Mark Ford
Vivit Membership Chairperson
Board of Directors

Hello everyone. I’m Mark Ford, Board Director - Membership Chairperson at Vivit Worldwide. Nine years ago, I joined the Mercury User’s Group when I became a Mercury Quality Center administrator. Shortly thereafter, HP acquired Mercury and our user group joined Vivit. I’ve served as a Vivit Chapter Leader in two different chapters over the past five years, both in Iowa (briefly) and now in the Carolinas. I’m still working in the Financial Services industry as an HP ALM admin, and I’m excited to now be involved with Vivit in this new position. As Membership Chairperson, my main focus is on three areas: who are our Vivit Members, what do they need from Vivit, and how can Vivit best serve those needs?

Who are our Vivit Members? I knew we were a worldwide organization, but I had no idea just how geographically diverse we are. Did you know that we have over 30,000 members spanning 138 different countries across 6 continents? We even have members from places I’ve never heard of like Curacao — a small island nation in the southern Caribbean Sea north of the Venezuelan coast. It’s great to be part of a group that encompasses people from so many different areas, backgrounds, and cultures — all with a common interest in HPE software. Recently I’ve been working with a reporting tool to better visualize our membership data.That’s why it’s important that you take the time to update your Vivit member profile periodically so that it is complete and up to date. We use that data to detect trends and growth patterns in various areas and to help HPE better understand the needs of their customers as well.

Vivit Member Locations by Country/State/Province

What do they need from Vivit? Our members are the sole reason we exist, and while we may have vast amounts of distance between us, our needs tend to be focused in the same areas. We’re all busy, trying to do more with less and work smarter instead of harder with the HPE software products that we use, but how can we stay on top of all the changes that occur in our industries, service areas, and with HP Software offerings? That’s where Vivit comes in! Collectively we can learn, network, share, and grow in ways that would take much longer in isolation. One way that I drill down into the specific needs of our membership is by leading the Vivit Membership Committee. We’re a small group of active Vivit members with insight into the needs of our communities and a passion for helping Vivit reach those needs. Every other month, we discuss new ways to engage users, webinar topics of value, conference booth themes, and interesting ways to provide for our members. If you have a need that you would like to bring to our attention, please send me an email. I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas!

How can Vivit best serve those needs? All of the ideas we receive and discussions we have in the membership committee get funneled back into Vivit to help drive membership value and growth. Do you need easier ways to introduce others to Vivit? We’ll update the Vivit website with an invitation letter and maybe even put together a short video for you. Is your organization challenged with a specific need that HP Software could address? We’ll get a webinar set up. Do you have an idea to help draw attendance to the Vivit booth at HPE conferences? We’ll make sure the Vivit staff gets that idea. Anything that helps Vivit bring more value to our members is a great idea and exactly what we are looking for on the membership committee!

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please email me at mark.ford@vivit-worldwide.org. I look forward to meeting you and hearing your thoughts to help keep Vivit running strong!

Thanks!

Mark Ford

P.S. If you haven’t updated your Vivit Profile in a while, go to: https://vivitworldwide.site-ym.com/members/edit.asp and log in with your Vivit username and password. If you have forgotten your Vivit username and/or password, click on the link to reset your password and you can enter an email address that you may have used previously.