“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” - C. R. Swindoll

Most of the world agrees that the health care system in the United States is in trouble. It is riddled with inefficiencies, inflated prices, management issues, excessive administrative expenses, waste and fraud. It should come as no surprise that health care spending in this nation continues to rise at the fastest rate in our history.

As the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not have a universal health care system, the United States has over 16% of its citizens without health insurance coverage totaling 47 million people. Health insurance costs are rising faster than wages or inflation, and medical bills are often the most common reason for personal bankruptcy in the United States.

In recent years, the total national health expenditures grew 6.9 percent -- two times the rate of inflation. Total health care spending was $2 TRILLION in 2005 and represented 16 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). With no end in sight, U.S. health care spending is expected to increase at similar levels for the next decade reaching $4 TRILLION in 2015, or 20 percent of GDP. Currently, health care spending is 4.3 times the amount spent on national defense and outpaces the nation's economy by two percent a year.

Affordable healthcare is not, however, just a national issue; it is now an issue facing the entire globe. The world's governments and citizens say healthcare is their number one priority. And while medical solutions are now thankfully, available globally, this availability has not prevented the ever-increasing cost of healthcare. National healthcare programs vary from country to country, but a forging global economy renders healthcare a global issue that just can not be dealt with as a national problem.

With an aging population, everyone from the public to policymakers face some difficult decisions about the delivery and payment of health care services. During this election year in the U.S., political candidates are basing much of their platforms around health care reform plans. Voters, regardless of political affiliation or income level, say that the candidates' health care reform views are very important in their decision on Election Day.

Obviously, changes need to occur in governmental policy to enable a better health care delivery system. This reform needs to include expanded insurance coverage to cover a larger portion of the population, increase the choice of health care providers, improve access to those providers and most importantly, decrease the cost of health care.

“Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.” - Jesse Jackson

Often, when addressing such a large and complicated issue, it can be difficult to find a starting point. However, with the U.S. economy cooling, it seems opportune to start finding ways to improve the aspects of the healthcare system that are not subject to lengthy legislative and policy changes. One way to do this is foster collaboration between companies and entities in the public and private sectors, to create solutions that can be rapidly introduced and adopted by industry. These solutions which may be technical standards, but can also be educational, not only drive market direction and set customer expectations; they typically help create more responsive and adaptable ecosystems.

Global Inventures works with two alliances already making a difference. Through collaboration, these alliances have brought together different entities and corporations across the United States with one common cause: to improve efficiency in the healthcare system in the US, while advocating for better healthcare information management.

The Special Interest Group for Inventory Information Approval System (IIAS) standards was formed to create a standard industry solution that could be both scaleable and broadly adoptable, while consistent with IRS requirements. SIGIS's standards enable a broad range of participants in health benefit payment card transactions to implement consistent systems and processes for transaction processing and data retention. Member companies include retailers, acquirer processors, payment card networks, issuer processors, and third party administrators. With a focus on interoperability, the group brings a diverse range of participants together to offer an inventory information approval system solution that is recognized industry-wide.

By offering these health payment standards, companies are better able to provide employees with an affordable way to process their medical expenses saving both time and money. Accountability is the core value of SIGIS and through the efficiency of an industry standard they are able to provide an economical solution to both consumers and companies.

Another alliance that Global Inventures is working closely with is College of Healthcare Information Management Executives or CHIME. CHIME was formed with dual objectives of serving the professional development needs of health care Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and of advocating the more effective use of information management within health care. With a membership of more than 1,200 CIOs, CHIME has established itself as the premier organization serving the needs of healthcare CIOs. CHIME's initiatives link closely to the CHIME Foundation, a group of 55 providers of healthcare information system products and services, and we can expect to hear more from CHIME on the legislative front.

There is an urgent need to accelerate efforts to improve the state of health care and bring about the consistency, efficiency, and cost reduction needed in the healthcare industry. Both SIGIS and CHIME are poised to deliver some of the much-needed innovation to create a lasting influential change to the U.S. healthcare system. To paraphrase-it takes collaboration to make all this happen.

~ Deepak Kamlani, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Global Inventures

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Mobile Digital Television Alliance - Retooling for Success

Many factors contribute to the success of any new collaborative effort. Clearly defined objectives, organization, Internet Protocol contribution and ownership, financial stability, promotion, technology adoption, market acceptance, as well as many other factors play roles in the vitality of any collaborative ecosystem. If any of these factors go even a tiny bit awry, the results can tax the commitment and focus of the collaborators.

Mobile Digital Television Alliance, was formed in 2006 by a group of the industry's leading wireless and entertainment companies. Global Inventures managed the incubation, launch, and business office management of the Alliance. The first thing that was announced was the Alliance mission statement: to promote the growth and evolution of digital video broadcasting - handheld (DVB-H), an open procedure standard for broadcast digital TV reception on mobile devices. The founding members included representatives from Intel Corporation, Microsoft, Modeo, Motorola, Nokia and Texas Instruments.

In 2008, the Alliance faced a challenge; the market had not met the expectations of analysts or industry participants. The original mission, to promote a single broadcast standard, limited global market acceptance of the underlying technology in the face of competing delivery platforms. Additionally, regional concerns entered the picture as European, Asian, and North American markets were moving toward adoption of different mobile broadcast standards. The board of directors determined that broadening the scope of its efforts and including additional technologies would further benefit the industry and its membership.

The Mobile Digital Television Alliance is based on the cooperative and collaborative efforts of its members to help drive and promote mobile digital television via adoption of bearer technologies such as ATSC-M/H and DVB-H, and a common service technology layer for those bearer technologies. Its mission is to promote an open value chain, offering the market more than one interoperable mobile digital television alternative. The result is a scale of operations based on a common service layer, delivering benefits to participants. The Alliance works closely with and acts as an advocate for all of the stakeholders including Standards Development Organization's, broadcasters, manufacturers, operators, content developers, content aggregators, advertisers, and certification bodies in promoting the benefits of mobile digital television.

Like a manufacturer who periodically retools to build new products to meet changing consumer demands, so too the collaborative ecosystem must periodically examine its focus and direction and change, as necessary, to meet market conditions. This flexibility and resilience is the essence of collaboration and will ultimately carry the participants to success.

Global Inventures goal with each alliance is to facilitate the synergy that enables clients to deliver new specifications, define product interoperability, manage certification and compliance programs and increase buyer confidence in their open, industry-supported solutions. Global Inventures has a wealth of knowledge and experience in launching and managing standards consortia which we apply to help collaborative communities.

~ Kerry Christensen, Vice President of Business Development, Executive Director

Kerry Christensen is a management and sales professional with over 25 years of cross-industry experience. Before joining Global Inventures as Vice President of Business Development he served as Vice President of Sales for Convesagent, Inc., now a division of Microsoft, where he was responsible for not only sales but licensing and partner programs which resulted in the company’s acquisition. Prior to that he was Director of Channel Development for Liberate Technologies where he managed the company’s licensing in the Asia/Pacific and Latin America regions. He has actively participated in various standards organizations such as ANSI, EDIFACT, ITU, AIAG and ATA and has authored articles on standards adoption and issues for trade publications. You may reach Kerry at .

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Global Inventures Today and Tomorrow; An Interview with John Montgomery

Q. What do you see as the primary focus for Global Inventures in the coming year?
R. 2008 is another exciting year for us. We are concentrating on bringing our clients new applications and services enabling their members to gain more from their collaboration activities. With our continued growth in new clients and new services to our existing clients, we have to practice continuous operational improvement. Our employees bring a wealth of talent and skills to supporting our various clients and as the association needs grow, our employees have been growing in capability with them. Our employees really grow close to the associations and their members that they support building close professional and personal relationships that translate into really superlative service for the client and a lot of fun for us.

Q. What are the key strengths of Global Inventures?
R. There is no question that our primary key strength is the passion we have for supporting our clients. Our clients have thousands of members that are experts in their own industries so what we bring is an expertise in collaborative technologies that have evolved over the last 15 years of supporting the development and growth of business ecosystems. There are really optimal ways of organizing people to work together and we believe these methods go a long way in enabling an association to come together, grow and work together.

Q. How will Global Inventures continue to grow and expand?
R. We are expanding rapidly along two paths. First, we continue to add new clients within the CIT industry and in Energy and HealthCare. These new clients come to us mostly by word of mouth and we appreciate our current clients helping us grow. We will also continue to expand in the services we offer our clients. Supporting the wide range of dynamic clients that we do allows us to develop new services and collaborative technologies that we can apply across our client base. We get a kick out of bringing these new ideas to our clients.

Q. What do you see as the Global Inventures advantage?
R. I think our primary advantage is the way we view what we do. While we do offer superior standard operational support particularly in the Membership, Finance and Events Management areas, we tend to view our clients as total growing, living ecosystems and provide services that reflect that philosophy. I think our clients appreciate that view.

John Montgomery is the Chief Operating Officer of Global Inventures, Inc. His responsibilities include optimizing all elements of the business, adding new services and growing the consultancy's strong client roster. John received his MBA in Finance and his BA in International Business and Asian Studies. He also has a JD from the John F. Kennedy School of Law.

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Integrated Marketing Communications

What do the ZigBee Alliance, the WiMedia Alliance and HomePNA have in common? They all have all seen increased market traction and success stemming from a well-planned and executed integrated marketing communications program. Their marketing programs contain many intricate components that work together creating synergistic results. These alliances know their goals and execute deliberately. As a result, people know who they are, what they do and what they stand for.

Integrated Marketing Communications, (IMC)as defined by the American Marketing Association is "A planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and consistent over time."

IMC is designed to make all aspects of marketing communication such as events, public relations, and advertising work together as a unified force, rather than permitting each to work in isolation. In practice, the goal of IMC is to create and sustain a single look and/or message in all elements of a marketing campaign.

A successful integrated marketing communication plan will identify and prioritize what is needed based on time, budget and resources to reach target or goals. Small and start-up organizations can start an integrated marketing communication plan on a small budget using a website, email newsletters and some speaker placement. Webinars and public relations efforts, including the creation of white papers and success stories are logical next steps for many associations - and are particularly important as an organization evolves.

Larger organizations may increase their participation in tradeshows. One way to do this is through the sponsorship of events and by hosting "member pavilions" in which several members of an organization exhibit their product or technology in a large exhibit under the organization's umbrella. This "together we stand, divided we fall" approach is particularly advantageous for organizations with members of smaller companies who otherwise could not afford to participate in a larger show, or whose presence would be lost. Other common tactics for larger organizations include advertising, extensive public relations, even sponsorships and the creation of collateral pieces addressing different markets and applications.

So what does this all mean? Long story short, if you want your marketing efforts to make an impact they must be relevant and consistent. And that does not happen by accident. It takes planning. Yet so many organizations tend to plunge into a flurry of tactics with little or no focus on strategy, relevance, message or consistency.

IMC can also save time and money. Starting the year with an integrated marketing communications plan in place helps eliminate hours of debate over ad hoc opportunities that can devour time and money - often with little upside. Such a plan can save thousands of dollars randomly spent on the tradeshow that just popped up, or the piece of collateral that a particular member felt was absolutely necessary. Most important, it makes an organization's time and money work harder by establishing and reiterating the same message(s) consistently, thereby improving the ability of the organization to establish and protect the integrity of their brand.

In an organization comprised primarily of volunteer members, few have the time or resources to outline a strategy, plan and message points. And with so many different agendas and goals, organizations are faced with the constant challenge of creating a level playing field that assures tactics and messages serve the best interest of the organization at large. This is where a third party, such as Global Inventures, can prove invaluable.

By placing seasoned marketing and events professionals in key strategic and planning positions, organizations stand a better chance of navigating the intricacies of consortia marketing. Such an individual plays a key role in keeping the group focused on key objectives and goals to ensure that the plan is built on a solid strategic foundation. They can also suggest and implement proven strategies and tactics. Then, by leveraging their resources and expertise, they execute to get key messages to target markets.

Have you looked at your marketing mix lately? If not, it may be time for an audit. For more information on how Global Inventures can craft an integrated marketing plan for your organization please contact .

~ Lynette Day, Director of Marketing and Events, Global Inventures

Lynette Day has developed and implemented integrated marketing programs for companies and non-profit organizations for over fifteen years. As Director of Marketing and Events for Global Inventures, she helps lead technology and standards organizations in their integrated marketing communications efforts. You may reach Lynette at

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Contacting Global Inventures
help@________.org

Occasionally, individuals who participate in groups we manage are not sure whom to contact for administrative and membership issues regarding their alliance. Although different account teams support various collaborative communities, the shortest and surest path to support is always to send an email to help@(your association).org. All inquiries are logged in our HelpDesk application and routed to the appropriate person - Member Services, Web, Account Manager, Executive Director, etc. The sophisticated HelpDesk application enables our member services coordinators to view all messages and track the complete history of each message, to allow them to streamline and constantly improve contact. We're here to support you, the members.

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