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With its deal to acquire Perot Systems for $3.9 billion, Dell puts itself on a more even footing to compete with HP and IBM for projects that involve IT services. But rather than becoming just another me-too player in the IT services field, Dell may be gaining itself a bit of an edge in a red-hot market.
Perot isn’t just a copycat of EDS, which HP acquired for nearly $14 billion in 2008. Yes, it offers a wide range of IT services in industries as varied as government, insurance, financial services, and transportation. But almost half of its $2.8 billion in annual revenue comes from the healthcare sector.
In fact, Gartner ranks Perot No. 1 in market share for healthcare professional services, and its customers include five of the top 25 U.S. health systems. It also provides services to some 1,000 healthcare providers, 100 health insurance companies and six major healthcare supply chain and retail pharmacy companies.
In other words, with this purchase Dell just became an influential player in the sweeping changes that are taking place in America’s healthcare. And it has put itself in a good position to grab a significant share of the $36 billion the federal government has committed to spend on improving healthcare through such projects as electronic health records implementations. Under the HITECH portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), healthcare providers must demonstrate they are using certified EHR technology by 2016 and that the provider can “demonstrate the technology’s meaningful use” in order to qualify for the financial incentives.
Just about every major IT services provider and technology vendor is trying to grab a piece of that action, but Perot has been a trusted provider to the sector for more than two decades. That could prove to be quite an asset for Dell.
The purchase also fits in well with Dell’s other initiatives on the healthcare front. Earlier this month it announced a one-stop combination of hardware, software and support for healthcare organizations looking to implement EHR systems. In March it also announced it would partner with Wal-Mart and a startup called eClinical Works to sell an EHR service to physician practices through Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club stores
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So while the deal may look like Dell is trying to play catch-up to IBM and HP, it may very well have just slipped into the lead in a crucial market.
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