that we may at least initially achieve lower gross margins on new models, while endeavoring to reduce
manufacturing costs over time. If any of these problems were to arise, our revenue, operating results and reputation could suffer.
Our business has gone through cycles of expansion, relative stability and contraction, and if we are not able to manage such cycles effectively, our operating results may suffer.
We have experienced periods of expansion, relative stability and contraction in our revenues and operations in the past. Such fluctuations have placed, and may continue to place, strains on our management systems, infrastructure and other resources. Especially during growth periods, we hire additional direct sales, professional services and marketing personnel domestically and internationally, acquire complementary businesses, technologies or assets, and increase our investment in research and development. Our future operating results depend to a large extent on our ability to successfully implement such plans and manage such investments. To do so successfully we must, among other things:
•manage our expenses in line with our operating plans and current business environment;
•maintain and enhance our operational, financial and management controls, reporting systems and procedures;
•integrate acquired businesses, technologies or assets;
•manage operations in multiple locations and time zones; and
•develop and deliver new solutions and enhancements to existing solutions efficiently and reliably.
We expect to incur costs associated with the investments made to support our business strategy before the anticipated benefits or the returns are realized, if any. If we are unable to grow our business or manage our future growth effectively, we may not be able to take advantage of market opportunities or develop new solutions or enhancements to existing solutions. We may also fail to satisfy customer requirements, maintain quality, execute our business plan or respond to competitive pressures, which could result in lower revenue and a decline in the share price of our common stock.
Our revenue and operating results have fluctuated, and are likely to continue to fluctuate, making our quarterly results difficult to predict, which may cause us to miss analyst expectations and may cause the price of our common stock to decline.
Our operating results have been and may continue to be difficult to predict, even in the near term, and are likely to fluctuate as a result of a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control.
Comparisons of our revenue and operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. You should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance. Each of the following factors, among others, could cause our operating results to fluctuate from quarter to quarter:
•the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic;
•the financial health of our healthcare customers and budgetary constraints on their ability to upgrade their communications, particularly in light of the pandemic;
•the availability of government funding for healthcare facilities operated by the United States federal, state and local governments;
•changes in customer purchasing patterns or sales cycles;
•market acceptance of our Smartbadge and its impact on orders for our existing Badge and related software;
•changes in the regulatory environment affecting our healthcare customers, including impediments to their ability to obtain reimbursement for their services;
•our ability to expand and improve our sales and marketing operations;
•our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses, technologies or assets;
•the announcement of new significant contracts or relationships;
•the procurement and deployment cycles of our healthcare customers and the length of our sales cycles;
•changes in how healthcare operating and capital budgets are administered within the enterprise;
•changes in customer deployment timelines;
•variations in the amount of orders booked in a prior quarter but not delivered until later quarters;
•our mix of solutions and the varying revenue recognition rules that apply;
•pricing, including discounts by us or our competitors;
•our ability to expand into non-healthcare markets;
•our ability to develop significant new reseller relationships and maintain existing reseller relationships;
•the financial health of our resellers;
•our ability to successfully deploy our solutions in a timely manner;
•our ability to sell and integrate third-party products and services, and our customer’s satisfaction with those third-party products and services;
•our ability to forecast demand and manage lead times for the manufacture of our solutions;
•our ability to develop and introduce new solutions and features to existing solutions that achieve market acceptance;
•the announcement of a new product, which may cause sales cycles to lengthen;
•federal government shutdowns;
•occurrence of health epidemics or contagious diseases and potential effects on our business and manufacturing operations;
•fluctuations in foreign currencies in the international markets in which we operate; and
•future accounting pronouncements and changes in accounting policies.
We primarily compete in the rapidly evolving and competitive healthcare market, and if we fail to effectively respond to competitive pressures, our business and operating results could be harmed.
Our prospective customers primarily use legacy communication solutions such as wired and wireless phones, pagers and overhead intercoms. We believe that our system is superior to these legacy methods. Manufacturers and distributors of product categories such as cellular phones, pagers, mobile radios and in-building wireless telephones continue to sell their products to hospitals. In addition, the growing proliferation of smartphones and related applications, including cloud-based applications, represents another category of competitive offerings. Furthermore, our clinical integrations and middleware solutions compete with a variety of companies that offer clinical integration technology. Similarly we may face a different set of competitors in our patient and family engagement solutions.
We believe currently there is no directly comparable single competitor that provides a solution for the healthcare market as richly-featured as ours, but we could face such competition in the future. Potential competitors in the healthcare or communications markets include large, multinational companies with significantly more resources to dedicate to product development and sales and marketing. These companies, which may include electronic health record vendors or other large software and healthcare IT companies, may have existing relationships within the hospital, which may enhance their ability to gain a foothold in our market. For example, some of the electronic health record vendors offer secure text messaging as an additional service and have said they plan to expand these offerings to complete more directly with us. Some customers may prefer to purchase a more highly integrated or bundled solution from a single provider or an existing supplier rather than a new supplier, regardless of performance or features. Accordingly, if we fail to effectively respond to competitive pressures, we could experience pricing pressure, reduced profit margins, higher sales and marketing expenses, lower revenue and the loss of market share, any of which would harm our business, operating results or financial condition.
If we do not achieve the anticipated strategic or financial benefits from our acquisitions or if we cannot successfully integrate them, our business and operating results could be harmed.
We have acquired, and in the future may acquire, complementary businesses, technologies or assets that we believe to be strategic. For example, we recently acquired EASE Applications, LLC, or EASE Applications, a cloud-based communication platform and mobile application, to help enhance our care team communication with patients and families. We may not achieve the anticipated strategic or financial benefits, or be successful in integrating EASE Applications or any acquired businesses, technologies or assets. If we cannot effectively integrate the acquired business and products into our business, we may not achieve market acceptance for, or derive significant revenue from, these new solutions.
Integrating newly acquired businesses, technologies and assets could strain our resources, could be expensive and time consuming, and might not be successful. Our recent acquisitions expose us, and we will be further exposed, if we acquire or invest in additional businesses, technologies or assets, to a number of risks, including that we may:
•experience technical issues as we integrate acquired businesses, technologies or assets into our existing solutions;
•encounter difficulties leveraging our existing sales and marketing organizations, and direct sales channels, to increase our revenue from acquired businesses, technologies or assets;
•find that the acquisition does not further our business strategy, we overpaid for the acquisition or the economic conditions underlying our acquisition decision have changed;
•have difficulty retaining key personnel of acquired businesses;
•suffer disruption to our ongoing business and diversion of our management’s attention as a result of transition or integration issues and the challenges of managing geographically or culturally diverse enterprises;
•experience unforeseen and significant problems or liabilities associated with quality, technology and legal contingencies relating to the acquisition, such as intellectual property or employment matters; and
•incur substantial costs to integrate the acquired business.
If we were to proceed with one or more additional significant acquisitions in which the consideration included cash, we could be required to use a substantial portion of our available cash. To the extent we issue shares of capital stock or other rights to purchase capital stock, including options and warrants, the ownership of existing stockholders would be diluted. In addition,
acquisitions may result in the incurrence of debt, contingent liabilities, large write-offs, or other unanticipated costs, events or circumstances, any of which could harm our operating results.
In addition, from time to time we may enter into negotiations for acquisitions that are not ultimately consummated. These negotiations could result in significant diversion of management time, as well as substantial out-of-pocket costs.
We could be required to record adjustments to our recorded asset balance for intangible assets, including goodwill, that could significantly impact our operating results.
Our balance sheet includes significant intangible assets, including goodwill and other acquired intangible assets. The determination of related estimated useful lives and whether these assets have been impaired involves significant judgment and is subject to certain factors and events over which we have no control. The introduction of new competitive products or services into our markets could impair the value of our intangible assets if they create market conditions that adversely affect the competitiveness of our products and services. Further, declines in our market capitalization may be an indicator that our intangible assets or goodwill carrying values exceed their fair values, which could lead to potential impairment charges that could impact our operating results.
Developments in the healthcare industry and governing regulations have negatively affected and may continue to negatively affect our business.
Substantially all of our revenue is derived from customers in the healthcare industry, in particular, hospitals. The healthcare industry is highly regulated and is subject to changing political, legislative, regulatory and other influences. Developments generally affecting the healthcare industry, including new regulations or new interpretations of existing regulations, could adversely affect spending on information technology and capital equipment by reducing funding, changing healthcare pricing or delivery or creating impediments for obtaining healthcare reimbursements, which together with declining admission trends, could cause our sales to decline and negatively impact our business. For example, the margins of our hospital customers are modest, and potential decreases in reimbursement for healthcare costs may reduce the overall solvency of our customers or cause further deterioration in their financial or business condition.
In the past bills were signed into law that impact the U.S. healthcare system, including the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Uncertainty surrounding the status of the ACA and its regulations may impact the spending of our healthcare customers, and we cannot predict the effect on our business of any new legislation and regulations that may be adopted if the ACA is significantly changed or repealed or of additional regulations.
Federal budget activities also impact our customers. Our customers include healthcare facilities run by the Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. During the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, we generated approximately 18%, 17% and 18%, respectively, of our revenue from these customers. Our reseller to the Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs represented 33% and 19% of our accounts receivable as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. These customers have been and may continue to be impacted by budgetary and legislative actions.
In the past certain departments of the U.S. federal government temporarily stopped operating as a result of failure by the legislative and executive branches of the government to pass bills to keep them operating. There is a risk that the government could be shut down again. Any past or future shutdown may impact our US government customers’ spending decisions, as well as those of our non-US government customers. Any reduction or delay in our customers’, or potential customers’ spending decisions may result in a delay, or reduction, to our revenue.
In addition, many state governments are changing or expanding their healthcare laws, adding additional complexity to understanding the potential impacts.
We are unable to predict the full impact of these new and changing rules on our hospital customers and others in the healthcare industry. Impacts of these rules have affected and could continue to affect materially our customers’ ability to budget for or purchase our products. The healthcare industry has changed significantly in recent years and we expect that significant changes will continue to occur. We cannot provide assurance that the markets for our solutions will continue to exist at current levels or that we will have adequate technical, financial and marketing resources to react to changes in those markets.
If we fail to increase market awareness of our brand and solutions, and expand our sales and marketing operations, our business could be harmed.
We intend to continue to add personnel and resources in sales and marketing as we focus on expanding awareness of our brand and solutions and capitalize on sales opportunities with new and existing customers. Our efforts to improve sales of our
solutions will result in an increase in our sales and marketing expense and general and administrative expense, and these efforts may not be successful. Some newly hired sales and marketing personnel may subsequently be determined to be unproductive and have to be replaced, resulting in operational and sales delays and incremental costs. If we are unable to significantly increase the awareness of our brand and solutions or effectively manage the costs associated with these efforts, our business, financial condition and operating results could be harmed.
Failure to protect our information technology infrastructure against cyber-based attacks, network security breaches, service interruptions, or data corruption could significantly disrupt our operations and adversely affect our business and operating results.
We rely on information technology and telephone networks and systems, including the Internet, to process and transmit sensitive electronic information and to manage or support a variety of business processes and activities, including sales, billing, customer service, procurement and our supply chain. We use enterprise information technology systems to record, process, and summarize financial information and results of operations for internal reporting purposes and to comply with regulatory financial reporting, legal, and tax requirements. In the ordinary course of our business, we also collect, store, process, use and transmit large amounts of confidential information, including intellectual property, protected health information, proprietary business information and personal information. Our information technology systems, some of which are managed by third-parties, may be susceptible to damage, disruptions or shutdowns due to computer viruses, attacks by computer hackers, failures during the process of upgrading or replacing software, databases or components thereof, power outages, hardware failures, telecommunication failures, user errors or catastrophic events. Most of our workforce is currently working remotely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which also increases risks related to information security. Although we have developed systems and processes that are designed to protect confidential information and prevent data loss and other security breaches, including systems and processes designed to reduce the impact of a security breach, such measures cannot provide absolute security. The risk of a security breach or disruption or data loss, particularly through cyber-attacks or cyber intrusion, including by computer hackers, foreign governments and cyber terrorists, has generally increased as the number, intensity and sophistication of attempted attacks and intrusions from around the world have increased. We may not be able to anticipate all types of security threats, and we may not be able to implement preventive measures effective against all such security threats. Although we maintain cybersecurity insurance, if our systems are breached or suffer severe damage, disruption or shutdown and we are unable to effectively resolve the issues in a timely manner, our business and operating results may significantly suffer and we may be subject to litigation, government enforcement actions or potential liability beyond our insurance coverage. In addition, such a breach may require notification to governmental agencies, the media and/or affected individuals pursuant to various federal, state (including regulations promulgated by the Federal Trade Commission and state breach notification laws) and international privacy (including GDPR) and security laws, if applicable, including HIPAA or HITECH and its implementing rules and regulations. Security breaches could also cause us to incur significant remediation costs, result in product development delays, disrupt key business operations, adversely impact customer relationships, damage our reputation and divert attention of management and key information technology resources.
Earlier this year, one of our vendors, SolarWinds, was the victim of a cyberattack that inserted a vulnerability in their platform. We use SolarWinds services for our internal corporate network so this introduced a potential vulnerability in our internal systems. We have removed the vulnerable software from our network and have not found any indication that the vulnerability was exploited. There are still uncertainties about the full scope of this cyberattack and we may learn of other vulnerabilities and potential network intrusions by third parties.
If hospitals do not have and are not willing to install, upgrade and maintain the wireless and other information technology infrastructure required to effectively operate our solutions, then they may experience technical problems or not purchase our solutions at all.
The effectiveness of our solutions depends upon the quality and compatibility of the communications environment that our healthcare customers maintain. Our solutions require voice-grade wireless (Wi-Fi) installed through large enterprise environments, which can vary from hospital to hospital and from department to department within a hospital. Many hospitals have not installed a voice-grade wireless infrastructure. If potential customers do not have a wireless network that can properly and fully interoperate with our solutions, then such a network must be installed, or an existing Wi-Fi network must be upgraded or modified, for example, by adding access points in stairwells, for our solutions to be fully functional. The additional costs of installing or upgrading a Wi-Fi network may dissuade potential customers from installing our solutions. Furthermore, if changes to a customer’s physical or information technology environment cause integration issues or degrade the effectiveness of our solutions, or if the customer fails to upgrade or maintain its environment as may be required for software deployments, releases and updates, the customer may not be able to fully utilize our solutions or may experience technical problems, or these changes may impact the performance of other wireless equipment being used. If such circumstances arise, prospective
customers may not purchase or existing customers may not expand their use of or deploy upgraded versions of our solutions, thereby harming our business and operating results.
If we fail to achieve and maintain certification for certain U.S. federal standards, our sales to U.S. government customers will suffer.
We believe that a significant opportunity exists to continue to sell our products to healthcare facilities in the Veterans Administration and Department of Defense (DoD). These customers require independent certification of compliance with specific requirements relating to encryption, security, interoperability and scalability, including Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 and, as to DoD, certification by its Joint Interoperability and Test Command and under its Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process. We have received certification under certain of these standards for military-specific configurations of our solution incorporating our Badge, but we do not have these certifications for our new Smartbadge. We continue to carry out further compliance activities and recertifications, as required. A failure on our part to achieve and maintain compliance and to respond to new threats and vulnerabilities, both as to current products and as to new product versions, could adversely impact our revenue.
Our efforts to sell our solutions in non-healthcare markets may not be successful.
In recent years, we have actively engaged in sales efforts to customers outside the healthcare markets, including hospitality, retail, energy, education and other mobile work environments. We may not be successful in further penetrating the non-healthcare markets upon which we are initially focusing, or other new markets. To date, our solutions have been selected by over 400 customers in non-healthcare markets. Total revenue from non-healthcare customers accounted for 3%, 4% and 3% of our revenue during the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively. If we cannot maintain these customers by providing solutions that meet their requirements, if we cannot successfully expand our solutions in non-healthcare markets, or if adoption of our solutions remains slow, we may not obtain significant revenue from these markets. We may experience challenges as we expand in non-healthcare markets, including pricing pressure on our solutions, budget constraints due to the COVID-19 pandemic and technical issues as we adapt our solutions for the requirements of new markets. For example, some of our hospitality and retail customers have been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and they have been forced to close locations and face significant revenue declines. Our solutions also may not contain the functionality required by these non-healthcare markets or may be too expensive or may not sufficiently differentiate us from competing solutions such that customers can justify deploying our solutions.
We generally recognize revenue from maintenance and support contracts and subscription arrangements over the contract term, and changes in sales may not be immediately reflected in our operating results.
We generally recognize revenue from our customer subscription and support contracts, extended warranty contracts and subscription arrangements ratably over the contract term, which is typically 12 months, in some cases subject to an early termination right. Revenue from our subscription and support contracts accounted for 40%, 38% and 35% of our revenue for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively. A portion of the revenue we report in each quarter is derived from the recognition of deferred revenue relating to subscription and support contracts entered into during previous quarters. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed subscription and support, extended warranty contracts or subscription agreements by our customers in any one quarter may not be immediately reflected in our revenue for that quarter. Such a decline, however, will negatively affect our revenue in future quarters. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in sales and market acceptance of our services and potential changes in our rate of renewals may not be fully reflected in our operating results until future periods.
Our success depends upon our ability to attract, integrate and retain key personnel, and our failure to do so could harm our ability to grow our business.
Our success depends, in part, on the continuing services of our senior management and other key personnel, and our ability to continue to attract, integrate and retain highly skilled personnel, particularly in engineering, sales and marketing. Competition for highly skilled personnel is intense, particularly in the technology field. If we fail to create work environments viewed as attractive and integrate and retain key personnel our ability to grow our business could be harmed.
The members of our senior management and other key personnel are at-will employees and may terminate their employment at any time without notice. If one or more members of our senior management terminate their employment, we may not be able to find qualified individuals to replace them on a timely basis or at all, and our senior management may need to divert their attention from other aspects of our business. Former employees may also become employees of a competitor. We may also have to pay additional compensation to attract and retain key personnel. We also anticipate hiring additional engineering,
marketing and sales, and services personnel to grow our business. Often, significant amounts of time and resources are required to train these personnel. We may incur significant costs to attract, integrate and retain them, and we may lose them to a competitor or another company before we realize the benefit of our investments in them.
Our international operations subject us, and may increasingly subject us in the future, to operational, financial, economic and political risks abroad.
Although we derive a relatively small portion of our revenue from customers outside the United States, we believe that non-U.S. customers could represent an increasing share of our revenue in the future. During the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, we generated 10.7%, 8.7% and 10.2% of our revenue, respectively, from customers outside of the United States, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Middle Eastern countries including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. We also operate an innovation center in India and a sales office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Accordingly, we are subject to risks and challenges that we would not otherwise face if we conducted our business solely in the United States, including:
•challenges incorporating non-English speech recognition capabilities into our solutions if we expand into non-English speaking markets;
•difficulties integrating our solutions with wireless infrastructures with which we do not have experience;
•difficulties integrating local dialing plans and applicable PBX standards;
•challenges associated with delivering support, training and documentation in several languages;
•difficulties in staffing and managing personnel and resellers;
•the need to comply with a wide variety of foreign laws and regulations, including increasingly stringent data privacy regulations, requirements for export controls for encryption technology, employment laws, changes in tax laws and tax audits by government agencies;
•political and economic instability in, or foreign conflicts that involve or affect, the countries of our customers;
•the impacts associated with epidemics or contagious diseases;
•adverse effects on us directly, or on our customers and suppliers, of changes in trade, fiscal or tax policies, including the imposition of tariffs;
•difficulties in collecting accounts receivable and longer accounts receivable payment cycles;
•exposure to competitors who are more familiar with local markets;
•risks associated with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and local anti-bribery law compliance;
•difficulties associated with resolving contract disputes in foreign countries with varied legal systems;
•limited or unfavorable intellectual property protection in some countries; and
•currency exchange rate fluctuations, which could affect the price of our solutions relative to locally produced solutions.
Any of these factors could harm our existing international business, impair our ability to expand into international markets or harm our operating results.
We face potential liability related to the privacy and security of personal information collected through our solutions.
In connection with our healthcare business, we handle and have access to “Protected Health Information” or “PHI” subject in the United States to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”) as amended and supplemented by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (“HITECH”) , regulations issued pursuant to these statutes, state privacy and security laws and regulations, and associated contractual obligations as a “business associate” of healthcare providers. These statutes, regulations and contractual obligations impose numerous requirements regarding the use and disclosure of PHI with which we must comply. Among other things, HITECH made certain aspects of HIPAA’s rules, notably the “HIPAA Security Rule,” directly applicable to business associates, independent contractors or agents of covered entities that create, receive, maintain or transmit PHI in connection with providing a function on behalf of, or a service to, a covered entity (e.g., health care communication solutions). HITECH also created four new tiers of civil monetary penalties, amended HIPAA to make civil and criminal penalties directly applicable to business associates and gave state attorneys general new authority to file civil actions for damages or injunctions in federal court to enforce the federal HIPAA regulation and seek attorney’s fees and costs associated with pursuing federal civil actions. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) has increased its focus on compliance and continues to train state attorneys general for enforcement purposes. The OCR has recently increased both its efforts to audit HIPAA compliance and its level of enforcement, with one recent penalty exceeding $16 million. Our failure to accurately anticipate the application or interpretation of these statutes, regulations and contractual obligations as we develop our solutions, a failure by us to comply with their requirements (e.g., evolving encryption and security requirements) or an allegation that defects in our products have resulted in noncompliance by our customers could create material civil and/or criminal liability for us, resulting in adverse publicity and negatively affecting our business.
In addition, the use and disclosure of personal health information is subject to laws and regulations in other jurisdictions in which we do business or expect to do business in the future. Any developments stemming from enactment or modification of these laws and regulations, or the failure by us to comply with their requirements or to accurately anticipate the application or interpretation of these laws could create material liability to us, result in adverse publicity and negatively affect our business.
For example, in May 2016, the EU formally adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which became effective in May 2018. The GDPR greatly increased the European Commission’s jurisdictional reach of its laws and adds a broad array of requirements for handling personal information, including, for example, requirements to establish a legal basis for processing, higher standards for obtaining consent from individuals to process their personal information, more robust disclosures to individuals and a strengthened individual data rights regime, requirements to implement safeguards to protect the security and confidentiality of personal information that requires the adoption of administrative, physical and technical safeguards, shortened timelines for data breach notifications to appropriate data protection authorities or data subjects, limitations on retention and secondary use of information, increased requirements pertaining to health data and additional requirements that we impose certain contractual obligations on third-party processors in connection with the processing of the personal information. EU member states are tasked under the GDPR to enact, and have enacted, certain implementing legislation that adds to and/or further interprets the GDPR requirements and potentially extends our obligations and potential liability for failing to meet such obligations. The GDPR, together with national legislation, regulations and guidelines of the EU member states governing the processing of personal information, impose strict obligations and restrictions on the ability to collect, use, retain, protect, disclose, transfer and otherwise process personal information. In particular, the GDPR includes obligations and restrictions concerning the consent and rights of individuals to whom the personal information relates, the transfer of personal information out of the European Economic Area, security breach notifications and the security and confidentiality of personal information. The GDPR authorizes fines for certain violations of up to 4% of global annual revenue or €20 million, whichever is greater, and other administrative penalties. Additionally, the United Kingdom (“UK”) implemented the Data Protection Act effective in May 2018 and statutorily amended in 2019, that substantially implements the GDPR and contains provisions, including UK-specific derogations, for how GDPR is applied in the UK. Since the beginning of 2021 (when the transitional period following Brexit expired), we also have to continue to comply with the GDPR and the Data Protection Act, with each regime having the ability to fine up to the greater of €20 million (£17 million) or 4% of global turnover. The costs of compliance with, and other burdens imposed by, such laws and regulations that are applicable to our business operations may limit the use and adoption of our services and reduce overall demand for them. Changes in these legislations may add additional complexity, variation in requirements, restrictions and potential legal risk, require additional investment in resources for compliance programs, could impact strategies and availability of previously useful data, and could result in increased compliance costs and/or changes in business practices and policies.
Any legislation or regulation in the area of privacy and security of personal information could affect the way we operate our services and could harm our business. For example, the GDPR imposes strict rules on the transfer of personal information out of the EU to the United States. These obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other requirements or our practices. In addition, these rules are consistently under scrutiny. For example, on July 16, 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the Court of Justice) invalidated the European Union-United States (EU-U.S.) Privacy Shield on the grounds that the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield failed to offer adequate protections to EU personal information transferred to the United States. While the Court of Justice upheld the use of other data transfer mechanisms, such as the Standard Contractual Clauses, the decision has led to some uncertainty regarding the use of such mechanisms for data transfers to the United States, and the court made clear that reliance on Standard Contractual Clauses alone may not necessarily be sufficient in all circumstances. The use of Standard Contractual Clauses for the transfer of personal information specifically to the United States also remains under review by a number of European data protection supervisory authorities. For example, German and Irish supervisory authorities have indicated that the Standard Contractual Clauses alone provide inadequate protection for EU-U.S. data transfers. Use of the data transfer mechanisms must now be assessed on a case-by-case basis taking into account the legal regime applicable in the destination country, in particular applicable surveillance laws and rights of individuals. The European Data Protection Board (the EDPB) issued additional guidance regarding the Court of Justice’s decision on November 11, 2020 which imposes higher burdens on the use of data transfer mechanisms, such as the Standard Contractual Clauses, for cross-border data transfers.
To comply with this guidance, we may need to implement additional safeguards to further enhance the security of data transferred out of the EU, which could increase our compliance costs, expose us to further regulatory scrutiny and liability, and adversely affect our business. Further, the European Commission published new versions of the Standard Contractual Clauses for comment. While the comment period ended in December 2020, the European Commission is expected to finalize and implement the new Standard Contractual Clauses in early 2021. Additionally, other countries (e.g., Australia and Japan) have adopted certain legal requirements for cross-border transfers of personal information. These obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other requirements or our practices. Further, since the transition period for Brexit ended December 31, 2020, there remains some uncertainty regarding cross-border data transfers from the EU to the United Kingdom. The EU is expected to either issue an adequacy decision for
such transfers in early 2021, or an adequacy mechanism such as the Standard Contractual Clauses will be required for transfer of personal information from the EU to the United Kingdom. The costs of compliance with, and the other burdens imposed by, these and other laws or regulatory actions may prevent us from selling our solutions or increase the costs associated with selling our solutions and may affect our ability to invest in or jointly develop solutions in the United States and in foreign jurisdictions. If we are required to implement additional measures to transfer data from the EU, this could increase our compliance costs, and could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Further, we cannot guarantee that our privacy and security policies and practices will be found sufficient to protect us from liability or adverse publicity relating to the privacy and security of personal information.
In the U.S., California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act, or the CCPA, on June 28, 2018, which took effect on January 1, 2020, and became enforceable by the California Attorney General on July 1, 2020, along with related regulations which came into force on August 14, 2020. Among other things, the CCPA requires covered companies to provide new disclosures to California consumers about their data collection, use and sharing practices and provide such consumers new data protection and privacy rights, including the ability to opt out of certain sales of personal information, right to request correction, access, and deletion of their personal information, the right to opt out of certain personal information sharing, and the right to receive detailed information about how their personal information is processed. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that result in the loss of personal information. This private right of action may increase the likelihood of, and risks associated with, data breach litigation. Although the CCPA includes limited exceptions from its prescriptions, including exceptions for PHI collected by covered entities or business associates subject to HIPAA, among others, the CCPA may regulate or impact our processing of personal information depending on the context. Some observers have noted that the CCPA could mark the beginning of a trend toward more stringent privacy legislation in the U.S., and, indeed, a number of state legislatures are considering privacy and/or data protection laws, which could increase our potential liability and adversely affect our business. Additionally, California voters recently approved the California Privacy Rights Act, or the CPRA. The CPRA significantly modifies the CCPA and will impose additional data protection obligations on companies doing business in California, including additional consumer rights processes and opt outs for certain uses of sensitive data. While the CPRA will not take effect until January 2023, it will establish a California privacy regulator before that date. The CCPA and the CPRA may significantly impact our business activities and require substantial compliance costs that adversely affect business, operating results, prospects and financial condition. The interplay of federal and state laws (e.g., in addition to California, Massachusetts and Nevada have adopted laws requiring the implementation of certain security measures to protect personal information, and all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam, have adopted breach notification laws) may be subject to varying interpretations by courts and government agencies, creating complex compliance issues for us and our customers and potentially exposing us to additional expense, adverse publicity and liability. Further, as regulatory focus on privacy, security and data use issues continues to increase and laws and regulations concerning the protection of personal information expand and become more complex, these potential risks to products and services could intensify.
If our efforts to protect the security of information collected by our customers are unsuccessful, we could become subject to costly government enforcement actions and private litigation, and our sales and reputation could suffer.
The nature of our business involves the receipt and storage of information about our customers, including personal information and PHI. We have implemented programs to detect and alert us to data security incidents. However, because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems change frequently and may be difficult to detect for long periods of time, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or implement adequate preventive measures. Companies are increasingly subject to a wide variety of security incidents, cyber-attacks and other attempts to gain unauthorized access. These threats can come from a variety of sources, ranging in sophistication from an individual hacker to malfeasance by employees, consultants or other service providers to state-sponsored attacks. Cyber threats may be generic, or they may be custom crafted against our information systems. In recent times, cyber-attacks have become more prevalent and much harder to detect and defend against. Our network and storage applications may be vulnerable to cyber-attack, malicious intrusion, malfeasance, loss of data privacy or other significant disruption and may be subject to unauthorized access by hackers, employees, consultants or other service providers. In addition, hardware, software or applications we develop or procure from third parties may contain defects in design or manufacture or other problems that could unexpectedly compromise information security. Unauthorized parties may also attempt to gain access to our systems or facilities through fraud, trickery or other forms of deceiving our employees, contractors and temporary staff. If we experience significant data security breaches or fail to detect and appropriately respond to significant data security breaches, we could be exposed to government enforcement actions and private litigation, as well as potentially incur significant costs and diversion of resources to comply with our contractual obligations to notify our customers of such security breaches, particularly with respect to any protected health information affected. Moreover, if a computer security breach affects our systems or results in the unauthorized access, use or disclosure of personal information, our reputation could be materially damaged. In addition, such a breach may require notification to governmental agencies, the media and/or affected individuals pursuant to various federal, state and international
privacy and security laws, if applicable, including HIPAA or HITECH and its implementing rules and regulations, as well as regulations promulgated by the Federal Trade Commission and state breach notification laws. We would also be exposed to a risk of loss or litigation and potential liability under laws, regulations and contracts that protect the privacy and security of personal information. For example, as stated above, the CCPA imposes a private right of action for security breaches that could lead to some form of remedy including regulatory scrutiny, fines, private right of action settlements, and other consequences. The financial exposure from the events referenced above could either not be insured against or not be fully covered through any insurance that we may maintain, and there can be no assurance that the limitations of liability in any of our contracts would be enforceable or adequate or would otherwise protect us from liabilities or damages as a result of the events referenced above. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. In addition, our customers could lose confidence in our ability to protect their information, which could cause them to discontinue using our products or purchasing from us altogether.
The failure of our equipment lease customers to pay us under leasing agreements with them that we do not sell to third party lease finance companies could harm our revenue and operating results.
In 2012, we began offering our solutions to our customers through multi-year equipment lease agreements. We sell the bulk of these leases, including the related accounts receivables, to third party lease finance companies on a non-recourse basis. We retain unsold leases in-house, which exposes us to the creditworthiness of such lease customers over the lease term. For the leases that we retain in-house, our ability to collect payments from a customer or to recognize revenue for the sale could be impaired if the customer fails to meet its obligations to us such as in the case of its bankruptcy filing or deterioration in its financial position, or has other creditworthiness issues, any of which could harm our revenue and operating results.
Our use of open source and non-commercial software components could impose risks and limitations on our ability to commercialize our solutions.
Our solutions contain software modules licensed under open source and other types of non-commercial licenses, including the GNU Public License, the Apache License and others. We also may incorporate open source and other licensed software into our solutions in the future. Use and distribution of such software may entail greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as licenses of these types generally do not provide warranties or other contractual protections regarding infringement claims or the quality of the code. Some of these licenses require the release of our proprietary source code to the public if we combine our proprietary software with open source software in certain manners. This could allow competitors to create similar products with lower development effort and time and ultimately result in a loss of sales for us.
The terms of many open source and other non-commercial licenses have not been judicially interpreted, and there is a risk that such licenses could be construed in a manner that could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to commercialize our solutions. In such event, in order to continue offering our solutions, we could be required to seek licenses from alternative licensors, which may not be available on a commercially reasonable basis or at all, to re-engineer our solutions or to discontinue the sale of our solutions in the event we cannot obtain a license or re-engineer our solutions on a timely basis, any of which could harm our business and operating results. In addition, if an owner of licensed software were to allege that we had not complied with the conditions of the corresponding license agreement, we could incur significant legal costs defending ourselves against such allegations. In the event such claims were successful, we could be subject to significant damages, be required to disclose our source code, or be enjoined from the distribution of our solutions.
Claims of intellectual property infringement could harm our business.
Vigorous protection and pursuit of intellectual property rights has resulted in protracted and expensive litigation for many companies in our industry. Although claims of this kind have not materially affected our business to date, there can be no assurance of the absence of such claims in the future. Any claims or proceedings against us, whether meritorious or not, could be time consuming, result in costly litigation, require significant amounts of management time, result in the diversion of significant operational resources, or require us to enter into royalty or licensing agreements, any of which could harm our business and operating results.
Intellectual property lawsuits are subject to inherent uncertainties due to the complexity of the technical issues involved, and we cannot be certain that we will be successful in defending ourselves against intellectual property claims. In addition, we currently have a limited portfolio of issued patents compared to many other industry participants, and therefore may not be able to effectively utilize our intellectual property portfolio to assert defenses or counterclaims in response to patent infringement claims or litigation brought against us by third parties. Further, litigation may involve patent holding companies or other adverse patent owners who have no relevant products and against whom our potential patents may provide little or no deterrence.
Many potential litigants have the capability to dedicate substantially greater resources to enforce their intellectual property rights and to defend claims that may be brought against them. Furthermore, a successful claimant could secure a judgment that requires us to pay substantial damages or prevents us from distributing certain solutions or performing certain services. We might also be required to seek a license and pay royalties for the use of such intellectual property, which may not be available on commercially acceptable terms or at all. Alternatively, we may be required to develop non-infringing technology, which could require significant effort and expense and may ultimately not be successful.
If we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights, our competitive position could be harmed, or we could be required to incur significant expenses to enforce our rights.
Our success depends, in part, on our ability to protect our proprietary technology. We protect our proprietary technology through patent, copyright, trade secret and trademark laws in the United States and similar laws in other countries. We also protect our proprietary technology through licensing agreements, nondisclosure agreements and other contractual provisions. These protections may not be available in all cases or may be inadequate to prevent our competitors from copying, reverse engineering or otherwise obtaining and using our technology, proprietary rights or solutions in an unauthorized manner. The laws of some foreign countries may not be as protective of intellectual property rights as those in the United States, and mechanisms for enforcement of intellectual property rights may be inadequate. In addition, third parties may seek to challenge, invalidate or circumvent our patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, or applications for any of the foregoing. Our competitors may independently develop technologies that are substantially equivalent, or superior, to our technology or design around our proprietary rights. In each case, our ability to compete could be significantly impaired.
To prevent unauthorized use of our intellectual property rights, it may be necessary to prosecute actions for infringement or misappropriation of our proprietary rights. Any such action could result in significant costs and diversion of our resources and management’s attention, and there can be no assurance that we will be successful in such action. Furthermore, many of our current and potential competitors have the ability to dedicate substantially greater resources to enforce their intellectual property rights than us. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may not be able to prevent third parties from infringing or misappropriating our intellectual property. While we plan to continue to protect our intellectual property with, among other things, patent protection, there can be no assurance that:
•current or future U.S. or foreign patent applications will be approved;
•our issued patents will protect our intellectual property and not be held invalid or unenforceable if challenged by third parties;
•we will succeed in protecting our technology adequately in all key jurisdictions in which we develop technology, or we or our competitors operate; or
•others will not independently develop similar or competing products or methods or design around any patents that may be issued to us.
Our failure to obtain patents with claims of a scope necessary to cover our technology, or the invalidation of our patents, or our inability to protect any of our intellectual property, may weaken our competitive position and harm our business and operating results. We might be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect our intellectual property rights. We may initiate claims or litigation against third parties for infringement of our proprietary rights or to establish the validity of our proprietary rights. Any litigation, whether or not it is resolved in our favor, could result in significant expense to us and divert the efforts of our technical and management personnel, which may harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Product liability or other liability claims could cause us to incur significant costs, adversely affect the sales of our solutions and harm our reputation.
Our solutions are utilized by healthcare professionals and others in the course of providing patient care. As a result, patients, family members, physicians, nurses or others may allege we are responsible for harm to patients or healthcare professionals due to defects in, the malfunction of, the characteristics of, or the operation of, our solutions. Any such allegations could harm our reputation and ability to sell our solutions.
Our solutions utilize lithium-ion batteries and electronic components that may overheat or otherwise malfunction as a result of physical or environmental damage. Components of our solutions emit radio frequency (RF) emissions which have been alleged, in connection with cellular phones, to have adverse health consequences. Magnets in our badges may emit electromagnetic radiation and may be alleged to interfere with implanted medical or other devices. While these components of our solutions comply with applicable guidelines, some may allege that these components of our solutions cause adverse health consequences. Also, applicable guidelines may change making these components of our solutions non-compliant. Any such allegations or non-compliance, or any regulatory developments, could negatively impact the sales of our solutions, require costly modifications to our solutions, and harm our reputation.
Although our customer agreements contain terms and conditions, including disclaimers of liability, that are intended to reduce or eliminate our potential liability, we could be required to spend significant amounts of management time and resources to defend ourselves against product liability, tort, warranty or other claims. If any such claims were to prevail, we could be forced to pay damages, comply with injunctions or stop distributing our solutions. Even if potential claims do not result in liability to us, investigating and defending against these claims could be expensive and time consuming and could divert management’s attention away from our business. We maintain general liability insurance coverage, including coverage for errors and omissions; however, this coverage may not be sufficient to cover large claims against us or otherwise continue to be available on acceptable terms. Further, the insurer could attempt to disclaim coverage as to any particular claim.
We may require additional capital to support our business growth, and such capital may not be available.
We intend to continue to make investments to support business growth and may require additional funds to respond to business challenges, which include the need to develop new solutions or enhance existing solutions, enhance our operating infrastructure, expand our sales and marketing capabilities, expand into non-healthcare markets, and acquire complementary businesses, technologies or assets. Accordingly, we may need to engage in additional equity or debt financing to secure funds. Equity and debt financing, however, might not be available when needed or, if available, might not be available on terms satisfactory to us. If we raise additional funds through equity financing, our stockholders may experience dilution. Debt financing, if available, may involve covenants restricting our operations or our ability to incur additional debt. If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on terms satisfactory to us in the future, our ability to continue to support our business growth and to respond to business challenges could be significantly limited as we may have to delay, reduce the scope of or eliminate some or all of our initiatives, which could harm our operating results.
Some of our solutions are, and others could become, subject to regulation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or similar foreign agencies, which could increase our operating costs.
We provide certain products that are, and others that may become, subject to regulation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and similar agencies in other countries, or the jurisdiction of these agencies could be expanded in the future to include our solutions. The FDA regulates certain products, including software-based products, as “medical devices” based, in part, on the intended use of the product and the risk the device poses to the patient should the device fail to perform properly. For example, the clinical alert notification solution we acquired as part of our acquisition of Extension Healthcare and the clinical communications product we acquired from mVisum are regulated by the FDA as Class II medical devices. Although we have concluded that our wireless badge is a general-purpose communications device not subject to FDA regulation, the FDA could disagree with our conclusion, or changes in our solutions or the FDA’s evolving regulation could lead to FDA regulation of our solutions. Canada and many other countries in which we sell or may sell our solutions could also have similar regulations applicable to our solutions, some of which may be subject to change or interpretation. We may incur substantial operating costs if we are required to register our solutions or components of our solutions as regulated medical devices under U.S. or foreign regulations, obtain premarket approval from the FDA or foreign regulatory agencies, and satisfy the extensive reporting requirements. In addition, failure to comply with these regulations could result in enforcement actions and monetary penalties.
Environmental and social (E&S) regulations, policies and provisions, as well as customer demand, may make our supply chain more complex and may adversely affect our relationships with customers.
There is an increasing focus on the governance of environmental and social risks in our industry. A number of our customers have adopted, or may adopt, procurement policies that include E&S provisions that their suppliers must comply with, or they may seek to include such provisions in their procurement terms and conditions. An increasing number of participants in the industry are also joining voluntary E&S initiatives, such as the Responsible Business Alliance. These E&S provisions and initiatives are subject to change, can be unpredictable, and may be difficult and expensive for us to comply with, given the complexity of our supply chain and our outsourced manufacturing. If we are unable to comply or are unable to cause our suppliers or contract manufacturers to comply, with such policies or provisions, a customer may stop purchasing products from us, and may take legal action against us, which could harm our reputation, revenue and results of operations.
In addition, as part of their E&S programs, an increasing number of customers are seeking to source products that do not contain minerals sourced from areas where proceeds from the sale of such minerals are likely to be used to fund armed conflict, such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This could adversely affect the sourcing, availability and pricing of minerals used in the manufacture of our equipment. Since our supply chain is complex, we are not currently able to definitively ascertain the origins of all of the minerals and metals used in our products. As a result, we may face difficulties in satisfying these customers’ demands, which may harm our sales and operating results.
Risks Related to our Notes
We have indebtedness in the form of convertible senior notes.
As a result of the Notes offering, we incurred $143.75 million principal amount of indebtedness, the principal amount of which we may be required to pay at maturity in 2023. Holders of the Notes will have the right to require us to repurchase their Notes upon the occurrence of a “fundamental change” (as defined in the indenture governing the Notes) at a purchase price equal to 100% of the principal amount of the Notes to be purchased, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any. In addition, the indenture for the Notes provides that we are required to repay amounts due under the indenture in the event that there is an event of default for the Notes that results in the principal, premium, if any, and interest, if any, becoming due prior to maturity date of the Notes. There can be no assurance that we will be able to repay this indebtedness when due, or that we will be able to refinance this indebtedness on acceptable terms or at all. In addition, this indebtedness could, among other things:
•heighten our vulnerability to adverse general economic conditions and heightened competitive pressures;
•require us to dedicate a larger portion of our cash flow from operations to interest payments, limiting the availability of cash for other purposes;
•limit our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in our business and industry; and
•impair our ability to obtain additional financing in the future for working capital, capital expenditures, acquisitions, general corporate purposes or other purposes.
In addition, our ability to purchase the Notes or repay prior to maturity any accelerated amounts under the Notes upon an event of default or pay cash upon conversions of the Notes may be limited by law, by regulatory authority or by agreements governing our indebtedness outstanding at the time. Our failure to repurchase Notes at a time when the repurchase is required by the indenture (whether upon a fundamental change or otherwise under the indenture) or pay cash payable on future conversions of the Notes (unless we elect to deliver solely shares of our common stock to settle such conversion) as required by the indenture would constitute a default under the indenture. A default under the indenture or the fundamental change itself could also lead to a default under agreements governing any future indebtedness. If the repayment of any related indebtedness were to be accelerated after any applicable notice or grace periods, we may not have sufficient funds to repay the indebtedness, repurchase the Notes or make cash payments upon conversions thereof.
Provisions in the indenture for the Notes may deter or prevent a business combination that may be favorable to you.
If a fundamental change occurs prior to the maturity date of the Notes, holders of the Notes will have the right, at their option, to require us to repurchase all or a portion of their Notes. In addition, if a make-whole fundamental change occurs prior to the maturity date, we will in some cases be required to increase the conversion rate for a holder that elects to convert its notes in connection with such make-whole fundamental change. Furthermore, the indenture for the Notes prohibits us from engaging in certain mergers or acquisitions unless, among other things, the surviving entity assumes our obligations under the Notes. These and other provisions in the indenture could deter or prevent a third party from acquiring us even when the acquisition may be favorable to our stockholders.
The accounting method for convertible debt securities that may be settled in cash, such as the Notes, could have a material effect on our reported financial results.
Under Accounting Standards Codification 470-20, Debt with Conversion and Other Options (ASC 470-20), an entity must separately account for the liability and equity components of the convertible debt instruments (such as the Notes) that may be settled entirely or partially in cash upon conversion in a manner that reflects the issuer’s economic interest cost. The effect of ASC 470-20 on the accounting for the Notes is that the equity component is required to be included in the additional paid-in capital section of stockholders’ equity on our consolidated balance sheet at the issuance date and the value of the equity component would be treated as debt discount for purposes of accounting for the debt component of the Notes. We are required to record a non-cash interest expense for the amortization of this debt discount for the term of the Notes which will adversely affect our financial results while the Notes are outstanding.
In addition, under certain circumstances, convertible debt instruments (such as the Notes) that may be settled entirely or partly in cash may be accounted for utilizing the treasury stock method, the effect of which is that the shares issuable upon conversion of such Notes are not included in the calculation of diluted earnings per share except to the extent that the conversion value of such Notes exceeds their principal amount. Under the treasury stock method, for diluted earnings per share purposes, the transaction is accounted for as if the number of shares of common stock that would be necessary to settle such excess, if we
elected to settle such excess in shares, are issued. We cannot be sure that the accounting standards in the future will continue to permit the use of the treasury stock method. If we are unable, or otherwise elect not to, use the treasury stock method in accounting for the shares issuable upon conversion of the Notes, then our diluted earnings per share could be adversely affected.
The capped call transactions may affect the value of the Notes and our common stock.
In connection with the issuance of the Notes, we entered into capped call transactions with certain financial institutions (the option counterparties). The capped call transactions are expected generally to reduce the potential dilution upon any conversion of the Notes and/or offset any cash payments we are required to make in excess of the principal amount upon conversion of the Notes, with such reduction and/or offset subject to a cap. In connection with establishing their initial hedges of the capped call transactions, the option counterparties and/or their respective affiliates purchased shares of our common stock and/or entered into various derivative transactions with respect to our common stock. This activity could have increased (or reduced the size of any decrease in) the market price of our common stock or the Notes at that time. In addition, the option counterparties and/or their respective affiliates may modify their hedge positions by entering into or unwinding various derivatives with respect to our common stock and/or purchasing or selling our common stock in secondary market transactions (and are likely to do so during any observation period related to a conversion of notes or following any repurchase of notes by us on any fundamental change repurchase date or otherwise). This activity could also cause or avoid an increase or a decrease in the price of our common stock or the Notes. The potential effect, if any, of these transactions and activities on the price of our common stock or the Notes will depend in part on market conditions and cannot be ascertained at this time. Any of these activities could adversely affect the value of our common stock.
Risks related to our common stock
We have never paid cash dividends on our capital stock, and we do not anticipate paying any dividends in the foreseeable future.
We have never paid cash dividends on any of our capital stock and currently intend to retain our future earnings to fund the development and growth of our business. As a result, capital appreciation, if any, of our common stock will be the sole source of gain for the foreseeable future.
Our charter documents and Delaware law could discourage, delay or prevent a change of control of our company or change in our management that stockholders consider favorable and cause our stock price to decline.
Certain provisions of our restated certificate of incorporation and restated bylaws and Delaware law could discourage, delay or prevent a change of control of our company or change in our management that the stockholders of our company consider favorable. These provisions:
•authorize the issuance of “blank check” preferred stock that our board of directors could issue to increase the number of outstanding shares and to discourage a takeover attempt;
•prohibit stockholder action by written consent, requiring all stockholder actions to be taken at a meeting of stockholders;
•establish advance notice procedures for nominating candidates to our board of directors or proposing matters that can be acted upon by stockholders at stockholder meetings;
•limit the ability of our stockholders to call special meetings of stockholders;
•prohibit stockholders from cumulating their votes for the election of directors;
•permit newly created directorships resulting from an increase in the authorized number of directors or vacancies on our board of directors to be filled only by majority vote of our remaining directors, even if less than a quorum is then in office;
•provide that our board of directors is expressly authorized to make, alter or repeal our bylaws;
•establish a classified board of directors so that not all members of our board are elected at one time;
•provide that our directors may be removed only for “cause” and only with the approval of the holders of at least 66 2/3rds percent of our outstanding stock; and
•require super-majority voting to amend certain provisions in our certificate of incorporation and bylaws.
Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law may also discourage, delay or prevent a change of control of our company.
The exclusive forum provision in our amended and restated bylaws may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims.
Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all claims brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. In April 2020, we amended and restated our restated bylaws to provide that the federal district courts of the United States of America will, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be the exclusive forum for resolving any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act (a Federal Forum Provision). Our decision to adopt a Federal Forum Provision followed a decision by the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware holding that such provisions are facially valid under Delaware law. While there can be no assurance that federal courts or other state courts will follow the holding of the Delaware Supreme Court or determine that the Federal Forum Provision should be enforced in a particular case, application of the Federal Forum Provision generally means that suits brought by our stockholders to enforce any duty or liability created by the Securities Act must be brought in federal court and cannot be brought in state court. While neither the exclusive forum provision nor the Federal Forum Provision applies to suits brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act, Section 27 of the Exchange Act creates exclusive federal jurisdiction over all claims brought to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder. Accordingly, actions by our stockholders to enforce any duty or liability created by the Exchange Act or the rules and regulations thereunder also must be brought in federal court. Our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived our compliance with the federal securities laws and the regulations promulgated thereunder.
Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring or holding any interest in any of our securities shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to our exclusive forum provisions, including the Federal Forum Provision. These provisions may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum of their choosing for disputes with us or our directors, officers, or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers, and other employees.
General risk factors
The market price of our common stock has been, and may continue to be, volatile, and your investment in our stock could suffer a decline in value.
There has been significant volatility in the market price and trading volume of equity securities, which is often unrelated or disproportionate to the financial performance of the companies issuing the securities. These broad market fluctuations may negatively affect the market price of our common stock. The market price of our common stock could fluctuate significantly in response to the factors described in this “Risk Factors” section and elsewhere in this Form 10-K and other factors, many of which are beyond our control, including:
•actual or anticipated variation in anticipated operating results of us or our competitors;
•the financial projections we may provide to the public, any changes in these projections or our failure to meet these projections;
•announcements by us or our competitors of new solutions, new or terminated significant contracts, commercial relationships or capital commitments;
•changes in the regulatory environment affecting our healthcare customers, including impediments to their ability to obtain reimbursement for their services, and other actual or anticipated legal or regulatory developments in the United States or foreign countries;
•actual or anticipated developments in our competitors’ businesses or the competitive landscape generally;
•failure of securities analysts to maintain coverage of us, changes in financial estimates by any securities analysts who follow our company, or our failure to meet these estimates or the expectations of investors;
•developments or disputes concerning our intellectual property or other proprietary rights;
•commencement of, or our involvement in, litigation;
•announced or completed acquisitions of businesses, technologies or assets by us or our competitor;
•changes in operating performance and stock market valuations of other technology companies generally, or those in our industry in particular;
•price and volume fluctuations attributable to inconsistent trading volume levels of our common stock;
•our decision to seek additional equity or debt financing;
•our public float relative to the total number of shares of our common stock that are issued and outstanding;
•price and volume fluctuations in the overall stock market, including as a result of trends in the economy as a whole;
•rumors and market speculation involving us or other companies in our industry;
•the dissemination of adverse or misleading reports or opinions about our business;
•any major change in our management;
•unfavorable economic conditions and slow or negative growth of our markets; and
•other events or factors, including those resulting from war, incidents of terrorism or health epidemics or contagious diseases.
Our business is subject to the risks of earthquakes, fire, floods and other natural catastrophic events, and to interruption by man-made problems such as power disruptions or terrorism.
Our corporate headquarters are located in the San Francisco Bay Area, a region known for seismic activity, and many critical components of our solutions are sourced in Asia and Mexico, regions known to suffer natural disasters and epidemics or contagious diseases. A significant natural disaster, such as an earthquake, fire or a flood, or epidemic or contagious disease, occurring at our headquarters, our other facilities or where our contract manufacturer or its suppliers are located, could harm our business, operating results and financial condition. In addition, acts of terrorism could cause disruptions in our business, the businesses of our customers and suppliers, or the economy as a whole. We also rely on information technology systems to communicate among our workforce located worldwide, and in particular, our senior management, general and administrative, and research and development activities that are coordinated with our corporate headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area. Any disruption to our internal communications, whether caused by a natural disaster, an epidemic or contagious disease, or by man-made problems, such as power disruptions, in the San Francisco Bay Area, Asia or Mexico could delay our research and development efforts, cause delays or cancellations of customer orders or delay deployment of our solutions, which could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
If we do not maintain effective internal control over financial reporting or disclosure controls and procedures in the future, the accuracy and timeliness of our financial reporting may be adversely affected.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we assess the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting annually and disclosure controls and procedures quarterly. In particular, we must obtain confidence in our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. To the extent we find a material weakness or other deficiency in our internal control over financial reporting, the accuracy and timeliness of our financial reporting may be adversely affected.
Multiple negative consequences could ensue if a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting is identified in the future, or we are not able to comply with the requirements of Section 404 in a timely manner, or we do not maintain effective controls. For example, our reported financial results could be materially misstated or could be restated, we could receive an adverse opinion regarding our controls from our independent registered public accounting firm, or we could be subject to investigations or sanctions by regulatory authorities. All of these outcomes would require additional financial and management resources, and the market price of our stock could decline.
We will continue to incur substantial costs as a result of operating as a public company and our management devotes substantial time to public company compliance obligations.
As a public company, we incur substantial legal, accounting and other expenses. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 and rules subsequently implemented by the SEC and our stock exchange, impose various requirements on public companies, including certain corporate governance practices. Our management and other personnel devote a substantial amount of time to these compliance requirements. Moreover, these rules and regulations, along with compliance with accounting principles and regulatory interpretations of such principles, as amended by the JOBS Act, have increased and will continue to increase our legal, accounting and financial compliance costs and have made and will continue to make some activities more time-consuming and costly.
We face risks related to securities litigation that could result in significant legal expenses and settlement or damage awards.
We have in the past been, and may in the future become, subject to claims and litigation alleging violations of the securities laws or other related claims, which could harm our business and require us to incur significant costs. Regardless of the outcome, these matters or future litigation may require significant attention from management and could result in significant
legal expenses, settlement costs or damage awards that could have a material impact on our financial position, results of operations and cash flows.
If securities or industry analysts issue an adverse or misleading opinion regarding our stock or do not publish research or reports about our business, our stock price could decline.
The trading market for our common stock depends in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us and our business. We do not control these analysts or the content and opinions included in their reports. The price of our common stock could decline if one or more analysts downgrade our common stock or if those analysts issue other unfavorable commentary or cease publishing reports about us or our business. If one or more analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to regularly publish reports about our company, we could lose visibility in the financial market, which in turn could cause our stock price to decline. Further, securities or industry analysts may elect not to provide research coverage of our common stock and such lack of research coverage may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
None
Item 2. Properties
We do not currently own any of our facilities. The following table sets forth the location, approximate size, primary use and lease expiration dates of our material leased facilities. Our facilities are in good operating condition and adequately serve our business needs.
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Location
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Approximate
square feet
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Primary use
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Lease expiration date
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San Jose, California
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70,000
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Corporate headquarters and product warehousing
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March 31, 2022
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Fort Wayne, Indiana
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27,860
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Development, sales and support
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February 28, 2023
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Toronto, Canada
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2,289
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Development, sales and support
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April 30, 2023
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Reading, United Kingdom
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1,366
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Sales and support
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June 6, 2022
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Bangalore, India
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20,734
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Development
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July 24, 2022
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Bangalore, India
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20,734
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Development
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July 1, 2024
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Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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1,905
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Sales and support
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December 20, 2022
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Pleasanton, California
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842
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Development, sales and support
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January 31, 2024
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Orlando, Florida
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5,083
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Sales and support
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May 31, 2026
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Queensland, Australia
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1,100
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Sales and support
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June 23, 2021
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