A few changes and some feedback

Pardon our dust, as they say. I was in a cleaning mood:

• I rearranged the items in the left margin a bit for convenience
• I deleted some unused article categories and added a new one called "Announcements." The article categories don't do much except allow you see all articles from that category at once.
• I added a "Sponsored By" for all you rich vendor types who want to plug stuff here.

I've set up the "Sponsor" function to be free for awhile. You can create an sponsor's ad for your company in just a few seconds, complete with a link and small image if you like. Hey, you're reading anyway, so why not go ahead and stick an ad out there and let's all (me included) see how it looks? This is another of my filthy capitalist pig, Gordon Gekko, dot-com-nineties ideas to keep me in a style that I'm not accustomed to, but would probably enjoy. Now I'll be sorry I slammed all those products .... naaaah.

Maybe it's the holiday season, maybe it's my shameless pandering for some kind of feedback. Anyway, here goes on your e-mails. Nick writes:

I'm hooked on your blog now. It's nice reading what other vendors are up to. I do an e-Newsletter every 2 months that goes to future and current customers. The next issue is in early February, would it be OK to mention your blog? Most of my readers are in healthcare so they would benefit from your blog. Possibly we could do some type of industry articles or interviews for your blog and my e-newsletter?

Thanks, Nick. Sure thing, mention away and feel free to submit stuff. If your material is interesting, unbiased, and to-the-point, I'll use it. And up next, Jeremy's a good sport and a marketing suit (so is he a sport suit, then?) from MediServe.

Just letting you know I laughed at your comment on our web site...and get a kick at the other stuff you write as well. Have a geat holiday.

I did make fun of their website's stock photos and some of their press release wordsmithing. All in good fun and I'm glad Jeremy isn't mad at me. Well, they got off easy compared to some of the other vendors out there. Thanks Jeremy, I appreciate your taking the time to say hello. Happy holidays to you, too.

Now here's one I'm really unhappy about. I got a great set of comments from ... someone. I read the e-mail, I basked, I glowed, and then I accidentally deleted the message along with the usual pile of penis enlargement and debt consolidation spam. All I remember from my quick read is that it was from a mobile device company. If you saved a copy in your Out box, please resend it! It made my day.

Steve was surprised that Cerner didn't win the early rounds of the UK's NHS bidding. Here's what I e-mailed to him:

They lost the first round, but are still in some of the others. They seemed surprised as well - in fact, they hinted that some illogical process must have resulted in their exclusion (politics, nationalism, or whatever.)  I was really surprised, but I don't understand the behind-the-scenes work that may have been required. Some of those other companies have strong international presence and existing connections may have helped. I don't know if concerns about Cerner's existing problems played a part at all (response time, quality control, etc.) It probably didn't hurt that IDX came in on British Telcom's coattails, since again some nationalism may have been involved. And, NHS may have simply unwilling to put all of its eggs in Cerner's basket, so they could spread the contracts around just to make sure something works to appease the Brits who are getting income tax increases to cover the mammoth project. Cerner could still get some business. In fact, I'd be surprised if they don't get at least one more contract beyond the scheduling system they won earlier.