Computer Synergy was acquired by SMS in 1985 and renamed Spirit. After integration issues, it reverted to the Allegra name. In 2001, former Allegra client Rick Opry acquired rights to Allegra and renamed his company IntraNexus. In 2011, Quality Systems acquired IntraNexus for $4.9 million, bringing the NextGen product line together through a series of acquisitions spanning several decades. The next episode will cover Meditech, known for longevity and no acquisitions over 40+ years in business.

1. H.I.S.-toryby Vince Ciotti
Episode #82: NextGenPart 4
The “next” acquisition:
© 2012 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.

2. Final Episode of NextGen
• Probably not the end of their acquisitions, but the last part in our
saga of where their present-day HIS product offerings came from.
• This story goes way back in the late 70s, when minicomputer HIS
systems started challenging the dominant shared systems like
SMS, McAuto &Tymshare. In Oakland, CA, an ex-IBM sales rep
named Tom Culligan started his mini firm: Computer Synergy,
whose HIS ran on DEC’s line of “VAX”
minicomputers, easily the 2nd most popular
box after IBM’s System 34, 36 and 38.
• Like leading competitors Dynamic Control,
Meditech, HBO, etc., Computer Synergy
gradually developed a complete HIS, with all
core financial and clinical systems, at a price
that competed well in terms of TCO with then-
dominant shared systems like SMS & McAuto.

3. If you can’t
beat ‘em…
Per this table from
one of Sheldon
Dorenfest’s early
“Guides,” Computer
Synergy was
growing rapidly
when it caught the
eye of SMS, who
had already entered
the mini market
with their ACTIon
line that ran on
both Four Phase &
DEC VAX boxes.

4. That’s the Spirit!
• Having started it’s “ACTIon”
line through a marketing
agreement for HBO’s
pioneering MedPro, SMS
was no stranger to
acquisitions and in 1985,
they struck a deal with Tom
to acquire his firm. SMS’
marketing department came
up with the name “Spirit,” as
shown in this ad from 1987.
Under the covers, Spirit was
actually comprised of SMS’
own DEC ACTIon clinicals
“front-ending” Computer
Synergy’s financials...

5. An Odd
Couple…
Initially, SMS’ superb
sales team sold Spirit
(also known as “The Spirit
Choice”) very well as
usual. However, the two
systems were very
different in appearance
and architecture, as early
clients learned to their
chagrin… So after a few
years, SMS reverted to
the original all-Synergy
product, with another
superb name: Allegra!

6. Y2K “Apocalypse”
• Over the next decade, from 1988 to 1998, SMS
almost 200 hospitals on the Allegra mini
system, until an event on the horizon raised
fears throughout the IT world in the 90s: Y2K!
Hard to remember back then how all of we IT
“experts” feared the collapse of our e-world…
• It is so comforting to realize today that
we have become so much smarter: there
is just no way our modern, enlightened
society would ever give any credence to
such scare stories about the end of the
world due to inexplicable occurrences…
• In the HIS world of the late ‘90s, vendors faced the daunting of re-
writing millions of lines of code to expand any MM/DD/YY dates to
be MM/DD/YYYY, and programs could read the 2 extra digits...

7. Too Many Products…
• Like many vendors back then, SMS had
too many products to fit in the lifeboat:
– Independence – inhousemainframe
– Exact – an ACTIon front-end to their shared financial system
– Signature - a physician billing systems for reg., sched. & 1500s
– MedSeries 4 – an IBM mini system they had acquired from GTE
• Indeed, this last system was the challenge in that being IBM-based,
it sold better than Allegra and they were direct competitors!?
• So, SMS did what any company would do in such a situation, it
made a tough but correct business decision, and notified clients of
Allegra that it would no longer be supported after Y2K, and
proceeded to sell them on one of their many other products…
• Aren’t we lucky none of today’s vendors have too many products
to support with threats like ICD-10 looming on the Horizon…

8. To The Rescue!
• One of SMS’ Allegra clients was Virginia Beach General
Hospital, that had a user department head named Rick
Opry who had mastered Computer Synergy so well that he
left and formed his own computer company in 92:
• OpryConsulting, which 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 modern Ruby & Java.
• In 2001, Rick formally purchased rights to the Allegra software from
SMS, and re-named his company: “IntraNexus”which grew to
over 100 employees based in Rick’s home town of Virginia Beach.
• Besides core Sapphire apps, IntraNexus had many partners for
ancillary systems: MetaHealth’s HIM, ORMED ERP, SCC for LIS, etc.

9. The Next Acquisition
• IntraNexus tried for about
10 years to break into the
big time, but had a hard
time finding the right niche
in the HIS nexus. Here’s Rick
& his sales team at our HIS
Buyers Seminars in Vegas:
• And then, voila!
“VIRGINIA BEACH, VA --- April 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.”

10. The “LastGen!?”
• So there you have it, the full HIS-tory of where NextGen got their
complete product line, acquisition by acquisition by acquisition…
• The next episode promises to be a breath of fresh air as we delve
into the origins of today’s leading vendor in terms of longevity
(both of the firm & leadership) and market share: Meditech!,
that never acquired a single total HIS competitor in its 40+ years!
• With over 2,000 hospital clients world-wide, this will be a
fascinating story, delving into the HIS-tory of all 3 core products:
Magic, Client/Server, and Release 6:
• Indeed, Meditech’s story is so deep &
fascinating, I’m askingany old Boston
vets out there to share their inside
stories/pics at: vciotti@hispros.com
• And if you’re a really old HIS veteran who prefers a live human
voice to a keyboard, feel free to call me any time at:505/466-4958