ISOFT Plc, the UK healthcare systems division which bought out its former parent KPMG earlier this month, has moved fast to expand in the Asia-Pacific region, buying the healthcare system customer base of Computer Sciences Corp in Australia.
ISOFT makes electronic patient record databases which can store and distribute multimedia data across the internet or a hospital’s intranet. The company has signed a letter of intent to acquire the 300 clients, 120 staff and CSC’s 50% share of the Australian healthcare system market.
The Australian market already represents a 1m-pound ($1.5m) market for iSOFT, which has a small share of the total market via a distribution partnership with Deloitte and Touche’s consulting practice (CI No 3,680). We’ve just sold into Australia on a reactive basis, says managing director Patrick Cryne.
CSC benefits from divesting itself of the products division to concentrate on the core systems integration operations. ISOFT wins not only a key share in a market it has targeted, but an opportunity to raise awareness of its new name. CSC’s customers gain from updating their machines from mainframe, bureau-based systems which can only access information on the CSC system, to Microsoft’s Windows NT operating system which is web-enabled, thereby allowing users to get data from anywhere.
ISOFT is looking to add to its European operations in Scandinavia with further acquisitions, eyeing markets in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Benelux region. On a more strategic level, the firm is looking to position itself in the internet healthcare environment with potential future involvement in providing information and services via the internet and interactive television.
