- Gerber Alley (G-A) gained early success by riding on the coattails of HP sales but later had a "whopper" of a deal partnering directly with HP to market G-A's software. - In the 1980s, G-A's partnership with HP and decision to offer their software on DEC platforms as well helped them grow rapidly and rank highly among other healthcare IT vendors. - However, by 1992 the market bubble had burst and G-A was acquired by other companies, though parts of their software continued operating for many years.

1. “H.I.S.-tory”
by Vince Ciotti
© 2011 H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved
Episode # 23b:
Gerber
Alley,
Part III

2. David helping Goliath!?
• For these first 3 deals, G-A rode HP’s coattails as the HP 3000 gave
them an “alternative” (“Precision” one to be exact…) to the many
IBM mini systems from DCC, JS Data, First Coast, AR Mediquest…
• The fourth deal was a real whopper for upstart G-A:
–Hewlett-Packard themselves!
• It seems the HP team in
Andover learned that
software was driving most
of their HIS sales, so they
“partnered” with G-A
• (also since HBO had turn-
coated to DG minis for
their “Star” successor to
IFAS’ HP-3000 )

3. Big Brother…
• The deal gave HP the right to market GA’s “The Precision
Alternative,” very like SMS getting rights to sell HBO’s Med-Pro in
‘75 for their early “ACTIon” Four-Phase mini-based system.
• Brian Robson got the job of working with big brother in Mass:
– ”I was liason to HP for about a year to help bring them up to speed.
– Kinda funny since we were a company of around 25 employees at the time,
and HP's Healthcare group had about a 100 people...
– They sold some hospitals, but nothing like GA did...
– A few of their good folks ended up coming to GA later.”
• Among them, Mike Brown, who came to GA in
1985 and took over as CEO, taking care of the
business end so Terry could concentrate on R &
D
• As we mentioned earlier, poor Urban Gerber
passed away in 1984, too early to garner all the
accolades he deserves as the “father” of GA…

4. Big News in 80’s HIS Circles…
• As the 2-page ad spread below shows, the G-A & H-P alliance
made a big splash in HIT circles in the 1980s
– Rivaling IBM’s partnership with Baxter that had given birth to IBAX
• G-A was able to keep growing its single TPA product line much
faster than IBAX, adding some real shockers in the late 80s, like:
– Physician’s Division – not just 1500s, but clinical decision support!
– International Division – like SMS’ early forays into Japan back then…

5. Another Daring GA Move!
• This from another GA alumnus: Karl Kiss, VP at Siemens.
• Seems one of the many hot sales prospects for TPA was
Anaheim Memorial Hospital in California.
– As we explained in an earlier episode, hospitals in those days
were “IBM shops” or “DEC shops,” etc., as the OS and DB
systems were totally proprietary. No “open” Linux back then!
• Anaheim was a DEC shop and insisted on a
DEC platform, and to keep up their sales &
hot ride on Wall Street, GA made the
huge decision to offer TPA on DEC too!
• In truth, not a bad perspective from a
marketing standpoint, as hundreds of
hospitals were “DEC shops” with McAuto’s
I.H.S, SMS’ ACTIon 1000 series, etc.

6. HIS Market in the late 80s
• To give some idea of how G-A, H-P and DEC ranked in
these red-hot mini days, here’s fascinating stats from
a dusty old copy of Sheldon Dorenfest 1987 “Guide”
based on his survey of 3,000 hospitals >100 beds:
Hardware # of
Sites
IBM 1,358
D G 176
DEC 153
H-P 130
NCR 124
Saint 100
Burroughs 96
Microdata 45
Software Annual
Revenue
Software
(continued)
Annual
Revenue
SMS $365M PHS $27M
McAuto $165M CHC $25M
HBO $165M IHC $20M
Baxter $145M Sunquest $20M
TDS $40M Compucare $18M
Cerner $34M Gerber-Alley $16M
SAI $32M Ferranti $15M
Meditech $32M HDS $12M

7. Workaholism!
• This from David Wellons, a well-travelled HIS veteran:
– “My G-A story - I have worked for many HIS firms since 1984, so
I know/heard of a lot of these folk. I'm really enjoying your
series - but it's starting to make me feel old! (Welcome to the
club!) Flying home to ATL one evening - I'm guessing early '90s -
sitting next to a nice looking G-A sales person. When I found
out where she worked, I asked if she were heading home. She
said, ‘No, I live in Boston, but I have a proposal due and they
won't let us work on them during the week. I'm meeting the
proposal team in ATL for an all-weekend session so I can fly
home Sunday night to be back at work Monday.’
- I'd heard they really drove their team
hard, perhaps more so than similar firms.
Proposal teams worked the weekends in
support of the sales execs that flew in…”

8. Denouement…
• By 1992, GA had grown to over $90M in revenue and
900+ employees, but the bubble finally burst…
• Many people blame other people and various things for a
firm’s demise, but looking at HIS-tory overall, it just
doesn’t pay to go into a “who shot John…” - all vendors
rise and fall on their own individual roller coasters…
• The point is, vendors can and do fail as quickly as they
rise, something every hospital should always keep in mind
(as we’ve said, buy the product, not the firm!)
• GA ended up being bought by FDC,
formerly AMEX who had started with Saint,
then bought McAuto’s HSD, adding G-A,
• Only to be bought out themselves by HBOC…

9. GA’s Legacy
• An amazing ending anecdote from Karl Kiss:
– HBOC supported GA’s TPA for many years, just as
they did Saint, McAuto, etc, slowly selling the client
base on one of the many other HBOC products like
Star.
• Incredibly, parts of TPA still run today at
Gwinnett Medical Center in Georgia!
• Credit to HBOC (now McKesson) for giving
them such a long lease on TPA’s life…
• Which has been rewarded by Gwinnett being
one of the pilot sites for McKesson’s new
Horizon Enterprise Resource Management
(HERM), successor to Medipac/Healthquest
(another HIS-tory future episode!)

10. Final Image…
• A classic from Karen See:
• She wanted to capture the
admirable spirit of G-A folks
working late into the night…
• So she caught this image at
dusk for G-A’s 1990 annual
report, taken when most other
vendor’s staff had long left
their HQ offices for home
• (cause of many internal nasty-
grams like Neal’s at Cerner!)
• A fitting final image to the
wonderful G-A HIS-tory!

11. ThanksThanks for help on Gerber-Alley!
• Thanks again to the many G-A veterans who contributed:
– Brian Robson – whose emails told stories with tons of details on early GBA
and G-A days – the bulk of this episode! Brain’s now with HP – how ironic!!
– Karen See – G-A’s Marketing Director, who trusted me with precious
original ads & brochures, now with Clarity Close, her own vendor consulting
firm.
– Karl Kiss – 10th
person hired by G-A in 1984, filled my ears with great stories
– he’s now Siemens’ Southeast Regional VP – bet he tried to sell Gwinnett!
– Gary Lakin – with Microsoft in Australia hooked me up with G/A vets
– David Salazar – now VP at Merge, not “Gary” per my Part I episode – sorry!
– Mark Edelstein – 10th
employee in ‘84, now VP at Relay Health
– Brian Curnutt – corrected my “Irwin” boo-boo into “Urban!”
– David Wellons – relayed the weekend proposal story…
• Thanks also to many others who have sent in encouraging emails
on their HIS experiences. Keep those cards & letters coming in!
•