The WITCH Monthly Monitor
Monthly update on major global IT consulting and services firms in healthcare
September 2019
The WITCH Monthly Monitor provides latest financial and market performance updates on WITCH companies along with other global IT consulting firms on a monthly basis.
Highlights for the month
Infosys
Infosys Inaugurates Arizona Technology and Innovation Center
Infosys inaugurates the Arizona Technology and Innovation Center which will accommodate 500 employees and plans to hire 1,000 American workers in the state by 2023. The center will focus on autonomous technologies, IoT, full-stack engineering, data science, and cybersecurity.
Infosys Announces the Launch of the Live Enterprise Suite
Infosys launches Live Enterprise Suite, a comprehensive set of platforms, solutions and digital services that help enterprises to accelerate their digital innovation journey. The Live Enterprise Suite’s key solutions include Launchpad app, employee productivity platform, Infosys Wingspan, Experience Configurator, Knowledge Graph, Infosys Digital Brain Solution, and Infosys Polycloud Platform which help in delivering a structured brownfield approach to digital transformation programs.
TCS
TCS Partners with Cisco to Build Solutions that Accelerate Digital Transformation
TCS and Cisco establish a Center of Excellence (CoE) to develop digital solutions that leverage Cisco’s Digital Network Architecture (DNA) platform and build network-optimized transformational solutions across industries including healthcare that reduce risk and enhance customer experience.
Cognizant
Cognizant plans to hire 500 sales executives to increase its skilled workforce in digital technologies. The company plans to go after employees from its competitive firms such as TCS, Infosys, IBM, Wipro, Tech Mahindra. In a recent interview, CEO Brian Humphries stated that Cognizant will continue to hire more employees in India and other regions as they continue to accelerate growth and invest in technology.
HCL
Rite Aid Looks to Move IT Services to India-Based Company, Layoffs Possible
Rite Aid, a drugstore chain for IT services moves its IT services to HCL Technologies, which could result in layoffs for workers at the company’s office in Etters, York County. Some of the affected employees will be given the opportunity to interview with HCL Technologies for certain positions.
Accenture
Accenture Reports Very Strong Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year Fiscal 2019 Results
Accenture reports revenue of $11.1 billion, an increase of 5% YoY in USD for the quarter ended Aug 31, 2019. Health and Public Service accounted for $1.88 billion with growth of 7% YoY in USD driven by double-digit growth in health and strong growth in public service. The North America market reports strong growth bolstered by increasing deals from the U.S. Federal business.
Accenture Interactive Completes Acquisition of Design and Innovation Firm, INSITUM
Accenture completes acquisition of INSITUM, a service design and strategic research firm focused on innovation through a human-centered approach. INSITUM, headquartered in Mexico City with presence in the United States, works across many industries including healthcare. The acquisition expands capabilities of Accenture Interactive’s design and innovation unit, Fjord and strengthens footprint in the Latin American market.
Accenture collaborates with Bayer to implement the Accenture INTIENT Clinical platform to simplify and accelerate the drug development process. The platform helps to bring internal and external clinical data together with Oracle’s cloud-based technologies into a single data management and warehousing platform, to create actionable insights to accelerate drug development and improve patient outcomes.
Accenture partners with SAP to build advanced capabilities for the SAP Recipe Development application, which helps process-industry companies such as consumer goods, chemicals, and life sciences companies optimize supply chains for streamlined product development and reduce wasted resources.
Deloitte
Deloitte launches Smart Factory Fabric, a pre-configured suite of cloud-based IoT applications to deliver smart factory capabilities to industrial enterprises across several sectors including pharmaceutical and medical devices. The Smart Factory Fabric is powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) IoT and helps companies improve their operational performance and reduce costs by increasing visibility, optimizing production, improving quality, and reducing unplanned downtime associated with running a smart factory.
Deloitte and AVIA, provider of digital health insights, strategic guidance, and consulting services, expand partnership for sharing market insights on digital health and develop solutions that accelerate digital health and wellness across the industry.
DXC Technology
DXC Technology appoints Mike Salvino as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately, succeeding Mike Lawrie who will be retiring. Mike Lawrie has served as DXC’s Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer since the company’s formation in 2017.
IBM
IBM Watson Health signs another agreement with Guerbet, a provider of medical imaging solutions to co-develop and co-commercialize an AI solution to help clinicians diagnose and monitor patients with prostate cancer. The solution will help segment, characterize and monitor lesions over time to facilitate faster and more informed diagnosis of prostate cancer. Guerbet and IBM initially partnered in July 2018 to develop an AI program for diagnosing and monitoring patients with liver cancer.
IBM Elects Bill McNabb to its Board of Directors
IBM elects F. William McNabb III, the former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of The Vanguard Group to the board. Mr. McNabb is a member of the Board of Directors of UnitedHealth Group and of CECP: The CEO Force For Good.
IBM opens the IBM Quantum Computation Center in New York State to support the growing needs of a community of over 150,000 registered users and nearly 80 commercial clients, academic institutions and research laboratories to advance quantum computing and explore practical applications.
IBM Research is Using A.I. Algorithms to Unlock the Secrets of Dark Matter DNA
Researchers at IBM and the Munich Leukemia Laboratory develop a “stochastic regularization A.I. model” which they termed as ReVeal to decipher and identify the role of dark matter DNA. Dark matter DNA or non-coding DNA is the segment of DNA that do not encode proteins.
Geisinger, IBM Develop New Predictive Algorithm to Detect Sepsis Risk
Geisinger and IBM develop a new predictive model using AI to clinicians identify patients with high of sepsis using data from EHR. Geisinger will leverage the new model to develop more personalized clinical care plans for at-risk sepsis patients and increase the chances of recovery.
NTT Data
Tenet Healthcare and NTT DATA Sign New Agreement to Deliver Technology Services and Systems
NTT Data secures expands collaboration with Tenet Healthcare Corporation to develop more efficient technology infrastructure and application systems for Tenet’s hospitals, affiliated outpatient centers, and physician practices. NTT Data will leverage digital technologies, such as predictive analytics, self-healing functionality with machine learning and automation to streamline operations and better engage internal and external end-users.
Others
emids Announces Investment from New Mountain Capital
New Mountain Capital, a New York private equity firm acquires emids, a provider of digital transformation, clinical data engineering, custom software development, data analytics and integration, and strategic advisory consulting services. While emids management and other select stakeholders remain invested in the company, current investors Baird Capital and Council Capital are exiting.
Optum Leads $8 Million Funding Round for Digital Therapeutics Startup Kaia Health
Optum Ventures, the investment arm of Optum, leads an $8 million funding round into Kaia Health, a digital therapeutics company. Kaia Health, based in Munich, Germany, uses a smartphone-based approach to manage chronic conditions such as back pain, with real-time capabilities. The funding will be used to expand supporting clinical evidence, extend the platform for other chronic conditions and accelerate sales growth in the U.S. healthcare market.
UnitedHealth Confirms $3.2 Billion Equian Deal
UnitedHealth Group completes acquisition of Equian for about $3.2 billion. Equian will be integrated with Optum, strengthening their capabilities in claims processing. Equian provides data-driven solutions including claim analytics, clinical validation and, other party liability for healthcare reimbursement analysis and payment integrity.
UnitedHealth to Link Optum’s Analytics, Provider Subsidiaries
UnitedHealth Group to link its network of physicians in its population health management and care delivery business, OptumHealth, with its data analytics business, OptumInsights. According to Optum CEO Andrew Witty, “patients and providers will be able to access health data in real-time as part of this new ‘digital ecosystem.’”
Optum Ventures and Premera Blue Cross co-led the $24 million Series B financing round for Vim, a San Francisco-based startup developing a platform for health plan-provider collaboration. The round also included follow-on investments by Great Point Ventures and Sequoia Capital and investment from Leverage Health Solutions.
