If you’re looking for some great reasons to implement a CRM system, there are many compelling Microsoft Dynamics CRM case studies on the Microsoft Web site. You might be thinking, sure, there are good reasons, but what about the ROI? What’s in it for me and my company? Well, that’s why I liked this particular case study. Access MediQuip actually quantified the results they achieved by . It’s a great story. Read on.
Access MediQuip manages medical device costs related to implantable devices, linking healthcare providers, device manufacturers, and the insurance carriers that pay for the implant procedures. To build its business and more effectively support the companies using its services, MediQuip built its business management solution on and the xRM application development platform included in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. With this solution, the company has the flexibility to create automated workflows and extensive customizations to provide faster customer service. Now, customers can track the status of orders online and executives can manage more effectively with up-to-date information.
According to their President and COO, Bill Elliott: “We increased our volume of business by more than 150%. We did this with a less than 50% increase in our overall operations staff. And our unit cost of processing a referral has fallen by 30%.”
With an operations center in Houston, Texas, and corporate headquarters in Lake Mary, Florida, Access MediQuip receives referrals from more than 2,500 healthcare facilities or physicians. Following each of those referrals, company employees create a purchase order from a product catalog of more than 17,000 products from 175 different manufacturers. The company then manages the process of billing and receiving payment from the insurance companies that have contract arrangements with patients, healthcare providers, and device manufacturers.
Eliminating Manual Processes and Handling Operational Complexity
Orders come to Access MediQuip as referrals from doctors or hospitals in the form of secured fax messages. Employees had to key in the information from the faxed messages to create purchase orders. However, the manual processes and resulting silos of information made it difficult to operate efficiently.
Access MediQuip has a complex pricing model, with volume tiers, discounts, and rebates depending on the different contracts between device manufacturers, healthcare providers, and insurance carriers. A patient may receive partial payment from one insurance company and the balance from a second company.
“Before, all of that information was in people’s heads or in Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets on their desktops,” says Jason Rosenberg, Access MediQuip’s Vice President of Information Technology and Application Development. “Imagine preparing a bill for an insurance company and having to look up and apply terms of a contract to every item on the bill.” Processing orders was time consuming, and opportunities for error crept up at almost every step.
“ gave us the ability to manage all the different entities we interact with, such as patients, physician, manufacturers, hospitals, and surgery centers, and it gave us a way to structure that information,” says Rosenberg. “In my experience, we simply could not have accomplished our goals in such a limited timeframe with Oracle or SAP. To accomplish that, we needed to switch to the Microsoft technology platform.”
Access MediQuip considered business management solutions from Oracle and SAP, but the cost of implementation was high, and the solutions would have required time-consuming and expensive customizations. The company decided to convert its proprietary business management systems to Microsoft Dynamics GP. Then, the company implemented Microsoft Dynamics CRM to manage its customer and order history.
The Happy Ending
Access MediQuip now has a much more efficient operational process. Information from physician referrals flows automatically into Microsoft Dynamics CRM, where it is combined with information about medical devices and insurance company contracts and linked automatically into Microsoft Dynamics GP. And, summarizes Rosenberg: “Built-in business logic results in more reliable and faster processing and lower costs per referral; executives have better business insight; and the company provides valuable information to customers.”
The above is just a summary of the Access MediQuip case study, which can be found on the Microsoft Web site. On the Altico Advisors Web site, you can also read a white paper on , request a , or log on to our On Demand page and view a .
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