IBM is expanding its IT financing business into
healthcare, life sciences and pharmaceuticals.
Such financing is available now in the US to both new and
existing customers, and will be expanded to Canada in the next few
weeks, followed by other countries over time.
At first, global financing will focus on hospitals as a customer
base and then will expand to life sciences, pharmaceutical and
biotechnology customers, including those involved in research and
development and academia," said global financing business
development executive Terry Trierweiler.
"One thing we looked at very closely was the convergence of IT
technology with medical technology and we noticed that the
boundaries are getting blurred," she said. "It's really like a
continuum of technology because in medical technology these days
it's so computerised and digitised."
The IBM Global Financing sales force will not make specific
recommendations about which manufacturers of medical equipment
customers should choose. However, financing is available to cover
medical technology equipment such as computerised tomography
scanners, X-ray machines, ultrasound devices and the like.
IBM's hardware, software and services also can be financed.
Financing is available for used equipment and lease options are
also available.
IBM Global Financing representatives can help customers dispose
of equipment they no longer want or track down used equipment.
Nancy Weil writes for IDG News Service