Bundling expertise between the Ruhr and the Rhine

With about 8,000 employees worldwide, CompuGroup Medical (CGM) combines a vast wealth of know-how within its ranks. We wanted to ask Thomas Simon, Senior Vice President Clinical DE-CH at CGM, why VISUS GmbH was so attractive for the Koblenz enterprise and what technological gaps JiveX products can potentially close.

In June 2021 it was revealed that CompuGroup Medical had acquired VISUS Health IT GmbH from its founders Jörg Holstein and Klaus Klebern. This step was not expected, because prior to this VISUS had been a highly solvent, successful, and growth-oriented business generating its own steam. What led to this “fusion”?

The merger was not a surprise at all. It was the result of very long and intense discussions. There was no necessity driving the sale, which meant that the managing directors of VISUS were in a good position to negotiate. But joining ranks was nevertheless an extremely attractive and promising option for both sides, which demonstrates the significance of the added value for both the customer base and employees.

What made VISUS so interesting for CGM?

VISUS has undergone an enormous development process over the last 20 years. The company’s ability to identify trends and to embrace developments in healthcare and convert them to bits and bytes is unique. Nowadays, hardly any providers of hospital IT go without VISUS in their daily tasks. Topics such as data consolidation with JiveX Healthcare Content Management, the highly systematic use of standards, the pervasive networking concept, and the drive to build bridges to other worlds with JiveX Healthcare Connect are nowadays crucial for the quality of care.

CGM in turn also has excellent technologies along with something that VISUS does not: strong solutions across all sectors—hospitals, medical, dental, and psychotherapy practices, pharmacies, etc. And of course, a strong connection with the teleinformatics infrastructure. Both fit perfectly with the networking and patient empowerment concepts of VISUS. The synergy between the portfolios could not have been planned more efficiently on the drawing board.

The core of VISUS DNA is the issue of interoperability and manufacturer neutrality. Can this basic principle of the Bochum company still be manifested in a group?

Absolutely. It is precisely our aim—and that of users of IT solutions—to be able to realize greater networking in practice. And VISUS was therefore a very interesting company for CGM because correctly integrating internationally recognized standards and implementing them in the form of interoperable IT solutions is a philosophy that is deeply embedded in the company and is therefore systematically realized. And of course, we hope to benefit from this knowledge by bringing it into the group.

Does the customer base of VISUS have any grounds to fear future limitations in the choice of product partnerships within projects?

Quite the opposite. VISUS was also such an attractive company for CGM because its network of partners is truly outstanding. We would like to learn the conditions and structures that made such a network possible and, where appropriate, apply them to the CGM portfolio.

VISUS under the CGM roof

Within the HIS DE-CH Business Area, VISUS will be managed in future as an independent business unit “BU VISUS”. The businesses will be managed with immediate effect by Guido Bötticher (General Manager VISUS), Klaus Kleber (Chief Technology Officer VISUS), and Thomas Simon (Senior Vice President Clinical DE-CH at CGM).