Q: What does the future hold, then? Cerner will support Soarian for the next decade, but the hope is that they'll eventually move over to Cerner. Knowing your clients, how likely will that be for most of them, if you were to guess? What will be your pitch to prevent them from going somewhere else?

A: It's hard to know how likely it will be. When this is stuck in front of (clients) you get an initial reaction, but then (they have to weigh) not just features and functions but technical support and services and cost and all that other stuff. And where in their strategies they are. I think they are waiting, and we'll have some more answers for them by the end of the calendar year. And the hope is that they'll say, 'That's a good plan. We signed up with you guys, and we look forward to doing that.'

But the future of the merged entity, as far as products and services, is yet to be determined. Obviously there's a core Millennium product. There's a brand name, and there's a specific set of technologies. Technologies always evolve and change. Even with the preservation of the Millennium brand, the future will be a fusion of new technologies. Stuff from the field, stuff from us, stuff from the core Cerner platform that we know today. So we'll see. Like anyone competing in this business you have to work hard on products and services.

Q: How much of a roadmap do you have for where this goes in the next few years? Is it pretty well-thought out, or will it be adjustable depending on other factors?

A: We have, and I know Cerner does too, a roadmap for the next 12 months, 18 months, that's pretty well locked down. Then we'll wait for the meaningful use Stage 3 announcement and go from there. It may take some time to figure things out. But the next 12-18 months on both sides is pretty much nailed down.

But we will be holding summits and meetings later this fall to really lay out a combined plan. Not to just react to industry changes or things that occur, but to have a position, a game plan and a direction where (customers would say), 'I'd buy into that, that's exactly what I'd like to see.'

Q: The price tag of this deal, $1.3 billion, is exactly the same amount Allscripts paid for Eclipsys back in 2010. There were some integration challenges as a result of that acquisition that caused Allscripts some pretty big headaches a bit further down the road. Recognizing that this is a different deal, with different motivations, different product lines and different strategies, are there any lessons – any what-not-to-dos – you take away from looking at that merger?

A: I think you always learn from the integration efforts of others – certainly, Allscripts and Eclipsys, and others that have gone on outside the industry. We all learn from that. What's different here, compared to Allscripts and Eclipsys, is that they had to come up with, relatively soon, an integrated inpatient and outpatient EHR, because that's where the market was moving at the time. So they had different time pressures to bring the product together.

We don't want to be leisurely, but on the other hand, we don't have that same time pressure. So we have the luxury, so to speak, of being more methodical, more deliberate, matching our customers' pace, not just our pace.

Integrations are always hard. But when you put them under a time pressure, they just get a lot harder. (Allscripts and Eclipsys) didn't have the ability to do this over several years.

Q: You're a bit of an anomaly: an executive who used to be a pretty big honcho on the provider side. What kind of perspective have your many years as chief information officer at Partners HealthCare given you when it comes to this kind of stuff?


A: Well, I think a couple things. For one, just remind our staff about why we're here. We're here because those people deliver care, and they need us to help them be better and more effective. Having lived in hospitals, and gone to a bazillion meetings with doctors and nurses, I know the reality of that context and that culture. There's just an understanding about the reality of this that you bring to the table, and it's critical. Also, I know how boards work, and senior level folks, and their thought processes, and the things they weigh when they go into decisions. Just a much better understanding of the customer – how they think and what they value.