NECSI COUNCIL AGENDA
October 29, 1998
Miami, Florida
Call to Order at 8:30 a.m. by Maureen
Welcome to New Council Member
Moved by Steve to adopt June 4 Minutes Motion Passed
Further clarification with RCR regarding bookkeeping practice. Art will look into this and Maureen will assist in the event RCR is unable to reconcile.
Art presented the 1999 Budget Forecast. Mike moved that Council Members pay their own airfare to NEC ADVANTAGE. Motion passed. Tim moved to revisit the Budget at the end of this day's meetings.
Follow-up on CTL and Espresso payments to NECSI Art and Ron
Vito noted that the atmosphere at first was chilly. NEC defended their need to have financials on dealers because of security. They agreed that some of the dealer points were valid but did not change the contract as requested. This had to be re-addressed in a later conference call in August.
Council will continue to keep this contracts issue at the forefront. The precedent has been set for ongoing negotiation with the dealer channel. NECSI needs to continue to work through issues with NEC., e.g. NECs involvement directly with dealer sales staff. Looking at this from NECs perspective is to ensure the dealers and reps are informed and are selling NEC product. By the same token Dealers have asked for incentives and have received promises of programs forthcoming.
Tim moved that we request progress report from NEC on Oct. 30th meeting. Motion Passed.
Mike moved that NECSI request Datacomm to address cessation of payments to NECSI; address Datacomm market positioning strategy. Motion passed.
NECSI needs to ensure via web site or Crosstalk article what differentiates a warranty from a service contract scheme so that the Membership understands.
Address with NEC on Oct. 30 without further discussion at Council Meeting
Further review of NECS-NEC Agenda. Art moved to request single person to contact from NEC. Motion passed.
New Item: Endorsements
Define what "endorse" means to NECSI and to NECSI partner. Steve moved to establish a NECSI Bus. Partners program allows CT , Web Site, Council Point of Contact, Mailing List, Annual Review of Marketing Plan, Can be canceled if not marketed properly Tim amended that Partner signs a statement of guidelines clarifying use of NECSI name and misuse will result in cancellation of Partner status. Vito added that we develop a policy statement on endorsements including individual Council members being restrained from entering into agreements that would benefit them personally as a result of NECSI endorsement or partnership. Council members will be required to sign that they agree and will abide by this policy.
Council will approve any product endorsements as a GROUP rather than individually. When a message from Membership indicates concern re product deficiencies, we can only make a recommendation and/or testimonial (test drive) that "ABC company and product is an acceptable option." Motion passed.
4. Committee Reports
Status of dealer imprint on brochure; cost to produce video; NECSI as marketing arm to hospitality industry
Tim is getting price to produce additional brochures;
Video: Shows NEC standards and dealer qualifications which dealers can show to their prospective clients. Dubs will be ready Nov. 13th/98. Every NECSI Member will get one free copy. We asked for ability to customize with individual company logo and modules that could easily be added to the video--for example dealer becomes Platinum at some point.
Mike moved to accept Steve's changes/amendments to Multi Location Agreement and amend to include the Elite and delete Epro II. Motion passed.
Vito moved to delete plenum cable charge as plenum is so commonly used. Motion passed.
Membership is now at 137. We do not have a good mechanism for determining who is a NEW NEC Dealer Associate. Also we need to know what NEC Dealer Associates have been terminated.
Get NECs list and target the Associates who are not already members. By increasing membership and getting members to pay dues we can reduce need for outside endorsement.
Bobby Horton wants to mail letter to Members in November before Holiday Rush to notify members of NECSI accomplishments, invoice for 1999 dues, and advisory that non-Members will be posted in Crosstalk (as per Vito's motion). Follow up phone campaign will be slated for January 15, 1999. Bobby also notes that Quarterly information is "post-active", therefore some other correspondence on a monthly basis might be informally proactive. Mark will talk further to Bobby as to what type of info goes in these monthly updates which will be broadcast via email.
Vito moved that we list non-paying NEC dealers and are not part of the Multi-Location Agreement Plan and state as such in Crosstalk, but let non-members know about this first so they have a chance to join. Motion passed.
NEC is the event sponsor for the Annual Meeting at CTI. Executive Committee will deal with dates and venue.
Solutions to human resource shortages through these programs
Lincoln College Report delivered by Steve. This program can deliver graduates with technical skills at an affordable cost to dealers.
Mark pointed out that there are now unique training issues:
1. Internal dealer training and certification (Challenge Tests, Master Tech, VOLARE);
2. External efforts to increase labor pool (recruitment) via high school and college partner programs
Mark moved that the Training Committee continue to focus on improving and marketing the Internal programs to the NECSI group. For example Master Tech training session gets cancelled if there isn't enough enrolment. Focus also needs to continue with respect to improving the programs now in place. Motion passed.
Ask NEC for faster deployment; greater utilization of Master Tech; NEC to put more emphasis on educating NEC Dealer Managers about these programs.
This Committee has no power on 2400 issues because of size and fragmentation but should be represented at the User Group Meeting. NEC has promised a contact for this product committee and have never followed through. NECSI can only continue to make demands.
Look at Web Site for issues
Investigate issue brought forward by Kiwi-Tel
CPU problems (failure requires new card and disks) Request reliable field replacement spares program
Lack of multiple OAI apps on 2000 is not good enough.
Reported on new products released and schedule for release.
Status of feature enhancements, fixes, voice over IP and other items on nec-si.com Wish List
Reviewed Elite Rollout
Successes over past 6 months: improved communication with Council and receptivity to requests. However, we need to have more input with respect to feature planning/enhancements. Each dealer attendee will get free TECH video. New brochure is in printing at time of this report. Pricing a minimum 5% less than EPRO. DESI Strip field kits are due out in February/99
Continue to be Focus point for NEC on product issues
Do another survey
The purpose of this meeting was to re-establish relationship with the NECSI organization. Tim asked for clarification on what happened regarding withdrawal of support. DCW explained that the relationship was evaluated on an annual basis and was withdrawn for 1998. Original agreement was that NECSI would promote Datacomm to Membership and Datacomm would support the organization on a percentage basis. Art asked why Council was not informed regarding the suspension of premiums, but DCW countered that the relationship is a two-way street. Maureen explained that the time lapse that occurred between DCW's withdrawal and Council's awareness was due to change of Council and outsourcing administrative and advertising (Crosstalk) to third parties.
Mark added that personal business interests are subordinated to NECSI member issues and benefits at large. This would be the premise upon which we move forward. Membership list was provided to Datacomm. DCW asks what will a partnership with NECSI provide? Partnership or endorsement type relationships recognize that mutual benefit is expected, but we are not fully empowered to force any products or programs on our Membership. We CAN provide exposure for DCW and can present to DCW opportunities that are uppermost in the minds of our Membership.
NECSI has a mandate to deliver VALUE to our member base and we are challenged to identify value -added programs that can benefit our Members financially and in other ways. Council has never endorsed any other extended warranty program. DCWs evaluation of the NECSI relationship was based upon their perceived lack of benefit from the relationship and since it was an annually renewable program they chose to suspend premiums to NECSI. Mike emphasized that NECSI greatly benefited DCW in opening up the channels at the outset and the "sales" assistance in closing contracts. Therefore NECSIs position is we are faced with revenue shortfalls as a result of DCWs suspension of premiums without notice.
To move forward from misunderstandings of expectations by both parties, Council desires to re-establish this relationship by backdating to January 1998. DCW proposes Council members (Mark and Greg) to work with and investigate opportunities to move forward. NECSI is prepared to supply a Council member to work with DCW to grow the relationship. This going forward agreement will be defined by a Letter of Understanding.
Tim moves that an Ad Hoc Committee negotiates terms of recovery with DCW. Motion passed.
Bylaw against "spamming"
At this time NECSI has the capability to broadcast email to all Members. We need to have a written policy that will apply regardless of who is on Council. Steve to work on policy
Steve submitted a draft for Standards of Excellence for NECSI Members in two versions:
Public for visitors to nec-si web site
Private for NECSI Members
Discussion some things we cannot enforce and rather than repeating standards already in the NECSI brochure a better idea is to put the new video on the website so it can be downloaded.
Plan for some regional round-tables; presentation piece for annual meeting, e.g. dispatch software would attract more Members to Annual Meeting.
Getting Membership to participate; getting feedback from Membership; CROSSTALK NEWS is making a contribution.
Some Council members felt a survey of this type would get a poor response and might also yield skewed results due to variances in regional markets. This information can be obtained through other sources. Greg will supply contact for interested parties.
Personal testimonial regarding a product is okay to publish. Editor has authority to label OEM news releases as paid for advertisement, so that printed material cannot be misinterpreted.
Illinois has passed a law that requires all PBX systems support E911 with CAMA trunks. Concern regarding legal ramifications. Third Party company E911 will supply software/database at a fraction of cost of telco (must have DID locals). Data must be provided to PSAP in their format. Suzanne offered to investigate the software provider and product and report back to Council.
Contact renewal due in March 1999. Vito moved that we renew RCRs contract; amended by Tim that we delegate Maureen to first review the contract and RCR performance .
President Maureen
Vice-President Mark
Secretary & Crosstalk Editor Suzanne
Treasurer Vito
Tim moved to adjourn. Motion passed. Meeting adjourned at 3:50 p.m.
Evening Dinner Meeting - Dispatch Software Presentation