This IDC study contains results from IDC's 2004 U.S. Healthcare Provider IT Survey and U.S. Healthcare Payer IT Survey, which queried, respectively, 100 healthcare provider and 46 healthcare payer respondents.

Even though many industries are calling for a simplifications of IT solutions to streamline business processes and lower IT costs, healthcare ? if based on the data from our survey respondents ? is not one of these industries.

"Ironically enough, vendors that specialize in end-to-end or standalone/best-of-breed applications may well want to market their applications with an option toward higher (not lower) degrees of customization to 'appease' this current preference among the healthcare community," said Scott Tiazkun, IDC program manager, U.S. IT Opportunity, Healthcare.