SAN Jose, CA – A global business intelligence company with its toe in the healthcare finance pool could be diving into the market in the near future, thanks to a newly announced merger.
Business Objects, based in San Jose, Calif. and Paris, announced at the end of November that it has acquired Nsite Software, Inc., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based software-as-a-service provider. The deal gives Business Objects, which specializes in business intelligence (BI) solutions, an avenue to on-demand applications in addition to 27,000 new customers.
“Business Objects has established a healthcare vertical to focus specifically on the clinical and operational problems of providers and payers,” said Chris Christy, Business Objects’ worldwide healthcare industry marketing director. “We believe end users and patients would greatly benefit from the quick and easy access to accurate information. Our technology provides a mechanism for these organizations to increase their performance through visibility to key performance indicators, decrease costs through streamlining operations and workflow, as well as understanding market characteristics.”
Business Objects lists 29 healthcare customers on its corporate Web site, including the American Red Cross, CareFirst of Maryland, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City and both the Boston Medical Center and Children’s Hospital Boston.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) requires that users have only an Internet connection and little software at the local level, cutting down on the cost of applications. Nsite produces On Demand Enterprise, which allows companies to develop applications that can be accessed over the Web through a browser.
According to the company’s press release, Nsite provides drag-and-drop functionality and uses asynchronous Java and XML (Ajax) technology. Business Objects launched its own on-demand solution, crystalreports.com, this past April and currently has about 7,000 customers.
“With Nsite, we can give our healthcare partners a platform to offer BI and analytic operations and solutions for healthcare operations,” said Steven Lucas, Business Objects’ vice president of strategic marketing. “We have a high degree of interest from our partner community in providing on-demand BI solutions to their respective clientele and this enables that immediately.”
Business Objects officials say they expect to soon introduce new on-demand business intelligence solutions through the Nsite platform.
“We believe that healthcare is poised for significant growth in the use of business intelligence,” said Christy. “With the widespread adoption of related enabling technology such as electronic medical records, computerized physician order entry and other clinical systems, the use of business intelligence can integrate these disparate systems resulting in transparent, easy-to-use and actionable information.”