Blog archive - July 2012

It’s rare for me to meet a Cabernet Sauvignon that I don’t like. My favorites are Cabs with backbone: big and full-bodied. I like my wines earthy (even a little herbaceous [taste and aroma of herbs]) with some tobacco flavor. And I love when the wine finishes dry. My wine preferences have matured and changed over the years (I have attended many, many tastings) I started off liking the more fruity, light reds and creamy, buttery chardonnay’s and now I really cannot abide either. My design skills have also matured and improved through the years. I have designed many pages, some good, some great, some forgettable, and some truly insightful. I find that my best designs are conceived when I have a few key principles in mind. When keeping proximity, similarity, and order (a few of the Gestalt principles of perception) top of mind I produce clean, easily navigable pages. Proximity occurs when elements are placed close together. While they are still separate objects they are perceived as unified because they are close to each other. Similarity occurs when objects look similar to one another; they are then perceived as a group or pattern. Repetition of colors or objects is pleasing and aids in fast comprehension. Order (or symmetry) occurs when the whole of a figure is perceived rather than the individual items that make it up. When designing to instruct, order and symmetry help the information to be consumed and comprehended quickly. There are more principles, but these three are the ones that help me the most when designing guidebooks. Chelsea Cappetta created this slideshow that showcases all the Gestalt Principles: Gestalt Laws and Design from chelsc Simplicity is beautiful, especially if your end goal is comprehension. Attending all those tastings allowed me to learn what I liked and didn’t like and have been the building blocks for me to be a more informed and happy wine drinker. The Gestalt Principles give me a great starting point when designing a page, as long as I know how things interrelate on the page, I can then design the page for maximum, full-bodied, consumption. Jannette is the Senior Graphic Design Artist for Growth Team Membership, a premier best practices research group within Frost & Sullivan. You can follow her on Twitter: @jwhippy.

Summary of Supreme Court Ruling On June 28, 2012, the United States Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, found that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate is a tax and thus allowable under Congress’ constitutional power to levy taxes. Under the law, most people, save those who quality for exceptions based on financial or religious considerations, are required to purchase health insurance or be subject to a penalty payable to the IRS amounting to 1 percent of their income starting in 2014. The penalty will increase with time. The Supreme Court’s decision leaves the majority of the law in place, with the exception of the Medicaid funding formula. Specifically, the majority of the court agreed that the law's expansion of Medicaid to an estimated 16 million people by 2019 is unconstitutional as written and that the federal government cannot threaten to withdraw existing Medicaid funds from states if they choose not to expand Medicaid. It is expected that this aspect of the ruling will impact the extent to which some states participant in the Medicaid expansion called for under the law, at least initially. While the ruling is seen as a win for the Obama administration, the next hurdle facing the Affordable Act (ACA) will be the November Presidential elections, as the Republicans have vowed to repeal the law if they win the White House. Even in the event that the Democrats retain the Presidency, it is highly likely that certain provisions of ACA will likely be repealed and/or revised in the coming years, e.g., the controversial tax on medical device manufacturers. Market Impact Overall, we see the Supreme Court ruling on ACA as a very strong positive for heath IT. Despite the prospect of a Republican win in November, most industry experts believe that there is more clarity now about how health system transformation is shaping up--and the headwinds are strongly in favor of an even more aggressive adoption of EHRs and related technologies. Clearly, this trend has been accelerating for the past several years, due in no small part to The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. But beyond that, we see that the culture and attitudues around health IT are changing as well. We firmly believe that the ACA ruling will result in an even more widespread acceptance of the inevitable changes that will reshape the financing and delivery of health care in the United States. Specifically, the health care system will be increasingly characteristed by a greater volume of patients, many of whom are new to the system; a greater number financially disadvantaged patients coming into the system; and, most importantly, more patients with complex, chronic illnesses, often exacerbated by years of no access or poor access to health care services. This situation requires that providers gain every advantage in terms of facilitating access to care for more patients while simultaneously driving comprehensive improvements in quality, safety, and cost-efficiency. Such improvements simply cannot happen without the greater use of health IT. As providers come to grips with the new reality, those health IT stragglers, namely small physician practices and some small hospitals, will increasingly come on board out of sheer necessity. Many of these providers will be required to merge with larger practices, join an ACO, or get bought out by a hospital/IDN. Below is a summary of some potential near-term and long-term impacts of the ACA ruling on key health care market participants: Providers With regard to EHRs, the ruling will probably not have much of an impact for large hospitals and academic medical centers as they have been strongly focused on EHRs anyway due to HITECH. Projects are well underway; contracts have been signed. Large vendors with fully integrated systems for hospitals and ambulatory practices have been winning big and this will continue and accelerate. Growing consolidation presents operational challenges for health IT implementation, especially when providers are on separate EHRs. This could slow the path to Meaningful Use (MU) for some providers. As a result, there may be some push back on MU measures and timelines due to growing consolidation as well as the need to ramp up other IT systems in preparation for 2014, particulary financial systems for revenue cycle management (RCM). We see a big opportunity for hospital RCM. Hospitals need to quickly get very smart about managing financial risk and reducing bad debt. The onslaught of newly insured patients coming into the system will require robust RCM capabilities including patient engagment at the pre-certifcation stage. While the fact that patients will be insured is good, hospitals will need to be very efficient about collecting co-pays and deductibles because nothing can be left on the table due to Medicare cuts and the growing numbers of Medicaid patients. Vendors There will be vendor displacement because of consolidation for all sectors of the market; large hospitals to some degree, but especially for mid-sized and smaller hospitals. Smaller hospitals (under 150 beds or so) are most likely to get absorbed into larger systems. Financial imperatives will be overwhelming for many and vendors serving that market are likey at increased risk. In addition, some large legacy vendors, especially those with weakness on the ambulatory side, will continue to get displaced. Hardest hit vendors will likely be those serving the small ambulatory medical practices. These practices will increasingly need to partner with a larger provider and will eventually go onto the larger system’s EHR. The next six months are very risky for vendors serving this market as some providers delay upgrade/purchasing decisions waiting for outcome of elections and/or seek to partner or get bought out. Add that to the need to spend more money for Stage 2 MU certification and these vendors face very difficult market conditions that will undoubedtly cause many to go under. Looking out over the longer term, the distinction between ambulatory and hospital EHRs will largely disappear over the next decade. We will likely see a move to open, cloud-based platforms that are interchangeable among all providers and care settings. Provides will select applications and modules that are relevant to their practice, e.g., EHRs, patient portals, PHRs, etc. However, user interfaces/usability may be more standardized due to regulatory oversight due to patient safety concerns. Payers The short term impact will likely be somewhat negative for payers but they have been expecting this so and much of the downside has already been accounted for in their business plans. Long term, we believe ACA is a strong positive for the insurance industry. We will likely see an acceleration in payers interested acquiring health IT companies as they need to have more access to quality data and provider performance metrics. As for state health insurance exchanges, we do expect some uptick in activity to form exchanges over the next several months; however, some states will be waiting until 2013 (after the elections) to move fully forward on this. The issue of health insurance exchange is a very political issue in many states. Thus, the process will likely be contentious and characterized by fits and starts as the market settles, much like what has taken place over the past several years with public health information exchange organizations.

Marketers continue to be faced with the imperative tofind ways to appeal to specific customer needs, keep costs down, and drive higher ROI. This focus on the customer has marketers reassessing their value propositions and customer segments—to target the “right” audience with an engaging message. However, marketers are expected to take on this task with limited resources—budgets and staffing levels are expected to remain stagnant. To accomplish more with less, marketers are striving to improve the effectiveness of lead generation efforts and adoption rate collateral by Sales. More pointedly, marketers are striving to improve their channel strategies and collaborate closely with Sales on segmentation efforts. To examine these challenges in more depth, the survey asked respondents to “root cause” their top internal challenges; indicating if they stem from issues with staffing, process, technology/systems, or strategic alignment. Respondents attribute their challenges to two primary causes: limitations in staff and a lack of common objectives. When comparing Marketing’s 2012 resource allocations to forecasts made in 2011, the belief that budgets and staffing would remain static is inaccurate. In fact budgets have decreased since 2011. In regards to staffing, budgets have dropped by over a third. In contrast, marketers’ growing love affair with social media is readily apparent as social media activities are receiving twice the budget allocation they did last year. Additionally, marketers have allocated more budget to “content development”, which is critical for demand and lead generation activities. This year’s survey included examined Marketing’s demand generation capabilities. Overall marketers are satisfied with their demand generation effectiveness—most respondents ranked their effectiveness as “Above Average”. Marketers are also satisfied with their effectiveness at specific demand generation tactics—with the exception of social media and mobile marketing. Differentiating the Value Proposition: 2012 Asia Pacific Marketing Priorities Survey Report View more presentations from Frost & Sullivan Holly is the Research Lead for the Growth Team Membership, a best practices research group within Frost & Sullivan. Follow her on twitter at @hlykehogland.

I once read an article in the Wall Street Journal about how writing the pilot episode of a new series is usually easier than writing the second episode, which can be an excruciating process. Maybe it’s because writers use all their good material in the first attempt, and feel a bit empty for the second go-round. I hope this isn’t the case with me and this blog. I so enjoyed writing the first one – I hope you enjoy reading the second one as much. At least I teed up a few things to discuss in this one, so I’m not starting at ground zero. Wasn’t that savvy of me? For instance, I promised you all a list of my favorite detective stories. The “Professional Communicator” in me thinks that it would be a good idea to close with this, rather than lead with it…so scroll to the end if that’s why you’re here. I also promised to tell you more about something that I just wrote – a new growth process toolkit on technology strategy. There can’t be a more satisfying feeling in the world that finishing a large project, especially one that took a great deal of personal blood, sweat, and tears (and no, for a writer, that’s no exaggeration: writing is a blood sport, played sitting down). I love to finish writing something, and then not look at it for a few weeks. That way, when I read it again, I see it with fresh eyes. Sometimes this means I’m disappointed in something that I previously had thought was terrific—and other times, I feel nothing but pride in what has been produced. I’m happy to say that in this case, my re-reading of this toolkit produced the latter sentiment. Maybe it’s obnoxious of me to say that, but trust me – my standards are high, and this isn’t praise I would give myself, or anyone else, lightly. Furthermore, I think it’s probably a good thing for a writer to believe in her work. If you don’t, who will? And if I didn’t believe in it, I wouldn’t be blogging about it right now. I wouldn’t be telling you how I think there’s something in it that will strike a chord with many of you. As I mentioned in my previous posting, technology is such a complex, moving target that it’s nearly impossible for anyone to make sense of the chaos. Patterns are fleeting, and moments of normalcy or consistency even more so. What this toolkit is designed to do is to help you stay calm in the storm. To take a systematic approach to understanding your business, identifying market opportunities, and evaluating them. To nurture creativity within your organization, because without it, you’re a sitting duck. These are really important ideas—and perhaps not entirely new, but still meaningful, and difficult to execute. The toolkit’s purpose is to aid that execution to the greatest extent possible. If you’re interested in reading the entire thing, and you are a member of Growth Team Membership, you can click here. If you’re interested in reading the entire thing, but you’re not a member of Growth Team Membership, you can still read an excerpt by clicking here. Enough about that. I mentioned at the start of this blog that I would close with a list of my favorite detective stories. In the interest of brevity, because brevity is the soul of wit, I shall keep the list to five (starting with my favorite). 1) Some Buried Caesar, by Rex Stout 2) Black Orchids, by Rex Stout (I realize it would be more interesting not to repeat an author, but…my blog, my rules) 3) Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie 4) The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler (read this, and then watch the movie: Bogie and Bacall at their most snazzy) 5) The Maltese Falcon, by Dashielle Hammett (read this, and then watch the movie: Bogie at his most Bogie, sans Bacall) For a more in-depth book discussion, or to share your thoughts on technology strategy and its myriad challenges (none of which really existed in the lovely 1930s, “stuff dreams are made of” world I’ve just recommended for you), please take to the comments. As always, happy computing. Katherine Burns Katherine is the Director of Strategic Communications for Growth Team Membership, a premier best practices research group within Frost & Sullivan. You can follow her on Twitter: @KatherineSBurns.

This year’s survey results indicate sales executives’ 2012 challenges are shaped by their need to increase productivity. Specifically, sales executives need to pinpoint the highest-value sales activities, streamline their sales processes to match, and invest in new tools and practices for team collaboration. The other prominent challenges are enhancing the ability to monitor the business environment for shifts in pricing pressures and customers’ purchasing behaviors and needs. To further explore this year’s challenges, respondents were asked to “root cause” their top challenges—whether they derive from issues with staffing, process, technology/systems, or strategic alignment. Sales executives attribute their challenges to the gamut of process, tools, and people. While respondents foresee little to no increase in staff, budgets are on the rise. Given social media’s increasing role in companies’ strategies and activities, the survey asked respondents about the sales force’s use of social media. An overwhelming majority (98%) of the respondents are using social media in their daily sales activities. Specifically, respondents employ social media to identify needs, build awareness, and nurture ongoing client relationships. Unsurprisingly, LinkedIn is the primary social media platform sales executives use—primarily joining special interest groups to enhance their understanding of customer needs. Fewer respondents are actively participating in or creating special interest groups, which forgoes opportunities to demonstrate topical expertise. Regarding the use of virtual and social media tools in sales activities, respondents employ tele-presence and/or live streaming video and predictive analytics—the analysis of customer behavioral data to identify patterns and insights for customer interactions. However, few respondents are using social media monitoring tools (e.g., Radian 6), dashboards (e.g., Hootsuite or MediaFunnel), or CRM systems (e.g., Nimble). Consequently, sales executives are not realizing the full benefits these tools offer for improving customer focus, collaboration, and productivity. 2012 Asia Pacific Sales Leadership Priorities Survey Report View more presentations from Frost & Sullivan Holly is the Research Lead for the Growth Team Membership, a best practices research group within Frost & Sullivan. Follow her on twitter at @hlykehogland.