Deal!

An inside look at an IT contract.

Client: AtlanticCare, Egg Harbor Township, NJ.

Services: Network intrusion prevention system.

Winning Vendor: Third Brigade, signed February 2007 after one-year search.

Driver: "We needed to fortify our network against viruses," says Daniel Morreale, corporate chief information officer of the integrated delivery network, which runs a health plan, two hospitals and more than 60 outpatient clinics.

Number Vendors Considered: Four, including McAfee and Computer Associates.

Evaluation Tools: Morreale and three members of the search team, including chief technology officer, evaluated vendors informally, inviting finalists in to present to about 20 engineering staff, a "bunch of healthy skeptics."

Serendipity: By chance, Morreale saw Third Brigade at a New Jersey hospital association meeting. "The light bulb went off," he says. "And they weren't even on our list."

Terms: Third Brigade's software was in the "very low six figures," says Morreale, and considerably less than other bidders, which came in at more than $250,000.

Deployment: Completed last summer. "The software requires fewer resources to maintain," Morreale says.

-Gary Baldwin

Got a good IT contract story? E-mail it to: gbaldwin@healthleadersmedia.com.