“H.I.S.-tory” by Vince Ciotti

© 2011 H.I.S. Professionals, LLC

Episode # 23:

Gerber

Alley,

Part III

David helping Goliath!?• For these first 3 deals, G-A rode HP’s coattails as the HP 3000 gave

them an “alternative” (“Precision” one to be exact…) to the many IBM mini systems from DCC, JS Data, First Coast, AR Mediquest…

• The fourth deal was a real whopper for upstart G-A:

– Hewlett-Packard themselves!• It seems the HP team in

Andover learned that software was driving most of their HIS sales, so they “partnered” with G-A

• (also since HBO had turn-coated to DG minis for their “Star” successor to IFAS’ HP-3000 )

Big Brother…• The deal gave HP the right to market GA’s “The Precision

Alternative,” very like SMS getting rights to sell HBO’s Med-Pro in ‘75 for their early “ACTIon” Four-Phase mini-based system.

• Brian Robson got the job of working with big brother in Mass:– ”I was liason to HP for about a year to help bring them up to speed. – Kinda funny since we were a company of around 25 employees at the time,

and HP's Healthcare group had about a 100 people... – They sold some hospitals, but nothing like GA did... – A few of their good folks ended up coming to GA later.”

• Among them, Mike Brown, who came to GA in 1985 and took over as CEO, taking care of the business end so Terry could concentrate on R & D

• As we mentioned earlier, poor Urban Gerber passed away in 1984, too early to garner all the accolades he deserves as the “father” of GA…

Big News in 80’s HIS Circles…• As the 2-page ad spread below shows, the G-A & H-P alliance

made a big splash in HIT circles in the 1980s– Rivaling IBM’s partnership with Baxter that had given birth to IBAX

• G-A was able to keep growing its single TPA product line much faster than IBAX, adding some real shockers in the late 80s, like:– Physician’s Division – not just 1500s, but clinical decision support!– International Division – like SMS’ early forays into Japan back then…

Another Daring GA Move!• This from another GA alumnus: Karl Kiss, VP at Siemens.• Seems one of the many hot sales prospects for TPA was

Anaheim Memorial Hospital in California.– As we explained in an earlier episode, hospitals in those days

were “IBM shops” or “DEC shops,” etc., as the OS and DB systems were totally proprietary. No “open” Linux back then!

• Anaheim was a DEC shop and insisted on a DEC platform, and to keep up their sales & hot ride on Wall Street, GA made the

huge decision to offer TPA on DEC too!• In truth, not a bad perspective from a marketing standpoint, as hundreds of hospitals were “DEC shops” with McAuto’s I.H.S, SMS’ ACTIon 1000 series, etc.

HIS Market in the late 80s• To give some idea of how G-A, H-P and DEC ranked in

these red-hot mini days, here’s fascinating stats from a dusty old copy of Sheldon Dorenfest 1987 “Guide” based on his survey of 3,000 hospitals >100 beds:

Hardware # of Sites

IBM 1,358

D G 176

DEC 153

H-P 130

NCR 124

Saint 100

Burroughs 96

Microdata 45

Software Annual Revenue

Software (continued)

Annual Revenue

SMS $365M PHS $27M

McAuto $165M CHC $25M

HBO $165M IHC $20M

Baxter $145M Sunquest $20M

TDS $40M Compucare $18M

Cerner $34M Gerber-Alley $16M

SAI $32M Ferranti $15M

Meditech $32M HDS $12M

Workaholism!• This from David Wellons, a well-travelled HIS veteran:

– “My G-A story - I have worked for many HIS firms since 1984, so I know/heard of a lot of these folk. I'm really enjoying your series - but it's starting to make me feel old! (Welcome to the club!) Flying home to ATL one evening - I'm guessing early '90s - sitting next to a nice looking G-A sales person. When I found out where she worked, I asked if she were heading home. She said, ‘No, I live in Boston, but I have a proposal due and they won't let us work on them during the week. I'm meeting the proposal team in ATL for an all-weekend session so I can fly home Sunday night to be back at work Monday.’

- I'd heard they really drove their team hard, perhaps more so than similar firms. Proposal teams worked the weekends in support of the sales execs that flew in…”

Denouement…• By 1992, GA had grown to over $90M in revenue and

900+ employees, but the bubble finally burst…• Many people blame other people and various things for a

firm’s demise, but looking at HIS-tory overall, it just doesn’t pay to go into a “who shot John…” - all vendors rise and fall on their own individual roller coasters…

• The point is, vendors can and do fail as quickly as they rise, something every hospital should always keep in mind (as we’ve said, buy the product, not the firm!)

• GA ended up being bought by FDC, formerly AMEX who had started with Saint, then bought McAuto’s HSD, adding G-A,

• Only to be bought out themselves by HBOC…

GA’s Legacy• An amazing ending anecdote from Karl Kiss:

– HBOC supported GA’s TPA for many years, just as they did Saint, McAuto, etc, slowly selling the client base on one of the many other HBOC products like Star.

• Incredibly, parts of TPA still run today at Gwinnett Medical Center in Georgia!• Credit to HBOC (now McKesson) for giving them such a long lease on TPA’s life…• Which has been rewarded by Gwinnett being

one of the pilot sites for McKesson’s new Horizon Enterprise Resource Management (HERM), successor to Medipac/Healthquest (another HIS-tory future episode!)

Final Image…• A classic from Karen See:• She wanted to capture the

admirable spirit of G-A folks working late into the night…

• So she caught this image at dusk for G-A’s 1990 annual report, taken when most other vendor’s staff had long left their HQ offices for home

• (cause of many internal nasty-grams like Neal’s at Cerner!)

• A fitting final image to the wonderful G-A HIS-tory!

Thanks Thanks for help on Gerber-Alley!• Thanks again to the many G-A veterans who contributed:

– Brian Robson – whose emails told stories with tons of details on early GBA and G-A days – the bulk of this episode! Brain’s now with HP – how ironic!!

– Karen See – G-A’s Marketing Director, who trusted me with precious original ads & brochures, now with Clarity Close, her own vendor consulting firm.

– Karl Kiss – 10th person hired by G-A in 1984, filled my ears with great stories – he’s now Siemens’ Southeast Regional VP – bet he tried to sell Gwinnett!

– Gary Lakin – with Microsoft in Australia hooked me up with G/A vets– David Salazar – now VP at Merge, not “Gary” per my Part I episode – sorry!– Mark Edelstein – 10th employee in ‘84, now VP at Relay Health– Brian Curnutt – corrected my “Irwin” boo-boo into “Urban!”– David Wellons – relayed the weekend proposal story…

• Thanks also to many others who have sent in encouraging emails on their HIS experiences. Keep those cards & letters coming in!

• Please send any contributions to: vciott@hispros.com