Wisconsin health IT firm MyHealthDIRECT raises $4 million

Wisconsin health IT firm MyHealthDIRECT raises $4 million MyHealthDIRECT Inc., a Brookfield, Wisconsin-based health IT firm, expects to nearly double its workforce and quadruple its sales in 2011. Given these goals, the $4 million it raised in a recent funding round would sure come in handy. The lead investor was Arboretum Ventures, a healthcare venture capital firm, while Chrysalis Ventures also chipped in. MyHealthDIRECT is a web-based access management system that helps people get healthcare appointments within a network or a community. Founded in 2005, the company hasbrowser-based software that can organize and book available appointments in the community into a searchable and schedulable inventory of healthcare services. “MyHealthDIRECT is rapidly establishing itself as the ’Open Table’ of healthcare, and we are very pleased to provide it with additional growth capital,” said Tim Petersen, Managing Director, Arboretum Ventures, in a statement. Petersen was referring to OpenTable.com, the popular service that allows diners to reserve tables in restaurants in select cities. In an interview this week, Chief Executive Officer Jay Mason said the tool provides operational and financial efficiency for hospitals as well as managed care plans. A regulatory filing earlier this week shows that the company hoped to raise $4.17 million, and ended up raising $4.02 million. A 2009 filing with the U. S. Securities & Exchange Commission shows that the company raised $4.9 million in Series A funding. Mason explained that this time around, the money will be used in the client services side in preparation of some major contracts he expects to be inked in the next two months. Customers are managed care plans, as well as hospitals. Mason shared an example of how the software improved the efficiency of one call center of a managed care plan. The call center does primary care and specialty referrals. When patients call in to get an appointment, the call center operator has to also call the specialist’s office and the primary care doctor’s office on the line to try and get availability for appointments. That takes 14.5 minutes on average. “It’s a train wreck,” Mason said. “It’s not pretty; it’s not efficient.” Using MyHealthDIRECT’s web-based tool, the call center operator now has a clear view of what dates and times are available and can book appointments instantly based on the patient’s convenience. That process now takes 3.5 minutes, Mason said. Mason added that the confluence of two things has benefitted his health IT company greatly– the “decimation of healthcare budgets” requiring people to do more with less, and the need to be more transparent and offer more choice to patients. He expects that by the end of the year MyHealthDIRECT will have 58 employees; currently, it has 29. He declined to provide revenue details or pricing information for the product, which he said varies greatly depending on the profile of the customer. It is a subscription-based model. MyHealthDIRECT has 104 customers including Aurora Health Care, a nonprofit healthcare

Infosys recasts management for bigger bite of retail, banking & healthcare - Economic Times

Infosys recasts management for bigger bite of retail, banking & healthcare - Economic Times BANGALORE: In the middle of its biggest management transition ever since Infosys was founded, the company is aiming for a larger share of revenue from retail, banking and healthcare customers by shifting the roles of leaders handling multiple business units. During the past few quarters, Infosys' telecom, large deals group and computer infrastructure management units have lagged peers, raising questions about whether the company should continue to have its top leaders handle more than one portfolio. For instance, while Ashok Vemuri manages the banking, financial services and insurance business unit and the large deals group, Prasad Thrikutam heads energy utilities and system integration businesses. Another executive council member Subhash Dhar is heading both telecom business and global sales at Infosys. "It's less to do with individual leaders and more about the structure itself. The company needs to either combine smaller units into one or let its best leaders focus on the most important areas," said a person familiar with restructuring talks at the company. In a year when top outsourcing customers such as Wal-Mart, Citi, JP Morgan and BofA have resumed spending on new projects, tech firms Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro and Cognizant are scrambling to gain leadership in at least 1-2 verticals. "We observe that in several cases where members of the executive council management have multiple responsibilities, one or two of the portfolios tend to suffer," JP Morgan analysts Viju K Geroge and Amit Sharma wrote in their report last month. "Our finding is that at least one of the responsibility areas in the portfolio has under-performed peers, and multiple responsibilities might have something to do with this. For example, the retail vertical has performed in line with peers, but infra management, which is managed by the same person, has significantly underperformed," the JP Morgan analysts added. During calendar year 2010, Infosys' revenues from infrastructure management grew by 13.6% compared with TCS' 39.5%. TCS also outperformed Infosys in the back-office outsourcing business by growing its revenues during 2010 by 23% compared with Infosys' 17% growth. Pravin Rao, who is considered for establishing Infosys dominance in the retail business, also heads infrastructure management and transportation and logistics business units.

Software developer VanceInfo buys outsourcing firm - BusinessWeek

Software developer VanceInfo buys outsourcing firm - BusinessWeek Software developer VanceInfo Technologies Inc. said Tuesday it has purchased LW International Holdings Ltd., a Chinese business outsourcing services company. China's VanceInfo will pay $5.6 million in cash and stock for the company, with further payments based on LW International's performance during the next three years. LW, also known as Lifewood, was started in 2004 and serves clients in the U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific regions, mainly in the health care, publishing and financial services sectors. VanceInfo said there are increasing synergies with between the business outsourcing and information technology businesses. Lifewood reported about $4.5 million in net revenue last year.

UPDATE 1-Tribal sells govt, health units to Capita | Reuters

UPDATE 1-Tribal sells govt, health units to Capita Reuters Mon Apr 11, 2011 3:28am EDT April 11 (Reuters) - British outsourcing and consultancy firm Tribal Plc agreed to sell its government and healthcare units to Capita for 15.87 million pounds ($25.6 million), as it looks to focus on its education business. Shares of Tribal rose 4.4 percent to 40.5 pence at 0711 GMT on Monday on the London Stock Exchange. The sale of the loss-making units comes nearly four months after the company was approached about a possible offer. The sale will allow Tribal to focus on the education and training markets in the UK and internationally. The segment provides a range of technology, inspection and other professional support services to the education sector. Tribal, which has been in an offer period since December, had received an offer for its education business from software and IT services firm Civica, the Sunday Times had reported in March. [ID:nLDE72Q09S] Civica is owned by private equity firm 3i .