VAR500: Accenture Helps Big Pharma Cut Costs; Census Bureau Goes Mobile With Agilex

VAR500 Solution Providers In The News

This week, CRN's VAR500 companies saw plenty of action.

Cognizant contracted with pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca; ACS snapped up The Breakaway Group; Agilex signed on to help the Census Bureau go mobile; Accenture won a contract with California's Consumer Affairs Department; Mainline Information Systems bought KgW & Company; and Capgemini's quarterly index showed global trade was on the decrease.

Cognizant Helps Big Pharma Cut Costs

Cognizant has entered into a multi-year agreement with AstraZeneca to deliver comprehensive biostatistics and medical reporting services to generate clinical study reports. Using its proprietary Web 2.-based platform, Cognizant will provide centralized statistical programming, statistical analysis, medical writing, and document publishing services, allowing AstraZeneca to streamline its clinical development operations, cut costs and increase efficiency.

ACS Snaps Up Breakaway Group

VAR500 solution provider ACS, A Xerox Company, has brought The Breakaway Group into its family of services. The acquisition adds a cloud-based service to help health-care professionals accelerate their adoption of electronic medical records (EMR). The firm’s PromisePoint product lets caregivers practice using an EMR just as they would in the hospital or doctor’s office. By simulating their environment, they get familiar with using the system to enter orders and document patient care, without jeopardizing real patient data. According to ACS, providers that use PromisePoint boost EMR adoption rates up to 70 percent faster than the industry standard.

Agilex Helps Census Bureau Go Mobile

Agilex has been awarded a four-year prime contract with the U.S. Census Bureau for mobile application development. The VAR500 company will help the Census Bureau capitalize on new and emerging mobile technologies, including smartphones and tablets, to enhance its field survey and data collection initiatives.

The IT solution provider will also develop new applications for field data collection and other survey requirements that can be readily deployed across multiple devices and platforms. Agilex will help establish a common framework for mobile application development and implement a distributed development environment.

Accenture Wins Consumer Affairs Contract

Accenture has been awarded a nine-year contract by the California Department of Consumer Affairs to develop and implement a licensing and enforcement system, called "BreEZe."

The Department issues licenses in more than 100 business and professional categories, including doctors, dentists, contractors, cosmetologists and automotive repair specialists. Its structure includes nearly 40 regulatory entities that establish minimum professional qualifications and levels of competency, certify practitioners, investigate complaints, and discipline violators. Accenture will create an integrated enterprise licensing system to replace disparate and outdated legacy systems that have made citizen interaction with the Department and licensing process complicated. BreEZe also will provide enhanced online capabilities to serve citizens and businesses.

Mainline Acquisition Strengthens IBM Bond

Mainline Information Systems has acquired KgW & Company, an IBM Premier Business Partner. KgW & Company is an IT solutions provider, based in Chattanooga, Tenn., that also has a strong relationship with VMware. Ken Way, founder of KgW & Company and Trish Way, current President/CEO will remain with the organization, bringing with them more than 30 years of experience working directly with IBM.

Capgemini Index Suggests Continued Trade Decline

Capgemini Consulting's latest Global Trade Flow Index reveals a slight decline -- 1.3 percent -- in global trade levels during the third quarter, suggesting a downward trend in global trade levels. Factors contributing to the decrease include challenging global economic conditions. Concurrently, local domestic consumption worldwide continues to rise, growing by 7.6 percent between the third quarter of 2010 and third quarter 2011, which could indicate that locally produced goods and services are being increasingly favored above imports.

Capgemini Consulting’s Global Trade Flow Index tracks the trade of goods and services by quarter.