IBM to acquire Initiate Systems to expand into IT healthcare services

IBM is betting heavily in the IT health services vertical and, yesterday entered ito a deal to acquire privately held Initiate Systems , a maker of data integrity software for sharing data among healthcare and government organisations, for an undisclosed sum.

Initiate Systems, based in Chicago, Illinois, supplies master data management software solutions to the health care industry.

The company offers Initiate Master Data Service, a master data management product for customer data that delivers versions of critical data assets, Initiate Patient for managing and integrating critical patient identification, which allows healthcare organisations to create a provider registry to ensure that all systems using provider data operate from the same up-to-date information.

The company founded in 1995 as Madison Information Technologies, Inc, before changing it to Initiate Systems, Inc. in 2003. It operates in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK.

The proposed takeover of Initiate is the 30th acquisition that Big Blue has made to advance its capabilities in information and analytics.

The Armonk, New York-based IBM said that its acquisition of Initiate extends the company's business analytics strategy, including the range of offerings available through a Business Analytics and Optimization Consulting organisation it had launched in November, (See: IBM builds business analytics cloud for 200,000 employees; unveils client versions)