REDMOND, Wash., March 6, 1997 — Catholic Healthcare West (CHW), one of the largest not-for-profit health-care systems, today became the latest corporation to announce it will standardize onMicrosoft Internet Explorer 3.0 for its corporate intranet. The move will put Microsoft Internet Explorer, the world’s fastest-growing browser, on at least 5,000 of the company’s desktops.
CHW, whose provider network includes more than 7,000 affiliated physicians and 35 acute-care hospitals in California, Arizona and Nevada, identified three key benefits of choosing Microsoft Internet Explorer for its corporate intranet: The browser offered the best integration with the health-care company’s existing enterprise environment; it proved to be the easiest browser to use, minimizing employee training costs; and Microsoft Corp. could provide, in addition to the browser, all of the other elements required for a comprehensive intranet solution.
“We considered other browsers, and Microsoft Internet Explorer offered everything we need in a browser for our Internet and intranet requirements,” said Andre Briere, CHW’s director of network integration and technology planning. “It integrates fully with our growing back-end and client-side applications, gives users a consistent interface so we have lower training costs, and offers a solution for each of our platforms.”
“We are extremely pleased by Catholic Healthcare West’s decision to standardize with Microsoft Internet Explorer,” said Yusuf Mehdi, group product manager in the Internet client and collaboration division at Microsoft. “It is a fast-growing company that demanded a corporate intranet solution not only to meet its current enterprise needs but to keep up with its expansion plans as well. It is a prime example of the corporate customers we had in mind when developing Microsoft Internet Explorer.”
Briere said the company also appreciated Microsoft’s ability to provide complete, one-stop shopping support for its planned intranet through the software vendor’s Microsoft Consulting Services unit.
“Having a single vendor – Microsoft – is making the entire process easier and more cost-effective for us,” Briere said. “Working on solutions with a single software vendor is a definite advantage.”
CHW, in evaluating other browsers for its corporate intranet, also noted Microsoft Internet Explorer’s easy and intuitive user interface. According to Briere, the interface eliminated many training and support headaches for beginners and intermediate users.
Catholic Healthcare West, based in San Francisco, has been rapidly increasing its number of facilities in the past few years. It currently uses a mixture of desktops based on the Windows® 3.1 and Windows 95 operating systems and plans to migrate most desktops to Windows 95. In addition to standardizing on Windows-based desktops, CHW also uses the Microsoft BackOffice
™suite, including the Windows NT® Server network operating system, Microsoft Internet Information Server and Microsoft Exchange Server, for some of its networking, Web server and other application services. The Microsoft FrontPage
™
Web authoring and management tool is its tool of choice for creating Web content.
In addition, CHW plans to use the Microsoft Internet Explorer Administration Kit to deploy Microsoft Internet Explorer to its users. The Microsoft Internet Explorer Administration Kit, free software, enables corporate administrators to manage their users on an ongoing basis without the need to visit each desktop. It includes the ability to customize favorite sites and preconfigure settings, including proxy servers.
Catholic Healthcare West joins the growing number of leading companies and organizations that have selected Microsoft Internet Explorer as their corporate standard, including Arthur Andersen, Baltimore Gas and Electric, Compaq Computer Corp., Continental Airlines, Coopers & Lybrand L.L.P., Fina Oil and Chemical Co., Intergraph Corp., Reynolds Metals and Sprint PCS.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
Microsoft, Windows, BackOffice, Windows NT and FrontPage are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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