H. D. Smith ranks on InformationWeek's Elite 100 technology innovators

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Apr 29, 2015, 09:00 ET

SPRINGFIELD, Ill., April 29, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- H. D. Smith, the largest independent wholesaler in the U.S. and a leading pharmaceutical brand support company, today announced that it ranked on this year's InformationWeek Elite 100 – a list of the top business technology innovators in the U.S.

"Gone are the days IT could run as an entity unto itself," said InformationWeek Editor Chris Murphy. "If IT isn't part of product development, or marketing, or customer service, your company risks falling behind in the era of digital business. At InformationWeek, we talk about this as 'IT Without Borders,' as we see the best IT leaders tearing down traditional borders to help every department leverage technologies such as data analytics, cloud, and mobility. The 2015 InformationWeek Elite 100 spotlights companies at which IT is not only inseparable from every department, it's pivotal to every customer experience."

Expanding its offerings to manufacturers and healthcare providers, H. D. Smith is continually revolutionizing, through technology, to dramatically reduce healthcare costs and improve patient outcomes.

"As a management team, we decided to focus energy on how to serve the customer, how to bring solutions to market faster and how to leverage this challenging market," said David Guzman, chief information officer at H. D. Smith. "This allows us to migrate from a consumer of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model to a provider of services for our customers – in other words, we're not just passing along existing software to our customers; we're creating it. We are working to engage as a true collaborator through our infrastructure and software, as service partners."

For example, to offer controlled substance ordering on the move, H. D. Smith expanded its existing relationship with technology partner, Legisym, to enable highly regulated orders on devices running iOS software.

To meet the mandatory and stringent DEA requirements for ordering controlled substances, this new technology operates much like a traditional CSOS e-certificate, except the Remote Certificate Store allows pharmacists to access CSOS credentialing through the cloud instead of on a computer's hard drive.

"As a company, our goal is to leverage technology to improve efficiency for the pharmacies we serve – helping our customers save both money and time in the long run, while better caring for their patients," said Chris Smith, president and chief executive officer at H. D. Smith. "The new CSOS technology also reduces overall cost in the industry through greater efficiency for pharmacists and helping to maximize patient outcomes by getting vitally needed and effective medicine where it needs to be, when it needs to be there. We are honored to be recognized by InformationWeek for this industry-leading technology."

This is InformationWeek's 27^th year identifying and honoring the nation's most innovative users of information technology. The InformationWeek Elite 100 research tracks the technology-based investments, strategies, and results of some of the best-known organizations in the country. Unique among corporate rankings, the InformationWeek Elite 100 spotlights the power of business technology innovation.

Additional details on the InformationWeek Elite 100 can be found online at http://www.informationweek.com/elite100.

About H. D. Smith

H. D. Smith is one of the largest, national wholesale distributors and a leading pharmaceutical brand support company for manufacturers and healthcare providers. Through its wholesale distribution business unit, H. D. Smith provides a complete line of prescription, health, beauty and wellness, and home healthcare products, as well as a wide array of business solutions to retail pharmacies, institutions and health systems. Through its specialty solutions business unit, H. D. Smith provides specialty distribution, specialized third party logistics and clinical trial procurement services, as well as a suite of solutions that remove barriers to patient access and enhance adherence for traditional and specialty pharmaceutical manufacturers. Headquartered in Springfield, Illinois, the company has locations throughout the country. In addition to its wholesale drug operations, H. D. Smith operates Smith Medical Partners, Triplefin, HDS Healthcare Packaging and Valley Wholesale Drug.

About InformationWeek

For more than 30 years, InformationWeek has provided millions of IT executives worldwide with the insight and perspective they need to leverage the business value of technology. InformationWeek provides CIOs and IT executives with commentary, analysis and research through its thriving online community, digital issues, webcasts, proprietary research and live, in-person events. InformationWeek's award-winning editorial coverage can be found at www.informationweek.com. InformationWeek is produced by UBM Tech.

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