 Public sector remains the
largest buyer of healthcare
IT in Europe
From Frost & Sullivan
London, UK. In the context of ongoing amendments to healthcare systems
across Europe, healthcare organisations recognise that effective management
and exploitation of healthcare information technology (IT) is vital for
their success. However, marketing of new technologies presents a severe
challenge due to the high costs associated with the start-up
implementations.
IT vendors will need to convince stakeholders that despite the high
implementation costs, new technologies will respond to the continually
changing needs of the healthcare environment when compared to their present
setups. Also, these systems can help maximise business functionality and
eventually lower the total cost of ownership.
"Considering the global trend of improving value for money, future
upgrade capabilities and support expenses, vendors will have to incorporate
a full product portfolio or at least have the capability to integrate
modules from other vendors," notes Frost & Sullivan Healthcare Analyst
Konstantinos Nikolopoulos. "Quantifiable benefits to business processes and
justifiable return on investment are other factors that hardware vendors
need to highlight."
Healthcare budgetary allocations continue to be squeezed and the cost of
hardware installations, repairs and upgrades in the healthcare industry are
rising. In overcoming this restraint, the use of financing options could
make technology and more complete solutions available sooner, although at a
greater final cost. Vendors have to keenly consider this balance as it has
the potential to shift the market either up or down.
The European healthcare environment is largely public sector-driven and
hardware vendors will need to adapt their business practices to accommodate
different public sector demands. In the past, vendors have lost out on
contracts due to their inability to adhere to deliverables both in terms of
timeframe and systems capabilities. Hence, they have to be realistic in
committing deliverable schedules. Further, they will need sufficient
knowledge of the tender processes in different countries and be able to
negotiate hard with decision makers and implement their solutions quicker
and on a larger scale.
As healthcare IT systems continue to progress, major initiatives such as
government-sponsored modernisation plans and mandates to adopt IT systems,
as stipulated by the European Commission, are expected to have a positive
influence on the growth of the healthcare IT hardware, networking and data
storage systems markets in Europe. The German healthcare IT hardware
networks and data storage systems market accounts for a predominant 35.1 per
cent of the market share and the major projects that could see Europe
leading the way in the global healthcare information systems arena are the
electronic medical record programmes in the United Kingdom as well as the
ehealth initiative across major
European countries.
The segment of the healthcare IT industry that is currently witnessing
maximum activity is the data storage segment. Over the last couple of years,
data characteristics have changed and in many cases, within the modern
healthcare environment, large volumes of data will need to be stored for
many years. This, combined with the need to access, distribute and share
this data will function as a healthy driving force for market. Also,
clinical systems such as the electronic medical record (EMR) and the
computerised physician order entry (CPOE) system are generating considerable
interest.
The European markets for healthcare IT hardware, networks and data
storage systems are demonstrating a healthy growth rate and revenues are
expected to touch USD 923.0 million by 2008, up from the current USD 564.5
million.
"The ability of vendors to compete on price, without sacrificing quality
and services is one of the most important factors in the highly competitive
European markets for healthcare IT hardware, networking and data storage
systems," says Mr. Nikolopoulos. "Those that can leverage their past
experience and demonstrate real value for money will most certainly place
themselves in a competitive position."
If you are interested in a research overview, which provides
manufacturers, end-users and other industry participants with a synopsis of
the latest analysis of the Strategic Analysis of European Markets for
Healthcare IT Hardware, Networks and Data Storage Systems — then send an
email to Radhika Menon Theodore — Corporate Communications at
rmtheodore@frost.com with the
following information: your full name, company name, title, telephone
number, email address, city, state and country. We will send you the
information via email upon receipt of the above information.
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