Below are a few examples highlighting how ISTO provides association management through legal and operational support to industry groups.

MIPI® Alliance Executive Leadership Resource Case Study

MIPI AllianceISTO is helping advance the mobile industry through thought leadership

MIPI Alliance, a global, collaborative organization comprised of companies that span the mobile ecosystem and are committed to defining and promoting interface specifications for mobile devices, was in need of a full-time managing director.

MIPI® Alliance Partners Executive Leadership Resource

ISTO is helping advance the mobile industry through thought leadership

MIPI’s Need

MIPI Alliance, a global, collaborative organization comprised of companies that span the mobile ecosystem and are committed to defining and promoting interface specifications for mobile devices, was in need of a full-time managing director.

The ISTO Solution

ISTO provides operational support to MIPI Alliance and put forth a resource to assume the duties of managing director on a full-time basis. Peter Lefkin, who had been serving as MIPI’s managing director on a part-time interim basis since February 2011, was requested by the MIPI Alliance Board of Directors to serve in the full-time role in February 2013.

Results

Peter interfaces with the MIPI Board of Directors and membership to ensure the organization’s strategic and operational goals are met, while maintaining MIPI Alliance’s role as a leader in development of specifications for the mobile and mobile-influenced industries. With corporate memberships at an all-time high, Peter leads a team comprised of ISTO resources and contractors, including technical program managers supporting MIPI working groups, program administrators maintaining relations with MIPI members, event planners coordinating MIPI meetings and events, and the marketing and public relations team.

“Peter had been serving as managing director on a part-time interim basis. As we began evaluating our need for a full-time resource, it became obvious that the answer was already in front of us. A proposal was presented by ISTO and accepted by the MIPI Board of Directors. As the mobile industry continues to evolve, and as MIPI Alliance celebrates its 10 Year Anniversary, the board of directors and I are confident that Peter will continue to lead our organization to continued success..” – Joel Huloux, chairman, MIPI Alliance

For more information, visit the MIPI Alliance website.

Start-up Case Study

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How technical industry groups TALQ and IMTAB became operational by joining the ISTO Federation

EDA and lighting industry groups leverage an established legal infrastructure resulting in lower startup costs and a reduction in administrative startup time

Bringing industry players together to collaborate under a framework that meets legal requirements for not-for-profit status can be an expensive proposition in terms of time, dollars and resources.

ISTO offers an enticing alternative to today’s industry associations trying to form and establish legitimate operations in a not-for-profit environment; the ISTO solution significantly reduces both costs and startup time. Two examples follow of how joining ISTO enables industry groups to get started more quickly:

TALQ Consortium

TALQ is a consortium of the lighting industry that seeks to advance a globally-accepted standard for software interfaces to manage outdoor lighting networks, such that components from different manufacturers can be interoperable with a compliant central management system.

Many of the initial members of the organization are based in Europe, but it was critical to the group’s mission to develop a truly global standard. It was recognized that by joining ISTO’s membership federation and forming under the legal infrastructure, TALQ could rapidly establish themselves as a legitimate entity.

The TALQ Consortium approached ISTO in April 2012, and legal documents to form under ISTO were approved. The founding members signed a membership agreement, and technical work began in June.

“The standardization of a single interface protocol to manage various proprietary network implementations in the outdoor lighting marketplace will help in removing interoperability impediments that constrain market growth. By forming under ISTO’s legal infrastructure, we have been able to quickly initiate our technical work to achieve our goals.”  – Gerard Lokhoff, Secretary General, TALQ Consortium

VISIT THE TALQ CONSORTIUM WEBSITE >

Interconnect Modeling Technical Advisory Board (IMTAB)

IMTAB was founded in April 2010 to shepherd the development of Synopsys’ Interconnect Technology Format (ITF) for semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) design.  Success for the format comes only from industry acceptance by key players, so forming a broad-based industry consortium was an early objective.

By forming the group under the umbrella of ISTO’s 501(c)(6) status, IMTAB was able to take advantage of the existing legal structure and form a legal entity in less than a month, rather than the year or more standalone non-profit status might have taken.  After joining ISTO and becoming a member program of the ISTO Federation, governing documents were developed and new members were signed up within weeks.

Work started by mid-2010 and the first ITF extensions were approved by the group in January 2011, with a dozen approved to date.

“IMTAB is an inclusive organization for building an open standard. We were looking to standardize the technology format for interconnect data without having the administrative responsibilities. ISTO offers the framework to accomplish this by providing an umbrella for which our members are able to discuss and exchange relevant technology ideas. Working under ISTO, the interconnect technology format, has evolved significantly for the new generation of semiconductor processes (28 nm and smaller geometries).” – Bari Biswas, Chair, IMTAB