An open letter to Obama

Dear Mr. President

It is clear that you have inherited a huge mess. After eight years of neglect; and twenty plus years of excesses, the “chickens have come home to roost” in the first months of your presidency.  Much like Lincoln, you have not been afforded a honeymoon, or a congress consisting of great minds.  Instead, you have a House and Senate filled with demagogues.

Circumstance may deem you to be a one term president, but, circumstances cannot prevent you from becoming a great president - one for the ages.

Most recently, or at least within my life time, JFK left a legacy that is to be envied.  Much of that legacy fulfilled after his death; nevertheless, he set the direction for others to follow and his vision was fulfilled.  The Civil Rights bill did not pass during his tenure; nor did he see man walk on the moon, but he set those paths for these great goals to be accomplished.  His words are remembered by many – “Ask not what your country can do for you….”; ‘Ich bin ein Berliner”.  Words and speeches that evoked the emotions of the crowds and nation; but in the end, proved to be ephemeral.  In my opinion, his most memorable speech was the one in which he galvanized the nation to place men on the moon and safely return them to earth. Every young kid wanted to be an engineer. The derivative innovations from the moon program propelled an era of commercial prosperity; innovation unrivaled in the world and outlasted the moon program. Every time, we use an electronic device today, we can trace some genealogy to moon program.

It is now your turn to galvanize us.  You cannot galvanize the American populous by talking about health care; Afghanistan, Iraq or regulating Wall Street. These are things we hired you to do.   You need give us a grander vision; goals that are within our grasp, but will require our collective will to achieve – An alternative, renewable energy source – The greening of America - No more oil spills; No more acid rain; No more miners dying in mines or from black lung disease.

My best wishes for your continued success.

Your supporter,

Bob DaSilva

Trizetto - The health Insurers ERP

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about the need for health care insurers to look at current convergence of events (Health care reform and ICD-10 EDI5010), as an opportunity to re-evaluate their entire portfolio of disjointed applications/systems and adopt a strategically integrated solution.

I am bullish on Trizetto. I believe that Trizetto has the opportunity to become that first tier ERP system for the health insurance vertical, much like SAP, Peoplesoft and JDE are for most other verticals. Trizetto has the product set and the backing of some of the BCBS companies - some of the pieces of the puzzle.

The next step for Trizetto is to expand their footprint in a significant way before the market overtakes them. One possibility is to be acquired and, as I previously suggested, Microsoft would be a great suitor, as would DELL.  DELL has acquired Perot systems who is deeply entrenched in the health insurance vertical and would be a great asset in expanding Trizetto's reach.

The health insurance group is like the sleeping manufacturing organizations of the 80's.  In the 90's, they woke up to learn that their lunch had been eaten by the Japanese.  Some, like the U.S. automotive industry, continued in their slumber until recently.  The words for success are efficiency (cost reduction) and quality. Those who can achieve both, like Harley Davidson, will see their stock and market share soar.

The health insurers have yet to learn about the concept of 'discontinuous innovation' - doing something new; as opposed to doing the same thing under different guises.

Heath insurers, much like manufacturers; can get leg up on efficiency and quality by embracing the demands of the marketplace to change in a fundamental way.