Dell set to enter IT healthcare market in India

Bangalore, March 29,2014 – Dell, the global technology giant that recently went private, is all set to enter the IT healthcare market in India with a focus on mid-sized hospitals and other players in this segment. Dell, whose business spans across hardware, software and IT services, has targeted the healthcare market with a new cloud-based solution.

“We will target hospitals with 100 beds or above or if they are smaller, but part of a chain like Cloudnine, VisionCare etc. It will not be the Apollos and Fortis because they have solutions available,” Sid Nair, vice-president and global general manager, healthcare and life sciences, told FE. Elaborating on their strategy, Nair said initially, it will be a three-year business plan for them in India. “We would monitor it for 18 months. If it works here, we will take it to China and Latin America,” he added.

Dell sees untapped potential in India, China and Latin America. “Three years ago, 95% of our revenue was from the US. The largest US healthcare system has 20,000-25,000 beds, whereas Apollo and Fortis have 10,000-12,000 beds,” said Nair. “The US has 5,000 hospitals. They can grow up to a certain level. We want to seed the Indian market right now because the government is paying attention. India currently spends 1.5% of GDP on healthcare. It’s going to increase in the next two years,” he said.The Indian healthcare industry is valued at $160 billion as against the US’s $3 trillion. “While healthcare spending in the US is decreasing, it is growing in India by 15%,” Nair said.

In a recent report, research firm Gartner had said healthcare providers in India are expected to spend $1.08 billion on IT products and services in 2014, an increase of 4% over 2013. Dell’s cloud-based healthcare solution has finance, procurement, ERP, HR, all put together in one box. This can be accessed by end-users such as physicians, nurses and back office staff. This solution will be delivered under the Software-as-a-Service model and the user will only pay depending on the usage.

Dell is also partnering with Ubq Technologies and Ramco Systems to deliver an end-to-end proposition to providers. Ubq’s hospital information system solution, medics, will serve as the front-end application for patient-centric activities and integrate with Ramco ERP on cloud to provide customers seamless enterprise-wide applications on cloud.