Leading healthcare provider to save over $1.9m by switching to Macro 4 software

The Regence Group, an affiliation of four leading health plans in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, is to deploy Macro 4`s application availability software to support the development and testing of business-critical mainframe server applications.

The investment will directly benefit all four of the organisation`s affiliated plan providers: Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon, Regence BlueShield of Idaho and Regence BlueShield (in Washington).

The Regence Group, whose affiliates provide health insurance and related services to more than three million members, selected Macro 4`s integrated file and fault management suite in place of software from three existing suppliers, ASG, Compuware and IBM.

Following a comprehensive re-evaluation of these incumbent vendors, Macro 4`s suite was found to address the complex technical environment and offered by far the most compelling and flexible pricing structure, without compromising performance or functionality.

As a result of switching to Macro 4`s suite, The Regence Group expects to save an estimated $1 905 000 in licensing and maintenance fees over the next five years. With processor growth at the organisation expected to surpass 1600 MIPS in 2004, the group would have faced significant cost penalties for expanding the use of its previous application availability tools.

However, it will now enjoy unparalleled product flexibility with perpetual site licences, no penalties or maintenance charges for adding CPUs, MIPS or locations, and no charges for product upgrades or configuration changes.

"Not only did Macro 4`s solution rate highly from a technical point of view, but the company`s pricing model also fits well with both the current and future requirements of our organisation. I need flexibility from a supplier; I get that from Macro 4," comments Kevin Bersch, Supervisor of Technology Consulting at The Regence Group. "This investment reflects The Regence Group`s ongoing commitment to reducing the costs of healthcare delivery. Moreover, our continued investment in application availability is part of our dedication to high quality, round-the-clock service delivery."

According to George Lees, VP Technology, at Macro 4, The Regence Group`s switch to Macro 4 follows similar decisions by several other blue-chip organisations, including American Century, Epson America and others.

"In today`s tight economy, executives are looking for cost reduction opportunities. This is a great time for IT managers to put some focus on consolidating their vendors and reviewing upgrade costs. Our application availability products typically cost significantly less to implement and maintain compared to products from rival vendors. Furthermore, for an organisation like The Regence Group, with growing MIP requirements, the savings are likely to be even greater. With budget constraints high on the management agenda, we`re not surprised that so many companies are moving away from the high cost of ownership charged by some of our competitors."

The Regence Group expects to complete its conversion and implementation of the Macro 4 application availability suite in less than four months. The integrated solution will include DUMPMASTER for fault diagnosis, INSYNC for data management and TRACEMASTER for interactive testing and debugging. In order to ensure a smooth implementation, Macro 4 will provide complete transition services and product training for over 200 end-users.