March 18th, 2008
Misys-Allscripts deal is all about SaaS
The complex deal under which Misys Healthcare is acquiring 54% of Allscripts, which Allscripts executives will run, is all about Software as a Service, or Saas.
With SaaS, the software you use is hosted on a remote server, and you access it through a Web browser, with your data saved remotely as well.
You’ll usually pay a monthly fee based on the amount of storage you need and the features you use, instead of buying the software up-front and paying for the computers and services needed to make it work.
The combined companies will target doctors’ offices with a SaaS product and starts with one-third of the U.S. market. SaaS is a new acronym for what was called the ASP market a decade ago.
As a stand-alone company Misys had been struggling for market share, and last month it fulfilled its commitment to open source Misys Connect, hiring former IBM executive Tim Elwell as chief open source officer.
Elwell wrote ZDNet this morning to say that commitment remains in place, but with Misys using the Eclipse license, rather than the AGPL, it is under no obligation to share improvements in its SaaS offering with the community.
In an interview on the Allscripts site, Misys CEO Mike Lawrie (above) also said his customers will be given a choice between continuing with Misys software or going with some of the “best of breed products” from Allscripts.
That sure reads like Misys’ software development efforts will be subsumed under the Allscripts label, with open source developers left to fend for themselves.
Time, of course, will tell.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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| 03/19/08
