RE: [projectvrm] Microsoft's Personal Health Care Records

["Joe Andrieu" < >]

Title: Message

Alan,

 

I realize we just posted at about the same time, so I'll just comment on one snippet here to avoid the out-of-sync back & forth.

 

==

In fact, I would go so far as to suggest (going back to earlier discussions), "It is not VRM unless it helps individuals to make and implement decisions better".

==

 

VRM also needs to help vendors make and implement decisions better. If it doesn't, vendors won't bother and we'll have zero adoption.

 

VRM is focused on relationships and decisions only in so far as they pertain to buying and selling. Solving "relationships" or "better decisions" generally is so huge as to be intractable, and your statement suggests that non-buying decisions should perhaps be in the VRM context. 

 

At the same time, there are huge components of VRM that aren't about decisions, they are about delivery and execution. We have an opportunity to enable, for example, through Personal Health Records, services that today are not possible. Doc has talked with Johnson & Johnson about the possibility of J&J pre-packaged medication blisters delivered direct to your door. But without seamless access to the entire medical record, J&J can't offer that product. This use case has nothing to do with helping individuals make decisions. It has to do with enabling vendors to have richer, more valuable relationships with customers so they can deliver more appropriate and engaging products and services.

 

In other words, making better buying decisions is simply one part of VRM; focusing solely on that might miss much larger opportunities.

 

That said, I think improving the customer's ability to make better buying decisions /will/ be a huge VRM win. Just not the only one.

 

-j

--
Joe Andrieu
SwitchBook Software
http://www.switchbook.com

+1 (805) 705-8651

-----Original Message-----
From: [mailto: ]
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2007 12:53 AM
To: ;
Subject: Re: [projectvrm] Microsoft's Personal Health Care Records

Hi Matt,

 

You say "I think the terms [of the relationship] have always been based on the individual's value agenda". Well, that floors me. I'll leave other people to comment on that if they want.

 

But your core point is that VRM is a tool to 'break the mass market agenda' because it allows individuals to vocalize different messages to "allow greater granularity and customization (hopefully) of product offerings."

 

Yes, VRM is an enabler of customization. But from my perspective this is just one small part of VRM.

 

And if anything, your argument underlines my point about personal decision-making. In order to be able to 'vocalize' a specification for a customized product, you have to go through quite a complex decision-making process. You have to generate a very clear idea of exactly what you want and what you don't want. You need to check this against what is available and possible. You then need to weigh up costs and trade-offs and set them against your circumstances and priorities. Then you need to bring all this together to make a decision.

 

So the improved ability to specify and customize is a quintessential product of 'better decision making'.

 

In fact, I would go so far as to suggest (going back to earlier discussions), "It is not VRM unless it helps individuals to make and implement decisions better".

 

In this, 'better' includes better product outcomes (quality, fit, price etc including customization), better implementation (time, hassle, convenience, cost, etc), and a better decision making process itself (time, hassle, fun, cost, ease etc involved making decisions about both products and implementation).

 

Alan