Support Net Makes A Catch

Support Net, Indianapolis, recently held a conference in Chicago that was so well received by attending solution providers and medical-imaging ISVs that the company plans to hold similar events in the future.

"We're always a little nervous about a concept like this, but we gathered the right resources, had audience participation. It came off so well that we've already had some tangible results," said Adrian Arriola, life-sciences business development man-

ager at Support Net, a division of Arrow Electronics' North American Computer Products group, Englewood, Colo.

HInnovation, an ISV in Wauwatosa, Wis., has already received several promising leads from the event and is working on opportunities with resellers, said Larry Schroeder, vice president of business development at the company, which has developed an application that makes it easier to view medical images requiring large amounts of storage.

"The expectations were set up front about who the partners were and what they were able to do," Schroeder said. "These guys [solution providers] are already working with a lot of hospital IS departments."

The event and other Support Net initiatives have also helped Solution Technology, a solution provider in Indianapolis, sort through an array of ISVs in the market to find appropriate partners, said Kirk Zaranti, vice president of sales and marketing at the company. "They're trying to find the ISVs with the best solutions that fit the demand of the industry today,that closely fit the skills we have as a storage solution provider."

Life sciences-related revenue has increased more than 100 percent this year for Solution Technology, Zaranti said. "Privacy legislation such as HIPAA has been important, but health-care providers are also looking for solutions to help them solve health-care problems," he said. "Through storage consolidation, these customers can save money and reduce costs while improving the quality of their service. Imaging solutions tied with a storage infrastructure and consolidation is the right solution for this marketplace."

IBM has made life sciences a key focus for channel opportunities, said Bob Shapiro, worldwide life-sciences business unit executive for servers and storage at the vendor. In 2002, IBM saw its storage business grow 960 percent over 2001 in the life-sciences arena, he said. "This year, we're running just [less than] 300 percent growth. Life sciences is our fastest-growing segment in storage."