Cisco, Satyam sign pact to develop integrated health

Bangalore, Oct 30 (UNI) Global networking giant Cisco and IT major Satyam today announced collaboration to explore new venture that will 'optimise, deploy and manage solutions' for handling medical distress situations and health management solutions for global markets.

The venture, in which Cisco had expressed a strategic intent to make a minority investment, is being persued as part of Cisco's extended 100-million venture programme announced today, targeting 'India innovation'.

The announcement was made by Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers and Satyam Founder-Chairman Ramalinga Raju.

Announcing the initiative after the inauguration of Cisco's 'Globalisation Centre East', as part of its 1.1 billion dollar investment for carrying out research and development in India, Vice President and Chief of the Globalisation Centre Wim Elfrink said Cisco was committed to maximising purposeful social impact by using technology as an enabler and platform for positive change.

''The collaboration that we are announcing with Satyam today will serve as a globally replicable model for handling integrated health solutions that can be implemented across the emerging markets,'' he said.

Mr Raju said, ''Valuing and caring for life is a fundamental part of the Indian society and it has driven the social responsibility efforts. The collaboration will bring together the traditional healthcare and technology that will be less costly and suited for all types of treatments.'' The Satyam Chief said the company had worked with Cisco for the past five years and it had been one of the most successful partnerships it had forged so far. Satyam had more than a decade of experience in delivering solutions to the healthcare industry and would continue to focus directly on this market.

Now, working in collaboration with Cisco, the development of a transformational business model reinforces the collective vision of both companies to healthcare needs by effectively leveraging technology, process and domain expertise, he said.

UNI