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Sbusiness Preview
Sbusiness Highlights
Looking to improve upon your services delivery objectives, revisit your use of KPIs, or expand your knowledge of the medical technical services business? Check out these feature articles from the Fall issue of Sbusiness.
KPIs: A Success Gauge for Your Services Operation
By William K. Pollock
The concept of key performance indicators (KPIs) has been around for as long as many of us have been working in the services sector. Developing a formal set of objective, realistic, quantifiable, and actionable KPIs can prepare your organization to accurately assess its performance over time. Click here for the full article.
Spotlight on.MERA (Medical Equipment Repair Associates)
By Walt Gasparovic
Walt Gasparovic, CEO of The Gasparovic Group, interviews key execs at MERA as they discuss the real-life, daily issues and challenges of their third-party medical technical services company. Click here for their in-depth observations on the industry.
Sbusiness Submissions
Want to share your knowledge with Sbusiness readers? Sharing your business experiences and industry knowledge keeps the industry's wheels turning and generates real opportunities for opening discussions with your industry peers. Click here to submit your article ideas or submissions.
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What's Hot
New AFSMI Web Site
The AFSMI Web site has been completely redesigned to make it easier to find the news, research, and information you need to be successful. We hope that you will utilize the new AFSMI Web site as your key information resource, and we invite you to explore the site and send us your feedback on what you like, and what you would like to see added. Click here for more information on the new Web site.
World Conference Presentations Posted
Check out the terrific presentations from the 2007 S-Business World Conference. Speaker slides from the keynote and breakout sessions are now available on the AFSMI Web site in the World Conference section, under Events.
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Industry & Technology News
Industry News
AFSMI Newsline keeps you on top of late-breaking industry news. Click here to view industry achievements, awards, company news, and new products and services announcements from such leading organizations as BLUEROADS, LiveTime Software, Northern Light, Health Net Federal Services LLC, and Technical Communities, Inc.
Handling Difficult Customers
By T. Scott Gross
Most customers, even the tough-to-love ones, are just like us; if something upsets us, we can become difficult to handle at times. But do customers start out to make things difficult? Usually not. Sometimes it just happens. So what can you do to make things better? Click here to find out.
 White Paper of the Month
Vertical Solutions Inc.
"The Service Chain Initiative: Building Field-Service Success One Link at a Time", is a white paper that outlines how field service can tap into its wealth of customer data to go beyond improving dispatch rates and mean-time-to-repair. New Web-based technology offers a plug-and-play, modular approach to help companies place field service as the hub of continuous process improvement. Download a copy at
www.vsi-powerhelp.com/servicechain.
 Technology Spotlight
Panasonic
For over fifteen years, Panasonic Computer Solutions Company has produced the field service industry's most reliable mobile PCs-legendary Panasonic Toughbooks®. Rugged and wireless, Toughbook laptops are built to withstand the harshest conditions to ensure maximum uptime in the field or office, allowing service technicians to maximize their productivity wherever the job takes them. www.panasonic.com
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Local Action
Australia Chapter
Maarten Tentij, President
The Australia Chapter held its Annual Golf Day at the Muirfield Golf Club in North Rocks on Friday, September 28. There was a great turnout, with 12 teams vying for a number of great prizes-and bragging rights. Click here for a summary and photos from the event, plus details on an upcoming supply chain and logistics conference that the chapter is supporting.
Chicago Chapter
Jerry Kuziel, President
The Chicago Chapter will hold its Annual Executive Luncheon on Thursday, October 18, at Maggiano's Little Italy in Schaumburg, Illinois. The featured presenter for the event is Bernie Schaeffer, corporate vice president, Global Repair, Integrated Supply Chain, Motorola, Inc. Click here for more event details.
Finger Lakes Chapter
John Wild, President
The Finger Lakes Chapter of Upstate New York has some important announcements for this edition of the Newsline. The chapter is proud to announce that it has been recognized with the 2007 AFSMI Innovative Chapter Award. And after serving for three years as chapter president, Jim Payne (S-Market Strategies) has passed on the reigns to John Wild (Kuehne + Nagel). Click here for details and a letter from the outgoing president.
North Texas (Dallas) Chapter
Keith Evans, President
The North Texas (Dallas) Chapter is preparing for its annual Winter Dinner event. Stay tuned to the AFSMI Newsline and the chapter's site at www.ntafsmi.org for forthcoming details. In addition, the chapter is looking to fill vacancies on the chapter board, as a number of positions have opened due to recent member relocations. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact chapter president Keith Evans at kpevans@ntafsmi.org.
U.K. Chapter
Simon Morris, President
The U.K. Chapter will be hosting its third event of the year on Thursday, October 25. "Growing Your Service Business (Part III)" will include a U.K. Chapter Special Conference on the show floor of the Service Management Europe (SME) Exhibition at the NEC. Click here for more details on this chapter event.
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Upcoming Events
Technology Services Europe Conference - Paris, France, April 2-4
Don't miss the Technology Services Europe 2008 Conference, April 2-4, 2008, at the Marriott Rive Gauche in Paris! AFSMI is expanding on a nine-year tradition of European conferences by joining with our sister associations, the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) and the Technology Professional Services Association (TPSA), to create the most powerful gathering of services executives in Europe ever!
Save the date (April 2-4, 2008) and complete our conference interest form to be notified when details about the conference are announced.
Member Webcast: Shifting Sources
If you missed the "Shifting Sources" Webcast on September 26, the Webcast is now available "on-demand" so you can replay it at your convenience. Visit our Webcast page for more information.
Member Programs
Benchmark Portal
The AFSMI Services Benchmark Portal is the premier resource for measuring the performance of your business against the rest of the technology services industry on over 170 key financial and operational metrics.
Join the AFSMI Benchmark Study today, and start basing your services business decisions on factual industry data. For more information on the Services Benchmark Portal, click here. |
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Share Your Thoughts: The AFSMI World Conference
Did you make new connections at the S-Business World Conference that you're excited about? Discover a new technology or service that piqued your interest? Learn
something new in service that you hadn't thought of before? We invite you to share your conference experiences with other AFSMI members. Please take a moment to e-mail your testimonial to Angela Smith at asmith@afsmi.com. Please be sure to include your name, title, and company information. Select responses may be published in the conference highlights appearing in the Winter 2008 issue of Sbusiness or on the AFSMI Web
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