CompuGroup goes into rehab

Germany’s CompuGroup has announced that it will buy 90% of All for One, a specialist provider of software for rehabilitation centres and social care units.

The deal continues CompuGroup’s shopping spree of health IT firms, coming just weeks after the purchase of Norwegian private health IT specialist Profdoc.

Financial details of the deal are not disclosed. CompuGroup’s spokeswoman Ursula Keller said that All for One had had an annual turnover of €27m in 2007.

Before the latest acquisition CompuGroup’s turnover was projecting a turnover of €215m in 2008. Following the latest deal turnover should be boosted to approximately €242m.

All for One is thought to be the market leader in this field. The company’s main product is its LifeCure information system. There is, however, little reliable data on IT solutions in the heavily fragmented German market of rehabilitation and social care units.

All for One says it has 350 customers among the approximately1000 German rehab facilities, and 3000 social care customers.

All for One will be integrated into CompuGroup subsidary ‘systema’, although the name ‘All for One’ will be retained.

Systema so far has focussed on hospital information systems for Germany and Austria. Thanks to All for One, the company now gets a significant foothold in the rehabilitation IT market.

“Apart from the new customers, this takeover gives us access to two very interesting products that have not been represented in the CompuGroup product portfolio so far”, Frank Brecher, head of systema told E-Health Europe.

These are a software module for therapy planning in the rehabilitation context and a business intelligence and finances module. “We used to buy these things from other vendors. Now we have our own”, said Brecher.

The products may in future be offered outside the German market. Austria, in particular, could be a potential opportunity, since systema is particularly strong there. “This has not been analysed in detail, though,” said Brecher.

One interesting aspect of the acquisition will be how systema will integrate the 3000-plus All for One customers in the social care market into its broader strategy for a digital healthcare system. “The takeover gives us the opportunity to offer organisations like, for example, the Red Cross the option to electronically connect their hospitals, rehab facilities, and ambulatory care facilities. At least for Germany, this is certainly something new”, said Brecher.

The All for One takeover is only the latest in a long row of takeovers that the head of CompuGroup, Frank Gotthardt, initiated years ago already. With four takeovers in the early 2000s, CompuGroup was the main player in the consolidation of the German market for IT solutions for doctors in private practice. It then went international by acquiring a number of Eastern European software vendors.

In January 2007 CompuGroup decided to go into hospital information systems and bought the Austrian HIS-market leader systema, a close cooperating partner of SAP. The predominantly Turkish company Tepe International also came to CompuGroup in the same month.

A bid for iSoft failed in August 2007, two monthes after CompuGroup made its debut at the Frankfurt stock market. But this did not stop Gotthardt.

To gain a foothold in the German Hospital Information Systems market, in march 2008 the company bought Fliegel Data with a customer base of over 100 hospitals. Fliegel data was also integrated into systema.

Most recently CompuGroup went into the Norwegian market for private practice IT with the takeover of Profdoc ASA.