The deepening interest in healthcare data analytics to get a clearer view of how a company’s or product’s performance compares with rivals or the industry was a prominent trend at HIMSS this year. IMS Health’s acquisition of software-as-a-service startup, Appature, reflects the hunger healthcare marketers have for analytics that can help them better tailor their marketing campaigns to the desired audience more efficiently.
IMS said in a statement that it is adding Appature to enhance the reach of its own commercial platform that brings together third-party data with its own data for commercial planning, execution and analytical activities. Appature Nexus is described as a flexible and scalable cloud-based platform that reduces costs for clients and provides faster implementation and insight through big data integration, customer segmentation, multichannel marketing campaign execution, and real-time marketing reports and dashboards, according to the company statement.
“…life sciences companies are shifting their sales and marketing approaches to focus on an expanding set of decision makers and the explosion of new media, digital device and channel choices,” said Seyed Mortazavi, the president for IMS in the US, in the statement.
Appature was started in 2007 by CEO and co-founder Kabir Shahani who set up a relationship marketing platform to help users make more informed business decisions, according to its website.