ARMONK, NY and MALVERN, PA -- 05/07/08 --
At a time when concerns over
spiraling healthcare costs and global environmental issues have grown
dramatically, Siemens (NYSE: SI) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that
they will work together to help community hospitals reduce their operating
costs and energy consumption.
Hospitals currently using or planning to use Siemens MedSeries4®, a
healthcare information system designed specifically for community
hospitals, can now benefit from the bundling of powerful server technology
from IBM that features the company's POWER(TM) server, its
energy-efficient, environmentally friendly BladeCenter® Servers, Tivoli
Storage Manager software, and specially configured IBM System Storage
DS3000 and DS4000 IBM systems.
Blade server technology is proven to assist organizations in driving down
operating and maintenance expenses, allowing for lower total cost of
ownership, reduced data center space requirements, lower energy
consumption, and streamlined data center management. According to initial
cost analyses conducted by IBM and Siemens, the organizations project that
community hospitals could cut initial hardware costs by approximately 25
percent.
"The relationship between Siemens MedSeries4 and IBM's full range of
supporting technology is unique in today's healthcare computing
environment, where few hardware and software combinations are so well
suited for each other," said Marilyn Marchant, vice president, Foundation
Enterprise Systems, Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. "As business
partners whose healthcare-industry collaboration goes back 30 years, we are
confident that this collaboration will drive outcomes that improve our
customers' bottom lines, while further streamlining access to information
and enhancing the overall patient experience."
Installed in more than 400 community hospital facilities, including eight
major healthcare chains, MedSeries4 delivers true value with low total cost
of ownership, a high level of integration, and streamlined system
operation. MedSeries4 strategically facilitates the drive toward
computerized practitioner order entry (CPOE) and an electronic health
record (EHR), making patient data available via an integrated, Web-based
healthcare information system. MedSeries4 also integrates multiple
solutions with superior performance on IBM's award-winning POWER platform
for unmatched reliability. MedSeries4 also uses IBM's WebSphere® and the
DB2® Universal Database(TM), which combine to offer simplified management
of complex environments.
The collaboration between IBM and Siemens will help to extend the power of
MedSeries4 in even the most complex IT environments, where further
reductions in core operating costs are required to increase profitability
and ensure the ongoing ability of community hospitals to provide healthcare
services to the public.
IBM BladeCenter servers deliver blade technology in a new way, collapsing
servers and networking infrastructure and security appliances into a single
location in a data center. They also require less installation time and
maintenance, helping to reduce IT infrastructure costs. The servers are
therefore especially well suited to the healthcare industry, where tight
budgets and limited staffing are often the norm. As an additional benefit
to the community, the highly reliable IBM BladeCenter Servers offer a
proven open, easy and "green" technology that demands less energy and is
easier and less costly to cool than other alternatives.
To ensure each hospital the widest range of health-information applications
operating in a standardized environment, Siemens and IBM will consolidate
MedSeries4 surround systems in a rack-mounted IBM BladeCenter Server. The
BladeCenter is combined with a rack-mounted IBM DS3000 or DS4000 disk
storage solution that can eliminate the need to use multiple independent
server and storage combinations for individual delivery of these
departmental applications.
Further, IBM's Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) works to automate data
protection, reduce complexity with centralized storage management
operations, and coordinate access of all data coming from the applications
that reside in the BladeCenter as information flows to one common storage
unit.
Finally, the entire system is backed up by IBM's Linear Tape Option (LTO)
tape storage systems.
"IBM and our long-time partner, Siemens, understand that IT infrastructure
is the foundation for transforming business processes and information
management as community hospitals evolve toward more patient-centric and
personalized healthcare," said Ivo Nelson, Vice President, IBM Healthcare
Provider Business. "To support the growth in storage and performance
demands that this evolution will drive, this new offering will provide a
leading-edge solution that can help hospitals manage growth
cost-effectively, remain flexible, and ensure the highest quality of
healthcare delivery to their communities."
About Siemens Healthcare
Siemens Healthcare is one of the world's largest suppliers to the
healthcare industry. The company is a renowned medical solutions provider
with core competence and innovative strength in diagnostic and therapeutic
technologies as well as in knowledge engineering, including information
technology and system integration. With its laboratory diagnostics
acquisitions, Siemens Healthcare will be the first fully integrated
diagnostics company, bringing together imaging and lab diagnostics,
therapy, and healthcare information technology solutions, supplemented by
consulting and support services. Siemens Healthcare delivers solutions
across the entire continuum of care -- from prevention and early detection,
to diagnosis, therapy and care. The company employs more than 49,000 people
worldwide and operates in 130 countries. In the fiscal year 2007 (Sept.
30), Siemens Healthcare reported sales of EUR 9.85 billion (on a pro forma
basis including Dade Behring roughly EUR 11 billion), orders of EUR 10.27
billion, and group profit of EUR 1.32 billion. Further information can be
found by visiting http://www.siemens.com/healthcare.
About IBM: For more information on IBM's Healthcare Industry, please visit
www.ibm.com.
Contacts:
Gina Jesberg
IBM Public Relations
(203) 445-1545
ginajes@us.ibm.com
Thomas Schaffner
Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc.
(610) 448-1477
thomas.schaffner@siemens.com
