Medical Device Manufacturers

Challenge

The medical equipment industry is highly sensitive to uptime. In fact, business models are built upon maintaining a high level of service. Beyond the initial equipment purchase, recurring revenues (which comprise a large portion of total revenues) come from ongoing sales of consumables and reagents. The more the machine is used, the greater the manufacturer's revenues from these sales. In addition, government-affiliated hospitals and clinics enforce strict uptime SLAs for all purchased equipment. Not only are manufacturers fined for not meeting these SLAs, such violations will disqualify them from participating in the next tender.

In laboratories, setup and maintenance of medical systems are handled by application engineers with an academic degree in chemistry. Commonly, a technician is sent to the customer site for repair or maintenance, and only upon arrival realizes that handling the problem requires the specialized knowledge of an application engineer based at headquarters. This can result in unnecessary delays and potential downtime.