The STAR eXchange

1. How to increase membership, revenue and participation.
2. What direction should STAR move? Continue down a technical path or possible change the approach to business type services.
3. Should the standards be “sold”, or remain an Open Standard.
4. It is imperative that the “third party” service providers see value in STAR, and are enticed to join.

Guest speaker Shuvo Bhattacharjee from SAE presented an opportunity to develop a standard integration that would help dealers and OEM’s support the customer at an exceptionally high level by communicating diagnostic information from a vehicle directly to a dealership. This was well received by member OEM representatives.

There were many more ideas and discussions – many with merit and spirit.

Keynote speaker Chuck Allen presented many lesson’s learned from his involvement with HR-XML consortium and shared many lessons learned from working in and with other standards organizations.
At the end of the day the important take-away from this meeting: Member’s are confident that STAR is a valuable organization with much work to do, and effectively will thrive and survive as technology evolves within the Automotive Industry. There are many opportunities to “build the better mousetrap”, and STAR should lead the way.

“STAR is moving forward-STAR is not done!” – that was the main message that was resonating from the STAR Members that were in attendance at the Feb 11th 2010 STAR Meeting.  The comments shared from the STAR Members in attendance at the meeting is a testament to STAR that its members believe in STAR, have seen its value, have experienced the benefits and have realized that STAR is Technology Dedicated to Business Efficiency!  Hearing these comments from the membership community is  a strong show of the value, benefits, effectiveness and work of the STAR Organization!  The STAR Members showed their unwavering support, dedication and participation of the STAR Organization despite the struggles that many of them have faced in the past year.  There are many new and improved projects that were discussed at the meeting – as they say…’our work here is never done!’

The STAR Steering Committee made it clear that STAR has strong goals & projects set for the next couple of years.  The STAR Steering Committee conducted an Open Discussion Forum and shared ideas and asked questions of the members.  This sparked great comments, ideas, discussions from the Members!  The STAR Members spoke…and the STAR Steering Committee listened intently…

Stayed tuned…its going to be a great year for STAR and its Member Community!

STAR is pleased to announce that the Feb 11th 2010 STAR General Session Keynote Speaker will be Chuck Allen, Integration Architect at SilkRoad Technologies, Inc and founder of HR-XML Consortium.

Chuck Scahill, current STAR Development Chair and VP of Business Development from Karmak, Inc stated, “I think it will be an excellent presentation.  It is both timely and consistent with our experiences, particularly this past year.”

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Keynote Presentation:  “Standards 2010: Prospects and Challenges for Standards Development in the Next Decade”

Abstract:

As standards organizations enter the 2010s, they face very different circumstances than a decade a ago. At the dawn of the “2000s,” analysts warned us that a key risk was the creation of a “tower of babel” as industry standards groups proliferated nearly as fast as dot.com start-ups. By the end of the decade, some groups had achieved measurable interoperability gains, but at the cost of years of upfront committee time followed by implementation and revision cycles also spanning years. Today, standards organizations that have managed to survive the decade’s two boom and bust cyles face vastly different funding circumstances and participation levels. At the same time, standards organizations are challenged by an accelerating pace of technology and marketplace change.

In this session, Chuck Allen, founder of the HR-XML Consortium and an adviser to other standards initiatives, will offer a survey of the state of standards development, including key challenges and new approaches. Among topics to be reviewed are:

Development methodologies. The committee processes driving most standards development organizations (SDOs) have remained largely unchanged over the past decade (STAR standards being an important exception). Most SDOs take months or years to spec out a standard with meaningful development against the specification beginning only after publication. While standards organizations have been slow to adapt their methodologies, in the same period, many enterprises have significantly transformed their internal development processes through the adoption of a range of agile methodologies. While there is growing recognition of the need to update standards development process, the prospect of applying agile methodologies to standards development tends to be met with equal degrees of interest and trepidation.

Intellectual property. Most standards organizations manage intellectual property by requiring participants to grant royalty-free licenses to the SDO and to anyone implementing the standard. For companies with large patent portfolios, this can impose a burden of expensive patent inventory searches and monitoring. Since each SDO has slightly different licensing terms, current licensing practices also prove challenging for an implementer wanting to apply multiple standards as well as for standards development organizations trying to converge standards. Patent non-assertion policies and efforts to simplify and standardize licenses hold some promise is reigning in the complexity associated with managing IP.

Funding models. Standards cost money to develop and maintain. However, traditional funding approaches, such as pay-to-play” and “pay-for-the-standard” don’t always keep up with funding needs and can work as disincentives for adoption and engagement.  There isn’t an easy answer to the question of financial sustainability for many SDOs, particularly in these tight economic times. The answer likely lies in a combination of approaches, including doing more with less, the design of attractive sponsorships, meeting and programming fees, and taking advantage of grant opportunities.

About the Speaker:

Chuck Allen, Integration Architect at SilkRoad technologies, Inc., was the founder and Executive Director of the HR-XML Consortium, Inc. Prior to founding HR-XML in Dec. 1999, Allen worked in a variety of new product development roles for major business publishers, including Thomson (now Thomson-Reuters) and the Bureau of National Affairs. Allen has a B.A. from the University of Virginia.

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Event Date: Thurs., Feb 11th 2010

Host Details: STAR Organization

Meeting Registration Information: The STAR February 2010 General Session is available only to STAR Members and approved Guests. If you are a non-member and wish to attend, please email Ghezal Khalili, STAR Executive Coordinator at gkhalili@starstandard.org .  If you are a STAR Member, please register at this link: STAR Member Meeting Registration Link

One of the benefits of STAR membership is the ability communicate with the people contributing time, and resources to it’s development. In the last several months, STAR has been upgrading the tools that it provides to it’s membership to make this collaboration easier and more frequent. We’ve recently upgraded the look for the forum itself:

The forums are a great opportunity for STAR members to collaborate on the development of the standards and participate in workgroups, when they have the time. Not everybody can make the scheduled workgroup calls, so we encourage members to participate in other methods. The newest workgroup that has been introduced is the STAR Marketing Workgroup. The marketing workgroup will be working at ways in which STAR and Members can help promote the usage of the standard.

So even if you are not into the technical development of the standards, there is a way for you to participate and give back. If you are a STAR member consider joining the Marketing Workgroup, and if you are not a member, please consider becoming one to help us promote the standard.

STAR Members are getting a new tool to help them collaborate with other STAR members. STAR has over the years used a variety of collaboration tools:

• IBM Lotus Quickplace.
• eUnify.

Both of these solutions served the membership well. However, as times have changed so have the needs of the membership. Today STAR is rolling out a new site for STAR members called the Members Community Portal.

STAR members should have received an email notification informing of the transition. If you have not, please check your SPAM filter and make sure that STAR emails are not ending up there.

The portal provides many of the features and requests that STAR members had been asking for. One of the most improved aspects that should help with collaboration is the forum that is available. This provides a much richer environment for collaboration and puts notification in the hands of the membership.

New features and additions for STAR members will be rolled out in the coming months. The new portal is one of the many benefits that STAR members receive. For more information on the Benefits of STAR membership please visit the STAR website.

A recent blog entry by Ed Merks, had an interesting quote:

The maturity of an organization’s policy around open source tends to progress from deny, use, contribute, champion, and finally value co-creation.

While Ed is talking about how a commercial company may eventually evolve through the various stages in open source adoption, it equally applies to how a company goes through and adopts open standards. In STAR’s case, it is the common pattern that we see when talking to various companies about the use of STAR and how they are deploying it within their businesses.

1. Deny – many feel they don’t need the standard, that their business works just well enough with out it. In fact there is some fear that if they use a standard it won’t give them the competitive advantage. This could be called the FUD principle as well (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt).
2. Use – somebody finally uses the standard, they implement and deploy it. They start trading with another client/partner, with the same standard. Find they can re-use or use the exact same implementation they did before. Freeing time and resources for other “added value” features for their customers.
3. Contribute – having learned the value of using the standard, they want to give back to the organization and help address other areas that are pain points. They may join the organization that created the standard, start an open source project that implements the standard, or help others to implement the standard. There are many ways to contribute.
4. Champion – after having experienced the advantages and ROI on using the standard and deploying more, some move to the champion stage. Helping to bring others into the organization, actively participating in the community, and going beyond and above the call of duty. Champions are rare. They look beyond what is best just for themselves, but what is best for the community.
5. Co-Creation – this is the stage we have yet to reach as a community. In some aspects getting your customers involved with the creation of your products is the driving point of co-creation. In the way of standards, it’s bring those pain points that are common back to the community, and working together to address them and add value for the customer.

So the question I leave you with: What stage is your adoption of standards?

MCLEAN, Va., Feb. 16 — Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR), a global information technology (IT) standards body for retail automotive and related industries, would like to welcome Mercedes-Benz Financial as a STAR Member.

STAR’s membership is expanding domestically and globally within the core automotive industry. Over the years, STAR has extended its membership base to include Motor Sport, Marine and Medium & Heavy-duty Truck. In 8 years we have grown from an idea to an organization of over 35 members whose mission is to create voluntary industry standards that reduce cost and complexity for dealers, retail system providers and manufacturers, while increasing innovation and returns for all members.

About Mercedes-Benz Financial

Mercedes-Benz Financial, now in its 27th year of operation, provides financing for Mercedes-Benz dealers’ inventories and their retail customers. Currently, more than 400,000 drivers in the United States enjoy the benefits of leasing or financing their Mercedes-Benz vehicles through Mercedes-Benz Financial. Mercedes-Benz Financial and its affiliates operate in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Mercedes-Benz Financial is part of the Daimler Financial Services Group, headquartered in Berlin, Germany, that operates in nearly 40 countries. Daimler Financial Services Group is one of the leading financial services enterprises worldwide. For more information visit www.mercedesbenzfinancial.com.

About STAR

The Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail (STAR) organization is the information technology (IT) standards organization for retail automotive and related industries. STAR is leading the effort to implement voluntary IT standards throughout the automotive industry. These standards are designed to support business information needs and provide secure and reliable means for dealers, manufacturers, and retail system providers to communicate. Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, STAR is a not-for-profit volunteer organization and its members include dealers, manufacturers and retail system providers. As members, these companies are interested in developing, promoting, and administering voluntary IT standards in the retail automotive industry and improving the effectiveness, timeliness and competitiveness of the IT solutions needed within the retail automotive industry.

For more information about STAR and a list of current members please visit www.starstandard.org.

For further information, contact Ghezal Khalili at 703-556-8584.

SOURCE STAR (Standards for Technology in Automotive Retail)