Content
Volume 50 Issue 3
|
Network News Volume 50 Issue 3
Special points
of interest:
| • |
2004 Executive
Summit for Services Leaders initial Agenda |
| • |
New Members |
| • |
Sponsors |
| • |
Letter
from the President |
| • |
Customer
Sat Survey—New Member Benefit |
| • |
Open Access
Procedure |
| • |
SIA Executive
Roundtables recap |
| • |
New Board
member Confirmed |
|
|
SIA - Taking care of Business!
brBy: Claudia J. Betzner
Boy! have we been busy since the Annual Conference and the
last Newsletter. You will see throughout the Newsletter, activities
by your Board of Directors and Executive Director, which
generates value to you as a member company of this association.
In June we kicked off our Executive Roundtables in Boston,
free to invited Executives, and….we just finished our second
one in Seattle last week. They are now being held throughout
the U.S. in conjunction with our Board meetings. This gives
the Board dialogue with some of our Members and Industry Leaders
and provides an open forum for Members to discuss issues with
the Board. As you will see by the recap, we have an agenda of
three or four Industry topics with open discussions.
Second, in support of our mission statement of “promoting access
to an open, competitive market for the service and support of
high-tech products,” we formed an “Open Access Task Force”
which has now set out specific guidelines where you will have
the opportunity as a member company to provide feedback on any
business practice, legislation or legal processes which you
believe unfairly restrains the ability of service providers
to compete in an open and competitive market.
Third, we are kicking off the Association Sponsored Customer
Satisfaction Survey in this newsletter, which you will have
access to at a reduced rate through Walt Gasparovic. An Annual
Award will be given at the conference for the company receiving
the most positive feedback from its customers…. More on that
in this issue.
Finally, we just completed the initial planning session for
the 2004 Executive Summit for Services Leaders sponsored
by SIA and AFSMI. While the agenda is not complete I do
list some of the topics and speakers your Board has identified
as hot topics and issues. We took many of the subjects from
our Executive Roundtables and expanded on them. We would like
your input and have our final planning session with AFSMI at
their annual Executive Summit scheduled for the end of October
in Reno, NV. If you have not already registered for this event
please go to the SIA website www.servicenetwork.org and register
as an SIA member because you get a big discount and your attendance
helps SIA. Also, please let me know if you are attending so
I can put you on the invite list for one of the private meetings
for top executives.
We have many new members and Sponsors so we are a healthy,
thriving Association. Please call and welcome them and do some
business with them if you have the opportunity!
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New Sponsor
& New Members
 EAD
Systems becomes SIA Bronze Sponsor
New Members This year:
Rollouts, Inc.
LMS Service
NetEagle Consulting
Tom Flynn, V.P.
Springboro, OH
937 901 6311
MedEquip Biomedical
Michael Lipson, V.P.
Miami, FL
305 470 8013
Parco Wireless
David T. Aldrich, Sr. V.P.
Portland ,ME
207 791 2731
Siemens Business Srvs.
Peter Manni, V.P. Nat’l Support Srvs.
Canton, MA
781 830 2251
Great Eastern Technology
Brad Porter, President
Woburn, MA
781 937 0300 (IT Service)
First Source, Inc.
Jim Goldner, President
Charlotte, NC (Medical Trng.)
704 845 3049
BIOCORDIS FRANCE
Guy Christian, President
Etiolles, France (Med Service)
33 1 60 75 69 09
CSI Computer Specialists, Inc.
Bill Pershin, President (IT)
Gaithersburg, MD
301 921 8860
DecisionOne Corporation (IT)
William J. Beaumnt, Sr.V.P.
Frazer, PA
610 725 2510
First Financial Computer Services, Inc. (IT)
Jon M. Thomason, Pres. Service Div.
Little Rock, AR
501 868 4300
Ryzex Repair, Inc. (IT,Copier)
Phillip Pease, V.P. Service
Phoenix, AZ
602 454 9844
Skill Medical TechnologyAS
Arnstein Hodne,CEO (Med)
Ibsensgt, NORWAY
475 538 8630
Technology in Medicine
Ray Zambuto, President
Holliston, MA (Med)
508 893 9500
SIA Confirms new Medical Group Board
Member..
Raymond Peter Zambuto is the President CEO of Technology in
Medicine, Inc. of Holliston Massachusetts. TiM is the leading
provider of multi-vendor asset and technology management services
in the Northeast, with regional offices in Richmond Virginia.
Mr. Zambuto holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and an M.S.
in Bio-Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn,
New York. He is a Certified Clinical Engineer, a Fellow of the
American Society for Healthcare Engineering, and currently serves
as President of the American College of Clinical Engineering.
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2004 Executive
Summit for Services Leaders
Mirage, Las Vegas, March 28—30, 2004
The annual Golf Tournament will be at 9:00 A.M. on Sunday, March
28 with the “SIA Only” meeting from 3:00 P.M. until 6:00 P.M.
Topics for the SIA Only session of the Summit will include:
State of the Association, Industry Issues—Legal & Service—this
will be two panels (1) Legal focused discussing the legal issues
in the Service Industry such as the Right to Repair Act, the
Lexmark Case and the Storz Case. Senator Dorgan, S.D. the current
champion of the Right to Repair Act has officially been extended
an invitation to keynote this event. Katz will again be a major
part of this session. (2) The second panel will be Service Leaders
discussing the primary service issues facing the industry much
like the day two panel last year made up of some of the Board
members. Sundays session will also include the first annual
SIA Award of Service Excellence given by Walt Gasparovic for
the ISO receiving the highest marks in the Customer Sat Survey.
Finally, on Sunday we will bring you up to date on the Open
Access Committee. Sunday evening will be the joint Welcome reception
with SIA and AFSMI. Monday and Tuesday the General Sessions
will be with SIA and AFSMI from 9:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. with
the last two hours of Tuesday dedicated to breakouts of IT and
Medical Service. Topics for the General Sessions include: Service
Middleware; Economic Outlook for the Service Industry—a speaker
from the Federal Reserve is being considered; Industry Outlook—Acquisitions,
Mergers, etc. The Gartner Group will be ask; Supply Chain—Collapsing
Supply Chain Inventories; Legislative Review—Senator Dorgan;
IT—Medical Convergence; Warranty Issues and HIPPA—what it means
to the Service Industry; plus a Software Update from a leading
Microsoft Consultant. The Summit will conclude with a Grand
Finale on Tuesday evening, March 30. Give us your feedback.
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Parts Repair
and Support Solutions
Advance exchange / depot repair solutions
Product engineering
Support solutions for end-of-life components – medical, computer.
Component-level repair, including
- PC’s, laptops
- CRT and LCD monitors, LCD TV’s
- plasma displays, projectors
- printers
- circuit boards
617.328.5258 www.ead.com
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 SIA
Inaugural Executive Roundtable
 In
June SIA held it’s inaugural Executive Roundtable in Boston,
MA. These regional events will continue to be held throughout
the year in conjunction with the SIA Board of Directors Meetings.
The December Roundtable will be held in the Washington, D.C.
area on December 11, 2003. The event was Moderated and Facilitated
by Jon Scott, SIA Board Member and President of MicroServ. Our
thanks for his insight, skill and professionalism in making
this inaugural event a meaningful informative event. Here are
some of the discussions:
1. The Economic Outlook for Service Providers
- Multi-vendor maintenance services revenues will be flat
- Security offerings, disaster recovery and hosting will be
up
- The poor economy will generate increased competition from
OEMs for both medical and IT
- Federal spending should continue to grow offsetting flat
to a small increase in commercial IT
- Savings and price reductions demanded by end-users will
continue due to the poor economy and OEMs trying to increase
their own service revenues – examples were cited of big customers
demanding a 10-15% price reduction mid-contract or threaten
bid action
- Lower-end MVSS maintenance services will continue to trend
toward per-event from MMR
- The current lack-luster economy will probably continue for
another 12 months before any up-tick
- Hardware install base is getting older and in 12 months
may reach a point of driving IT hardware replacement and could
negatively impact ISOs since warranty service is less profitable
than post-warranty service
- Summary -- to avoid being impacted by these trends consider:
a. Look to sell services through other channels
b. Assume per-event business is coming and plan accordingly
c. Balance commercial and government engagements for a safer
revenue and profitability mix
d. Consider reducing your labor costs by partnering with a
lower cost, variable labor provider
e. Ensure you are spending time collaborating with others
to develop the most efficient service delivery model
1. Warranty Management and its Impact on Service Profitability
- IT Warranty lengths will continue to be 3 year, with one
year parts and labor and second and third year parts only
for commercial and one-year parts and labor for consumer
- The amount of labor warranty collected is very small yet
every dollar is worth collecting
- Summary:
a. As economy improves and IT hardware spending increases
this could put margin pressure on IT ISOs
b. There may be a way to meet with IT OEMs as an association
to discuss issues with falling warranty reimbursements and
its impact on ISOs
1. Predatory Practices of OEMs
- This seems to be more of a Medical than an IT issue
- From an IT perspective the Lexmark chip issue related to
toner and some display OEMs withholding parts
- Medical parts availability seems to be a major issue and
was brought up related to Varian who provided timely parts
for 15 years and then moved to providing parts via “Cape of
Good Hope”
- Medical OEMs reasoning for these practices appears to be
site and revenue protection
- Medical OEMs discredit ISOs when talking to end-users by
indicating the ISO is “not capable” of servicing their equipment
- It was mentioned that in servicing one type of medical equipment
there has been a reduction from 30 to 15 providers due to
these practices
- Tying software to hardware contracts was sited as another
way to limit ISO service for both IT and Medical independent
service
- Summary
a. Ultimately the customer drives the OEMs behavior – thus
the SIA could take a larger role in communicating to the end-user
his options for service through PR, industry white papers,
the SIA web site, etc.
b. The concept of the new paradigm and being the OEMs feet
on the street should be looked into – is there a pilot that
could be attempted with a somewhat enlightened OEM
1. HIPAA -- What is it and its Impact on Medical and IT Service
Providers
- Stands for the Health Industry Portability and Accessibility
Act of 1996
- Originally developed during the Clinton administration to
reduce medical errors and increase medical efficiencies
- Expanded scope to security and protection of records since
the only way to improve efficiency was to automate and this
led to data security and confidentiality issues
- Summary
a. It was agreed to share compliance agreements that you have
been requested to sign with other SIA members
b. Consider putting on the SIA web site a recommended standard
HIPAA compliance agreement that a “business partner” can use
with a customer
One attendee mentioned that until the first HIPAA audits
are conducted that it will be very difficult to determine what
actual requirements and enforcement guidelines will be important
to ISOs
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 SIA
sponsored Customer Satisfaction Survey
now available—First annual SIA Award of Service Excellence to
be presented at March 2004 Executive Summit
ServicePartners, the research division of The
Gasparovic Group, Inc. is a leading market research and consulting
firm in the industry that has been conducting customer research
in the service market since 1989. The firm has developed a web-enabled
research tool for conducting customer perception research.
 The
Service Industry Association and ServicePartners
are pleased to announce for 2004 a customer research program
for SIA members; the SIA Industry Study of Service Quality!
This study enables an SIA member company to implement a continuous
customer quality measurement program while benchmarking its
performance against the industry. The study consists of a detailed
questionnaire that is completed by customers via an easy-to-use
web tool. The program is compatible with the new requirements
for customer perception measurement that is a part of ISO 9000:
2000.
The participating SIA company can view its results and the
results of the industry in real-time as the study progresses
via the web by accessing a unique password-protected file. This
real-time measurement provides an efficient method for identifying
and resolving problems when they occur.
Participants must be members of the Service Industry Association.
This program is available to members for $1050 and includes
unlimited customer responses to the survey for 12 months
via the web, a password protected real-time view of your company’s
performance, and a comparison with the performance of the industry.
A custom survey utilizing the SIA Industry Study as a base
but adding your own questions is available to members for $3495
and includes professional development of the custom survey and
a detailed analysis of the results at the end of the year. Participants
are eligible for the SIA Industry Study of Service Quality
Award presented each year at the SIA annual conference.
You can sign up by contacting Claudia Betzner at cbetzner@aol.com
or call 619 221 9200
SIA announces EAD Systems as a new Bronze Sponsor
EAD provides turn-key outsourced product support programs to
manufacturers. EAD develops cost-effective parts support strategies
and programs for independent service organizations in both the
IT and medical markets. EAD can deliver a complete parts support
solution, including: customer and technical support, RMA management,
depot repair, advance exchange and product engineering. EAD
can develop in-warranty, out-of-warranty and end-of-life support
programs. Core products include:
- PC’s, laptops
- CRT and LCD displays, LCD TV’s
- plasma displays, projectors
- printers
- circuit boards
EAD combines technical expertise, sophisticated processes and
flexible response to meet customer’s unique requirements. Call
EAD in Boston at 617.329.5258 or Fremont, CA at 510.661.2590.
Visit our website at www.ead.com.
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SIA “Open Access Task Force” Procedure now
in place
Process for Handling Reported Restraints to an Open, Competitive
Service Marketplace
The mission of the Service Industry Association (SIA)
is to promote access to an open, competitive market for the
service and support of high-tech products.
In support of the mission statement, the Association has established
the following process by which a member of the Association can
bring the Association’s attention to any business practice,
legal process or pending or proposed legislation which they
believe unfairly restrains, or could restrain, the ability of
service providers to compete in an open and competitive market.
 1)
Submission of Report / Complaint
At this time, this process is available only to SIA member
organizations.
The party wishing to bring a marketplace restraint issue to
the attention of the Association should submit a brief written
summary (not to exceed two pages) clearly presenting the facts
and the potentially adverse consequences of the situation they
are reporting. It should include the names and, if possible,
contact information of the companies and individuals involved.
Additional correspondence or documentation relating to the matter
can be included as attachments.
The report, and any attachments or additional documentation,
should be sent to both the President and the Executive Director
of the Service Industry Association at the addresses provided
below or just go to the SIA Website at www.servicenetwork.org.
, click on “member only” section and complete the form on line.
It will be send electronically to the Executive Director and
President.
Claudia Betzner, Executive Director SIA, 518 San Andres Drive,
Solana Beach, CA 92075
cbetzner@aol.com;
cbetzner@servicenetwork.org
John Walker, President SIA P.O. Box 247, 530 W 1500 S, Bountiful,
UT 84011
John.walker@tfetech.com
2) Report Review Process
Within seven working days of receipt, the submitted material
will be forwarded to the members of the Association’s Open Access
Committee, who will then respond through the Committee’s chairperson
to the President and the Executive Director with a recommendation
on what action should be taken.
The response may include, but is not limited to, the following:
1) A request that additional information be gathered.
2) A recommendation that no further action be taken.
3) A finding that the Committee agrees that this is a restraint
situation and recommends that the Association become formally
or informally involved in some kind of appropriate follow-up
action. One or more specific options may be suggested.
4) A recommendation that a letter be written expressing the
Association’s concern and requesting corrective action from
the party or parties who promoted or created the restraint situation.
Later, at the discretion of the Board, this may be supplemented
with a personal follow-up by the Executive Director or some
other member of the Board.
The recommendations of the Open Access Committee may also,
at the discretion of the President, be referred for further
discussion to the full Board. A report on the status of each
unresolved complaint will be provided to the Board at each of
its meetings.
The party originating the complaint will receive an initial
acknowledgement that the material has been received and is being
reviewed. They will also receive timely reports on any subsequent
actions recommended or taken on the part of the Association.
“The Association understands the importance of swift action
in matters such as these and will make every reasonable effort
to provide a response within thirty days from receipt."
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SIA’s second
Executive Roundtable..Seattle, WA 911 2003
Roundtable discussion notes – Service Logistics and Parts –
Dave DeGiorgi, Moderator
The discussion began with the review of an article in the 9/11/03
WSJ describing the advanced supply chain model employed by JC
Penny to supply shirts to its stores. Customer purchases are
communicated to the vendor partner in Hong Kong overnight. Replacement
shirts are manufactured and shipped directly to individual stores
in the U.S. two days. This has enabled Penny to respond much
more quickly and accurately to customer demand while eliminating
the 60-day inventory that it previously held in its warehouses.
This was discussed as a excellent example of a supply chain
partner clearly differentiating itself through systems technology
in a highly price-competitive market. The discussion continued
with comparison and contrasting of the medical and IT service
logistics environments. Several factors were:
- A key difference between IT and medical products is the
smaller populations of medical products vs IT products. It
is not uncommon for populations of major devices to number
in the hundreds or few thousands vs. tens or hundreds of thousands
for IT products.
 Design
of medical products less standardized than IT equipment. This
makes it easier for manufacturers to control the aftermarket.- Medical ISO’s tend to be small and regional. IT has more
large, national players. However, the rise of ARA Mark and
Sodexho as large-scale national players may challenge the
traditional fragmented market structure.
The convergence of clinical technology and information
technology in Healthcare Dr. Malcolm Ridgway, Moderator
Healthcare organizations have traditionally been under-investors
in information technology (IT)
Healthcare is currently a $1.6T/yr business. Current
level of investment in IT is estimated to be no more than $30B/yr
(1.9%) (Projected from Goldman Sachs market estimate for 1997)
Hospitals and other kinds of healthcare organizations are considered
to be RIPE FOR CHANGE.
The primary driver is public pressure to improve quality
and reduce the cost of healthcare.
The challenges:
• The traditional conservative mindset
of industry executives. Lack of leadership.
• The relatively diverse and antiquated
state of the existing infrastructure. (Amquest’s findings)
• The lack of financial incentives and
success stories.
• The lack of certain technical standards,
in spite of HL7 and DICOM
The issues:
• Who are the current players in this
niche of the market ?
GE, Siemens, Philips, Instrumentarium, Hitachi, SwissRay, Toshiba,
Hologic
McKesson, Cerner, Cedara, IDX, Voxar, Medcon, Eastman-Kodak,
Agfa, Canon, Fuji, Konica
Turnkey systems vs. “Best of Breed” solutions. Systems integrators.
Open architecture ?
• How soon will the market really take
off ?
There has been a recent pullback from the big IT outsourcing
contracts
• What is the potential impact on (independent)
service organizations ?
In-house biomeds already getting involved with networks, wireless
technology, etc
PACS maintenance runs about 15-20% of replacement cost / year.
Software Update Frank Catalano, Guest Speaker, Jon Scott,
Moderator At the Seattle, September 11 Executive Roundtable,
a well-known computer and software industry analyst, Frank Catalano
was invited to present an overview of Microsoft and its future
directions. While this topic didn’t directly relate to the services
industry, since the meeting’s venue was in Seattle, Microsoft’s
backyard, and their software exists on many of the products
SIA members service, it was deemed an important topic. Frank
covered a number of topics, which I have briefly outlined below.
Overview of MS Activities – Microsoft has current annual revenues
of $32B with an operating profit of $10B. Through these high
profits, MS has developed a war chest of over $49B in cash.
While the cash amount seems large, they pay one of the lowest
dividends of any Fortune 500 dividend paying companies. This
may be the case because of future payments related to anti-trust
cases the company faces and its desire to have the cash to invest
and dominate new markets.While the company has been successful,
only three of their seven divisions are profitable. They have
done well with their Windows ($8.4B in profit), MS Office ($7.0B
in profit) and their Server division. Both Windows and Office
divisions have over 90% market share. Their X Box and MSN divisions,
while generating good revenues continue to lose money. MS moved
to attack the SMB (small/medium business segment) with their
acquisitions of Great Plains and Navision. They are investing
significant amounts of money in this area in R&D but don’t
appear to be making money. They have also been less successful
in their mobile Windows area for supporting handheld computers
or mobile phones and some think they will fold these two initiatives
together to avoid the embarrassment of admitting failure in
the mobile phone operating system area. They have invested billions
(it’s estimated to be $10B) in cable and interactive TV without
a payoff. Surprisingly, and unknown to many is their success
in hardware with their mice and keyboard, and home networking
products division.
In summary, MS set many standards in the desktop and operating
system areas. The desktop focus allowed them to move into server
products as a natural extension. They have tried to take this
success and systems approach (and cash reserves) into other
markets with a number of failures and some very limited successes.
These areas are the consumer markets including toys (Actimates
and Bob – a Windows shell), Internet initiatives (Mungo Park
and Sidewalk), many mobile initiatives and others. The net of
it is that success in one area doesn’t necessarily transfer
to other areas. It’s been said that they view the world through
a “PC filter” and this doesn’t work when you move to other platforms,
some of which I mentioned in the preceding paragraph. While
they revolutionized PC computing, this may be difficult in say,
the mobile communications segment, which was revolutionized
by others. Frank pointed out that Microsoft has done very well
in a number of areas, but as companies grow large and enter
into new markets the job becomes much more difficult. He summarized
by repeating what one of Microsoft’s executives recently said.
And that was “…executing with excellence on multiple fronts
will be our biggest challenge going forward.”
Back to Table of Contents
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| Service Industry
Association
518 San Andres Drive
Solana Beach, CA 92075
Phone: 619 221 9200
Fax:858 720 8201
Email: cbetzner@aol.com
The Network for High Technology
Service Promoting Customer Choices
___________________
Www.
servicenetwork.
org
|
Service Industry Association is a non-profit
organization made up of high technology service companies promoting
customer choices. |
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Sponsors & Board
Sponsors
Masterplan
Malcolm Ridgway,Sr.V.P.
Bruce Cree, President
Maintech
Frank D’Alessio, Pres.
Carole Greene, Sr.V.P. Mktng & Sales
Northrop Grumman
Hugh Taylor, Pres. IT CIS
TFE Technology Holdings LLC
John Walker C.E.O. & Pres.
Acceletronics
Steve Schwarz, Pres.
& CEO
The Thomas Group
Paul Thomas, Pres. & CEO
RadParts
Carl “Randy” LaFoone, Pres.
Stephens International
Doug Stephens, Founder & Pres.
Barrister Global Services
Hank Semmelhack, Chairman
Dr. Bill Bray, Pres. & CEO
Novamed Corporation
David Reihl, Pres.
Rollouts, Inc.
Stephen Johnson, V.P.
D.F.Blumberg Associates
Don Blumberg, President
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
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP
Exec.Dir. Claudia J. Betzner
Computer Service Group
EX V.P. Randy Parks, V.P Ops
TFE Technology Holdings LLC
Sec. Hank Semmelhack, Chairman & CEO
Barrister Global Services
V.P. Benefits: Dave DeGiorgi, Pres. EAD Sys.
V.P. Membership
John Rinas, Dir. Serv. Del.
Northrop Grumman IT CIS
Business Products
Exec.V.P.Lee Carr, Pres. STI
Medical Service Group
Exec.V.P. Dr. Malcolm Ridgway, Sr. V.P. Masterplan
V.P. Membership Steve Schwarz, President Acceletronics
V.P. Benefits: Doug Stephens, Pres. Founder Stephens
Int’l
V.P. David Reihl, President NovaMed Corporation
Advisor to Board: Paul Thomas, President & CEO
The Thomas Group |
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