CenterBeam
Press Release, CENTERBEAM FILLS TECHNOLOGY PRESCRIPTION FOR LOCAL ARIZONA PHARMACIES, THE APOTHECARY SHOPS
SANTA CLARA, CALIF., October 15, 2002 – The Apothecary Shops, Arizona’s foremost chain of independent pharmacies, has selected CenterBeam to deliver and manage its networked IT services throughout the state. The CenterBeam service has made The Apothecary Shops more competitive and efficient.
The CenterBeam system benefits The Apothecary Shops in the following ways:
• Patient files can be securely shared by all the stores. Among other things, this means that a customer can walk into any of The Apothecary Shops’ locations to have a prescription refilled.
• Pharmacists can collaborate with each other more easily through email and discussion groups. Pharmacists’ different experiences and levels of expertise are now more readily accessible to every pharmacist in the chain to meet their patients’ needs.
• Inventory orders can be more easily consolidated and managed to lower the cost and effort of supplying and stocking.
“I founded The Apothecary Shops to provide superior pharmacy services,” said John D. Musil, Pharm.D, FACA, owner and chief pharmacist. “In-depth patient consultation, individualized compounding and specialization in serving the needs of the entire family has turned out to be the formula for success. Delivering this type of service in our first shop sparked demand that we satisfied by opening new shops throughout Arizona, but each new shop wasn’t connected to the others. I asked CenterBeam to create an information system connecting our stores together so we can leverage the expertise of every pharmacist at every shop and deliver to every customer the personal service they value -- no matter which of our shops they’re visiting. Just as our staff learns about the specific needs of every patient, the staff at CenterBeam took the time to learn about my business and formulate a solution for our exact needs.”
“CenterBeam is delighted to be selected by The Apothecary Shops to build and manage its information technology system,” said Kevin Francis, CenterBeam president and chief executive officer. “Pharmacy is a very exacting science and profession, and in keeping with this discipline, The Apothecary Shop carefully researched its options and created rigorous selection criteria. This meticulous process made our selection that much more of an honor.”
CenterBeam: Helping Businesses Focus on Their Business
CenterBeam developed a unique service for mid-sized businesses that handles the management of base information technology infrastructure. CenterBeam’s clients benefit from an IT system that is more sophisticated, secure and robust than they could build and manage themselves; an “enterprise-class” system without the cost of building and managing it. People using the CenterBeam service are more productive because the service is 50% more reliable than the industry average. Organizations using the CenterBeam service are more productive as they are able to focus staff onto IT business opportunities rather than time-consuming, routine IT services.
About The Apothecary Shops
Located throughout Arizona, The Apothecary Shops are an independent chain of pharmacies founded in the spring of 1996. Its pharmacists and certified technical staff are on the cutting edge of pharmaceutical technology. The Apothecary Shops are a teaching site for pharmacy students from around the United States and are affiliated with the University of Arizona and Midwestern University Schools of Pharmacy. www.theapothecaryshop.com
About CenterBeam, Inc.
CenterBeam manages end-user information technology for organizations. CenterBeam pioneered the application of quality management techniques to information technology to increase user productivity and corporate agility. Founded in 1999, CenterBeam has strategic, financial and technical backing from industry leaders Microsoft, Intel, Dell and EDS. The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA and can be reached at 408.844.0900 or www.centerbeam.com.
John Patrick’s Weblog, Agenda, 10/15/02
The reception and dinner were as expected -- meeting and chatting with many friends from years past. The first person I ran into was Sheldon Laube, chairman of Centerbeam, and friend for many years. His wife Nancy is a doctor but also loves to take pictures of people at conferences. They are delightful people. Sheldon is famous in many ways but my relationship with him began years ago when he was a "bleeding edge" user of Lotus Notes. Sheldon was referred to extensively in "Crossing the Chasm", a book which cited many of the heroes of the early days of the last decade of information technology and marketing accomplishments.
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Giga, 10/10/02: Estimating and Forecasting Desktop and Laptop Costs
It really depends on your environment and, particularly when you are talking about thin clients, getting an pples-to-apples comparison is nearly impossible because most thin clients are used in data entry types of shops (they replace 3270 emulators on PCs). We should really start with what you are paying for PCs and laptops now so the numbers start with something real. However, if we go to what an outsourcer like Everdream or Centerbeam charges, you are typically at around $149 per month for desktops now and about $50 more for laptops.
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IT Management
Giga, 10/10/02: Justifying a Desktop Replacement Budget for 2003
A hardware refresh is traditionally justified by increased performance and productivity. Given the number of years where neither benefit has been self-evident, these justifications just aren’t cutting it anymore.
[more]
Giga, 10/10/02: Supporting a Three-Year PC Replacement Cycle
This is always an “it depends” question. Desktop PCs, in the usual heavy-client environment, have increased breakage (generally caused by incompatibilities, clutter and moving-part failure) that nearly doubles in the third year, which continues to help drive a three-year replacement cycle.
[more]
Giga, 10/10/02: Justifying the 2003 IT Budget: Tactical Measures
Creating a compelling business case for an investment does not guarantee success; the business case must be old to the right people. Furthermore, the chance of success is greatly increased if senior executives are educated well before they have to make a decision. In effect, if decision-makers haven’t been given an intuitive understanding of the effects of IT investments on their businesses, justifying a threatened investment when it’s under fire is probably too late.
[more]
Desktop Outsourcing
Giga, 10/9/02: IT Trends 2003: Desktop Outsourcing
Desktop outsourcing continues to be viewed primarily as a cost-cutting measure in the enterprise. However,companies are also turning to outsourcers to deliver management capability around emerging mobile or other platforms.
[more]
EDS
Giga, 10/9/02: Management Infrastructures and EDS’ Utility Computing Offering
EDS has adopted a heterogeneous approach with regard to the design of its event management framework, deploying virtually all of the major SNMP network management platforms alongside systems and application monitoring tools from IBM, Hewlett-Packard (HP), BMC and Computer Associates (CA). However, Giga believes that CA’s Unicenter platform will become an architectural keystone serving as the hub into which events gathered by the other systems are passed and where the highest level analyses and diagnoses are conducted.
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Microsoft
Giga, 10/10/02: In-Place Upgrade to Windows 2000/XP a Bad Idea
We should start by being very clear: It is a really bad idea to apply a major operating system release like you would a service pack. It can make it nearly impossible to diagnose problems; with newer platforms like XP, system restore can be rendered ineffective; and it almost always results in significant challenges during the rollout.
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Giga, 10/10/02: Saving $1 Million With Microsoft: The Benefits of Collective Contracting
One of the more successful ways for a government to save money with Microsoft or another large vendor is through collective contracting. The State of Florida was able to aggregate a number of organizations into the same bargaining block, and the resulting bid, when compared to what it had been paying, saved the State $1.7 million at a time when every dollar clearly counts.
[more]
IBM
Computer Reseller News, 10/14/02: IBM, Ingram Make SMB Services Play
By Jeff O'Heir, CRN
IBM is pairing IBM Global Services with Ingram Micro's National Service Network and VentureTech Network members to deliver a full range of IT services to the SMB market.
The move follows an IBM program initiated in May that included assistance with enhanced field coverage and certification training for VentureTech members.
[more]
Verizon
Network World, 10/14/02: Verizon outsourcing unit looking to make a name
By Jennifer Mears
Magazine publisher Highlights for Children in Columbus, Ohio, was expanding rapidly and realized that it needed more IT support than it had in-house. So the company started searching for an outsourcer.
While Highlights President Elmer Meider won't name names, he says the major vendors were considered. The service provider that was selected, however, probably is not one that most network executives would immediately associate with IT outsourcing: Verizon IT.
[more]
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