June 5, 2002

2 Min Read
Software Solution Slashes Service Costs for Equipment Manufacturer

Originally Published MPMN June 2002

INDUSTRY NEWS

Software Solution Slashes Service Costs for Equipment Manufacturer

Susan Wallace

Software for the healthcare industry integrates customer and business management capabilities with portable biomedical equipment testers and safety analyzers. The idea for the AllianceEnterprise MedService solution was developed by the CEO of MultiMedical Systems (Fresno, CA; www.multimedicalsystems.com), Jeffrey C. Lagrutta, and Jacques Cormier, vice president of software solutions at Astea International Inc. (Horsham, PA; www.astea.com).

"Other software products for checklist PM procedures are designed for end-users of biomedical equipment, not service organizations like MultiMedical Systems," says Lagrutta. "The Alliance Enterprise MedService solution manages entire business processes. Paperless equipment management and testing is integrated and expanded within the scope of other enterprise needs to manage workforces, other assets, cash flows, and customer relationships."

The system's mobile capabilities equip technicians at healthcare facilities to independently handle periodic corrective maintenance actions and document work electronically. The technicians can use any of the company's portable biomedical safety analyzers and testers, and enter results on an Alliance Laptop for Service or Alliance Pocket PC for Service application, which are part of the overall product. These components were already include a substantial set of other electronic tools that eliminate manual tasks and paper reporting for the service technicians.

Data integrity was also a concern during the software design process since during the software design process MultiMedical Systems' existing management software was susceptible to overwriting entire files when data were uploaded from field technicians, which risked inadvertently erasing valuable service records. The AllianceEnterprise MedService solution employs a "changes-only" synchronization technique to exchange data between mobile clients and the enterprise database. Thus, existing data archives are protected.

A configuration of the software can also include integrated sales force automation, marketing, a customer contact center, customer and partner portals, and other untethered and real-time wireless mobile options for sales, service, and managerial employees.

"The concept is to 'connect the enterprise'" explains James W. Kirby, Astea's vice president of sales and marketing. "Any data entered into AllianceEnterprise from a salesperson, a contact center representative, a field technician, or a dealer or customer through a self-service portal has a place in a consolidated enterprise database."

Copyright ©2002 Medical Product Manufacturing News

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