Thread regarding Allscripts layoffs

The McKessoning?

Just wondering if part of the layoff strategy for the past two years has included disproportionate RIFs against the non-EIS part of the company? This question was inspired by the "Paragon" thread posted earlier today.

From what I've seen over the past two years, ever since Allscripts bought EIS ("former McKesson") at fire-sale prices, is that it appears that whenever there are layoffs they're removing more and more of the "legacy" Allscripts people, and that more and more EIS people are being put into middle and upper management positions. To whittle away at duplicate positions is standard practice during merger/acquisitions, it seems like there's been a disproportionate number of non-EIS people getting let go recently.

I have nothing against anyone from the former EIS groups – mostly great people, and some pretty smart cookies mixed in there – but my experience across several BUs has been that as more and more EIS people get involved in the day to day processes around the company the more it seems like they're trying to emulate or re-invent the way of doing business that they used to do at EIS. There generally seems to be a complete lack of adaptation or compromise, it's always a "this is how we used to do it at McKesson so that's how we're going to do it now" mentality. There is a lack of willingness to try or learn new methods or explore different avenues of thought to get things done or transfer old processes utilizing deprecated methods to fit in with the rest of the company. This becomes glaringly obvious when talking with certain groups, at least to me. It seems to fall outside what statistics say two groups mixing should act like.

Several other people I work with on a regular basis have referred to this as "The McKessoning" of Allscripts. "It's what they're comfortable with, so they're trying to reproduce it here" is what I've been told. Two years in, and some groups still can't come to grips with the fact they are not McKesson anymore it seems. Having been around since the Misys days, I've seen any number of people from other merger/acquisitions go through resistance and then eventualy adapt and become part of the whole - I've never seen a group so stuck in the past during any of those other times.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Does anyone have concerns that despite the various idiosyncrasies or faults that Allscripts has had for years or the current virus/social disruption issues we face that large portions of the company now seem hell-bent on duplicating whatever it was that turned McKesson EIS into a bargain bin purchase? In short, is this trend toward duplicating failed practices from another company going to accelerate the disintegration of Allscripts or keep Allscripts from possibly recovering and becoming a strong company again?

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| 2542 views | | 10 replies (last July 5, 2020) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+15FKg4pi

10 replies (most recent on top)

so much for the Mckessoning structure because things are def not getting better. The latest financial disclosure shows Allscripts Healthcare Solutions with a 45% Probability Of Bankruptcy. This is 3.95% higher than that of the Healthcare sector, and significantly higher than that of Health Information Services industry

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Post ID: @8htt+15FKg4pi

JM was also a SW developer before he went to "the dark side" and became a dev manager.

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Post ID: @7uvc+15FKg4pi

Not true as far as DEV is concerned anyway. Literally ALL of the McKesson VPs have been laid off and probably most of the DIR as well. Allscripts Solutions Mgt immediately goes to McKesson developers for their RIF list. DEV leadership has little say in RIFs. It is all driven by LK and Solutions.

Also, JM has managed several DEV groups before Allscripts. He did come from Services, but he has lots of DEV experience and actually listened to his VPs/DIRs as opposed to LK and company who have zero clue how to develop software.

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Post ID: @7fxw+15FKg4pi

“whenever there are layoffs they're removing more and more of the "legacy" Allscripts people”

For what it’s worth, McK did the same the last 4 years before the acquisition. We were a skeleton crew in 2017. Then Allscripts redefined skeleton.

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Post ID: @3hkw+15FKg4pi

@lgz+15FKg4pi This ain't about McKesson people not getting laid off, they are, no question. It's about more of them being put in charge of things and trying to change the culture to match what they think if as the good old days and not adapting to the Allscripts way. Every acquisition brings some changes to a company as you get different groups mixing together and usually the better stuff from the acquisition gets incorporated into daily work and the stuff that didn't do so well gets cast aside. That ain't what's going on these last two years, I've met any number that don't even understand why a process works a certain way, the business reasons for that process, or the need to adapt to the general common way of doing things. More energy gets spent trying to get things done the old way instead of just getting it done the approved way.

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Post ID: @1cip+15FKg4pi

That is not true. A lot of former McKesson employees have been laid off. There is only a skeleton crew left in Alpharetta. Allscripts does not care where you came from. They will lay anyone off.

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Post ID: @lgz+15FKg4pi

Seems pretty clear, if you were McKesson; you get to keep your job. Original Allscripts, not so much.

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Post ID: @mjc+15FKg4pi

It does seem to me like a lot of groups and key positions are being filled by former McKesson folk and yes the midset is changing. When the merger happened and I was trying to get my team put together from both sides it was clear that the McKesson people were getting paid at a higher rate than the Allscripts people and that affected raises in 2019 so its odd that when we're being asked to reduce headcount with iimplied factor of higher pay being more priority for layoff that the lists we're given tend to have more Allscripts people than McKesson people on them. The last couple of rounds of layoffs I had no input and was told who was getting cut on the morning it happened without warning.

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Post ID: @soj+15FKg4pi

When Allscripts acquired EIS, PB was convinced that paragon had better software development process and technology. That is the reason why he put Jim M in charge along with his LEADERS. Unfortunately JM is a service team VP and never managed software development team before. He relied on the leadership from Horizon team to do his job. Just check the tracking record, they k–led Hirozon, Paragon, and now Allscripts.

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Post ID: @elb+15FKg4pi

McKesson wasn't purchased primarily for their business savvy, products, or any particular "technology" they had. They were bought because they added more customers to the base, a few more cards for the Rolodex. Upper management was lucky enough to take the one decent product McKesson had, OneContent, and sell it off for big money to effectively zero out the cost of purchasing McKesson in the first place - I say lucky because I'm fairly sure it wasn't part of the plan at the beginning anyway. And yes, I've seen looks of confusion on the faces of former EIS people when something outside their experience comes up in conversation.

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Post ID: @anq+15FKg4pi

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