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Microsoft, GE Team To Change Healthcare Systems

Drew Bowling — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:50:35 +0000

Microsoft announced yesterday that it will partner with General Electric to form a new company aimed at improving the accessibility of healthcare information. The two hope to optimize the treatment that healthcare providers can offer patients while minimizing the cost often passed on to patients. In what is touted as the ideal combination of Microsoft’s innovation and expertise in developing software platforms with GE Healthcare’s experience in administrative and workflow solutions, their goal is to enable “healthcare professionals and organizations with the intelligence and capabilities to respond to the rapidly evolving and complex healthcare landscape.”

Anything that can take the burden and frustration off of patients from the healthcare industry’s hardly navigable morass of bureaucracy and costliness is a welcome change. Building on existing offerings from both companies, Microsoft and GE believe that they can ultimately improve the quality of healthcare given to patients. Quoted from Microsoft’s press release, Jeffrey R. Immelt, chairman and CEO of GE, explained the goals of the partnership:

The complementary nature of GE Healthcare’s and Microsoft’s individual expertise will drive new insights, solutions and efficiencies to further advance the two companies’ shared vision of a connected, patient-centric healthcare system. The global healthcare challenges of access, cost and quality of care delivery are creating a new focus on the performance and accountability of healthcare delivery systems — in every country, at every level of care. This venture will demonstrate what is possible when leading companies with complementary capabilities work together to meet a common goal.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer added:

High-quality, affordable healthcare is one of the biggest challenges facing every nation, but it’s also an area where technology can make a huge difference. Combining Microsoft’s open, interoperable health platforms and software expertise with GE’s experience and healthcare solutions will create exciting opportunities for patients and healthcare providers alike. Working together, GE and Microsoft can help make healthcare systems more intelligent and cost efficient while improving patient care.

Some of the platforms planned by the joint venture is a software suite that will include Microsoft Amalga, Microsoft Vergence, Microsoft expreSSO, GE Healthcare eHealth, and GE Healthcare Qualibiria. The two companies hope that their endeavor will address many of the problems they have identified in the current healthcare system, such as healthcare associated infections and chronic disease management. Michael J. Simpson, current vice president and general manager of GE Healthcare IT, will serve as the company’s CEO. The two companies also project that the venture will produce job growth within its first five years of existence.

Despite the fact that the new company has not yet been christened with a name, it is slated to launch sometime in the first half of 2012.

GE/Comcast NBC Universal Deal Said to Be Complete

Chris Crum — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:04:54 +0000

CNBC reports that the deal between GE and Comcast over a majority stake in NBC Universal is complete, and will likely be announced officially Thursday morning. This comes from what CNBC attributes as a "source close to the merger".

According to the report, GE and Comcast are waiting on Vivendi to sign an agreement, selling its 20% stake, which is worth about $5.8 billion. CNBC’s David Faber outlines the deal:

The deal would make NBCU 51 percent owned by Comcast and 49 percent owned by GE.

Currently, GE owns 80 percent of NBCU, which the two companies have valued at about $30 billion.

The deal includes the spinoff of NBC Universal and $9 billion in debt. It also includes the merger of Comcast’s content assets and a $6 billion cash contribution.

Bloomberg’s Todd Shields and Christopher Stern suggest that the deal would be heavily scrutinized by the FCC, and either the FTC or the Justice Department’s antitrust division.

As Jennifer Van Grove at Mashable notes, rumors have been circulating about a deal for a couple months at least. It looks like rumors will become fact this week, if the unnamed source’s story holds water.

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Google Gets Serious About 411

Nathan Weinberg — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:56:27 +0000

Thomsom, maker of GE-branded telephones, has teamed up with Google to release a number of GE phones with a prominent GOOG-411 button above the keypad.

Pressing the button will call Google’s toll free voice controlled business search service.

With every consumer who buys one of these phones most likely becoming a serious user of GOOG-411 (really, who would use any other service if the button is right on their phone?), this could me some serious uptake in usage of Google’s service.

Great partership for Google, and it really shows how serious they are in making GOOG-411 a success.

Comments

How Long Will Your Agency Relationship Last?

Kevin Dugan — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:22:51 +0000

Research shows that half of the agency/client relationships out there last less than two years.

This is from a sample of about 140 companies with an annual marketing spend of at least $2 million, including Citibank, General Mills, IBM, GE, and ESPN.

After nearly 15 years in agencies, this percentage sounds about right. But where the research tries to determine why this is the case, I take issue with it.

The other big reason [for the short tenure] is likely the fact that agencies take their eye off the ball. When you examine the reasons why clients get rid of agencies, a lot of it has to do with weaknesses in strategic thinking, creative, and service. Too many agencies try and do too many things well. They are in the business for being great creative and strategic thinkers and do-ers…not to be a great lead generation/business making machine. Too many agencies take their eye off the ball soon after an account is won, only to look for the next new win. Staying more focused on existing clients and leaving the business of building business to experts is likely a more productive strategy, long-term.

A lead generation firm sponsored the research. This fact turns the above excerpt from a research insight into a thinly-veiled ad.

It’s Not You, It’s Me

So who’s fault is it? Part of this churn is a natural cycle vs. it being someone’s fault. Marketers are restless creatives at heart. The shelf life for any type of creative work is getting as short as consumers’ shrinking attention span. And, while it’s expensive to select a new agency and get them ramped up on your business, doing an agency review is often seen as the best way to get new ideas. Even the research notes (depressingly) that “more than 40 percent said they ‘look forward to’ or ‘find it exciting’ to search for a new agency.”

But there are also external factors that impact the client/agency relationship. Many of these factors are out of the agency’s control, including industry economic climate, client contacts changing jobs, client politics and client chemistry. These are just a handful of items to deal with and we haven’t even discussed the work yet.

Since moving client side three years ago, one of the biggest benefits I’ve discovered is time. I’ve been able to prioritize and grow our marketing efforts strategically. With a few years of momentum, and plenty of results along the way, I’m looking forward to doing even more in 2008.

This may read all Pollyanna, but I think clients and agencies need to rethink ways to keep their relationship vital to realize this kind of return on investment. Yeah, who am I kidding. Anyone want to be a client/agency counselor? LOL, I can see the role playing session now.

Comments

GE, Microsoft Look To Out-Murdoch News Corp

WebProNews Staff — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 15:59:51 +0000

News Corp.’s bid to buy Dow Jones, and by default, the most influential financial newspaper in the world, the Wall Street Journal, seems to have spooked media rival General Electric into making a bid for the company as well.

Both GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt and a spokesman have downplayed the news, with the spinman calling the exchange with the Bancroft family "exploratory conversations" that turned up fruitless, and Immelt denying that print media was anything that would be on GE’s radar.

However, before these words there was, according to the Wall Street Journal itself, a joint bid by GE and Microsoft for the company aimed at outspending Rupert Murdoch’s $60-per-share ($5 billion) offer.

Though GE and company (which includes Fox-competitor NBC Universal) are acting cool about it, WSJ’s Sarah Ellison and Dennis Berman make a convincing case that a News Corp.-buyout was troublesome to company.

GE’s own CNBC financial news network gets its information directly from the paper. A major network competitor buying up that source would spell trouble for the network.

Interestingly, GE it seems wasn’t comfortable shelling out that kind of green for Dow Jones alone, which is why the company enlisted its old partner Microsoft.

It really speaks to the disruptive clout of News Corp. that a bid to buy out a major publication prompted two other mega-corporations to put their heads together to try and stop it. What’s more, it swirls up a whole new set of concerns if GE and Microsoft swallowed up Dow Jones.