QuadraMed should go open source

QuadraMed, a company with little new sales in all of 2005, has great untapped potential. They’ve got a product that customers seem to like (good KLAS rating and happy customers) but they can’t seem to compete with the big boys (stability and size) or the little guys (price and agility). Their stock has been depressed and their market cap is less than $60 million as of today. Now, they’ve been busy with management and other structural changes but there’s no reason to believe that they’re on an immediate bounceback trajectory (it’s too early to tell what new changes will be made).

Instead of hiring some high-priced strategists, here is my free advice (I hope someone from QuadraMed is listening):

1. Open source the suite and let customers get the software free of up-front licensing charges.
2. Create an open development platform for developers to add functionality and build a community of practitioners.
3. Retool the marketing staff and let the open source model help proliferate the software and let the marketing team build open systems credibility.
4. Get rid of most of the sales staff or refocus them on selling services and not licensed software.
5. Purchase a few small HIT consulting shops and build a services model around the new open source software.
6. Make money on services, consulting, customization, and interoperability with other HIT vendors’ software.

What if QuadraMed doesn’t do the above? Perhaps a few VCs or managers could get together and purchase the company and do it by taking the company private. They’ve got some decent technology that should be able to find a home. And, if you can’t make money in a hot HIT environment like right now how will they make money when everybody realizes it’s not 1999 anymore?

In case anyone from QuadraMed is listening, I live only 25 minutes from your Reston office and would be happy to advise you on the move to open source and how it can make you some significant money. 🙂