San Francisco, CA -- In January, 2012, the Smoke Jumpers industry expert group will kick off the year with a meeting focused on GPOs.  Defining the GPO, establishing guidelines and implementing change will be among the goals of this team over the course of a two day meeting.  Key questions will be debated including but not limited to:  What is the true contribution of a GPO - concept versus reality?  How is membership determined?  What is the realized purchasing influence?  What are the disciplines of engagement that organizations should establish?

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PUBLIC Hotel, Chicago, IL -- While the Smoke Jumpers Inaugural Meeting focused on analytics, the September meeting delivered four areas of content focusing on the challenges of delivering tools for sales force effectiveness while reducing tasks.  

Case Study 

The case study format works to present real life challenges within a company scenario that allows teams to problem solve and propose workable solutions -- both short and long term in execution scope. 

Operator Panel  

A panel of industry operators participated in a roundtable discussion focused on those areas of the engagement cycle from which they receive the most value.  One of the goals of the session was to begin defining the type of information operators require in order to make informed decisions, thus allowing organizations to arm sales personnel appropriately (e.g., the “tools” element of the agenda).    

Analytics Pilot Update 

A progress report was presented as a follow on to Session I Analytics. 

Roundtable Discussions 

As a result of requests to provide time for smaller breakout discussions, the following breakouts were held to focus on the topics of:

GPO compliance and options for controlling the growth of conversion from street business     

Best practices and lessons learned relative to third-party data acquisition providers (e.g., Instill, Tibersoft, CBS) 

Trump Hotel, Chicago, IL -- The inaugural meeting of the industry expert group Smoke Jumpers commenced with the mission of bringing together leading industry experts to discuss and work to solve major industry challenges.  

Solving major industry challenges is difficult to do alone.  Trailblazers often become bogged down attempting a solo assault given the challenges of getting to actions beyond the ideas.

A team approach increases the odds of success through the synergy of comprehensive solutions that are more broadly accepted by peers.  

Paul Wietecha, President/CEO, Blacksmith Applications, stated “The issues we are planning to tackle are common in the industry and in need of solutions for a broad range of manufacturers.  This group of industry experts will help pave the way for evolution across significant, yet common, manufacturer challenges with actionable ideas that will drive results within their respective organizations and the industry as a whole.”

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