VGM Live at Home thinks big

WATERLOO, Iowa - As the newly rebranded VGM Live at Home, Jim Greatorex envisions the group's provider members helping seniors with everything from stair lifts to smart sensors.

Formerly Accessible Home Improvement of America, the group has been traditionally focused on accessibility products like wheelchair ramps more targeted at people with disabilities. As VGM Live at Home, however, it plans to broaden its focus to also include connected technologies that are more targeted at seniors.

“We'll soon announce that we're working with a company that provides technology solutions that seniors can use to automate their homes,” said Greatorex, vice president, in November. “Seniors will be able to activate some features of their homes just by using their voices.”

About a year at the helm of AHIA and now VGM Live at Home, the rebrand is only the first of a number of steps that Greatorex plans to take that should make for an interesting 2018. Also on the docket: a revamped website, www.accesshomeamerica.com, early in the new year; and a revamped mobile app, probably in June.

For the mobile app, Greatorex took “people who knew nothing about home mods but know everything about apps” and had them interview experts and shadow them in the field.

“We wanted to build an app that was nimble enough to work with as many companies as possible, but is a tool that really addresses what they need,” he said. “What we're going to have is a really good end product.”

With an expanded focus and better support tools, Greatorex says VGM Live at Home is better positioning its provider members to match their customers with the right products in the right place, all the while growing their cash businesses in a reimbursement-starved industry.

“We want to help people stay in their homes, where they want to be, and there's technology that makes that entirely possible,” he said.
The icing on the cake, Greatorex says: “And it generates new revenue streams.”