2. Shared System Acquisitions
• We left off last week with how shared systems were trying to
“keep up with the (turnkey mini) Joneses” by either building or
buying competitive mini systems. On the “buy” side:
– McAuto had very deep pockets thanks to its giant airplane
company parent, and bought a number of minis:
• Skip Shippee’s “MSA” mini-based HIS out of NC,
programmed in the “Pick” operating system, running on:
• Microdata minicomputers made in the UK, which
McAuto’s parent had bought earlier - talk about a “total
solution!”
• Mac also bought a number of ancillary dept. systems, eg:
– LabCom = Dr. Hick’s “LSI,” a premier, large-hospital LIS
– SMS – hardly asleep, SMS started with the rights to HBO’s
MedPro in the 70’s, eventually buying MedSeries4 in the 90’s,
3. “The Spirit Choice”
• In 1985, SMS acquired Computer
Synergy, but ran into a dilema:
• The ACTIOn 1100 and 1500 lines
were, in a sense, competitors:
– Running ADT, Order Entry, etc
– Also on DEC VAX minis!
• What to do? Well , when in doubt,
compromise, so SMS merged the
two competing products into “The
Spirit Choice,” using ACTion clinicals
as the “front end” and Synergy apps
as the financial “back-end” systems.
4. Round 2 in Malvern…
• Sounded good on paper, but sold like “cold
cakes” as the two disparate systems
required an interface “under the covers”
and savvy MIS Directors (no “CIO”s back
then…) saw through the charade…
• After a few frustrating years trying to get
the marketing, programming teams and
R&D plans in synch, SMS finally relented
and went back to the original integrated
Computer Synergy product and came up
with a much better name as well:
• “The Spirit Choice” was a bit of a mouthful!
COLD!COLD!
5. Allegra
• Now that name was more like it!
– Hot, upbeat, positive, just like sales of this totally integrated
VAX-based HIS, with >100 sold by SMS’ superb sales team.
• And SMS’ Allegra had a leader as hot as the product:
– Tom Tomlin, by the 1990s, SMS’ senior vice president and
general manager of the Turnkey Systems Division
• Tom ran a tight ship, and led the Allegra
team well; I can still remember hearing
his excellent shtick at a “Dog & Pony”
show in Malvern in the 90s as our firm
was including Allegra in system selections
• Just one fly in the ointment…
6. Internecine Warfare
• SMS ran into the same problem Baxter had with JS Data
(Alpha) competing with DCC (Delta) in the small
hospital market – if you remember last week’s
episode...
• Indeed, when we issued an RFI for one of our hospital
clients, we were never sure what SMS would bid:
– Allegra, MedSeries, Independence, ACTIon, Unity…
– Indeed, they probably didn’t know either!
• Plus, the R&D costs to keep so many competing
products up to date in the ever-changing world of
Healthcare, let alone the imminent threat of Y2K…
•
7. As the sun sets slowly in the west…
• SMS stunned about 175 Allegra users with a sad letter announcing
the “sunset” of Allegra just before Y2K required extensive re-
writes
– A wise business decision, as re-writing the millions of lines of
COBOL code in SHAS alone would task any R&D team, let alone
their myriad of other products like MedSeries4, ACTIon, etc.
– (Which leads one to appreciate the stunning name of “Sunrise”
Eclipsys came up with for their successor product to TDS!)
• So what were the hundreds of Allegra clients going to
do?
• One of them was Virginia Beach General
Hospital, that had an excellent user
department head who had mastered
Computer Synergy so well, he left and
formed his own computer company:
• “Opry Consulting” – started in 1992
8. Rick Opry in the Nexus…
• Rick saw an excellent opportunity and jumped right in:
– Offering ongoing support and
ongoing maintenance to the many
Allegra clients stuck between a ->
• Indeed, Opry Consulting picked up so many
Allegra clients (about 75 all told), he started writing a series of new
“Sapphire” web-based apps for them programmed in Ruby & Java.
• In 2001, Rick purchased rights to the Allegra software from SMS,
and re-named his company: “IntraNexus”
• A bit of a tongue-twister, but then so was
Computer Synergy & The Spirit Choice!
• IntraNexus grew to over 100 employees, and Rick prided himself in
the excellent personal touch of service & support he provided.
9. End of the Story?
“VIRGINIA BEACH, VA --- April 1April 1, 2011 --- Quality
Systems Inc. (NasdaqGS: QSII) entered into an asset
purchase agreement to acquire IntraNexus, Inc. for
$4.9 million on April 1, 2011. The purchase price
consisted of cash consideration of $3.3 million plus
additional contingent consideration to be made over
a three year period, not to exceed $1.7 million.”
• Quality Systems Inc. is the parent company of NextGen, the same
firm that bought Opus clinicals & Sphere financials last year.
• So how are they going to position Sapphire and these two small-
hospital products? Talk about an intra-nexus…
• So there you have it: from Tom Culligan in San Fran in the 1970s,
through SMS in the 1980s, to Opry Consulting/IntraNexus in the
1090s, to NextGen in the 2000s – almost a mini-HIS-tory in itself!
• And pieces still running in about 50 IntraNexus clients today!
10. End of the Story?
“VIRGINIA BEACH, VA --- April 1April 1, 2011 --- Quality
Systems Inc. (NasdaqGS: QSII) entered into an asset
purchase agreement to acquire IntraNexus, Inc. for
$4.9 million on April 1, 2011. The purchase price
consisted of cash consideration of $3.3 million plus
additional contingent consideration to be made over
a three year period, not to exceed $1.7 million.”
• Quality Systems Inc. is the parent company of NextGen, the same
firm that bought Opus clinicals & Sphere financials last year.
• So how are they going to position Sapphire and these two small-
hospital products? Talk about an intra-nexus…
• So there you have it: from Tom Culligan in San Fran in the 1970s,
through SMS in the 1980s, to Opry Consulting/IntraNexus in the
1090s, to NextGen in the 2000s – almost a mini-HIS-tory in itself!
• And pieces still running in about 50 IntraNexus clients today!
