Healthy Prospects
In this day of failing ASPs, its refreshing to hear about at least one company that is faring well. XCare.net, an Englewood, Colo., company that provides payment processing services to health care organizations and their doctors, says it is on target to turn a profit in the third quarter. Its not exactly fair to call XCare.net an ASP, because it does a lot more than host applications — it also provides enterprise application integration (EAI) tools, consulting and work flow applications.
It seems its also not correct to call the company XCare.net. Last week, the company announced it was changing its name to Quovadx, to reflect its plans to expand beyond the health care space. “Were branching out into more industries, and XCare.net was too limiting,” says Lorine Sweeney, president and CEO. The name is derived from the Latin phrase, “Where are you going?” and Sweeney says Quovadx is now going into the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors. It also plans to expand its beachhead in the media and entertainment industries. Earlier this year, the company acquired Healthcare.com, a provider of EAI tools for the health care industry, and Confer Software.
Diagnosis Poor
ASP and consulting firm Breakaway Solutions continues to have troubles, this time announcing the unexpected resignation of President and CEO William Loftus. John Loftus, the companys senior vice president of professional services, also stepped down. The company said its board of directors is taking action to pursue a buyer or merger partner.
Deal Stapled
Intranets.com, which provides hosted applications for small businesses, has inked a deal with Staples. The office supply giant will now offer Intranets.coms services to its own small-business customers through its Staples.com Web site. The deal marks another step in Intranets.coms efforts to transform itself from a free service — which relied on revenue from advertising — to a fee-based service.