IBM (NYSE: IBM) has taken a black eye on the e-health front.
Australia’s National E-Health Transition Authority on Monday confirmed that it cancelled a $23.6 million contract with Big Blue for construction of a e-health records system.
An interim system was deployed in August. IBM won the contract in 2011.
“[We] did terminate the contract with IBM,” the head of the authority said at a hearing last week.
Australia-based Pulse IT reported the decision Monday.
New Security products
IBM, meanwhile, is releasing its largest set of security products ever as the company seeks new business amid slowing revenue.
IBM, which disappointed investors last week by reporting that sales fell in the third quarter, has launched 10 new products that it believes will help it gain ground in the market for business security software, where spending will rise to $21 billion in 2013, according to Gartner Research.
“For IBM it really is a significant increase in focus on the whole area of security,” said Brendan Hannigan, general manager of IBM’s security systems division. “We’ve got a large security sales force. We have a channel organization that will help package the capabilities together.”
IBM is releasing products that will help companies control employees’ mobile devices, mitigate threats from the Internet and in data centers, and automate some security management. The company is betting that a wider product portfolio will help it win business from niche competitors.
The Armonk, New York-based company formed its security division earlier this year, urged by clients who are adding security officers in top management positions to combat the growing threat of cybercrime. Companies are storing data remotely and retrieving the information with mobile devices, increasing the points of entry for potential theft.
IBM reported that quarterly revenue dropped 5.4 percent to $24.7 billion, the company said, missing the $25.4 billion average analyst estimate.
IBM employs some 10,000 people across North Carolina.
[IBM ARCHIVE: Check out 10 years of IBM stories as reported in WRAL Tech Wire.]
(Bloomberg contributed to this report.)
