Part 1: Top 100 Health-Care VARs

Health-Care 100: VARs

We've sought to identify 100 IT resellers with a legitimate stake in the health-care channel -- those solution providers, developers and integrators who will chase the opportunities that present themselves now, and may yet define the opportunities to come in this vertical. Check out part one, in alphabetical order, of our list of the Top 100 Health-Care VARs.

3 Trace (dba Trace3)
CEO: Hayes Drumwright

Strong on storage, networking, backup and archiving, virtualization and security -- and go-to partner of vendors like Palo Alto Networks and Riverbed -- Trace 3, Irvine, Calif., is ideally positioned for health-care customers seeking more efficient, less complex infrastructure.

Accenture

CEO: William D. Green

Accenture's Health & Public Service operating group is a newer venture for the New York-based consulting giant, which tackles payer needs, provider needs, public health interests and niche specialties like ICD-10 preparation.

Agilex

COO: Jay Nussbaum

Agilex, Chantilly, Va., is deploying the Nationwide Health Information Network with its Connect Gateway, and working with a number of other platforms, such as the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record, and collaborating with federal agencies like the Department of Defense and the VA.

AgilIT

CEO: Wesley Gipe

Wesley Gipe founded AgilIT in Troy, Ohio, in 1999 as a way to pay for medical school, but the opportunities that erupted for his health-care specialist solution provider practice ensured he'd never get there. Specific to health care, AgilIT provides, EHR, PACS, LIS and practice management implementation.

American Digital

Owner: Michael Scoby

One of the country's largest HP-exclusive VARs, American Digital’s focus is servers, storage and infrastructure requirements, with an emphasis on data center expertise using HP tools. Ranked No. 99 on the CRN Fast Growth list, the Arlington Hills, Ill., company posted 27.5 percent growth in the past year.

Apollo Health Street

CEO: Karen Farrell

Apollo, Conshohocken, Pa., is 100 percent devoted to health care and focuses on hospital services, payer services and physician services while offering a range of other IT options around professional services, BPO and niche specialties like application delivery.

Arcadia Solutions

President: Seth Henry

An eight-year-old health care technology consultancy specializing in payer and provider services, Arcadia, Burlington, Mass., also offers consulting around incentive compensation, integration and development, IT strategy and program management.

The ASI Group

President: C.J. Ezell

C.J. Ezell threw out most of his break-fix business in 2004, remaking The ASI Group, Mobile, Ala., focusing entirely on health care, particularly dental office clients. It offers a full range of dental and medical products and services, white-labels online backup services from Intronis, and offers its own suite of A-Life Hosted solutions.

Avankia

CEO: Reena Gupta

One of Nashville, Tenn.-based Avankia's top plays is health-care CRM, an application built on Salesforce.com that's configured specially for health-care providers and offers everything from claims warehousing to business intelligence.

Axispoint

CEO: Daniel DiSano

A CRN VAR500 solution provider ranked No. 443, New York-based Axispoint rolls up its sleeves for health care, including strengths in medical grade networks, data center optimization, digital media, business process management and more.

Bayshore Technologies

President: Peter Anderson

No. 490 on the CRN VAR500, Tampa, Fla.-based Bayshore’s largest vertical market is health-care, with a particular focus on enterprise medical and dental clients and strengths in servers, peripherals, enterprise communications, UC and VoIP, wireless LAN, storage, virtualization and enterprise security.

Beacon Partners

CEO: Ralph Fargnoli Jr.

As the largest independent health-care consultancy in the country, Beacon Partners, Weymouth, Mass., offers everything from IT services and operational analysis and design to market advisory services and ARRA stimulus services for capturing federal health-care incentive dollars.

Bear Data Systems

CEO: Donald James

No. 288 on the CRN VAR500, Bear Data grew 10 percent in the past year, with health care as its largest vertical. The San Francisco company offers network infrastructure design and implementation and a range of storage services.

Bluemark

CEO: Bryan Exner

A health-care technology consultancy focused on provider, billing and administrative services, Bluemark, New Paltz, N.Y., made some big moves in 2010, including the August appointment of a new CEO and the expansion of its eligibility assessment and workflow tool, MAPS, with a target of use by all 50 State Medicaid programs by the end of the year.

Capgemini

CEO: Paul Hermelin

On top of its long-held reputation as a mover and shaker and health-care IT policy go-to, Capgemini, Paris, is also a forward-thinking integrator when it comes to cloud computing -- its Compute Continuum system offers products, consulting services and outsourcing for shifting customers to hybrid cloud infrastructure.

Carefx

CEO: Andrew Hurd

A top-shelf ISV and integrator and key IBM partner, Carefx, Scottsdale, Ariz., focuses on workflow solutions and its Fusionfx suite is employed by more than 150,000 care providers in north of 400 hospitals, health systems, RHIOs and HIEs across North America and Europe.

CareTechSolutions

CEO: Jim Giordano

CareTech's specialties include IT services, Web products and services, document imaging and management and gateway technologies, as well as network management and service support, for hospitals and health systems around the country. The Troy, Mich., company prides itself on being vendor-neutral, too.

Carousel Industries of North America

CEO: Jeff Gardner

Exeter, R.I.-based Carousel, ranked No. 202 on the CRN VAR500, ranks health care as its top vertical market served. It's one of the country's top Avaya partners, too, but focuses on enterprise software, virtualization, security, networking, UC, VoIP and enterprise communications from a range of vendors.

CDW-G

President: Chris Rother

The health-care practice at Vernon Hills, Ill.-based CDW’s "G" subsidiary is a force, with a broad product mix for ambulatory and hospital-size settings alike and a catalog of everything from security software to bar-code and imaging software, PACs medical monitors and point-of-care products like displays and thin-client devices.

CGI

CEO: Michael Roach

As a BPO specialist, CGI, Montreal, has its hands in any number of markets and vertical industries. Health care, however, is a particular focus, through which the company has 900 employees working on IT consulting, systems integration and managed services, and is an IT service provider to nearly 1,200 facilities.

CNSI

CEO: B. Chatterjee

Acquisition support, business intelligence, health IT, collaboration services, professional services, telecommunications, system development … rare is the competency that CNSI, an IT and BPO consultancy in Rockville, Md., doesn’t have. A range of health care-specific strengths includes HIE, life-cycle management and MMIS operations support.

Computer Zone

CEO: Sandy Huggins

Computer Zone, Rockingham, N.C., says it's a total health-care technology solution provider and means it, offering everything from EHR and practice management software suites to medical billing services, automated backup, technical support, custom development, application hosting and remote service options.

Cognizant

CEO: Francisco D’Souza

Having moved steadily up the ranks of the CRN VAR500 list over 11 years, Cognizant, Teaneck, N.J., clocked in at No. 35 in 2010. One of its top health-care stakes is a set of services and technology offerings for consumer-directed healthcare and consumer-directed health plans, including flexible spending accounts, readiness assessment and system integration.

The Coker Group

CEO: Max Reiboldt

Alpharetta, Ga.-ased Coker's Technology Strategic Consultants group offers strategic IT planning, HIT software procurement (EMR, practice management, accounting, PACS, CPOE, patient portals and more), program management and managed services, including outsourcing and help desk.

Core BTS

CEO: Frank Albi

With a strong, midmarket health-care focus as part of its many vertical market specialties, Core BTS' mix includes application development, collaboration, managed services, data center, security and compliance, and UC. At No. 269 on the CRN VAR500 list, the Madison, Wis., company topped $92.5 million in gross revenue for 2009.

Corporate Technologies

President: Harry Kasparian

Along with systems integration and consulting, Burlington, Mass.-based Corporate Technologies' health-care focus includes a decade-honed approach to business intelligence and analytics specific to the vertical, with financial intelligence, patient care intelligence, billing intelligence and marketing intelligence all focus areas.

CPSI

CEO: J. Boyd Douglas

Is there such a thing as a community health-care specialist solution provider? Absolutely: there's CPSI (Computer Programs and Systems, Inc.), which as a software developer with a fully baked EMR system, has been on provider radars for decades. It’s focused small, too; according to Mobile, Ala.-based CPSI, nearly 95 percent of its customers are sub-100 bed hospitals.

CSC

CEO: Mike Laphen

For the past six years, Computer Sciences Corp., El Segundo, Calif., has ranked among the top 10 solution providers in the CRN VAR500 list, coming in at No. 6 for 2010. Health care is among the many specialties of the consulting and IT design and implementation giant, which grew revenue 1.5 percent last year to reach about $16.74 billion for 2009.

CTG Healthcare Solutions

CEO: Jim Boldt

CTGHS, Buffalo, N.Y., has been focusing on providers, insurers and life sciences health-care clients for 40 years and is wholly committed to the health-care space, including the development of solutions for capturing ARRA stimulus dollars, strategic consulting, children's health-care specialties, strategic sourcing, staffing, application management outsourcing and financial management.

Cxtec (CableExpress Corp.)

CEO: William Pomeroy

As a networking specialist, Cxtec, East Syracuse, N.Y., focuses on network optimization, technology and services, but it also provides equipment refurbishment and e-waste disposal, meaning it can attack health-care needs -- especially for facilities with a lot of records to eliminate -- from all sides.

Deloitte Consulting

CEO: Punit Renjen

A New York-based consulting giant with a powerhouse health-care practice, Deloitte’s resume speaks for itself -- 75 percent of Fortune 1000 health-care and life sciences companies, 70 percent of the top health plans, 65 percent of the U.S.'s Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, and nearly all of the top pharmaceutical and medical equipment manufacturers.

Denali Advanced Integration

CEO: Majdi Daher

Denali Advanced Integration, Redmond, Wash., took top honors as Healthcare Integrator of the Year at CRN's 2010 Government Integrator Awards -- praised by vendors and customers for its ability to build relationships in a tricky vertical and develop winning managed services programs.

Derive Technologies

CEO: Kirit Desai

Health care is the largest vertical served for New York-based Derive, which ranked No. 405 on this year's CRN VAR500 list and focuses on storage services, networking and infrastructure and business software suites.

Dimension Data

CEO (Americas): Jere Brown

A monster integrator with some of the top-ranked networking, storage, data center and enterprise virtualization businesses in the country, Dimension Data's health-care practice is its second largest vertical market, and this year, the New York company pulled out all the stops for a health-care customer recruitment drive.

Emtec

CEO: Dinesh Desai

Long a force in the federal government market, Emtec also has a strong and continuously growing health-care practice. The Marlton, N.J., company, ranked No. 173 on CRN’s VAR500 ranking, took honors for Health Care Technology Excellence at this year's VAR500 awards gala.

ePlus

CEO: Philip Norton

A top national VAR, ePlus' health-care unit offers capital equipment leasing -- from MRIs to digital X-rays to intravenous pumps -- to a full clip of IT hardware and services: networking gear, laptops, servers or storage support. Based in Herndon, Va., ePlus is also a CRN VAR500 perennial, ranked No. 86 this year.

Evolvent

CEO: Bill Oldham

Evolvent's strength is systems integration with a particular focus on federal health systems, including EMR and PHR, imaging management solutions, clinical data repository needs, health data exchange and cybersecurity. The Falls Church, Va., company is among those assisting the Department of Defense in development of the Nationwide Health Information Network.

Fastech Integrated Solutions

CEO: Rick Hirsh

Fastech, Springfield, Pa., which does business as Trancend United Technologies, ranked No. 455 on this year's VAR500 list and covers the gamut from wireless LAN to Web management, data management and virtualization, notching some of its biggest wins to date in the health-care space in recent years.

Final Support

Final Support offers software, EDI, training, mobility, EHR and medical equipment to health-care customers in the southwestern U.S. The Hurst, Texas, company is also GE’s exclusive software solution provider in the region, serving more than 3,000 physician customers.

First Byte Computers Inc. (dba Nexus Information Systems)

CEO: Dan Evans

Ranked No. 477 on the CRN VAR500, First Byte, Minnetonka, Minn., which does business as Nexus Information Systems, names health-care among its top focuses for servers, wireless LANs, enterprise security, backup and recovery, virtualization, data management and enterprise management solutions.

Force 3

CEO: Rocky Clintron

Force 3 has 200-plus federal and commercial health-care deployments under its belt and a focus on Cisco's Clinical Connection Suite, which includes nurse call technology, patient monitoring, information exchange with integrated voice, video and data, and location-based services for inventory management and auditing. Based in Crofton, Md., Force 3 ranked No. 157 on the CRN VAR500.

General Dynamics

CEO: Jay Johnson

Fairfax, Va.-based General Dynamics’ health-care expertise centers on Department of Defense and Department of Health and Human Services needs -- including program management, medical research, support services, health data warehousing and program integrity/fraud protection -- and for more than one-third of the country's top health plans and commercial players.

GreenPages

CEO: Ron Dupler

A longtime member of the CRN VAR500, GreenPages, Kittery, Maine, names health care as one of its most important verticals and sees plenty of potential for customers, health care and otherwise, in cloud computing. With virtualization and data center technologies among its many specialties, if anyone’s going to help nudge health-care IT into the cloud, it’s GreenPages.

Groupware Technology

CEO: Mike Thompson

A top health-care solution provider, and No. 291 on this year’s CRN VAR500 ranking, Campbell, Calif.-based Groupware’s focuses include caregiver workflow, desktop management and EMR and CPOE system integration. Specific to health care, it’s a leading reseller of ThinIdentity desktop infrastructure.

GTRI

CEO: Greg Byles

Denver-based GTRI's strengths in health care include wireless, IP telephony, UC and security, as well as infrastructure design, remote monitoring, managed services and customer application development, including alert and texting applications and site- and EMR-specific tools.

Halley Consulting Group

CEO: Mark Halley

Based in Columbus, Ohio, the Halley consultancy was originally founded in 1995 as Ambulatory Management Services, and a decade and a half later finds itself as one of the country’s prime strategic development and performance turnaround consultancies focused on hospital-owned medical practice networks and'independent physician practices.

Harris Healthcare Solutions

CEO: Howard Lance

One of Harris' taglines? "Trusted at the intersection of life and data." And with a broad spectrum of offerings that includes enterprise intelligence, systems integration capabilities and managed services, it's no wonder Falls Church, Va.-based Harris' footprint in health-care solutions has continued to grow.

Hayes Management Consulting

President: Peter Butler

Spanning strategic consulting, IT consulting, business and clinical operations and regulatory mandate services, Hayes, Newton, Mass., is a fast-growth, health-care-space-specific consultancy with a steadily heaping plate of accolades. Its clients include hospitals, health networks and physician practices all around the country.

InfoLogix

CEO: David Gulian

No. 273 on the CRN VAR500, $89 million InfoLogix, based in Hatboro, Pa., has health-care-oriented solutions to spare, including asset and patient tracking, care team communications, medication management, mobile carts, mobile managed services, positive patient ID, RFID solutions, wireless networks, training and e-learning for provider organizations.

Informatics Corporation of America (ICA)

CEO: Gary Zegiestowsky

ICA has won raves for its CareAlign system, a solution for HIEs that connects hospitals, clinics, providers and patient-assist systems by integrating existing patient record data into a single report. The Nashville, Tenn., company’s technology, which saw more than 17 years of development at Vanderbilt Medical Center, is among the vanguard HIE systems out there.

For more, see Part 2 of our list of the Top 100 Health-Care Vendors list.