Toby oConnor - St Laurence Community Services Inc

Strategising and Marketing

your Business

for NDIS Consumers

Mr P. Toby oConnor

informabringing knowledge to life

National Disability SummitMelbourne 19 March 2015

OVERVIEW

1. Quick Environmental Scan

STRATEGIES

2. Get a ‘Survival Champion’

3. Get a Business Model

4. Know the products your customers want to

spend their money on

5. Make ‘back of house’ a driver

There should be no doubt the Scheme is

the best thing since sliced bread (1928)

The Scheme has been a godsend for a

large number of people with disability, &

their families, in the Barwon trial site

BUT. . .

1. Environmental Scan

Commonwealth does not directly deliver services

other than defence, border protection and

management of income support

It brings limited, if any, direct experience to

delivering local disability services

The closest role has been the Australian

Disability Enterprises – Inclusive Employment

2012-2022 (a 10 year vision statement…)

The challenge to fully implement the NDIS

vision requires the knowledge, experience & IP

of Providers (& their ongoing enthusiasm)

NDIA needs to heed advice … information requirements imposed on NFPs for funding and

evaluation purposes are poorly designed and

burdensome. (PC, Jan 2010)

It has been a stormy relationship with the Scheme designers

NDIA CEO has admitted the NDIA’s

workforce strategies have failed.

A NDIS Trial Site Provider CEO

NDIS offers a chance for us to offer more &

better quality services to people who have

gone without for past centuries

Keep this fact in sight:

$24+B (taxpayer funded) Scheme

= STABILITY

OVERVIEW


STRATEGIES






Even before you start thinking

about marketing your business,

get a Leader who can articulate

how to respond to the paradigm

shift and can be your Champion of

Success

Best tip for staying in business

It is the CEO who must take

responsibility for organisational

failure to successfully transition

into the NDIS space.

CEO as your Survival Champion- CEO MUST know the NDIS business

(it is “new business”)

OVERVIEW


STRATEGIES


3. Get a Business Model – do you

understand the NDIS Business Model?

4. Know the products your customers want

to spend their money on


Identify & Size

the Market

Product Cost of delivering

Product

Business Model

PS: Business Model links to Workforce Strategy & Marketing

Where to get Business Model input data Intelligence?

A smart strategy would be to use the

information the NDIA has to report (Reports

to COAG & Parliament)

Example: 10% of Participants in the trial sites

have NDIS Packages in excess of $100k p.a.

This means right now there are 882 high end

customers across Australia

-332 of these reside in the Barwon trial site

Identify your Market

Who are ‘NDIS Customers’?

Knowing this information allows you to make

business plans & develop strategies to target

services to specific customers & in turn to

market these to current & future potential

customers ($)

Size of Market

Market = Potential NDIS Customers

(Sept14 Report)

Are you already delivering services to some

of these cohorts?

Are you planning to deliver services to any

of these cohorts?

Your answers to these questions

have implications for your

marketing strategies

If you examine the previous table it is possible

to group the NDIS customer category descriptions

Further market size Analysis

63% of the NDIS customer base have some form

of cognitive disability

Barwon trial site: 3,318 x 63% = 2,090

Products customers are purchasing

Are you already delivering any of these

services (products)?

Do you have plans to deliver any of these services?

Your answers to these questions

have implications for your Business Models

& your marketing strategies

Cost of Product delivery – an example

NDIS Fees - examples

. . . the key question for you to consider here is:

“Who in your workforce presently delivers

these services?”

because this determines the biggest component of

your Business Model - wages.

If already deliver or you plan to deliver NDIS

services . . .

Do the NDIS prices per Service Item cover the actual

(full) costs of your delivery?

• Do you know what the true costs are to deliver

each service you offer now?

• What margin do you make now?

• What margin has your Board directed you have

to make this FY?

• Can your operational model work under the

NDIS prices?

NDIS Business Model

NDIS Business Model

CEO’s task is to configure the workforce in

a manner that covers your full costs to

deliver the service

BIG assumption is that you actually know

what your per capita costs are today

BTW: NDIA is not responsible to make sure

you do not make a loss offering services.

This is business – no longer charity

Things will be tougher when

the NDIA’s neoliberal

approach shifts into overdrive

Summary

Two core pieces of advice:

1. If you think you will deliver services in the NDIS

market the same way you do now, you will lose

money/go out of business (unless perhaps you have

secure alternative revenue stream[s])

2. You must investigate & decide which

billable services (outlined in the NDIA’s

Schedule of Fees) will financially work

for you

OVERVIEW


STRATEGIES



4. Do you know the products your

customers want to spend their money on


Choice - Participant, or nominated carer,

“manages” $s (in theory) & buys:

• what goods & services they want

• where delivered

• how delivered

• when delivered

• who/which supplier (not limited to NFPs)

• price (will shop around for lowest

price)

1950s Paradigm of disability services

21st Century Paradigm of disability services

Grasping the implications that arise from the

massive difference between these two

operational worlds will assist you to

identify & to develop your new NDIS

products

St Laurence’s pathway to today’s NDIS

environment started well before the NDIS

became reality

In 2010 we founded our product

development on customer feedback

Our workforce tries to ensure we listen

to what our customers want; we try to to

keep up with changing ‘need fashion’.

It’s a never ending process . . .

WHY ?

1. Helps NDIS Participants achieve their

goals

2. Helps NDIS Providers to operate in the

new environment

is an integrated suite of stepped education,

experience & learning pathways offering Participants

choice for growth & independence.

Specifically designed for people who qualify for

NDIS’ Schedule of Items

Range of accredited skills courses for

people with learning difficulties including

Foundation Skills Development

Teacher Manuals & Student Workbooks

written using Easy English

We listen

You Choose

We Respond

Be BOLD

Be DECISIVE

Be VISIONARY&

Bring your workforce (& BoD) with you

OVERVIEW

1. Quick Environmental scan

STRATEGIES






Final section highlights the all pervasive ways the

NDIS paradigm demands you change the ways you

currently do your business.

Identifying & building your saleable & viable

NDIS Products is just the beginning. . .

If you deliver more than a single NDIS Service Item you should

try to capture customers as they move through your company

as you ‘Supersize’ them (not easy with silos) >

But you also need to capture service attendance,

proof that ONLY services outlined in the NDIS Plan

have been delivered and, evidence that OUTCOMES

(not OUTPUTS) have been achieved.

This Slide contained MyPLAN IP and is intentionally blank

screen shots

Of NDIS integrated software

‘Outcome’ tracking system (part of

integrated software package – provides users with

option to give feedback to improve product)

hope . . .

MARKETING MATERIALS

www.mypath.org.au

Disability & ‘How I want to Live’ DVD

Aged Care

www.disabilityservicesgeelong.org.au/disability-services

www.stlaurence.org.au/services/aged-and-community-care-services/

Foundation Skills

Healthcare

Toby oConnor - St Laurence Community Services Inc