Cerner acquires Siemens, what does this really mean?
The big announcement this week, Cerner acquires Siemens. Well, not officially until 2015. This wasn’t a big surprise actually. Blogs including HISTalk have been suggesting this since May. Perhaps its the fact that there are only a handful of truly prominent Electronic Health Management vendors out there, and two of the biggest are merging. But the real question is what does this mean for consultants and our clients.
First, nothing is going to happen to Soarian customers. Period. So if you are supporting Siemens Soarian projects, no worries. The real impact would be to clients on an older Siemens system. They’ll obviously be forced into making decisions in the next year to either go with Cerner, or look elsewhere. It’s clear Siemens had no intention of updating its software, as they’ve lost more clients last year then all other vendors combined. In fact Siemens lost over 75 clients last year, followed by Cerner losing 35, and MEDITECH losing 25 (according to recent KLAS release). Notice no mention of Epic. They don’t lose clients.
The good news continues to be that Siemens Legacy support work will continue to grow. Remote help desk support for the next 3-5 years?! Sign me up! What will be interesting to watch is how Epic battles to keep it’s ability to tout that they service 51% of the US population. Cerner will no doubt impact continued growth of it’s client base by now having a jump ahead of the competition with current Siemens customers. What do you think? Good news or bad?
Delta Email Hoax…again
It appears Delta has been the target of yet another series of fraudulent emails claiming you have purchased a ticket with a virus on the attachment. You should delete these and ignore the message. These messages have apparently been sent to consumers in the last 24 hours.
Per Delta:
As with previous hoaxes, customers should be advised of the following:
These emails were not sent by Delta Air Lines.
Your personal information on file with Delta (such as SkyMiles Profile) has not been shared or compromised in any way.
You should not click on the link in the email or open any attachments.
Instead, you should simply delete the email from their inbox.
These e-mails claim that the recipient has purchased a Delta ticket, that a credit card has been charged, and that an invoice or receipt is attached to the e-mail. If you have received one of these emails, do not open the attachment as it may contain potentially dangerous viruses or other malware that may harm your computer.
Be assured that Delta did not send these emails, and our customers’ credit cards have not been charged as a result of the e-mails. These e-mails did not originate with Delta, nor do we believe that any personal information that our customers provided to us was used to generate these e-mails. We will continue to post updates on this page as additional information becomes available.
3 Years of Consultant-Tips.com
Three years ago my boss, at the time, suggested that I start a blog on travel tips, movies, restaurants, and hotels. Having spent the last 10 years on the road has certainly given me some great materials to write about. Having worked with so many consultants from all over the country has been such a fantastic experience, how could I not share. As you may have noticed, lately the blog has focused on consulting firms, vendors, and various changes happening in our industry. I hope you like the transition. I always want to remain positive and constructive, so please call me out if I slip.
I’m excited to share that I’ll be focusing on all of the above for the rest of this year and will be doing a summer themed group of articles.
Thank you for all your support over the years. As always, please share your thoughts and suggestions with me anytime.
Doug
Consulting Firm Mergers and Acquisitions Galore!
Quintiles, a drug research company, just acquired Encore. Cumberland just acquired CIPE. It seems every other day we are hearing of another consulting firm being bought out. In my ten years in this industry I’ve been through a couple of these, and they are not fun at all. Sometimes the impact to the consultant and firm is minimum while other times it tears the very foundation apart. The question is what can you do as a consultant, if anything?
These small private owned successful companies are trying to compete. KLAS reports on some 50+ firms offering HIT consulting services. As a consultant, it can be frustrating to see your company get sold. My advise has always been, if you like your contract and the people you work with…stay. If the internal politics and change to culture is directly impacting your ability to be successful and happy…leave.
I get calls daily from consultants looking for new opportunities for the wrong reasons. Don’t leave your firm just because it sold. Leave because if it is not a fit for you anymore. I have come to believe no one is safe. When the right time, and price tag comes, these firms are going to be bought. I find that focusing on contract opportunities that are long term and challenging can limit your exposure to the politics and changes.
There will always be a handful of small companies that want to stay independently owned. Those companies will be challenged as the billion dollar companies bring in 10x as many sales people and recruiters. I find energy spent looking at what everyone else is doing is a waste of time. I know my clients are happy and my consultants love their job. Keep doing what you are doing and make your clients happy. You won’t even notice the new name on your email address.
Multi City Ticket vs Multiple One Way Tickets
We all know that airlines are pricing tickets based on initial city with final destination and whether you have connections. But what if you have to make several over night stops for business? With a 4 city tour coming up, I decided to see what the variance would be in pricing if I bought a single multi-city ticket or bought each flight separately. The savings for doing these individually was staggering.
One Way Tickets
The first leg of my upcoming trip has me flying BOS-SEA direct on Alaska Airlines. Cost – $195
Leg two is SEA-ABQ with connection through SLC on Delta. – Cost – $163
Leg three is ABQ-SLC on Delta for a one day conference. – Cost – $139
Final leg, the most expensive is SLT-BOS direct on Delta – Cost – $591
Total for everything comes to $1088.
Cheapest Multi-City Ticket
If I wanted to use the same airline, Delta for example, additional connections were needed.
Leg one required a connection on Delta through SLC or MNP.
Leg two is SEA-ABQ with connection through SLC on Delta was the same.
Leg three is ABQ-SLC on Delta was the same.
Final leg, from SLT-BOS required a red eye to get a lower price and direct on Delta.
Total for everything comes to $1783…plus taxes, fees, and charges bringing it to $1943.47!
No doubt a savings of almost $900, direct flight options with different airlines, and freedom of changing times if needed per flight…leaves the clear choice as single one way tickets.
Check out your one way flight options. Any price savings? Share your comments by clicking the leave a reply option.
Duplicate Firm Submissions…Causing Rejected Candidates
New opportunities are presented to firms in mass emails, job boards, and third party systems. Sales and recruiting team members monitor these to have a quick response time for candidate submissions. Firms with benched resources, those between projects, are usually submitted right away. If you are on the bench, some firms won’t even notify you that you are being submitted. The problem of duplicate submissions happens when those consultants who have started to reach out to other firms are submitted, but have not resigned and therefore were submitted by their current firm. The end result is disastrous for both firms and the consultant.
Let’s first look at this from the client’s perspective. They don’t need to be involved in a bidding war, nor do they have the time. To protect the client, any candidate that was submitted by more than one firm is automatically disqualified and rejected for the position. Regardless of who submitted the candidate first, both firms are notified of the duplication. The bad news for the consultant is they now lost out. Firms that submit candidates without notifying them, whether potential new hires or benched employees, need to rethink their process. They are only hurting themselves and their employees.
As a consultant there are several things you can do to minimize duplicate submissions. The most important thing is to tell your current firm that you want to be notified of being submitted and approve it first. If you are interviewing with other firms, let them know you are still on an active bench and may be submitted for other opportunities. It should always be up to the consultant where they want to be submitted, by whom, and when. The hard fact is that if you don’t resign, some firms may terminate you for failure to disclose that you have been seeking alternate opportunities.
A tricky curve ball has been added to the mix by some newer, not so ethical firms, that blind submit candidates. These firms will submit their candidates from a combination of resumes created from LinkedIn, initial recruiting calls, and job boards. Their assumption is you are looking. Their play with the client is “we have this resource,” and if they are interested in talking to you…then you’ll receive a call. I call it ‘reverse recruiting.’ Another words, they are getting the client’s interest first, then going after the candidate. I’ve had dozens of consultants complain about this practice in just the last month, and all have not been selected because of duplicate submission.
In reality all firms are vying for the same positions at the same time…and often with the same candidates. Put yourself in front of this competitive curve ball by communicating and limiting access to your resume. Be sure that you trust the firm and people you are talking to. Your resume is what gets you an interview. Your firm and their recruiters are only a tool to get you there…don’t let them turn into a threatening weapon.
Have experiences or thoughts on the subject? Share your comments below.
Debate on Airlines Placing AMEX Advertising Tags on Checked Luggage
Airlinereporter.com, Flyertalk.com, and other travel blogs are attacking Delta airlines for placing advertising tags on checked luggage at Sea-Tac Airport. Travelers have stated they have experienced up to a 40 minute delays in receiving their luggage, one posting even states this is “vandalism,” as part of their complaint. Airlinereporter.com reached out to Delta to confirm the program, where they found out Delta has hired a team to place these tags and are not seeing any delays due to the program.
What is the problem people? It’s not like TSA isn’t already opening your suitcase and rummaging through your underwear looking for…well, who knows what. To expedite the process, Amex should just place an advertisement on the back of the TSA notice that your suitcase was opened. Maybe this would save money for TSA and they could open more security lines and stop allowing randoms to merge into TSA Pre-Check lines. There is an idea! I mean do we not have enough real issues to complain about when traveling, that now we are worried about someone placing a tag on our luggage. Here’s another idea, don’t check.
What are your thoughts? Post your response below.
ICD-10 Potential Delay…Again
Our industry continues to be impacted by government decisions regarding Meaningful Use and ICD-10. The latest news regarding the vote for a one year delay in the House, once again puts us and our clients at odds. This will go to Senate on Monday for vote and presidential signature. Should that happen, October 2015 will be the new target date.
Those of you supporting ICD-10 readiness assessments now are probably a bit concerned. Integrated testing would be put on hold, system upgrades would take priority, and ongoing roll outs to community practices may be limited to clinical applications. I had just recently been working with a client who decided to delay their install of Epic revenue applications until after ICD-10 roll out. What would this mean to them? I can only imagine the headaches and direct impact to budgets, project plans, and overall IT strategy. For many, this would mean back to the drawing board to come up with a new plan.
Could this be good news for consulting industry? Yes, absolutely. Clients will hopefully look at this 12 month delay (if it happens), as a an opportunity to spend the next 3-4 months to pull a plan together. Education and testing will continue to be the two biggest opportunities for consultants.
Let’s watch and see what happens next week. I’ll be curious to hear the thoughts of those already providing ICD-10 support today. Leave your reply below.
Study Suggests 54 Days is the Best Time to Book Travel…That is Not Going To Happen
The new study released by http://www.cheapair.com hit national news this week. It was interesting to see the price differences between 54 days and 14 days, the typical time consultants purchase their flights. I thought I would ask around to see if this could impact consultants and our clients.
I asked three different clients if they would be willing to allow consultants to book flights 54 days in advance, once a week. Every single manager came back with “no.” Even after I showed an average savings of $175 per ticket, there are bigger problems…billing. A new consultant would need to purchase 7 weeks of flights all at once when they started to get themselves 54 days ahead. Then the benefit would simply be that the consultant can purchase a ticket weekly, at the cheapest rate possible, until the end of their contract. No client is willing to pay an invoice for 7 weeks of flights up front. Even more interesting was that two of the clients stated that there was concerns of paying up front and then having the consultant resign, removed early from the contract, call in sick, or work remotely.
Clearly this information is intended for the casual flyer who can book flights almost two months in advance. I certainly tend to plan vacation months in advance. In terms of booking for your engagement, stick to the general rule of 2 – 4 weeks out. I always tell consultants that if their client agrees, buy there first 3 weeks of flights at once, then 2 more weeks after starting at the client. You’ll be 30 days out for each purchased flight, and should still be within a good window for finding a reasonable fare.
Delta Announces Changes to Frequest Flyer Program…again
Seems Delta just keeps changing it’s programs and services for the worse year after year. The announcement states that Delta flyers will now earn “miles” based on the cost of the ticket rather than actual miles flown. An advantage to Diamond and Platinum members is that you’ll earn an extra five to eleven miles per dollar, based on Skymiles status. Silver and Gold will not earn any extra bonus miles. This new format will cater to the elite traveler, most likely international travelers…bumping your average consultant back to seat 32B.
I don’t know about you, but I always choose the cheapest flight I can based on the schedule that works for me. Our clients will certainly not understand if you jump from an average of $450 a week to $800 a week, just so you can earn more miles. Who would possibly benefit from this in our industry? I don’t see this attracting new business at all. Even CBS news reported that Delta wants to attract the guy who will pay $10,000 for ticket in first class, because their company will pay for it. The only plus I see is less families and riffraff, the minus…is folks like you and I will become that riffraff.
The Chicago Tribune reported that the change was in fact intended to award business travelers and mirrors several programs today. What I found most interesting was the airlines with this type of program are the discount airlines. If Delta wants to be a “premium” airline, you would not expect them to copy a formula from AirTran or jetBlue. Regardless, I’ve almost stopped flying Delta completely. Except for today, which is of coarse delayed, oversold, and filled with riffraff returning from Orlando to Boston.
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