UPWARD.

Success story · Healthcare · Massachusetts

Acmeware

No longer MEDITECH's best-kept secret

Acmeware logo
Brand Storytelling & MessagingMarketing StrategyWebsite DesignAI Search Optimization
The Acmeware website UPWARD built

The summary

What we did, and what it moved.

Acmeware serves hospitals running MEDITECH, and for years its website had grown one addition at a time until it no longer told a cohesive story. UPWARD started with the story, reorganizing Acmeware's products and services so hospitals and technology vendors could each find their path, then built a new website optimized for search and AI. Since launch, Acmeware is fielding more calls and demo requests than before.

Key results

Real numbers only

  • observed September 2026

    LeadingNamed by AI answers for MEDITECH Data Repository reporting

Customer profile

Acmeware

Industry
Healthcare IT
Location
Medfield, Massachusetts
Founded
1998
Founder
Glen D'Abate

The firm

One of the best-kept secrets in the MEDITECH space

Acmeware has served hospitals running MEDITECH since 1998. Headquartered in Medfield, Massachusetts, the company delivers analytics services, custom reporting, software solutions, and education built exclusively for the MEDITECH electronic health record. Its offerings include solutions such as Empower and Downtime Defender, along with quality reporting, data integration, and professional services that help hospitals turn their data into better decisions.

Acmeware's expertise runs deeper than most. Founder and Chairman Glen D'Abate spent 13 years at MEDITECH, where he led development of the MEDITECH Data Repository, the very technology at the center of Acmeware's analytics work. President Joel Benware brings the customer's perspective, having served as CIO at several MEDITECH hospitals, including Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown, New York, Northwestern Medical Center in St. Albans, Vermont, and Alice Hyde Medical Center in Malone, New York.

The company serves two distinct audiences. The first is hospitals that want more value from their MEDITECH data. The second is technology vendors looking to extend their own products with Acmeware's capabilities. After more than 25 years in the market, Acmeware had earned a reputation among those who knew them as one of the best-kept secrets in the MEDITECH space.

The mismatch

The digital equivalent of a kitchen junk drawer

Being a best-kept secret sounds flattering, yet it is a costly position for a company with technology this strong. Acmeware wanted to change that, and its website was standing in the way.

Over the years, the site had become the digital equivalent of a kitchen junk drawer. Each new solution, service, and resource was added on top of what already existed, and with every addition the site lost more of its ability to tell a cohesive story. Acmeware offers different solutions that do different things, and the website no longer made those distinctions clear. Hospitals and technology vendors arrived at the same front door with no clear path toward what was relevant to them, so prospective clients had to dig to understand what Acmeware did and which solution fit their needs. The site had become untenable to manage, and it looked dated.

The rebuild also carried real risk. Acmeware already performed well in search for the MEDITECH topics that mattered most to its business, and any new site needed to protect those rankings rather than start over. The company also provides a large library of free reports to MEDITECH hospitals on a membership basis, which meant the new site needed a reliable way to manage member signups and access.

Acmeware, before
Acmeware, after

Why UPWARD

A foundation of trust, already in place

The MEDITECH market is a close-knit community, and trust carries a lot of weight within it. Joel Benware and UPWARD founder Cody Strate had worked together before, during Joel's years as a hospital CIO, so a foundation of trust was already in place. Every hospital Joel had led technology for ran MEDITECH as its EMR, and Cody already knew the MEDITECH marketplace and the people in it.

That familiarity mattered to Joel. He wanted a partner who could help Acmeware tell its story to MEDITECH hospitals, and the MEDITECH market is unique enough that general marketing experience would not be sufficient.

The reconnection itself was serendipitous. UPWARD had recently completed a new website for Haffty Consulting, another firm in that close-knit community. Joel noticed the new site, was impressed, and asked who had built it. That question led him back to Cody, and the two had the chance to work together again.

The work

Story first, then a direct path for each audience

Every UPWARD engagement starts with the story, and this one was no exception. Through discovery and stakeholder interviews, we worked with the Acmeware team to define who they serve, the problems those customers face, and how Acmeware solves them. We developed ideal customer profiles for both of Acmeware's audiences, hospitals and technology vendors, and mapped every product, solution, and service into a clear and logical structure.

This strategic reorganization turned out to be one of the most valuable outcomes of the entire project. With Acmeware's story and offerings organized, the site could give each audience a direct path to what matters to them, so prospective clients find what they are looking for without digging.

With the strategy in place, we designed and built a new website in Webflow that is clean, elegant, and easy to navigate. The design reflects the caliber of Acmeware's technology and replaces years of accumulated clutter with a focused experience.

Behind the site, we built a full content management system that the Acmeware team manages on their own. Articles, team profiles, solutions, services, success stories, testimonials, and FAQs all live in structured collections, so the team can publish and update content without a developer. We also migrated Acmeware's library of published articles into the new system so years of expertise carried forward. At the end of the project, the site was transferred into Acmeware's own Webflow workspace, giving them full ownership.

We integrated Acmeware's live product demo directly into the website so prospective clients can test-run the solution for themselves. Instead of only reading about what Acmeware's technology can do, buyers can experience it firsthand before they ever get on a call.

Acmeware provides a substantial library of free reports to MEDITECH hospitals, including SSRS reports, T-SQL code, and NPR reports, through a membership program called the DR Network. This was one of the most distinctive parts of the project. We built a membership management system that lets hospital teams sign up, log in, and access the full library. Every registration is reviewed and approved by the Acmeware team, which keeps these resources in the hands of the MEDITECH hospitals they were built for.

The new site is fully optimized for search. We mapped redirects from the old site to the new one to protect the rankings Acmeware had already earned, and we structured every page so search engines can clearly understand what Acmeware offers and who it serves.

We also optimized the site for AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. More MEDITECH professionals are turning to these tools with their questions every day, and the site is built so Acmeware is positioned to surface as an answer when they do.

The results

Exactly the right kind of problem to have

Today, Acmeware's website is clean, organized, and delivers a wonderful user experience. Hospitals and technology vendors can each find what they need quickly, the Acmeware team can manage content on their own, and MEDITECH hospitals have easy, controlled access to the free resources that set Acmeware apart. The site is fully optimized for search and positioned for the growing number of buyers who start their research in AI search engines.

The business impact is already clear. Since the new site launched, Acmeware is getting more calls and more demo requests than before, and the team is working to keep up with the added demand. Joel Benware is extremely happy with the outcome.

For a company that spent more than 25 years as one of MEDITECH's best-kept secrets, more demand than it can easily handle is exactly the right kind of problem to have.

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