CDW Builds Program For Health-Care Sales

The health-care team at the Vernon Hills, Ill., solution provider includes sales and marketing associates who will work under the CDW Government group.

“CDW is continually looking to sharpen its sales and marketing efforts on customer requirements,” said Chris Rother, vice president of CDW Government. “Each channel has [its] own individual needs, but health care came from CDW-G because we have health-care customers in the private sector, but also in higher-ed [with] teaching hospitals, and state and local [government, with] state hospitals.”

Rother said CDW will add health-care-related products as the program evolves.

“Initially, we will offer the same advantages other customers [receive, including] account managers and access to the 100,000 products we currently sell,” she said. “As we progress and learn more about health-care customers, we will add niche products, specialized software and hardware and solution sets.”

Rother said she does not know if CDW will use partners to provide its health-care customers with consulting or implementation services.

“We may leverage our SMB Consortium partners. I don&'t know an answer yet. We need to know more about who the health-care customers are,” she said.

Laurie Benson, president and CEO of Inacom Information Systems, a Madison, Wis.-based solution provider that serves the health-care industry, said she&'s not surprised that CDW has decided to concentrate on the health-care market.

“Our customers are really embracing technology in order to drive quality of patient care,” Benson said. “The patient&'s experience and the ability to take out costs make this an optimal time for health-care opportunities. [Many] manufacturers and distributors [are] focusing on health-care solutions, vs. selling commoditized items.”

CDW is building solution sets around ensuring patient data security and privacy, and helping caregivers monitor and consolidate their purchases, Rother said.

“We&'ve seen [those capabilities] be effective in higher education and feel it can be easily replicated for health-care customers,” she said, adding that CDW plans to hire field sales reps dedicated to health-care customers.