Network News Volume 43 No.2
Special points of interest:
- New Board announced
- Update of SIA Strategic Plan
- SIA Conference 2002 Update , March 10—13, 2002
Fontainebleau, Miami Beach
SIA/AFSM Medical Symposium 10/31/2001 - Legal Update
- New Sponsor—The Thomas Group
- A Letter from the President
- White Paper/ISO Benefits
- New Members
- Sponsors
SIA elects New Board...Launches plan to add value & members
by: Claudia J. Betzner
SIA proudly announces the new Board of Directors: John Walker, President
TFE Technology Holdings LLC as the new President of SIA. Mac McBride,
President of Red Lion Medical Safety was elected Sec.-Treasurer.
Computer Service Group: Exec. V.P. Randy Parks, V.P.
& G.M. Omnitech-Gencorp; V.P. Membership Larry Gashi,
Pres.SATS Technology Support; V.P.Dave DeGeorgi,Pres. EAD Systems;
V.P. Benefits Barry Cummins, Pres. Varilease; Secretary
Hank Semmelhack, Chairman & CEO Barrister Global Services,the
most recent appointment for CSG & one of the founders and
former President of Comptek Research, Inc., an engineering company
which provides systems and services to the DOD, sold to Northrop Grumman,
Inc. in 2000. He formed Barrister Information Systems Corp. as a division
of Comptek in 1971 and in 1982, as part of a business strategy, he
organized the spin-off of Barrister, an independent company. Under
his leadership, Barrister became an American Stock Exchange company
and became a large supplier of computer systems &software
for large law firms. Medical Service Group: Exec. V.P.
Rory Scheving,V.P.Ops Patriot Medical; V.P.Benefits Malcolm
Ridgway, Sr. V.P Masterplan; V.P. Membership Steve Schwarz,
Pres. Acceletronics; Secretary Dave Johnson, V.P. MedAssets;
We are very happy to announce Paul Thomas was appointed Advisor to
the Board (his bio appears as a new sponsor). The newest Board member
just elected at last week’s Board meeting - V.P. David Reihl,
CBET serves as the Chief Operating Officer for NovaMed Corporation,
a comprehensive multi-vendor medical equipment service company based
in Trumbull, Connecticut. David has been in the medical equipment
service industry for over 17 years occupying various technical and
managerial positions for a major equipment manufacturer, two large
teaching hospitals and most recently NovaMed. The Copier Group
will remain Lee Carr, Pres. Service Technologies.
During the last three months the SIA Board has been very busy with
the Strategic Plan they put in place during a Board Retreat in March
which continues to evolve. It is the objective of the Board to add
value and membership within SIA.
The last two surveys to the membership told us the #1 priority
for our members is Business-to-business exchange and #2 Networking
with other members for new business opps. Legal & legislative
was listed as the third priority. The other important issues
you listed…. increase membership so there are more companies to network
with and you even put a dollar value to the partnerships which exceeded
$50,000 in value to you on the average per year partnering with at
least two other companies. Throughout this newsletter you will
continue to see action by the board to add value to you—The Partnering
Book “second” edition distributed this month, website will include
B2B section for Members Only, Joint Symposium with AFSM in Oct., new
regional Board meetings (the first Sept. 20 in San Francisco) will
include receptions/breakfast with guest speakers for local members
& invited non-members for added networking, a white paper including
ISO benefits and costs model being developed with complete communications
plan to promote benefits of utilizing ISOs, and more communications….
Introducing a New Sponsor & Members
The Thomas Group—A New Sponsor
The
Thomas Group Ltd. is a consulting firm that was co-founded in 1994
by Paul Thomas and Dale Hunt to provide professional business management
assistance and radiology consulting to manufacturers, distributors,
service organizations, imaging centers and hospitals in the healthcare,
managed care and general business communities. Assisting clients in
developing strategies for addressing complex operational and technical
issues is their focus. Regardless of the assignment, whether medical
imaging analysis, RFP development, workflow assessments, PACS planning
or employee development, the client is always assured that the appropriate
resources are being applied to deliver outcomes. One of the key resources
utilized by The Thomas Group is the practical experience they have
acquired through the diverse backgrounds in numerous disciplines that
the executive team, associate consultants and dedicated staff provide.
This experience ensures that clients of The Thomas Group can expect
meaningful results that create value and which are delivered on time
and within budget.
New
Members in 2001:
Antenna Software
ARC Services, Inc.
DITEC, Inc.
Olympus America, Inc.
Penn Biomedical Support
Triangle Technology Srvs.
New Members this Quarter:
Barrister Global Srvs.Network, Hank Semmelhack
Chairman & CEO
716 845 5010
CADx Medical Sys., Inc.
Christyan Pollender,World Wide Service Manager
450 978 6195
Grace Consulting, Inc.
Anthony Ilutzi, Pres.CEO
973 5414770
NovaMed Corporation
David Reihl, C.O.O.
203 380 5165
Valencia Technical Srv.,Inc.
Gary Angelotti, President
661 257 1064
Eleven New Member and two new sponsors thus far. Do you have an
associate that could benefit from SIA?
Call me...619 221 9200
SIA 2002 March 10—13 at Fontainebleau on Miami Beach
The conference in 2002 will be at the Fontainebleau Resort, crown jewel of Miami Beach March 10 through 13. The resort just completed a major renovation and has added many benefits including a world-class spa, lush tropical gardens with swimming pools cascading waterfalls and boost the most hotel meeting space in South Florida. Visit www.fontainebleau.hilton.com for a preview of the resort. 2002 will kickoff with the Golf Tournament on Sunday, followed by an “SIA” reception with exhibitors. Monday and Tuesday will begin at 8:30 A.M. and conclude at 4:30 P.M. each day. Monday will include more General Session time together with a reception, back in the exhibit area on Monday night. Both mornings will host a Keynote Address. Tuesday afternoon will be dedicated to the “working group sessions” dedicated to solving your specific service problems within your market segment. Here are some of the Topics for SIA 2002 and we would like your input on topics and recommended speakers ( responses to cbetzner@servicenetwork.org:
- How to look global and be mobile
- Technology issues driving service and impacting bottom line
- Making money in a challenging environment
- Raising Venture Capital for small businesses
- Parts, Logistics – how they impact your bottom line
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Labor Laws affecting your business
- Market Changes
- Legal & Legislative review
- Industry & Association updates
Letter from the President
Though summertime is normally time of vacations and enjoying the
summer sun, the Board and I have been busy since the annual conference
held in March of this year. As most are aware who attended the conference,
a working session was held just prior to the general session, which
was facilitated by Harry Hill and Mike Scarpone of Hill and Associates.
The purpose of this session was to develop a working plan for the
next several years focused on increasing value to our membership.
In addition to various one-on-one meetings and monthly conference
calls held in the interim period, a follow-up session was held in
conjunction with our scheduled June board meeting, in Boston. From
these sessions we have developed a working document to help guide
us and to keep us focused on the fundamental goal of SIA, which is
to “promote and serve the needs of the Independent Service Industry”.
The
tasks we are working on include:
Enhancing an open environment of User choice
Reviewing and formalizing working relationships between other industry associations
Creating forums between members for partnering and business development
Business-to-Business info exchange via SIA member website
Creating a white paper on the value and market impact of independent service
Establishment of regional training events
Our
goals through these and other targeted efforts is to increase value
on a individual membership basis, and to foster and promote the overall
value and voice of Independent Servicers on a global basis. If you
are interested in obtaining additional information regarding any or
all of these efforts, or becoming involved in the development and
implementation process please feel free to contact myself or Claudia
Betzner. In addition please consider sharing the benefits of our association
and what we are doing with others that may be non-members or former
members.
I look forward to communicating our progress on these and other efforts throughout the year and I hope that each of you has enjoyed a fun filled summer.
Respectfully
John Walker, SIA Board President
Legal Update
June
28, 2001……...SIA filed a brief on behalf of Grace Consulting's case
against Geac. In June of 2000 Grace defeated Geac Software's lawsuit
to prohibit lower priced third party software maintenance. Geac appealed
the case and this brief is on behalf of Grace. The case involves the
right of application software licensees to discontinue vendor provided
maintenance and use a third party to provide maintenance services.
The June 2 win was a victory for the legitimacy of interoperable software
programs from different vendors. The verdict last year also affirmed
the right of Grace, or any other TPM supplier of software maintenance
to create “add-on” software systems that interoperate with Geac’s
software on a Geac licensee’s computer through the use of COBOL “CALL”
and “COPY” commands, regardless of whether such interaction is authorized
by the other vendor. The verdict also confirmed the recognized computer
industry custom & practice that licensees may obtain a Third-party
in using and maintaining their licensed software.
AFSMI and SIA to joint sponsor Medical Symposium October 31, 2002
in Anaheim
“Coopertition” in the Medical Services After-Market: Is it Realistic? Inevitable? Not even thinkable?
The
event will be held at the Disneyland Hotel on October 31, 2002
from 8:30 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. in Anaheim, California. Malcolm Ridgway
and William Pollock will Co-Chair the event.
The event will kick-off with a keynote address by Ron Katz, General Counsel for SIA and Principal of Coudert Brothers’ international law firm. His tentative title is “Why Can’t We All Get Along?”
At 9:15 A.M. Bill Pollock will set the stage with a discussion on the different service delivery models.
At 10:20 A.M. Dr. Malcolm Ridgway, Ph.D. will discuss “What’s in it for me?” He has titled his presentation “Where’s the Beef?”
The Power Panel Discussion: “The pros and cons of possible change” will include Ron Katz, Malcolm Ridgway, Paul Thomas, Mike Brinkman and the moderator will be William Pollock.
In the afternoon, Paul Thomas will begin with “What’s going on
in the medical marketplace and lessons from other markets” followed
by “Why manufacturers should outsource service?” This presentation
will be made by Mike Brinkman. A question and answer session will
follow.
The final “Power Panel” addresses “But is change likely?”
The Post-AFSMI World Conference event will be the beginning of a long term relationship between SIA and AFSMI. For registration you should go to the SIA website at www.servicenetwork.org—we will have a direct link to the AFSMI registration page—you can also go to afsmi.org for registration.
On An introductory basis—SIA Members will receive the AFSMI member discount for the post-conference event. When you register just list “SIA Member.” If you want to attend the AFSMI conference as well, you will also get the discount, however if you only attend the AFSMI world conference you will not get the member discount.
As you know, we are attempting to add value by partnering with other associations to provide events. AFSMI’s expertise is in the training area and they provide many training events throughout the year, which we support. SIA’s expertise is promoting competition in “after-market” service and providing customers with choices. SIA is a “trade association” made up of Company Members while AFSMI is a professional association of individuals. Partnering is a major benefit within SIA and we would like to hear from you when you do partner with another member—you do not need to tell us who, just what was the value to you….and, as a trade association of Corporations we are not limited in our bylaws, therefore we can perform actions which promote independent service and “competition” in after-market service.
Dr. Malcolm Ridgway, Ph.D. has been a SIA Board member since 1997 and has been the SIA representative with the FDA in forging policy and protecting the Medical Service Providers. He is Sr. Vice President at Masterplan—a long time member and Sponsor of SIA.
Ronald S. Katz, the Keynote Speaker, has been the General Counsel of SIA since 1989 and is a principal at Coudert Brothers, an international law firm with offices in all the primary world cities.
SIA unveils beginnings of White Paper
In the spring of this year, the SIA Board of Director’s began focusing
on “The Benefits of Competition in the Service Marketplace.”
At the same time we were gathering information from our members on
what they wanted in an association—this info is listed earlier—as
a natural result SIA is crafting a “White Paper” which will address
benefits of competition which ISO’s bring to the table. Here are some
of those benefits this paper will address:
- When there is after-market competition, service pricing is more competitive
- When there is after-market competition, manufacturers lose the ability to render a product obsolete by arbitrarily terminating after-sale support
- When there is after-market competition, quality of service becomes the primary service differentiator
Other important characteristics of Independent servicers.
The
presence of independent servicers in the after-market service environment
provides users with several other notable benefits.
- Service providers are vendor neutral and therefore potentially good sources of unbiased equipment information.
- Service providers are more likely to be cross trained on many different brands of equipment and therefore better able to fix systems made up of a mix of products from different manufacturers.
- For the same reason, they are more likely to be able to support and fix entire equipment inventory
The bottom line to all this is that in-house equipment maintenance departments should recognize that they have many interests in common with independent service organizations and should be equally opposed to any attempts by an equipment manufacturer to perpetuate their traditional monopolistic hold on after-market service. It is the equipment users who, as equipment purchasers, have the ultimate power in the marketplace. They should be encouraged to give preference to equipment from those manufacturers who promote an open after-market service environment. The campaign currently being mounted by the Service Industry Association – one of the nation’s leading equipment service and support associations - deserves the support of the purchasing representatives as well as the in-house service groups of all user organizations.
Special Thanks to Malcolm Ridgway and Randy Parks who began the process
in the joint development of this along with other committee members
who will complete this by 9/21:
Paul Thomas, John Rinas, David Reihl, Steve Schwarz
ISO Benefits—with Economic Model to share spotlight
Why ISO’s are important to the marketplace (We would like your input on this):
1) Service pricing is more competitive in markets where Independent Service Organizations (ISO’s) are available as an alternative to an Original Equipment Manufacturer’s (OEM) service.
2) Competition between ISO’s and OEM’s tends to promote the availability of a wider range of service program offerings and SLA’s,
3) Service quality becomes a competitive factor when choices and alternatives to the OEM exist.
4) The availability of support from ISO’s promotes a longer life cycle for equipment. When competition exists an OEM cannot force the migration to newer systems by altering service availability on older systems.
5) ISO’s are typically vendor neutral and less biased in their perspective and recommendations on equipment than the OEM would be.
6) ISO’s are able to provide multi-vendor support allowing customers the advantage of consolidating service to a single source.
7) ISO’s provide connectivity and interoperability expertise in a mixed vendor environment.
8) ISO’s provide the capability to support after market add-ons, expansions or upgrades manufactured by sources other than the OEM.
9) ISO’s provide a service source to new, start up OEM’s without services infrastructure which allows them to compete more equitably with existing OEM’s.
The ISO Benefits along with a Costs Model are being developed by the Board of Directors with the White Paper which will be unveiled by SIA in the fall. Immediately following this, SIA will implement a strategic Communications Plan promoting the benefits of “open-service” giving Customer’s Choices, which is the objective of the association.
| Service Industry Association 518 San Andres Drive
The Network for High Technology
Service Promoting Customer Choices
|
Service Industry Association is a non-profit organization made up of high technology service companies promoting customer choices. |
Sponsors & Board
Sponsors
Masterplan
Malcolm Ridgway,Sr.V.P.
Bruce Cree, President
CSU
Richard Watkins, Pres.& CEO
EAD Systems Corp.
Dave DeGeorgi, Principal
Maintech
Frank D’Alessio, Pres.
Carole Greene, Sr.V.P. Mktng & Sales
Northrop Grumman
Joe Mulderig, Pres. Logicon Comm. Info. Services, Inc.
Patriot Medical Services
Rory Scheving,Vice President
TFE Technology Holdings LLC
John Walker C.E.O. & Pres.
SATS Technology Supp.Srvs.
Larry Gashi, President
Acceletronics
Steve Schwarz, Pres.
& CEO
The Thomas Group
Paul Thomas, Pres. & CEO
Board of Directors:
President: John Walker, Pres.
TFE Technology Holdings LLC
Sec-Treas: Mac McBride, Pres.
Red Lion Med.Safety
Gen’lCounsel:Ron Katz, Principal
Coudert Brothers
Exec.Dir. Claudia J. Betzner
Computer Service Group
EX V.P. Randy Parks, V.P & G.M. Omnitech-Gencorp.
V.P. Dave DeGiorgi, Principal. EAD Systems Corp.
V.P. Membership
Larry Gashi, Pres. SATS Technology Support Services
Sec. Hank Semmelhack, Chairman & CEO
Barrister Global Services
V.P. Benefits: Barry Cummins, Pres. Varilease Tech.Gp.
Business Products Group
Exec.V.P.Lee Carr, Pres. STI
Medical Service Group
Exec.V.P. Rory Scheving, V.P.Ops Patriot Medical Services.
V.P. Membership Steve Schwarz, President Acceletronics
V.P. Benefits: Malcolm Ridgway, Sr.V.P. MasterPlan
Sec. Dave Johnson, V.P. MedAssets
V.P. David Reihl, C.O.O. NovaMed Corporation
Advisor to Board: Paul Thomas, President & CEO
The Thomas Group