Electronic Medical Records: VAR Opportunities Grow to a Trickle

Plenty of technology vendors recognize the big opportunity to capture economic stimulus funds as health care end-customers look to add electronic medical records (EMR). But the channel opportunities have been few as EMR vendors aren't so channel-friendly. However, the opportunities may now be opening up. A little.

When the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act was passed, the technology industry was quick to identify opportunities to participate.

One of the big ones was an estimated $18 billion in economic stimulus funds for electronic medical records (EMR) at physician's offices and hospitals. The problem for the reseller channel was that vendors who offered such technology didn't sell through the channel.

But with the hugeness of the opportunity, some of these EMR vendors found that they needed to hop aboard the channel bandwagon, and while many doors are still closed, indeed a few opportunities have opened up for VARs.

Here's a quick look:

• Allscripts, through a partnership with IT distributor Synnex.
• Ingram Micro said it would announce a partnership with an EMR vendor. Originally planned for November, the deal is now set to be announced in January.
• IBM Global Financing said it would provide the money so that end-customer companies could buy the technology today, even if they were still waiting for their stimulus dollars.