Even as he touted strides on ICD-10, and on getting Stage 2 meaningful use readiness built into Allscripts' core EHR platform, and even as he promised more "disruptive, open technology that will transcend single healthcare organizations," Black said the firm's marching orders were clear: to "provide common user experience, aggregate disparate applications and support a single patient integrated workflow to maximize care coordination."

As for Allscripts' clients, "I am well aware of the challenges that we face," said Black. "I can assure you that we are absolutely intent on strengthening our relationships and commitments with all of our key constituents."

Later in the call, Black conceded that, "I don't think right now that all of our clients are happy. We've got a lot of work to do in that space."

Still, he pointed out, that there are many customers who have had the chance to "move to other options over the last five years, but have chosen to stick with us."

He promised to reward their patience. "There will be no substitute for results," he said. "We need to move quickly."

Toward that end, he plans to be "spending a ton of time visiting clients around the globe" in the coming months, to "solidify our client base."

And he hopes the Allscripts' relationship with those customers will "benefit from having clarity" after the tumult of the past year.

"There needs to be a cadence inside the company with respect to the top line, a cadence with respect to the engineering organization and a cadence with respect to all operations, so we have a more predictable experience internally, a more predictable experience externally and, from a financial perspective, a lot more visibility and predictability," he said.

Allscripts' stock (MDRX) tumbled in early trading on Thursday, down some 17 percent to a share price of less than $9.

Wall Street watchers were taking a wait-and-see approach.

Piper Jaffray analysts Sean W. Wieland and Mohan A. Naidu wrote that Black "was the right, and obvious, choice," pointing to his two decades' experience in health IT.

"He was at Cerner in the dark days, and is familiar with what is needed to repair this company," they write. "A clean slate is needed to restore confidence among customers, although it may take more convincing to restore confidence among investors."

Still, they point to "a slow and painful process from here."

Allscripts has "nuggets of value," they write, "that can be harvested to get this company on its feet again," but in the meantime, the firm is "likely to see high attrition rates as the product strategy is rationalized, and revenue/earnings will likely lag expectations as they complete this multi-year process."