Computerworld

HP veteran heads to NZ to strengthen SimplHealth’s sales direction

“We are lucky that New Zealand is becoming a leader in this area, helped by the Government’s very supportive approach to health IT, and our early adopter attitude to new technology."

Specialist health IT company SimplHealth has appointed international expert Brian Oswald as National Sales Manager to drive growth in New Zealand and overseas.

Oswald arrives after many years leading sales and business teams in New Zealand, the US and Asia for companies like Hewlett Packard, Compaq and CHR Solutions, a Houston based outsourcing, network engineering and software firm.

Displaying a speciality is helping mature companies, often operating in highly competitive and complex areas, Oswald assist in evaluating, realigning and developing their sales process, to sell more.

Jodi Mitchell, CEO, SimplHealth, says the growing focus on health IT as a new technology frontier is a huge opportunity for the company with both public and private organisations.

“There’s growing understanding about the need for better information sharing and collaboration between healthcare professionals to support better decisions, gain efficiencies and save costs, so as to improve health services for all,” Mitchell says.

“Our technology enables this, so to have someone like Brian who understands and has seen these trends developing overseas will be a great asset.

“Brian’s enthusiasm and energy will help us demonstrate that more sharing and collaboration is good for healthcare.

“We are lucky that New Zealand is becoming a leader in this area, helped by the Government’s very supportive approach to health IT, and our early adopter attitude to new technology.

“Having someone of Brian’s calibre on board will certainly help us achieve the big ambitions we are setting.”

Oswald’s appointment follows soon after the arrival of Neil Gash as CFO late last year, and just over a year after David Frazer joined as General Manager, Engineering and Service.

Originally established in 1992, SimplHealth has carved a niche as an application software developer and IT services provider of cloud based, software as a service (SAAS) solutions.

It has become well-known for providing the technology for national systems including the New Zealand ePrescription Service and the Socrates disability management system.

SimplHealth has offices in Auckland and Wellington and its core services focus on three areas: medications information exchange, management of healthcare payments and health services information exchange.