Ndarala Membership - membership benefits

Group membership offers potential benefits along a number of dimensions including:

• Improved service delivery through access to information and resources, project management advice, project back up including project extranets and problem resolution.
• More effective marketing through provision of marketing tools, access to Group marketing programs, access to broader resources and capabilities, facilitation of cooperative marketing and work from the Group itself.
• Improved service development and delivery via practical advice, cooperative development of new services and intellectual property and facilitated commercialisation of existing intellectual property.
• Greater professional and personal satisfaction through peer group support, mentoring, professional development programs and information/advice on professional issues.
• Improved administration and business management through mentoring, business advice and the provision of templates and guides and common services.

The exact form of benefit received depends upon individual need. Independence can be very lonely. For that reason, many of our individual independent professionals find the greatest benefit in friendship and peer group support. For others the Group is an insurance policy, providing support and back up in the event of client or market change. Our bigger practices value the straight business benefits flowing from the economies of scope and scale associated with participation in a bigger collective.

Benefits also depend upon contribution.

Cooperative action is central to both the delivery and achievement of benefits. Some benefits come from Group services, others from combined member and Group action, still others from our members individually or in combination. Experience since the Group's establishment in April 1996 shows clearly that the achievement of maximum benefits is directly related to active participation in cooperative activities.

Unlike conventional franchise operations, the Group does not take a fixed levy on member fees nor does it dictate specific member business or professional practices. Instead, each member chooses the exact relationship that best meets its changing needs, selecting from the portfolio of activities, services and potential benefits on offer.

The Group's role is to manage the overall value creation process to maximise benefits for both individual members and the Group as a whole.