A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

Well, OTIers, what did you think about that conference call? - nm

Posted: Sep 05, 2014

Conference call? - Lost

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I work for OTI and knew nothing about a call today??? What was it about?

never mind -- found it -- sigh - shadow

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and didn't find any any OTI related emails ... Did we receive a phone # and log-in #? and time -- I found an e-mail dated 09/03/2014 that said there was to be a conference call today but nothing subsequent.

What was said?

Call the number on the email at 3:00 p.m. There is another one then. - OTIer

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d

No email - Why

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Why does it seem some of us have gotten the email and others of us haven't? Anyone else find that worrisome?

Check your spam. - nm

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d

It was frustrating - Annoyed OTIer

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So, they are expecting us to review and sign a contract by 09/10, but we won't know which of our accounts are going where till "early next week." The issues of pay and shift work were glossed over, and these are two very important issues to most people. I'll be looking forward to the next e-mail from L or I. Not getting any warm fuzzies from the ones we heard from today. Maybe it's just me.

If they are just going to read a script to me, why not just email me a copy sm - So far I am not impressed

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instead of making me sit and listen to someone read? From what was said, I will not be surprised if the new contracts include a pay cut. I guess time will tell. Will see what the sisters say next week.

If contract includes a pay cut, forget it. I make - precious little now!

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d

3pm call - minnie

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well i wasn't here for the 11 a.m. call, so I am wondering if it is even worth it to call at 3 p.m. Judging from what everyone is saying here, it sounds like it wasn't very informative. Don't really expect much from them, J and K, as they haven't been MT-friendly to us all along. I know his last call was totally scripted....is this one too??

Sounds like VR and eventual outsourcing. - sad time indeed.

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x

email - Spam

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Check junk mail. Both my emails came in under junk section with my virus protection name on it.

Clients? - buns

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As noted below under â��trademark,â�� this has been in the works since April. How have the clients been handled? Were they apprised of the upcoming changes early in the process or will they feel like goods and children to be divided in a divorce? This is certainly not good for business on either side with the potential loss of clients all around.

How business is conducted at the start of a company is a healthy indicator of how it will be conducted in the future. At this point, Mercedes gets zero respect due to unprofessional communication with potential workers, a vital aspect of running any company.

The need for a captive audience when an email would suffice hints of yet another dysfunctional, family-run empire.

The ever-developing situation brings to mind an old saying: â��He who controls the purse strings makes the rules.â�� Perhaps thing are run by K, the wife and money handler, while the president, the husband, is merely a figurehead for the purpose of corporate structure.

My thoughts - An OTIer

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I found this information listed for a person with the same name as the COO on LinkedIn. Not sure if its the same person, but the credentials would support that.

Chief Operating Officer
Saince, Inc.
2012 â�� 2013 (1 year) Greater Atlanta Area

Vice President, Sales
Nuance Communications
Public Company; 10,001+ employees; NUAN; Computer Software industry
October 2011 â�� September 2012 (1 year) Greater Atlanta Area

Co-Founder, VP Sales
Precyse Solutions
Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Hospital & Health Care industry
September 1999 â�� June 2010 (10 years 10 months) Greater Atlanta Area

Personally I was bothered by the scripted nature of the call, some of the phraseology (operations model, etc). I'm also bothered by the "hurry up" nature of the contract, minimal information at this point about which accounts are going, which are staying, etc. I don't like having to try to make an informed decision in a short period of time with so little real information forthcoming.

Thanks - that info is interesting

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So, this person worked in sales for Precyse for 10 years, then Nuance for 1 year, and then Saince for 1 year.

I know that Precyse outsources to India, I think Nuance is actually an India-owned company, and what about Saince?

Does that mean that this new company is going to be planning to offshore work also? Is that what part of those ideologic differences was?

There are just too many unknowns for me to feel comfortable working for either of these companies at this point. We are all IC's and can work anywhere we choose.

My understanding during the call - An OTIer

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was that the new offshoot plans on being 100% US based. I did, however, get the impression that the ideological differences had to do with one side wishing to remain domestic, which would lead one to believe the other side is not planning on remaining domestic. In my experience, having spent 17 years working for nationals, it is not unusual to say one thing and do another. For quite sometime MQ denied using off-shore workers, until it became too obvious to deny.

I thought that Bayscribe was part of a group dedicated to only using US MTs. sm - Another OTIer

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I was thinking I read that awhile back, but I could be wrong. My feeling is that the sisters are the ones wishing to commit to keeping things in the US, keeping the Bayscribe platform, and this Mercedes group will be using another platform and are only committed to "the idea" of not offshoring, but the phone call today made it plain to me they consider it an option. I am not offput by the fact they were planning this back in April. After all, you wouldn't expect them to just be sitting around the dining room table one night, discussing things, then the next day say, "let's tell the MTs what we are thinking about and might or might not do." As much as I like transparency in things, there is a time and place for everything. I have talked with the sisters and have a semi-relationship with them (although that relationship feels a bit bruised after the way things were dealt with regarding the T account). I have no relationship with these Mercedes people other than the fact that K does the payroll and seems friendly and helpful in her emails. We'll see what the next phone call brings and what the new contracts say.

Transparent - buns

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I also do not have a problem that they were planning it long ago.

The issue for me is the short amount of time we are being given to make a major decision without any real information other than -- rah, rah, weâ��ll be great, come with us.

Since they are asking us to make a decision so quickly, transparency on their part would be critical now.

An MTSO expects two weeksâ�� notice if we leave. We should be given the courtesy of at least two weeks to consider the options with all the information readily available including pay structure and accounts.

Part of the confusion is this apparent "disorganization" - shadow

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It feels like Mercedes somehow was caught by surprise and is trying to get organized -- which if this has been some sort of plan since April, what?, does not bode well.
All of the Mercedes named staff have considerable experience -- no question -- so why did these two conference calls seem so lacking in providing the information (and tone) most of us wanted/needed?
The sisters haven't communicated what accounts are staying with them on Bayscribe or anything much else, but they have made specific tangible promises/assurances.
And it's 6 p.m. and do you know where your contract is?

Yes, Saince is a big proponent of offshore too (nm) - anon

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x

Saince? - anon

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I'm lost, what does Saince have to do with OTI?

If it is the same person - sm

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Nothing to do with OTI. But, according to LinkedIn, a person with the same name as the COO of this new Mercedes company was also the COO of Saince in the past.

Curiouser and Curiouser - anemone

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I don't understand the rush ...but then again I do... but then again, I don't.

It's almost 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon, and we have to ("imperative") have our contracts signed and returned on Wednesday.

Did I miss or misplace mention of what platform Mercedes is going to be using?

OTI/Bayscribe/RecordsOne Transcription says they are staying with Bayscribe.

Mercedes' innovative customer service plan sounds a lot like what was pretty standard for nationals a decade ago -- what with teams and team leaders and 24/7 coverage for stats.

Talking about overnight coverage suggests set shifts to me anyway (or possible "we had no choice" off-shoring). I wouldn't mind becoming an employee.

My suspicion is that they really really want us to help them through this transition -- since the accts staying with OTI on bayscribe will transition on 09/15/2014 (the part about the "rush" I do understand, but I don't understand why this wasn't announced 2-3 weeks ago)

Whether they will still love us tomorrow (or after that transition) remains to be seen.

Dollars and sense - buns

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When a company states that â��concessionsâ�� will have to be made so they can be financially competitive with offshore pricing, I know who will be making those concessions. Is this the part where Mercedes hopes we will just be happy to have a job?

Platitudes about appreciating the often forgotten MTs are trite and superficial.

It is so convenient for Mercedes to poach the existing MTs. The clients remain happy in the transition and Mercedes does not have to deal with newbies that know nothing about the existing accounts. It is all about what is best for Mercedes.

Do we wonder why, in a supposedly dead industry, someone would be willing to start a new MTSO? There is money to be made, just not for the worker bees.

... yes, but imagine if they didn't offer ... - anemone

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Poaching, maybe, but imagine if Mercedes just "gutted" OTI of significant accounts without offering the employees on those accounts a chance to work for them.

Both conference calls have featured declarations of being "excited" that did not sound at all excited ... agree, promises of appreciation and customer satisfaction, predictable.

They (Mercedes) appear to be largely keeping the name -- It's Mercedes, "formerly known as Oracle" and the Rockville Address -- phone numbers have changed.

Yes, the name trademark application was made from April 2014

been there/done that - minnie

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they want to use us to get them up and running, probably told clients that the same MTs would be working on their acct. Had this happen to me once before when my small company sold out to MM. Promises were made, but things went downhill fast. Don't trust them. They are also very unprofessional i how they are handling this. Almost 5 p.m. and still no email from them. Their 9/10 deadline is not far away, but they don't seem to be on the ball. I guess I am jaded....

Mercedes--No Class - Mary Margaret

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Is anyone "excited" to join Mercedes? Their e-mail and their conference calls all used the word, excited. I am not very impressed with their presentation thus far. I suspect they are going to give everyone a nice sales pitch and then tell us the downside--Like less pay for lines worked. Any thoughts?

My two cents - OTI MT

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No, they didn't sound very "excited" to me, and I am sure not very "excited" either. It's all just corporate-speak to me.

I don't think that Mercedes was caught off guard with this at all. If they filed for the trademark way back in April 2014, that would mean this has been in the planning and implementation stages for at least 5 months and probably longer. You don't normally file for a trademark protection unless/until you have some kind of a plan and know where you're going. I think it's the MT's who were caught off guard, not them.

So far, Mercedes has mentioned that they will remain "100% US-based." I have a problem with that wording though. "US-based" could very well mean that only the company itself and it's management will remain "US-based." To me, that does not necessarily mean that their work force(the MT's) will all remain "US-based" too.

And either way, for them to meet or beat offshore company pricing, they will probably end up cutting pay down to rock bottom/third world wages. So the MT's will be expected to live on India wages at the current United States cost-of-living? I guess that's part of the "concessions" that the MT's will be expected to make. Maybe not in the very beginning, after all, they want to keep as many MT's on board as possible in order for the accounts to make the transition with minimal impact to the clients. So, I'm thinking that if the pay cuts don't come right away, they will probably come somewhere on down the line.

And since they're talking about "shift work," if that means anything like set schedules, then that leads me to believe that their MT's will be employees rather than IC's. Personally, I would really like to be an employee rather than an IC and have employee benefits again. Unless they're planning on stretching the limits of the IRS's definition of a true IC (like so many other companies have been known to do), but with the IRS cracking down on misclassification so hard now, I would wonder how successful that would be.

Right now, I'm not very impressed with anything on either side of this OTI coin.

Maybe Mercedes is deliberately inept... - Mary Margaret

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Maybe I read to many spy thrillers, but what if the really pitiful roll out of the debut is deliberate? The people who are on the advance team or whatever they call themselves, seem to have been in the MTSO business for a long time. What if they really do want to have the US MTs jump ship. That way they get rid of those pesky Americans and can go full throttle on the MTs in some far, far away place and pay those MTs a pittance by comparison to what a US MT needs. So by looking like a bunch of inept, greedy, selfish money grubbers, the MTs leave, and Mercedes is free to fill their ranks with overseas MTs who will work for much less. And I also think the owners of the new Mercedes will not lower the rate they charge their clients. Whats not to love if you are a big wig in Mercedes? Its the poor MTs who will get the short end of this stick.

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