Tech Execs: ObamaCare Snafus ‘Inconceivable’

Textura principals Pat Allin, Bill Eichhorn and Jill Sheehan are no strangers to solving large-scale technology problems.

In this edition of Conference Room, Eichhorn tells FBN’s Jeff Flock that the founders first began to study the opportunity to improve efficiency in the construction industry eight years ago – and found few competitors in the space.

“It was just a tremendous opportunity from the start,” says Eichhorn, who is now the company’s executive vice-president.

While the recession hurt Textura’s target demographic, it was actually a boon for the company.

“It was helpful for us. Our clients needed to get more efficient, and our software helps them do that,” says Eichhorn. The company’s technology helps connect participants on construction projects, specifically with regard to invoicing, legal documents and payment transfer.

Having built a complex technology platform from the ground up, CEO Pat Allin says the ObamaCare platform’s problems are “inconceivable.”

“The population of the United States is known; the number of people using this technology is known. It’s kind of a design criteria from the beginning,” says Allin, discussing the platform’s inability to handle all the incoming traffic.

He says there have been no challenges that the designers behind the exchanges couldn’t have prepared for. That said, Allin understands personally the issues facing a platform that is experiencing rapid adoption by users. Finding the answers, however, once again comes down to constructing software that can grow along with an expanding user base.

“At the rate we’re growing, it’s always a constant battle to keep adding to our platform and our infrastructure, so we can handle the number of clients we have,” says Allin.

“We’ve had instances where our technology functioned a little slower, but we added servers to try to speed it up. It’s all around design,” he adds.