More layoffs?

Who is Tim Margraf?

 

He who shall not be named. First CEO of ImpactRx who was also the reason Sanofi Aventis banned us for life. He was eventually escorted out of the building and the locks were changed. That was the last time the board made a correct decision.

 

True, but Margraf had the company sold for ~$50 mil. They couldn't get $50 mil now if they $49 million in gold buried in the basement.

 

Yes Tim was a first rate swindler, thief, liar and cheat and he almost pulled that one off. Of course the $50 million never did materialized. He would steal candy from a baby. Just ask any of us ex ImpactRx sales people he screwed out of commissions. A real shining example he was.

"Can I trust you?" As soon as I grow eyes in the back of my head.

 

Now Prime Molina get laid off? Who is gonna do the work around here? I work for idiots.

 

All they are doing is outsourcing positions. The majority of the people whose positions were eliminated were outsourced. Layoffs is a misleading term. At a recent company meeting HR introduced over ten new hires. You former employees need to get a life outside of this board.
Dave is a good guy by the way. And the rants about The first CEO are company legend I am told.

 

If you think the "rants" about Margraf are "legend", then you are truly clueless.

As for "layoffs being a misleading term" for the positions you are OUTSOURCING, then what exactly would you call them? Good people are losing their jobs in place of contractors or other corporations. LAYOFF is the exact term, as its what you did. It really isn't all that debatable.

You people aren't idiots, you are spin-doctoring, lying morons.

 

Such anger? Maybe you are an idiot for blogging here?

 

Cold comfort for those who were let go. (Second shoe to drop prior to end of the month). You seem more interested in projecting a shiny happy front for the company to the outside world than to deal with a rotten example of ImpactRx employees being let go.

And just to be clear, the people weren't outsourced, their positions were. The employees were fired.

I hope you can experience having your position outsourced in the very near future. Maybe when you drive home and explain to your spouse that the company "merely outsourced" your job you'll have some perspective and act more like a human being.

 

Thank you sunshine. Even though Prime and Alex gave ImpactRx many good years of service, their outsourcing is just smart business? Keep drinking the Kool Aid. The MC will just cut back on the hours of the 'consultants' taking over these jobs to save money. Eventually nothing that was done by Alex, Prime and others will still get done. I guess it makes sense in one way. The demand for wore out products and crappy data will continue to dry up so why spend money supporting them?

Anyone with half a brain (and isn't drunk on Kool Aid) can see that Rich's projected revenue number is fiction and we will end up several million dollars underwater for the year. Looks like you may have to be outsourced as well.

BTW talk to any of the ex-employees who were around when Margraf was here. It's not legend. He's a stain on this company.

 

I am not the original poster, but I can unbiasedly say that you sound misguided. Your original post was a bit ridiculous and illogical, imo. (Read it again and tell me otherwise) I think you are somewhat blinded by whatever management is telling you.

Keep believing the hype if you choose. Irx has been spewing the same message for 10 years now but, nothing has come to pass. The same fundamental issues still remain (cost to acquire data, cost to maintain network, cost to deliver data, lack of actionable deliverables, data bloat, and more) and cool new software and iPhones won't change any of it. Same doctors, same products, etc... The model doesn't work. It costs more to make than you can receive in revenues. This has been proven year over year for almost 10 years.

You cannot grow a business successfully merely by cutting costs. At some point, you need to grow the top line. Irx revenue went up, leveled, and then fell. Regurgitating the same old products isn't going to make it rebound. You won't replace Dave Stephens, so there is some money saved. You outsource the 2 guys who literally know more about your systems than any other 10 people in the company combined. You think you are gonna save money and you have this perfect case scenario that may put the company in the green, but it isn't happening. Just wait until you realize the repercussions of what you just did.

If Irx wants to succeed, it literally needs to reinvent itself. You can't keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. That is madness.

Here, you want a hint??? I will help you guys out and won't even charge a nickel. Deliverables need to be a combination of paper dashboards and flat-file data feeds that can be integrated into the client's enterprise. Create some splashy dashboards/scorecards that are easily viewable, and include a flat file of all new data for the week or month. IT can produce it all. Then, instead of having CSM's sitting in Mt. Laurel altering 120 page PowerPoint decks that are largely ignored, you can move them to client sites. From there, they can create reports and provide insights as required. Or, they stay in MTL, but have remote access to client sites. Every they do is paid for in a service contract. You sell the dashboards, you sell the data, and you sell the services/consulting. That way, you quantify every dollar. Everything is defined. Additional services and reports equal more fees and dollars. Right now, your CSM's do too much work for free, essentially.

So there is a start. Change your deliverable and revamp the way you price it all. Trust me -- it would be a good start. Now, don't say I never gave you anything.

 

I'm glad somebody's proposing a solution, and not just knocking the MC. I'm rooting for IRX. I wouldn't be where I am today without my years at IRX. I still have friends there, though there number does seem to be dwindling. I hope for their sake that the company does well. Would also be nice, if I could cash in my stock someday.

That said, I'm not knocking the complainers either. There's a lot of people with good reason to complain. I know people like to knock the complainers for posting anonymously, but come on? What are they supposed to do? Send a notarized letter to Rich telling him he's a big dummy head? That's a great career move.

 

Took me awhile to process the solution and it certainly would get Impact to the point other companies were 3 - 5 years ago! That's the problem - Altus and Angelastro can be told WHAT to do, but they are completely clueless about HOW to do it. That simple, yet oh so difficult concept of execution is such a tough thing for the likes of A&A (feel free to use that term) to understand. That's because they are incompetent, plain and simple. Letting Prime go is a massive mistake that only a company run by bean counters would do...oh wait, A&A are both finance guys. LOL...idiots.

 

Irx was always somewhat unique as they sourced their own data and have 3 disparate flows from the same source. Its good stuff. Tie it all together and, on paper, you really do have a killer product. Of course, there are a few *tiny* issues here....

First, the network is too small to effectively report at sub-national levels. If you can't get to a district level, promotional data loses its actionability. The intended Rx is nice, but again, the sample is too small to have true meaning and the delta between that and the written can't be fully accounted for. So, sadly, size does matter....

Second, the cost of the network is freakin' massive. Huge honorariums, many to physicians who are not only HVP's, but they aren't even all that compliant.

Then, Irx adds to its own misery by spending $$$ on devices physicians already have. Why buy an iPhone and pay a cell bill that the physician is already paying? Why not create multiple versions (iPhone, Droid, BB) and distribute software instead of distributing software and devices? Who wants to be in the hardware game? A mobile device is a commodity these days. Why not paying their utility bills too? Maintaining multiple software versions also scales better, fwiw, and it would make recruiting easier. And, if they don't have a device but really, really, really want to play, you give them a voucher for a phone and subtract it from their first check! But, I digress. What do I know?

Third, the cost to deliver, as previously stated, is also a huge number. Its labor intense and antiquated, not a good combo.

Fourth, the products are WAAAYYYYY long in the tooth.

Fifth, the company has been diluted to the point of ridiculousness and it has no market appeal. If it is sold, it would be a loss. There will be no White Knight to rescue anything. Altus has a better chance of waking up naked next to Kate Beckinsale than he does of selling this company for any kind of return.

SO....... WHAT IS THE SOLUTION? Is there a solution? How do you leverage the data to make it work? How do you reduce costs without eliminating you most productive employees?

Sadly, the powers that be don't understand that, if it hasn't worked yet, it won't work now. (I know... you're REALLY, REALLY *close*, right?) Expecting this model to become a huge, profitable hit is akin to expecting your dog to address you by name and eat with a fork.

I would love to hear answers though if anybody has them.

 

The promotional model in the industry has changed. Sales reps are becoming less and less important to the PCP market and ImpactRx doesn't do a very good job with specialists. This means the value of ImpactRx's offerings and the company itself will continue to dim unless a major change is made. It's best resource/skill is recruiting and maintaining panels of physicians. They need to switch from measuring the impact of promotion to becoming a direct influencer of prescribing. It has to become part of the new sales model. It is either this or it becomes a market research firm, about the size of Paragon before the acquisition, that only collects data upon request.

John Kain preached this while he was here. Time is proving him right. (No, I'm not John).

 

John, I couldn't sell or market to save my ass, Kain? Are you freaking kidding me??? He was (twice) part of the problem. Completely clueless regarding what to build, how to build it and certainly how to sell it. Actually he was good at liquid lunches...lol, but I digress. So tell me something, while the wise sage John Kain was preaching the new models what were his actual answers? Become a commodity, dime a dozen, market research company??? What a joke. The market is moving to specialty products which are distribution channel driven. If you can't track the channels, you can't track the products plain and simple. I'm sure Kain will eventually figure that out after he listens to enough people say it and realizes its true and then he will try to pawn it off as his own "sage" thoughts. John is a 2-bit hack who will never get the brass ring.

 

You are confused or just got half of the story. John was opposed to ImpactRx's move towards becoming what it will quickly be if it doesn't change; another dime a dozen PMR company. What he knew was that ImpactRx's cost of goods (data) was too high and unsustainable in the long run and that the company wouldn't be successful until it fixes this one problem. Don't you agree?

 

John has a unique ability to rewrite history. He was an advocate of the Paragon acquisition along with Caprara. When it became convenient he railed against Impact becoming another market research company. As far as his "warning" that the COGS was too high, that has been known since the dawn of time. Everyone knew it, knows it and will continue to know it. It's nothing new, except when John says it...lol. You see, John is excellent and taking the obvious and transforming it into something sage-like. John has his place and it isn't in being innovative and forward-thinking.

 

The Paragon acquisition was done by Rich Altus and Jeremy Allen. Kain, Caprara and the rest of the MC had little input into that decision until after the deal was done. I talked to some of them about it right after it happened. You can check for yourself by asking Angelastro or Walton about what happened. Please get your facts straight.

 

There is another thread under ImpactRx where Caprara actually brags about having been in discussions with a company to acquire....lo and behold, Paragon was acquired not too long thereafter, so don't be ignorant about believing what was told to you. Bob clearly was in the know and trust me, he would have had to sign off on the deal. The Board still respected is input at the time. Bob always dreamed of a large and glorious advanced analytics fiefdom and saw it as a way to get there. Clearly you are on the outside looking in, drinking the Kool Aid. Do you really think the Caprara, Kain and Angelastro are going to tell you the the truth? Are you that naive? As far as Jill goes, she is a good and loyal foot soldier who will merely repeat whatever is told her.