Your contribution of $35, $50, $75 or more per year will assist us in pursuing legislation in Congress. NRLN is a non-profit organization. Because NRLN lobbies, contributions to NRLN are not tax deductible. AREF: The AREF is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. Donations ARE tax deductible.
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The NRLN Report Card is useful to our members to know as much as possible on whether their U.S. Senators and Representative are a sponsor or cosponsor of bills the NRLN supports or opposes. You are encouraged to use the Report Card to urge your Representative and Senators to cosponsor bills being advocated by the NRLN and thank them when they do.
The Report Card is used during NRLN fly-ins to Washington, D.C. to show the lawmakers and/or their staff members that the NRLN is tracking their actions on bills important to retirees.
It is hoped that those whose position is unknown on a bill on the Report Card will follow the NRLN’s position if/when a vote is called on the bill.
OPTION 1 - Get Current Congressional Session (118th Congress)
To get the “report card” for your whole state delegation in the current 117th Congress
- Click in the link to the Legislative Action Network
- Choose your state
- Click on icon to download an Excel file report.
NOTE :If the spreadsheet has a yellow banner at the top, click on ‘ENABLE EDITING’ in order to see the full content of the report.
To get it on any individual senator or representative
- Click on the link to the Legislative Action Network
- Choose your state
- Click on the individual you want
- The report card can be seen on the lower part of the web page then shown.
You can contact Congress in many ways
Do it your way any time
The array of “weapons” to choose from:
- Responding to NRLN Action Alerts
- Composing your own message
- Letter-to-the-Editor
- Calling the local or Washington, D.C. office
- Sending an e-mail with or without attachments to his office
- Fax a message or mail a hard copy
- Local office visits
- Town Hall /Phone Town Hall Meetings
Respond to Action Alerts
These are sent out by the NRLN on issues that are of immediate priority. You will receive a request to respond to them occasionally. On the NRLN web site at www.nrln.org and clicking on the Take Action Now! icon. This will take you to the latest Action Alert. You can edit the message to personalize it. You can contact the President, both of your U.S. Senators, and your U.S. representative in less than 5 minutes.
Composing your own message
You can also use this link to write your own message on any topic you wish. If you want to write on NRLN issues you can find plenty of background material under the Legislation tab on the NRLN home page.
Note: To check up if your Representative or Senators are co-sponsors of bills we support or oppose, just plug in your zip code in the window next to the photo of the U.S. Capitol Building on the right side of the home page, click the GO!, and you’ll see a USA map. Click on your state and follow the links to your Senators or Representative. There you’ll find contact information about him/her, what committees he/she is on, and if he/she co-sponsors bills we support, or oppose. Also on these sites are links to his/her official website, Twitter and Facebook accounts, if available.
Letter-to-the-Editor
You can send a Letter-to-the-Editor about NRLN Legislative Agenda issues by going to http://www.congressweb.com/nrln/media . A map of the USA will appear, click on your home state to access a list of newspapers in your state. Or, enter your zip code, click on GO and a list of newspapers in your area will appear. Check the box next to the newspaper you want to send your letter to and then click on “Send a Message.”
Calling the local or Washington, D.C. Office
From the contact information obtained above you can call an office and talk to a staffer and talk about an issue and or obtain an e-mail address for an appropriate staffer. It is good to get the e-mail address of a staffer so you can send him/her an e-mail with attachments if needed.
Sending an e-mail with or without attachments to his/her office
Once you get the e-mail you can send him a copy of the Action Alert sample letter or our position papers (executive summaries or whole documents) obtained from our Legislative Agenda tab on our home page at www.nrln.org . Or, you can send him/her the link to the document on the NRLN website.
Fax a message or mail a hard copy
U.S. Postal Service mail has to go through a toxic screening so it takes about two weeks to reach the congressional offices, but it allows bulky documents to get to him/her. If a fax is sent, it cannot be screened out for district where it originated. Don’t send more than five pages unless requested. When sending an executive summary say, if you wish, here is the link to the full document.
Local office visits
- These are normally coordinated with your Region Vice President.
- Names and e-mail addresses of these individuals are posted on the NRLN website at: https://nrln.org/list-of-grassroots-leaders/
- Contact your Region Vice President if you want to meet with your Representative or Senators. These meetings normally cover a specific issue or a small number of them. These meetings can be requested by a phone call or message sent via his/her official website.
Town Hall Meetings/Phone Town Hall
Contact the local office to find out when and where they will be conducted. Be prepared to ask questions on a few issues by looking at our Legislative Agenda and executive summaries on www.nrln.org . You can get on the phone meeting list by calling the local office.
Almost all members of Congress now have Facebook and Twitter accounts. Get a Representative’s or Senators Facebook link at: https://nrln.org/legislative-action-network/#/legislators/. You can post an item on Facebook and even attach a link to a document such as an executive summary of an NRLN white paper from the Legislative Agenda tab by copying in the link to it. Get his Facebook and Twitter accounts as outlined in the prior Note or on this site http://govsm.com/w/House which provides links to all Representatives’ Facebook and Twitter accounts. For Senators, go to
http://govsm.com/w/Senate
- Similar to Facebook but messages are restricted to very short length. Good for short “reminders”.
- You can find the Twitter account for each Representative and Senator at: https://nrln.org/legislative-action-network/#/legislators/
The Trustees for Social Security and Medicare released their 2021 reports on August 31. In recent years the reports had been released in April. Apparently, more time was needed to compile the reports to include the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the associated recession and projected outlook for the programs.
Social Security Report
This year the total annual cost of Social Security is projected to exceed the program’s total annual income, for the first time since 1982 and remain higher throughout the 75-year projection period. As a result, asset reserves are expected to decline during 2021. Social Security’s cost has exceeded its non-interest income since 2010.
The Trustees projected the Social Security Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund will deplete its reserves by 2033, one year sooner than last year’s estimate, with 76 percent of benefits payable at that time. The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) trust fund will become insolvent by 2057, eight years earlier than last year’s estimate, with 91 percent of benefits still payable.
The year when the combined trust fund reserves are projected to become depleted, if Congress does not act before then, is 2034 – one year earlier than last year’s projection. At that time, there would be sufficient income coming in to pay 78 percent of scheduled benefits.
“The Trustees’ projections in this year’s report include the best estimates of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Social Security program,” said Kilolo Kijakazi, Acting Commissioner of Social Security. “The pandemic and its economic impact have had an effect on Social Security’s Trust Funds, and the future course of the pandemic is still uncertain.”
Social Security makes payments to 65 million beneficiaries and 176 million workers pay into Social Security through payroll taxes.
Medicare Report
According to the Trustees, Medicare Part A (inpatient hospital services) is expected it to run cash deficits in 2021 and every year after until it is exhausted in 2026. At that time provider and insurer payments would have to be cut by 9 percent to bring spending in line with revenue. This Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund has not been this close to projected insolvency since 1997, when depletion was projected to be just four years away and it forced Congress to take some corrective actions.
The Supplemental Medical Insurance (SMI) Trust Fund has two accounts: Part B, which pays for physician and outpatient services, and Part D, which covers prescription drug benefits. SMI is adequately financed into the indefinite future because current law provides financing from general revenues and beneficiary premiums each year to meet the next year’s expected costs. Due to these funding provisions, the rapid growth of SMI costs will place steadily increasing demands on both taxpayers and beneficiaries. The Medicare Part B monthly premium, paid by all Medicare and Medicare Advantage enrollees, is $148.50 in 2021.
Medicare covers 62.6 million people: 54.1 million aged 65 and older, and 8.5 million disabled. About 40 percent of these beneficiaries have chosen to enroll in Part C, Medicare Advantage (MA) private health plans that contract with Medicare to provide Part A and Part B health services and most plans offer taxpayer funded special benefits that are denied to original Medicare enrollees. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said the Medicare trust fund solvency is incredibly important and CMS is committed to working with Congress to continue building a sustainable Medicare program.
NRLN on Social Security
The NRLN was in contact with the Legislative Director for House Subcommittee on Social Security Chairman John Larson (CT-01) who introduced the Social Security 2100 Act in the 116th Congress. We learned that Representative Larson is gathering original cosponsors so when he introduces the Social Security 2100 Act in the current 117th Congress there will have more than 100 cosponsors.
The NRLN will again lobby for the passage of the Social Security 2100 Act after it is reintroduced. We anticipate the Social Security 2100 Act will again ensure funding the program for the next 75 years and change the Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) from the current CPI-W pegged to urban wage earners’ living expenses to CPI-E (Elderly) based on older Americans’ spending patterns, including medical costs.
NRLN on Medicare
The NRLN is in the early stages of advocating legislation to add a low out-of-pocket cap to original Medicare. Far too many seniors in original Medicare are forced to go without critical health care because they cannot afford the out-of-pocket costs. With this additional benefit, original Medicare would be on a more level playing field with Medicare Advantage plans which are required to have an out-of-pocket cap.
We also advocate leveling the playing field with Medicare Advantage by providing original Medicare participants the same special benefits. Joe Namath and other MA commercials refer to drug plan, dental, hearing, and eye care special benefits as “free” benefits. Today, over 30 million on original Medicare who are not in Medicare Advantage plans are cheated out of these “free” benefits, though they and other Americans have to pay for them when paying income taxes. Tax subsidies, paid directly to insurance companies are used to buy these “free” benefits.
An NRLN Action Alert was issued on July 19, 2021, in support of H.R.3, Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, and S.833, Empowering Medicare Seniors to Negotiate Drug Prices Act of 2021. Enacting either bill would allow Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices. In addition, H.R.3 would cap seniors’ out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs at $2,000 per year.
On August 24, House Democrats passed a $3.5 trillion budget framework that would include dental, vision and hearing benefits for Medicare. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) has included these benefits in his outline of the Senate budget bill. If a budget is enacted that includes these benefits it would fill a major Medicare gap in coverage. Of course, the NRLN is concerned about how Congress would pay for these benefits given the financial status of Medicare noted above in the Medicare Trustees’ Report.
Remember, Seniors Are Special!
NRLN Provides New “Report Card” Feature on Members of Congress
BACKGROUND
The NRLN Report Card is useful to our members to know as much as possible on whether their U.S. Senators and Representative are a sponsor or cosponsor of bills the NRLN supports or opposes. You are encouraged to use the Report Card to urge your Representative and Senators to cosponsor bills being advocated by the NRLN and thank them when they do. The Report Card is used during NRLN fly-ins to Washington, D.C. to show the lawmakers and/or their staff members that the NRLN is tracking their actions on bills important to retirees. It is hoped that those whose position is unknown on a bill on the Report Card will follow the NRLN’s position if/when a vote is called on the bill.OPTION 1 – GET CURRENT CONGRESSIONAL REPORT CARD
To get the “report card” for your whole state delegation in the current 117th Congress
- Click on the link to the Legislative Action Network
- Choose your state
- In the NRLN Report Card Area click on this icon
NOTE :If the spreadsheet has a yellow banner at the top, click on ‘ENABLE EDITING‘ in order to see the full content of the report.
To get a reportcard on any individual senator or representative
- Click on the link to the Legislative Action Network
- Choose your state
- Click on the individual you want
- Scroll down to see the report card on the lower part of the screen.
OPTION 2 – GET PREVIOUS CONGRESSIONAL REPORT CARD
It is very useful to see how well your Reps have supported us in the past.
NOTE 1: Downloading will give you access to live links and bill descriptions, but requires ability to read excel spreadsheets.
NOTE 2:If the spreadsheet has a yellow banner at the top, click on ‘ENABLE EDITING‘ in order to see the full content of the report.
Walmart is doing what Congress and Medicare should be doing to reduce prescription drug prices.
Walmart announced on June 29 that it is working directly with the manufacture, Novo Nordisk, to provide a new brand of analog insulin at a much cheaper price for patients without insurance.
The drug is available in Walmart pharmacies and will be in Sam’s Club pharmacies in mid-July at a price about $73 for a vial or about $86 for a package of prefilled insulin pens. This represents a savings of as much as $101 per vial of insulin or up to $251 per pack of prefilled insulin pens.
The NRLN has been lobbying Congress to eliminate the “non-interference” clause that prevents Medicare from negotiating drug prices. Instead of negotiating, we are advocating a business model for competitive bidding with drug manufacturers to be applied wherever two or more FDA approved generic drugs, or two or more brand drugs, or a generic and brand drugs (upon patent expiration) treat the same medical condition.
A Medicare competitive bidding policy, direct from the manufacture, would bypass middlemen that mark up prices and keep rebates.
Just because Medicare is a non-profit government agency should not make a difference. Fannie-Mae, Defense Department, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) etc. at the federal level and state and local governmental agencies all get competitive bids, negotiate terms and buy direct form manufacturers. The prescription drug industry has sold Congress on the notion they are some sort of special breed, they are not!
Our politicians just don’t get it. Party politics and individual reelection needs predominate judgment that are making it possible for pharmaceutical companies to charge Americans high prices for their medicines. Brand-name and generic prescription drug prices in the United States are nearly three times higher than those in 32 other high-income countries, according to a report released in January by the RAND Corporation. Last year, prescription drug prices increased at twice the inflation rate of the U.S. economy.
Remember, Seniors Are Special!
Bill Kadereit, President
National Retiree Legislative Network
Your contribution of $25, $50, $75 or more per year will assist us in pursuing legislation in Congress. NRLN is a non-profit organization. Contributions to NRLN are not tax deductible.
To Make a Contribution By Credit Card to The NRLN
- Enter the amount you wish to contribute.
- Click the ‘Pay Now‘ button below.
- If you have a Paypal account, sign in. A PayPal account is not required. If you wish to use your credit card instead of a paypal account, click on the button near the bottom of the page that says “Pay with Debit or Credit Card”. Depending on screen size, you may have to scroll to see it.
- Fill in your credit card information.
- You’ll get e-mail notification as a receipt.
- If the form asks for your “shipping address”, please
enter your mailing address. - You also have the option to share your contact information with the NRLN.
Make your online contribution here:
Click the DONATE button below to make an online contribution to the NRLN with your credit card. Be sure to let us know your chapter or association affiliation.
After you click Donate, indicate your Chapter, Association or Company Retired From on the PayPal/Credit Card page. Thank you.
JOIN the NRLN
We welcome new Members and invite you to JOIN other who have benefited from the NRLN.
Contribute to the AREF
NOTE: To make a tax-deductible donation to American Retiree Education Foundation (AREF), CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW
Print, fill it out and mail form along with your check.
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THE NATIONAL RETIREE LEGISLATIVE NETWORK (NRLN)
- The Role of and Support for NRLN CHAPTERS
- The Operating Model – August 1, 2019
About The NRLN
Based in Washington, D.C., the National Retiree Legislative Network (NRLN) is the only nationwide organization solely dedicated to representing the interests of retirees and future retirees. Formed in 2002, the NRLN’s endeavors to secure federal legislation to protect retirees’ employer-sponsored pensions and benefits in addition to keeping Social Security and Medicare strong. The NRLN is a non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots coalition representing more than 2 million retirees who came to the NRLN from 23 retiree associations and as individual members who have retired from 168 different U.S. corporations and public entities. NRLN members live in all 50 states and in all 435 Congressional Districts. Over 66% of the Congressional districts have built a formal leadership structure.
The NRLN Mission and Structure
The mission of the National Retiree Legislative Network is to develop, identify and rally support for federal legislation that guarantees fair and equitable treatment of retirees and future retirees. We work to protect earned employer-sponsored pensions and benefit plans and Medicare and Social Security that Americans worked many years to earn and expected to be available throughout their retirement. It is important that we protect the real income and economic security of retirees. We will oppose legislation and regulations that will do harm to the quality of retirement life.
As a non-partisan coalition of retiree associations and individual from across America we utilize the strength of our Board of Directors, Washington, DC staff, Regional Vice Presidents, Retiree Associations, State Chapters, and individuals in our Grassroots Network in all 50 states to represent and lobby for the interests of the millions of men and women who retired from the private and public sectors. The NRLN collaborates with and serves on various levels with national advocate organizations headquartered in Washington D.C. and elsewhere.
The NRLN Focus, Practices and Sources of Income
We focus on protection and enhancement of income security and health care reduction issues only for Retirees. The NRLN proactively lobbies a Legislative Agenda that is built from the bottom up by members; we pride ourselves on preparation, diligence and professional representation.
The NRLN is a 501C (4) non-profit that does not campaign for candidates or political parties nor do we make campaign contributions, buy meals or drinks or otherwise try to influence elected officials or those running for office by offering personal gains.
Our sources of income are dues from member associations, their members’ contributions and individual contributions from At-Large Chapter’s members and other individuals.
NRLN Chapters
In order to reach more individual members that can help us better understand retiree issues and thus help us define our agenda on an ongoing basis and in order to expand our local grassroots support networks, we are introducing Chapter organizations.
NRLN Chapters will be labeled “NRLN (xxx) Chapter” and be part of NRLN Grassroots Organization and will be governed by teams comprised of a President and Directors of Legislative Affairs, Recruitment and Communications. Chapter Boards are not required and one or more of the Chapter leaders may assume one or more of the leadership positions as situations dictate. We are encouraging a wide diversity of grassroots advocates from companies and other entities that may or may not have formal retiree organizations.
Chapters whose advocates are retired from companies where there is an existing NRLN Retiree Association that has established a working relationship with company officials, shall defer to the already existing NRLN Company Retiree Association or Company Chapter with regard to company relations and meetings.
NRLN Bylaws, Chapter Model and Modifications Approved by the NRLN Board
The NRLN board approved changes to the NRLN Bylaws in 2012 that established Chapters as integral to the NRLN’s 501C (4) organization. Therefore, Chapters are to operate under the Bylaws and the Chapter Operating Model that was also approved in 2012 (as modified with board approval), as NRLN grassroots advocate organizations.
The NRLN board has established Chapters to manage NRLN grassroots operations in the states of AK, AZ, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, WA, and the General Motors Retirees Chapter (GMRC), Avaya Chapter, DuPont Chapter and TVA Chapter members who serve as NRLN grassroots advocates in states.
The board approved modifications of the Chapter model in May of 2013 to include specific rules regarding the solicitation of contributions and then in September 2013 to stipulate that Chapters could recruit NRLN association’s members as grassroots CD leaders. All NRLN Action Network members are Grassroots advocates.
This model will be the template and policy guide for development of proposed new Chapters and all new Chapter proposals must be approved by the NRLN board.
Chapter Grassroots Advocate Recruitment and Solicitation
Grassroots Advocate Recruitment: Chapters may use their website, emails, phone calls, newsletter inserts etc. to recruit Chapter Grassroots advocates. All current NRLN Association members will be considered advocates. There are no restrictions as to others who may be recruited to be a grassroots advocate and NRLN Action Network lists will be provided to aid in these recruitments. When NRLN Chapters are established within a state or region where there is an existing Grassroots organization the new Chapter’s advocates will be asked to assume advocate and leadership assignments by Regional and State leaders in concert with direction from the NRLN VP Grassroots as needs arise.
When a Chapter learns that a grassroots advocate recruited to lobby under the leadership of a Chapter is a current or past member of an NRLN association or company chapter or has retired from a company associated with an NRLN Association, they shall forward advocate data to the NRLN VP Communications who will validate the relationship and forward the advocates information to the appropriate association and then upload the data to the NRLN Action Network. Selected CD and State leaders names will be reported to the VP Grassroots.
In all other cases, names of grassroots advocates recruited to lobby under the leadership of a Chapter shall be forwarded to VP Communications who will upload the advocate data into the NRLN Action Network database. The VP Communications will review advocate data, upload it and, if necessary, forward names to appropriate associations. Selected CD and State leaders names will be reported to the VP Grassroots.
Grassroots Advocate Individual Contributions Solicitation: Chapters may use emails, phone calls, newsletter inserts or direct contact to solicit contributions but must exclude anyone who’s NRLN Action Network record is coded to note that the individual is a member of an NRLN association or a retiree from a company whose retirees could belong to an NRLN current Association. All Chapter solicitation lists will be prepared by the VP Commutations who will exclude such association affiliated individuals.
Chapter Leadership Teams will manage the efforts of all NRLN grassroots advocates engaged in NRLN grassroots activities in their approved territories, and when engaged in Grassroots activities will be referred to as NRLN Grassroots XXX (State or Geographic Area or as a Company Chapter). Chapters will recruit volunteers to serve on teams that will lobby the NRLN agenda in States and Congressional Districts (CDs) and will receive support from their Regional VPs and the NRLN VPs of Grassroots, Communications and Legislative Affairs and Chapters will collaborate with but not raid other NRLN Chapter or Association members. Any Grassroots advocate can serve in any capacity of the Grassroots team.
NRLN Grassroots Leaders and Advocates Shall be Titled Using the following Template:
- Template – (name), (Title), NRLN Grassroots Organization-Southwest Region-(Geographic Area)
Examples:
- (Name) Regional VP-(State), NRLN Grassroots Organization, Desert Southwest Region
- (Name) (State)State Leader, NRLN Grassroots Organization, Desert Southwest Region OR
- (Name) (State) Chapter President, NRLN Grassroots Organization, Desert Southwest Region.
- (Name) Congressional District Leader – AZ02, NRLN Grassroots Organization, Desert Southwest Region
- (Name), Grassroots Advocate, NRLN Grassroots Organization – Desert Southwest Region
New NRLN Chapter States or Chapters proposed to be responsible for grassroots advocacy territories (one or more CDs) within states must be approved in advance by the NRLN board.
Grassroots Advocacy Activities
Where NRLN Chapters are formed in communities that require that community rules be followed, our Chapters are obligated to abide by such rules. Specifically, in such communities, our NRLN Chapters will conduct advocate recruitment, business meetings and other activities in compliance with local rules. The NRLN reserves the right to rescind its affiliation with a Chapter that does not comply.
Chapter Focus – The NRLN Legislative Agenda Top Priorities
Income Security
- Protect Social Security earned and paid for benefits
- Protect Pension plan assets from misuse by U.S. and foreign corporations
- Protect Pension Plans from corporate mergers & acquisitions, including foreign control Protect Pension Plans from terminations
- Pension Derisking and Annual Funding Disclosure protections and improvements
- Bankruptcy Reform and PBGC takeover rules
See NRLN whitepapers for each of the above topics. Also see tax and other agenda issues.
Health Care Security
Protect Medicare Benefits
- Maintenance of Cost Protection to protect establish health care benefits
- Medigap- apply same rules as are applied to Medicare Advantage and ACA policies
- Protect against rising cost of prescription drugs
See NRLN whitepapers for each of the above topics – also see other agenda issues that protect against health care service and product cost inflation increases that erode retiree income security.
Chapter Contributions, Expenses and Operational Particulars
All mail and email member contact information and the NRLN Treasurers database will be maintained on NRLN secured servers and access to or use of such data by third parties is prohibited.
Initially, Chapters are required to upload their member mailing lists to NRLN Capwiz, Mail Server and Treasurer’s databases; mailing address including 9-digit Zip Code, phone number and email addresses of all members.
New Chapter individual advocate applicants will use NRLN Individual Contribution forms coded for specific Chapters. Contributions will be sent directly to the NRLN’s Post Office box and the NRLN Treasurer will maintain Individual and Chapter revenue subaccounts.
- NRLN Chapters are not required to file as state entities nor should they be required to obtain EIN numbers from the IRS or have to file tax returns, The NRLN Treasurer will account for revenue and expenses and file the required NRLN reports.
- NRLN’s board of directors is provided copies of NRLN Income and Balance Sheet Statements monthly, annual tax filings and copies of the NRLN registered lobbyist’s quarterly filings.
- Regional Chapter VPs may receive contribution reports and other data as scheduled. Chapter individual contributions data will not be shared with other Chapters or Associations.
- Chapter budgets will be agreed upon in advance with the NRLN President. Expense reimbursement requests shall be then processed by standard voucher form to the Regional Chapter VP who must approve expenditures and then forward voucher to NRLN President for final approval. The NRLN President then forwards the voucher to the NRLN Treasurer for payment.
NRLN Services Provided To NRLN Chapters
Formation Assistance Team – NRLN President, NRLN Treasurer, Regional VP, VP Communications and VP Grassroots.
Ongoing Grassroots Assistance – training and materials; day to day collaboration and sharing of member contacts; setting of agenda priorities and other special assistance, as needed.
Mail, Email, Website, Phone Service and Financial Service Provided to Chapters by the NRLN:
- Each Chapter situation will be reviewed on a case by case basis to determine the appropriate level of support services, listed below, that may be provided by the NRLN:
- NRLN Newsletters – Chapter members will receive the NRLN Newsletter, FOCUS three times a year, which will contain Chapter inserts (one-page double sided) that will include Chapter president messages and news. Chapter Communications Directors will coordinate input with NRLN VP Communications.
- NRLN annual solicitation – will be sent in February and a postcard reminder will be mailed in August. NRLN Chapter solicitation letters will be mailed, at agreed upon dates.
Grassroots lobby messages and Action Alerts – will be sent by the NRLN VP Communication using the NRLN Action Network. Messages must be in support of the NRLN’s Legislative agenda. Any NRLN individual member on the NRLN Action Network database may “Opt-Out” at any time!
Phone conference calls – since most chapter business can be conducted without extra charges using member’s personal phones, conference service may not be necessary. When necessary, conference calls can be made using NRLN’s service provider.
Electronic Messaging – The NRLN assigns association and chapter codes to names on NRLN databases so that Association or Chapter leaders may develop messages in collaboration with the NRLN VP Communications who sends them over the NRLN Action Network.
The NRLN website will display a “Chapters” tab and sub-tabs that Chapter members can access to see how to contact NRLN and Chapter leaders. Chapter Communications Directors may work with NRLN Communication’s VP.
Accounting and Financial Service – collect contributions, maintain Chapter sub accounts and pay approved Chapter expenses.
Other Collaborative Support – Offer and coordinate communications and other support for collective activities among and between NRLN Chapters and Associations.
FIND AN ASSOCIATION OR CHAPTER
Click beloThe NRLN was originally formed in 2002 with membership composed of retiree associations, most having their own Internal Revenue Service (IRS) identification number. In 2013, the NRLN created an “operating model” for retiree groups to organize as chapters under the NRLN’s designation. Members of chapters extend the reach of the NRLN’s grassroots work. Chapters are not intended to replace or conflict with the interests of retiree associations.w to find a chapter.
June, 2023
To: Avaya Retirees Chapter – NRLN Members
From: Vern Larson, Chapter President
Subject: CWA & Avaya Extend Contract Until September 23, 2023
CWA Union members:
As you are aware, Avaya has emerged from bankruptcy with all provisions of the contract intact.
The current collective bargaining agreement was set to expire on June 23, 2023.
Since the Company could not discuss bargaining during the bankruptcy proceedings, CWA has agreed to extend the current contract for ninety (90) days to September 23, 2023.
Both parties agree to maintain the status quo with the Collective Bargaining Agreement continuing in full force and effect. CWA feels this is the best way to ensure the bargaining process can be conducted thoroughly and due to being so near the expiration date.
April, 2023
Dear Avaya Chapter Members:
See below message from Alan Masarek, Avaya CEO. I have highlighted some things that he sent out that states we can expect more changes to come that could affect us and our future benefits. The New Avaya company owners will be making the decisions going forward.
Vern Larson, Avaya Chapter President
Changes that could affect future benefits:
Dear Avaya Retirees and Former Team Members,
I’m pleased to share that we have completed a major milestone in Avaya’s Financial Restructuring. Earlier today, the court confirmed our prepackaged restructuring plan on an accelerated basis. We are excited to move forward having achieved all of our goals for this process.
In terms of next steps, we expect to implement the restructuring plan and formally emerge from this process in the coming weeks.
As we communicated last month:
- This process is not expected to have any impact on your benefits at this time.
- No changes to your monthly pension benefits or your current retiree health and life insurance benefits are being proposed now as part of this process.
- Assets in your 401(k) account are not impacted by this process.
- At this time, other post-employment benefits are expected to continue without change during this process.
You can find additional information, including FAQs, on our restructuring website at www.AvayaRestructuringInfo.com.
Thank you for your contributions to and continued support of Avaya.
Best,
Alan Masarek,
Chief Executive Officer
Vern Larson, (right) meets with Nebraska U.S. Senator Pete Rickets
Vern Larson, President, Avaya Retirees Chapter, and NRLN Board Member, meets with Nebraska U.S. Senator Pete Rickets at Gretna (NE) America Legion Post 216 fish fry dinner on March 17, 2023. Vern was at the table with Senator Rickets, Gretna Mayor Mike Evans and Post Commander Dave Harris.
Avaya files for bankruptcy, draws $780M in new financing
By Jason Aycock, Seeking Alpha – Feb. 14, 2023
Avaya Holdings (NYSE:AVYA) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, pursuing a prepackaged plan to cut its debt and shore up the balance sheet as it had signaled in recent weeks.
The company said its Restructuring Support Agreement has support of more than 90% of its secured lenders, and that the agreement should allow for an expedited restructuring it can complete in 60 to 90 days with no disruption to paying vendors, suppliers or employees.
The move will cut total debt by more than 75% – to about $800M from a current $3.4B. The resulting balance sheet will have less than 1x net leverage, Avaya said.
It’s received commitments for $628M in debtor-in-possession financing, including a $500M new-money term loan, and a $128M ABL facility – both of which will roll into exit facilities once the restructuring is complete.
Some in the investor group have committed $150M in additional new-money financing at exit, meaning a total committed financing of $780M.
Avaya also said it has extended and expanded its partnership with RingCentral (NYSE:RNG). It will continue to act as the exclusive sales agent for direct and partner sales of Avaya Cloud Office, and be compensated in cash as those seats are sold.
“Strengthening Avaya’s capital structure is a critical step to fully realize our transformation, and we are excited to move ahead as a well-capitalized company with one of the strongest balance sheets in our industry that includes substantial cash to invest in our own success,” said Avaya CEO Alan Masarek.
- New Avaya CEO Needs to Develop Strategy
- Avaya - Secured Creditors Likely To Wipe Out Equity Holders In Bankruptcy
- Avaya & Delphi Salaried Retirees’ Pensions
New Avaya CEO Allan Masarek needs to quickly come up with a strategy to manage the company into another Chapter 11, or to avoid it. The Avaya Union sponsored Pension Plan could be in the target this time around in another bankruptcy.
See article below for detailed information.
Avaya Braces for Big Changes to Avoid Chapter 11 Again
A new CEO and old problems set the stage for turbulent times ahead at Avaya.
By Dave Michels; No Jitter ~ Aug 01, 2022
To: Avaya Retirees Chapter – NRLN
From: Vern Larson, Chapter President
By Henrik Alex, Seeking Alpha – Dec. 15, 2022
Summary
- Ailing digital communications solutions provider discloses restructuring discussions with key financial stakeholders.
- Company issues abysmal Q4 guidance with revenues projected to decrease by almost 40% year-over-year.
- Remaining liquidity is insufficient to deal with anticipated cash outflows going forward. Restructured business won’t be able to support the company’s massive $3+ billion debt load.
- Key creditors require the company to restructure under chapter 11 with the term sheet proposing a wipe-out for existing equity holders.
- Avaya is likely to file for bankruptcy in the near future with secured creditors about to emerge as the company’s new owners. Given this issue, investors should sell existing positions and move on. Earlier this week, ailing digital communications solutions provider Avaya (NYSE:AVYA) disclosed ongoing discussions with creditors “regarding a comprehensive resolution to strengthen the Company’s balance sheet and position the business for long-term success.” Avaya also provided an update on Q3/FY2022 results and issued abysmal Q4 guidance with revenues projected to decrease by almost 40% year-over-year.
For fiscal year 2022, the company now projects negative free cash flow of approximately $420. For FY2022 and FY2023 combined, cash usage is expected to approach $600 million which includes almost $200 million in restructuring charges.
Even after proposed restructuring actions, free cash flow is expected to remain negative until fiscal year 2027.
Please note that liquidity projections in the slide above are based on a number of assumptions:
- Receipt of $385 million under new secured term loan facilities less applicable issuer discounts and fees in January 2023.
- Favorable amendments to the RingCentral (RNG) partnership structure.
- Receipt of $50M from an IP monetization transaction closing in Q4/FY2023.
- An illustrative ~$90M of availability under the company’s asset-backed credit facility throughout the forecast period.
Over the past couple of weeks, the company and certain creditor groups have exchanged term sheets for both out-of-court and in-court restructurings.
But with key creditor groups not supporting an out-of-court transaction, Avaya is likely to file for chapter 11 in the not-too-distant future.
According to the term sheet provided by certain holders of the company’s term loans and its 2028 senior secured notes, secured creditors would become the new owners of the business thus wiping out existing equity holders:
At the end of Q3, the company’s unrestricted cash balance amounted to $253 million with total liquidity of $343 million, insufficient to deal with projected cash outflows going forward.
Moreover, the restructured business won’t be able to support Avaya’s massive $3+ billion debt load going forward, so there’s not much of a choice for the ailing company.
Bottom Line
Judging by this week’s disclosures, Avaya is likely to file for bankruptcy in the near future with secured creditors about to emerge as the company’s new owners thus wiping out existing equity holders, very much as projected by me in late July.
Last week, Avaya dropped a few bombshells. First, it issued a preliminary third-quarter warning that it now expects a major decline in third-quarter revenue and then announced a new CEO.
The company now believes third-quarter revenue (ending June 2022) will land between $575-580 million, down from its previous guidance of $685-700 million. Actual results are expected to be reported on August 9, 2022.
The miss is very concerning for three reasons. First, the sudden change indicates revenue is declining far faster than expected. The company is missing targets that were revised lower last quarter. Secondly, a month ago, the company raised $600 million, which was presumably based on previous guidance. The third and biggest concern is that the revised revenue forecast is expected to generate only $50-55 million in EBITDA (down from $140-150 million). Avaya spent $54 million on interest expenses last quarter alone, signaling an impending cash crisis. To counter, Avaya also announced a severe cost-cutting measure, but that’s unlikely to be enough.
Regarding the change in leadership, a separate press release stated Jim Chirico “will be removed from his positions as president and CEO of Avaya.” The wording was urgent and authoritative, and it appears to cast all blame on the CEO. But many of us have wondered why the board didn’t act sooner — years sooner. Avaya’s new CEO will be Alan Masarek, who was the CEO of Vonage from 2014-2020.
Looking Back at Avaya’s History
This news certainly requires a lot of unpacking. Let me start by saying Avaya is one of the most complicated companies in our industry. That’s because Avaya has a direct lineage back to Ma Bell. Long story short, the original Bell System had a division called Western Electric that was founded in 1869. It built most of the switches used in the original PSTN. The company/division has gone through a lot of names and owners over the past 153 years, but there is a direct path to Avaya.
There’s more to its complexity than history. The enterprise communications sector has gone through three major disruptive shifts in the past few decades: to converged IP communications, from hardware to software, and from products to (cloud-delivered) services.
Most of the incumbents did not complete the journey, including Aastra, Ericsson, Nortel, Mitel, Siemens, ShoreTel, Toshiba, and more. Avaya itself ended up in Chapter 11 in 2017. Transformation is hard, and many of the top providers today haven’t gone through such existential challenges.
At the end of 2017, Avaya named Jim Chirico its new CEO. Chirico had been with the company for ten years and was most recently its chief restructuring officer. This would be his first CEO opportunity. He wasn’t technical but had Laurent Philonenko, SVP solutions and technology, and Mo Nezarati, VP cloud and GM (and architect) of Zang (Avaya’s CPaaS product), to guide him. Philonenko had senior leadership experience from two of Avaya’s top competitors: Cisco and Genesys. Nikos Nikolopoulos also returned to Avaya as its SVP for strategy and corporate development.
In early 2018, a lot of optimism and excitement surrounded Avaya. As the Chapter 11 process ended, Avaya once again became a publicly traded company. Despite some losses, its impressive customer base was proven loyal and still included many of the largest companies and governments in the world. The bankruptcy process reduced its debt, enabling Avaya to invest in its future once again.
It was clear then that the cloud was the future, so the strategy was to build a UCaaS and CCaaS solution for both new and existing customers. The company had the brand, customers, channels, and cash to pull this off. One of Chirico’s first big hires was Mercer Rowe to spearhead the development of Avaya’s cloud.
Avaya started 2018 with a bang. In January, it announced the acquisition of Spoken for approximately $180 million. Spoken had supposedly cracked the code on adapting Avaya solutions for the cloud. The Spoken team would report to Mercer Rowe… at least until he departed a few months later. Avaya then hired Gaurav Passi in November as its new cloud president.
While the company was working on Spoken, it also had a few other notable cloud assets. It had done an admirable job of adapting its IP office solution to a cloud service known as IP Office Cloud. Avaya launched a UCaaS service in Europe that it co-developed with 2600Hz. Also, Avaya launched a CPaaS and meeting cloud service called Zang in 2017 under its previous CEO.
No cloud service ever came out of the Spoken acquisition, and today, no Spoken executives remain at Avaya. Nezarati left Avaya in May 2018. Avaya was back to the drawing board for a cloud solution in 2019. The company rehired Chris McGugan as its CTO, who previously worked at Avaya from 2005-2014 in various technical leadership roles. Nikolopoulos and Philonenko departed Avaya in early 2019.
RingCentral Enters the Picture
Avaya concluded that it was better to partner than build its UCaaS solution. In October 2019, Avaya and RingCentral announced a partnership that created Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral (ACO). The idea was to allow Avaya to monetize its SMB base immediately, which would allow it to focus on the development of a next-generation cloud contact center.
The RingCentral partnership was significant for Avaya in many ways. This was the first time Avaya offered a third-party solution as a primary platform. Avaya had to compete with essentially identical offers from other RingCentral partners. ACO accelerated Avaya’s shift to a subscription-based revenue model, which it was able to replicate with enterprise customers on OneCloud.
The RingCentral partnership came with some onerous requirements. Avaya granted RingCentral exclusive UCaaS rights to its customers. This meant it had to discontinue IP Office Cloud, which had been building market momentum. Avaya also had to discontinue its UCaaS offer in Europe that it was co-developing with 2600Hz. RingCentral paid Avaya commissions up front, which will need to be returned if Avaya misses on sales.
More significantly, ACO conflicted with other Avaya products. Avaya relaunched Zang as Avaya Spaces, which included messaging and video services, but they were incompatible with ACO. RingCentral built a strong integration to the NICE CXone CCaaS, so ACO customers had conflicting contact center options. RingCentral also obtained a seat on Avaya’s board. Soon after the partnership, McGugan and Passi left Avaya.
The Revolving Door at Avaya
Throughout Chirico’s tenure, Avaya’s C-suite has gone through a revolving door. Over the next few years, we would see the arrival and departure of many technical executives, including Hardy Myers for strategy and business development, Anthony Bartolo as chief product officer, and Karl Perkins as CTO. It was more than the technical leadership. Over the past five years, Avaya has had multiple CFOs, marketing heads, and sales leaders. Many of which were familiar names from other communications firms, including Dino Di Palma, Jon Brinton, and Becky Carr. All these executives held long-term successful positions with other employers.
The cost of turnover is difficult to calculate, but clearly, Avaya’s technical vision and roadmap suffered. The company has not clearly communicated a detailed vision or technical roadmap for some time. The few significant updates that did occur were poorly communicated. Avaya possibly renamed all its products OneCloud to obfuscate the direction and health of individual product lines within its portfolio.
Tens of millions of dollars were spent on executive severance packages. I suspect a few executives are waiting to get fired. Passi hasn’t listed another position on his LinkedIn profile since departing Avaya almost three years ago.
In addition to Spoken and executive turnover, the company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars purchasing its own stock. The board approved up to $500 million in repurchasing stock. In its March 2021 10Q filing, it reported the repurchase of 245,000 shares at an average price of $29.69 a share — near its all-time high. The stock is trading for less than a dollar today. That filing indicated Avaya spent $163 million so far.
It’s also worth noting that Jim Chirico took home about $14 million in compensation last year. This made him one of the highest-paid CEOs in the industry. Chirico’s compensation consisted of 70%, or $9.7 million, in stock awards. Chirico also received $2.8 million in non-equity incentive plan, $1.3 million in salary, as well as $35,000 in other compensation. He may be eligible for a severance package this year.
The bottom line is that Avaya squandered a lot of money and time and has little to show for it. Meanwhile, its competitors are growing. Just last week, Five9 raised its guidance and specifically cited accelerated growth in enterprise CCaaS. Genesys, NICE, and others have been successfully targeting Avaya contact center customers. The UCaaS sector too saw spectacular growth during the pandemic. Microsoft, Zoom, and others offer products and services directly competitive to Avaya.
What’s Next
Alan Masarek accepting this position implies his confidence that Avaya can be fixed. But as I said above, Avaya is an extraordinarily complex company, exponentially more complex than Vonage was. This is primarily because of the size and complexity of Avaya’s customers and its global reach.
Masarek isn’t going to have the time to get to know Avaya like he should before making significant changes. Fortunately, he’ll be getting a lot of advice from employees, analysts, and former executives. The first priority is assessing the cash situation. Masarek needs to urgently determine if his strategy is to manage the company into Chapter 11 or avoid it. Regardless, he must rebuild trust with investors. It’s important to note that we don’t yet have an explanation for the shortfall in revenue.
The next priority is to figure out the cloud. This is probably what attracted Masarek to take the position, as he’s done this before. Vonage first pivoted from consumer to business, then from BroadSoft-powered to a native, new platform. This will start with a build-vs-buy analysis. I assume Avaya has some compelling solutions in its labs. He has time to build as we are still in the early stages of large enterprises adopting CCaaS.
I would not rule out Avaya acquiring companies, though probably not with cash. Avaya can instead leverage its global customer base. For example, Google struck a strategic arrangement with Ujet earlier this year that didn’t require a formal acquisition. Also, several struggling CCaaS providers should be open to creative options. Renegotiating a more equitable deal with RingCentral may be possible, particularly with the threat of Chapter 11.
I expect Masarek will also prioritize cultural changes; a new CEO will facilitate this through the usual C-level changes and cost-cutting. At Vonage, he implemented several changes to make its offices a desirable destination for employees.
Masarek brings to Avaya experience with UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS. He holds a Harvard MBA and has a great track record for successful acquisitions. I’ve always had the impression Masarek truly enjoys this stuff. I recall Vonage multi-day analyst events where he attended and participated in every session. I also remember him working the booth at Enterprise Connect. Avaya ceased analyst events and exhibiting at Enterprise Connect, an event it once dominated, several years ago.
I applaud the Avaya board for selecting Masarek. Stock market investors were quick to panic last week, driving the share price below a dollar. Chapter 11 is possible but not inevitable.
Let’s hope Masarek and his work at Avaya becomes a future chapter in business school textbooks.
Dave Michels is a contributing editor and analyst at TalkingPointz.
To: Avaya Chapter Members – NRLN
From: Vern Larson, President, Avaya Retirees Chapter
Subject: Avaya and Delphi Salaried Retirees’ Pensions
The NRLN email announcing that the U.S. House of Representatives passed the H.R.6929, the Susan Muffley Act of 2022, to restore pensions for Delphi salaried retirees has resulted in my receiving questions about restoring Avaya salaried retirees’ pensions.
Some have asked whether the passage of H.R.6929 would also include Avaya retirees who lost some of their pension benefits after the PBGC took over our plan when Avaya terminated our pension plan during its bankruptcy in 2017. Others asked whether there could be a bill introduced to restore pensions for Avaya retirees.
The short answer to both questions is “No”. The Delphi salaried retirees pension situation is much different than Avaya salaried retirees.
Delphi was created in 1999 as an auto-parts manufacturing subsidiary of General Motors. You may recall the auto industry melt down during the great recession (December 2007 to June 2009). When GM filed for bankruptcy in 2009 the federal government stepped in to speed up bring GM out of bankruptcy and fully protected GM’s and the Delphi UAW unions’ pensions. But the pension plan for Delphi salaried retirees (well-funded at 87%) was terminated, taken over by PBGC, and many of the 21,000 Delphi salaried retirees suffered payment reductions of up to 70%. Many Delphi retirees were in their 50s in 2009, so even PBGC’s age 65 pension amount was heavily discounted.
When Avaya declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2017 our salaried pension plan was only funded at 58%. The bankruptcy court judge approved Avaya’s petition to terminate our pension plan and it was taken over by the PBGC and payments to us are based on PGBC regulations. The NRLN has been lobbying Congress to find champions to change the ERISA statute, to demand that companies fund pension plans to the 100% level. This change could have saved the Avaya plan. None of the Nebraska or other state Senators or Representatives stand up to speak for retirees. They need to step up or step back.
The federal government did not have a role in the termination of our pension plan during the Avaya bankruptcy and that is a big difference from the Delphi salaried retirees’ pension plan. Apparently, the U.S. Representatives who introduced, co-sponsored and voted to pass H.R.6929 believed that the federal government picked winners and losers in the GM bankruptcy and the injustice to Delphi salaried retirees needs to be rectified.
Further, Delphi salaried retirees contributed some $9 million to the Delphi Salaried Retirees Association (DSRA) to fight its legal battle to restore their pensions all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. After the Justices declined to hear its case, DSRA used its remaining financial resources to conduct its battle in the legislative arena. At that point, the NRLN was asked to step in to help lobby for the Muffley Act passage and NRLN formed the Delphi Retirees Chapter.
The National Retiree Legislative Network learned the hard way, having a front row seat as Delphi, Kodak, Avaya and other plans were terminated and learned what needed to be changed. The NRLN has proposed changes to bankruptcy laws and the way PBGC uses a lower liability discount rate to understate pension funding levels. Almost always it is these issues with ERISA language that are problematic in plan terminations. This was the case with the Avaya salaried pension plan – an underfunded plan and a set of bankruptcy rules that favor secured creditors and corporate restructuring to survive but termination of underfunded plans.
Vern Larson
President, Avaya Retirees Chapter
Vice President – NRLN Membership Development
There are numerous Avaya press releases available.
- Click here for a complete listing of Avaya Holdings Corp. press releases.
- Click here to access one particular press release that covers how the Avaya -Work-from-Anywhere solutions that is helping people work remotely during the quarantine.
- Click here for another press release related to COVID-19
Avaya Represented (Union) Pension Plan – Annual Funding Notice was recently mailed to those covered
There was no major change in funding as the Moving Ahead Act from 2014 is still in effect. This allows the company to use a more generous interest rates to attain getting closer to full funding by spreading out the time a little longer. There is also some relief to allow a delay for annual funding this year due to COVID-19 if a company meets certain thresholds, so Avaya will most likely be doing that. Many companies have already issued notices that they will be doing this. The law allows them to postpone funding in 2020 but will need to pay it in 2021 with interested incurred.
Avaya Represented (Union) Pension Plan funding
The plan is underfunded but not to the extent that any action is required by the company or by any outside body. The Avaya fund still has the backstop of the PGBC. I don’t think there is any question that all those in this plan will get their pensions. If Avaya were to ever become a huge success and fully fund this pension plan, they could end the plan by paying out the annuity funding to the individuals in the plan. However, we don’t see that happening. If Avaya were to go broke then the PGBC still comes in to protect the individual getting a pension just as they did for our Salaried Penson Fund during the past Avaya Bankruptcy settlement.
The Avaya Represented Pension Plan as of end of March had a little over 1,800 terminated vested participants not aged in yet and roughly 4,200 in pay status.
I want to remind everyone to make sure they provide address changes to the pension center when they occur and also if they are age 65 or over, they need to call the pension center to start their benefits. Avaya currently has about 70 that have not started taking their vested pensions yet. (If you know anyone that is vested in this category tell them to contact Avaya Pension Center.)
- For pension or NCS issues contact the Pension Service Center at 1-844-868-6236.
- For healthcare enrollment or eligibility issues contact Avaya Healthy Decisions Benefits Center at 1-800-526-8056.
- For urgent benefit issues, email benefits@avaya.com
- VIA Benefits, Avaya – 1-855-535-7157
- This is the sign-in page – https://my.viabenefits.com/account/signup
Closing Comments
In closing, I hope all of you and your families stay well and also to remind you that the NRLN Annual appeal letter was mailed to all members a couple of weeks ago. Please help us with what you can to continue our next big fight regarding equal treatment for regular Medicare members as those provided to Medicare Advantage members. If you don’t have your letter you can contribute at this link here, Contribute to the NRLN. If you have already made your 2020 contribution, thank you. Remember, make sure to note that you are an Avaya retiree.
Best regards,
Vern Larson, President
NRLN Avaya Retirees Chapter and
NRLN Vice President -Membership Development
Avaya Q4 2018 Financial Results – January 2019
*Note: SaaS is a method of software delivery and licensing in which software is accessed online via a subscription, rather than bought and installed on individual computers. Avaya’s cloud-based SaaS platform helps IT professionals strategically manage and forecast IT costs (also known as subscribeware or rentware).