Medical device sector's new frontier is automated quote and contract generation

One consequence of medical-device market growth is that manufacturers may find themselves needing a customer relationship management (CRM) solution, says Ehab Samy, senior product manager at Pivotal, the CRM division of CDC Software.

"The medical device market is growing between 12 percent and 15 percent annually," Samy says. "Manufacturers now have so much business that it's imperative they do a better job managing it."

As baby boomers age, more of them use medical devices. Selling devices in the home marketplace puts new emphasis on service and warranty tracking capabilities. What's more, manufacturers need to manage sales relationships that take into account hospitals, doctors, influencers, and distributors.

"On top of all that is the need to track more data to meet federal regulations," Samy says. "For instance, the FDA is starting to require manufacturers to document complaints, track any actions taken, and then provide a report."

A CRM solution can support all these requirements because it creates a single view of a customer, says Samy.

Lake Region Manufacturing, a Chaska, Minn.-based medical device manufacturer with a diverse customer base and facilities in both the U.S. and Ireland, makes devices on a contract and OEM basis. Realizing it needed a more flexible system to manage and consolidate disparate customer information and make it accessible across the organization, Lake Region chose the Pivotal CRM solution.

According to Dave Bierman, project manager for Lake Region, the manufacturer tailored the solution to specific business practices, and adapted it to suit automated quotation and contract management. Dozens of reports using CRM data are run each week to drive reporting and marketing processes, which enables Lake Region to track weekly sales activity, and view trends and results.

"Prior to Pivotal, it often took a day or more to develop and send a quote—even for a standard product order," explains Bierman. "Today we can create price quotes in less than five minutes, and our custom orders are processed through Pivotal CRM as well. From start to finish, the quotation and contract process is completely automated, captured, and communicated to all Lake Region departments. Errors and delays that could negatively impact the customer experience have been virtually eliminated."