Industrial Solutions - Q&A With Our New VP of Business Development

The Industrial Solutions (IS) team is very excited to welcome a new addition to the team - Tom Puza, Vice President of Business Development! We recently sat down and had a chat with him about his role and direction for IS.

1. What will you be doing as the new Vice President of Business Development for Industrial Solutions?
   I will lead business development, sales, and global growth initiatives in new and existing markets.
   
   
2. What was your previous position?
   Global Director, Applications Engineering at Maxwell Technologies. I previously also held executive management positions in general management, engineering, and operations at Delphi Electronics & Safety, EnerDel, and International Battery.
   
   
   
3. What excites you most about joining the Telamon team?
   I'm enthusiastic about the past progress of the team and the entrepreneurial approach that has been taken to grow the business. Open minded business approaches along with customer focus drive growth and improvement. I believe that Telamon has a winning formula and the right approach to delight customers regardless of market.
   
   
4. What do you hope to accomplish within your first year at Telamon?
   I look forward to developing an even stronger growth path for Industrial Solutions over time. I believe that I can bring my experience in automotive and other industrial markets along with my working knowledge of operating in other regions to the team so that we can generate a more comprehensive growth plan.
   
   
5. Where do you see the Industrial Solutions division in five years? 
   
   I hope to see a major business press article (e.g. The Wall Street Journal or Bloomberg Business Week) that discusses Telamon's global success in bringing new business models to the transportation industry with corresponding revenue and profitability.
   

Energy Solutions - Energy Security

In a previous blog, we discussed why companies invest in sustainability and “energy management” programs. In addition to reducing costs, I mentioned brand engagement and reducing business risks, or “risk management”. Good risk management identifies and offsets events or practices that can reduce the profits of a business. If your business involves anything more than running a lemonade stand – access to an energy source that can provide ample, reliable and affordable energy is of critical importance to running your business.  This is called “energy security” and is a frequent point of discussion inside of global companies with operations in developing countries. There are few risks to business with as large a potential impact as energy security. However, these risks can be reduced or even eliminated with strategic planning, vision and firm intention.

The phrase “energy security” is becoming more prevalent these days, popping up in news stories about a nation with poor infrastructure or minimal natural resources.

It is a big deal in geopolitics and in business. The national borders of the Middle East today were established after World War I in part to address the energy and resource needs of the West by allocating spheres of influence to various nations. The expansion of Imperial Japan in the 1920’s and 30’s was driven by the many factors, one of which was access to energy sources. Today, China is investing in oil and gas fields globally and spending a significant amount of capital to ensure future access to energy. 

Without access to energy that is reliable and affordable – both the country and the business will die.

The USA has been very fortunate in recent memory with the last significant disruption to energy resources stemming from the OPEC oil embargo of the 1970’s. The shock to our economy and the fear it created can still be seen and felt today through the Energy Department of the President’s Cabinet, the CAFÉ fuel standards introduced to mandate vehicle efficiency, and the White House installing solar panels on the roof during the Carter Administration, when solar cost nearly $50 per watt. But most of the time when we think of energy security, it’s “over there” in places like Brazil, a country that gets over 80% of its electricity from hydroelectric dams. It is a country that is reeling from political scandals, a sluggish economy, and a Once-In-A-Century drought that has crippled production and increased prices over 200% for many customers.

Overnight.

And it’s getting worse.

On top of between 9 and 20 layers of taxation on energy from federal, state and local Brazilian authorities; grid and transmission fees have increased 25% this year.

The lack of water has forced utilities to generate electricity with natural gas, which is 5 times more expensive in Brazil than in the USA. The high costs, combined with subsidies and price controls imposed by the government less than 3 years ago were bankrupting the utilities. So on March 5th, Brazilian consumers were hit with another 23% increase. The energy problems being dealt with will reduce Brazil’s GDP by a minimum of ½% in 2015. Companies that were used to $10,000 electric bills are now dealing with $25,000 bills (or more) for the foreseeable future.

Energy security should be a priority for any company that relies on energy to deliver their product to the market – whether it is a manufacturer or a service provider. While it is especially important for companies operating in developing countries and economies, it isn’t just for foreign operations as today NASA put out a forecast showing that California’s drought has reduced reserves and reservoirs to approximately 12 months of usage.

If energy security is of interest to your organization – Telamon Energy Solutions is ready to help.

- Mark Brown

Sales Manager

Energy Solutions

Medical Solutions - CPPH Conference

Telamon Medical Solutions is proud to present the Community Partnerships in Population Health Conference, “The Impact of ACA, Medicaid & Indiana HIP 2.0 on Non-Profit Health Service Providers”, on Wednesday March 11^th. 

The Community Partnerships for Population Health Conference will provide key insights on three pieces of legislation – Affordable Care Act, Medicaid Expansion and Indiana HIP 2.0 – and its impacts to non profit organizations and the Medicaid eligible population. Key learning objectives will include: 

• Impact of Affordable Care Act on Non Profit access to Grant Initiatives to support organizational sustainability, population health initiatives, and program extension 
• Impact of Medicaid extension to the Medicaid-eligible population and the new dollars to support community health center sand healthcare service providers in treating and providing health access to the population
• Impact of Indiana HIP 2.0 in Medicaid expansion in the State of Indiana and key knowledge points for enrollment leading to better access to healthcare and services. 

This is the first conference in an educational series targeted to non profit executive directors, non profit program managers, non profit grant writers, policy researchers, community health centers, population health nurses, and population health service organizations. 

Telamon is excited to partner with leading experts in the field to provide a learning opportunity to present the latest in regulatory impact and a discussion-based format for collaboration and knowledge sharing. We look forward to learning from our presenters – Mr. Jing Xu, Master’s candidate at Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs with front line experience with Enroll America and National Community Health Centers in Washington DC and Mr. J Hopkins, Vice President of Business Development for ClaimAid Consulting, a leading provider of comprehensive eligibility and enrollment services and claims resolution for hospitals and health care providers, with significant perspectives from his many years at Eskenazi Health, Indiana Health Care Association, and State of Indiana, Family & Social Services Administration. Significant experiences and perspectives!

Check back during our next featured blog for a summary of teachings and takeaways.

Registration for the event is available at http://bit.ly/1L3y8j4.

Telecom Solutions - The "Greening" of Telamon

The revolution started slowly and quietly. It’s difficult to nail down the exact cause or time but several things contributed.  All of a sudden, the energy required for equipment and the energy expended from equipment became a big issue.  Perhaps it was in the increase in electric utility rates or the sudden – and expensive - need to beef up the building cooling systems.  Perhaps both coming at nearly the same time.

Back in the day - a phrase I love as it conjures up images of horse drawn carriages and lack of indoor plumbing – telephone equipment offices, large and small, sometimes had hot and cold areas.  There were spaces designed that would keep equipment at appropriate temperatures as some were far more sensitive than others. Digital switching electronics and battery plants come to mind immediately.  It didn’t take long to notice that there were some equipment types and manufacturers that generated a lot of heat.  Heat is a byproduct of inefficient use of power consumption and too much contributes to expense in ways that telecom providers had not previously considered.  Several immediate steps were taken.   

First, technology that was no longer in use was turned down and, where practical, removed.  It seems intuitive but there were oftentimes aisles upon aisles of equipment that had been bypassed but electricity was still flowing to.  This was a huge waste. Second, network planners and facilities managers started to work together to assess the impact of new technologies on the existing infrastructure.  A new technology could potentially require a full, and very expensive,  upgrade to the HVAC system. Thirdly, executives approached equipment manufacturers with the request to design equipment with energy efficiency in mind.  It has been widely documented that the equipment deployed in the telecom industry alone accounts for at least one percent of the power used globally.  This may not sound like a lot but it equates to billions of kilowatt hours annually. With emerging new services and technologies this consumption is not expected to go down but up – along with the price of energy. To encourage this radical change in mindset, RFP’s were written to include efficiency standards.  If you wanted to participate, manufacturers had to potentially redesign products to meet these standards.  And they did.

At the same time, utility energy rates continued to climb. Once the standard facility conservation practices were put into place – lower thermostats, controlled lighting, etc. – telecom providers had to start getting creative in lowering operating expense related to energy consumption.    It has been very encouraging to see the telecom industry as a whole embrace alternative energy as a sustainable and financially viable business model.  The large scale use of solar and wind for datacenter rooftops, fuel cells at small and remote locations and research into deployment of biofuels and geothermal for large corporate campuses is proving itself economically and will hopefully persuade other industries to continue to follow suit.

- Suzanne Beck

VP Sales

Telecom Solutions

Industrial Solutions - Winning New Business

Winning new business for the Industrial Solutions group requires much more than providing a quotation with a price and waiting to receive the purchase order. A typical new business award will be the opportunity to supply a quantity of parts at an agreed upon price for 3-4 years. The automotive sector represents the primary customer base for the wire harness team and each year the automotive industry works to reduce the supply base to those companies that can meet a more demanding set of criteria. Each year the challenge is to extend payment terms, provide price reductions, reduce lead-times, reduce Defective Parts Per Million (DPPM), and increase our engineering support. This seems exhausting just reading it!

Telamon continues to flourish in this industry by accepting these challenges and by working to improve our processes and increase our product knowledge. Our customers are acknowledging their appreciation of these efforts by awarding new business. We are also being exposed to new customers and new business opportunities based on this reputation. Word of mouth is one of the best ways to be introduced to new business. The same is true when a valuable contact at an existing customer moves to another company and introduces us to their new company.

While price is the perceived prime driver, we are surprised recently at the focus on quality, delivery, and customer support. Our customers must highlight our performance in these areas when promoting Telamon for new business because our customers will disqualify a supplier that does not meet the performance requirements in these areas even if their price is lower. The emphasis on quality and delivery means that everyone in our organization plays a role in winning new business! 

We use Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) tools to assure that we meet each of these expectations. Our customers use Contract Reviews, Team Feasibility Commitments, Supplier Quality Portals, and other documents to monitor our progress in developing the production processes. Additionally, our customers regularly audit our Fresnillo facility to assure we are producing their parts in compliance with the process documentation.    

It can be grueling at times, however we enjoy our automotive business and are always actively involved in winning new customers in other markets. We have a specific strategy to help us achieve this initiative, and we will discuss this strategy in our next blog!

- David Lillich

VP Sales

Industrial Solutions - Telamon Corporation

Business Process Solutions - 2015 Projections for Outsourcing

The Accounts Payable Network, a network of more than 50,000 AP process owners in the U.S. and around the world, is the world's largest AP-focused organization. Since Telamon's Business Process Solutions group focuses primarily on finance and accounting, we follow the news associated with this network religiously. A recent article, "Outsourcing in 2015" by Wilma Miranda, highlights what outsourcing trends are expected in 2015.

With projected growth for business process outsourcing there has been a heavy focus on what companies can do to stay at pace with this growth. Miranda points out that many clients are leaning toward acquiring more specialized services rather than general, horizontal services. To appease to clients Miranda suggests concentrating on vertical segments and aim at providing to industries such as Manufacturing, Healthcare, and Retail. This means it will be imperative that companies have more explicit knowledge about different industries as well as the clients and their competition.

US cities have been targeted as potential prospects for growth in outsourcing which means that companies must start paying attention to these shifts toward specialized offerings now.

Telamon Business Process Solutions provides transaction processing for the Logistics, Transportation, Retail, Distribution, and Healthcare markets. We pride ourselves on understanding the characteristics and business needs of these markets and becoming the extended business office of choice.

To read more from "Outsourcing in 2015" and lean about the growth in outsourcing click here.

- John Owen
VP Sales
Business Process Solutions - Telamon Corporation

Telecom Solutions - Totally Connected

In previous blogs I have written about the wide variety of "things" that now have integrated connectivity and are part of the "Internet of Things". This movement has even been reduced to an acronym - IoT. In addition, I have written about Smart Grid and Smart Circles which are growing more and more prevalent as leaders see the vast benefits. One wonders, what's next? Well, at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and the Detroit Auto Show this year, the question was answered. Next on the connectivity horizon is our car.

Now, you might think that with the introduction of General Motors "OnStar" product in 1995 that this is old news. But OnStar was only available in certain models of new cars and at a premium price. It had limited features, however GM saw the potential and continued to develop the product. In 2015, auto manufacturers have introduced high speed 4G LTE into the dashboard as well as self-driving capabilities and high end entertainment systems. Our connected car is becoming more of a reality as both AT&T's "Drive" platform and Verizon's "Vehicle" will be able to give us real time information about our vehicle - reminding us in a human voice to change our oil rather than seeing an ominous blinking icon which looks like nothing like it's supposed to - as well as many voice activated features controlling the entertainment system and phone features. AT&T and Verizon are taking different approaches to this connected car movement. AT&T is working directly with auto manufacturers and Verizon is offering a standalone product that can be used in older vehicles or those not quite equipped with the latest connectivity features.

Couple this with the advances in smart highway and home technologies and soon enough we will be able - through our car - to take the fastest way home at the end of the day and know what's waiting for us when we get there. Again, if only technology can work it out to have a nice glass of wine poured and ready, it would be perfect!

-Suzanne Beck
VP Business Development
Telecom Solutions - Telamon Corporation