Alteer Going Under???

Alteer does have an excellent workflow product, but they are so far behind in the clinical area that I cannot see them ever catching up. Our workflow product is not as strong as Alteer. Perhaps we will pull an A4 (Healthmatics) and pick them up for 10 cents on the dollar. That could make for one helluva product.... just speculating.

David Winn, M.D., FAAFP
CEO, e-MDs

If an Alteer user, has the corporate office sent an official letter regarding the change of course in its business plan?

No.

I tried to ask one of their support staff, and she wouldn't say much.

But this much is clear. They fired (laid off if you will) their sales staff, and are contracting with VAR's to sell/support Alteer.

Nick

I spoke with another software vendor who had spoken with some Alteer resellers. Thier perception is that they will change the business model to lease the business management process which will include the software cost. They would do consultation by the hour or a set number of hours per month over a lease period.

Bottomline, the clients I have talked to in the past two weeks who have Alteer are very uncomfortable since they depended on their sales person to resolve problems when customer support was not returning their calls.

I have clients on Alteer who purchased the system within the last year. Alteer bills monthly support fees for services not rendered timely or completely. Alteer seems to place blame on hardware issues, particularly claiming problems with IP address configurations. Does anyone perceive that Alteer will not be around much longer?

Yes, Alteer fired their sales staff and support staff. 38 people in total. They are changing their model of business to sell in California a management + billing + software/scanning package for a percentage of collections. All or nothing. They are not selling any new licenses and although they say they will "support current licenses" for the duration; how long can the duration be when you change this drastic?

If there are VAR's does anyone know who is the VAR in the midwest, Michigan and Ohio region?

David, can you reply also with what you know? You have been very helpful.

Unfortunately you are correct in what you are saying.

Alteer has terminated all of their sales force. Some VAR's who were able to sell licenses for Alteer are now in a "end period" for the next 30 days up to 120 days when they can still sell Alteer licenses, and then that will be terminated.

Alteer is going to a model (For 12 months) in CA where they will only sell alteer when it is in conjunction with their practice management/billing/collecting themselves. They basically have funding for 12 months to make it work.

They say they downsized their support department, but realize that was a mistake and are going to rehire to previous or higher level of employees. I'll believe that when I see it.

They also made it clear that their development was going to change completely. They would concentrate on developing their billing module (At the expense of their EMR, which is already behind).

Its obviously cause for concern for any group with Alteer. What is amazing, is that there are still sales taking place of the Alteer software. Ugh. How would you feel to sign the line for thousands, only a month later to find out the company is going a different direction.

Anyhow, most of this info is straight from the VP of Sales.

A good lesson in the joy or an EMR market.

I have a friend whose clinic bought and implemented this product ~6-8 months ago. They seem to be having problems making their billing module work for them, resulting in some severe remunerative issues.

I imagine that it is difficult, in reviewing deployment issues in general, to determine the source of a problematic rollout. Is it fundamentally poor software? Is the software is "almost there" but some really critical little steps need to be made to really get it humming? Is it nothing to do with the software, but rather the sales and support personnel? Or is it "unreasonable" expectations of some/all of those who have purchased the product?

Probably a combination of the above. It would be interesting to hear from anyone in sales/deployment with any EMR what, distilled, are the root causes of a bad rollout.

I have never seen Alteer, but Joel Anderson, who posts here a lot (HT Advocate), seems to have regarded them as a fair company. For my part, I wish I could have gotten that clinic on Centricity, which I really believe would not have been so problematic. While it is more expensive, the cost of switching EMR or PMS with my friend's clinic, may easily exceed the Centricity cost.

I am nonetheless glad that they saw some potential with EMR, and hope that their current experiences will not dampen their zeal for structured data.

Qui esse sumus nunc venimus,

Hello! I am from Michigan and have had the misfortune of purchasing Alteer 50%. We are going to work on a refund, we'll see. I do have some names of people that I have been directed to speak with, if anyone is interested. I belive it's the VP and a new project manager for our area.

Let me guess. Jeff Fisher?

You are correct. From your comment he is going to be of no help?