Notes for owners · Industry-Specific Software Guides
Who Does What at a Medical Equipment Dealer: Sales, Service, Stores, Accounts
At a medical equipment dealer, sales wins the order, service installs and maintains the machine, stores controls spares and demo units, and accounts bills and collects. The owner watches contracts and dues. Most trouble starts where one team’s record ends and the next team has to pick it up.
Ganesh HS, Strategy and Technology, GullySystem · · 3 min read
Sales: enquiries, demos, quotations and tenders
Sales executives call on biomedical engineers, purchase managers and doctors at hospitals, nursing homes and diagnostic centres. They arrange demos, send quotations built from the principal’s price list, and prepare tender papers when a bid fits the range.
What sales should hand over is more than a purchase order. Service needs the model, the site, the department and the hospital contact. Accounts needs the payment terms and any advance received. A short handover sheet stops the first week of questions.
- Model, serial and accessories ordered
- Site, department and contact person
- Payment terms, advance and warranty period
- Promises made during the demo
Service: installation, breakdowns and PM visits
Service engineers install the machine, train the users and get the installation report signed. That date starts the warranty. It should go into one searchable register, not stay on paper in a file.
After installation, engineers attend breakdown calls and preventive maintenance visits under warranty, AMC or CMC. Each visit should leave a service report against the machine. The engineer is also the person who sees an old unit due for replacement, so his notes feed sales.
Stores: spares, demo units and principal returns
Stores holds spares in the godown and tracks what each engineer carries. When a spare is fitted, it should be booked to the call and the machine. Otherwise stock and records part ways within a month.
Demo and loaner units need the same care. Note which hospital has each unit, since when, and who approved it. Faulty parts going back to the principal for replacement need their own pending list.
- Spares by godown and by engineer
- Demo and loaner units by site
- Faulty parts pending with the principal
Accounts: equipment bills, contract billing and hospital dues
Accounts raises the equipment invoice, then contract bills for AMC and CMC and charges for calls outside a contract. Hospitals often pay against a signed installation or service report. So accounts depends on service sending those papers back quickly.
Dues should be reviewed by hospital and by age. A follow-up list that shows the missing document behind each unpaid bill is more useful than a list of amounts alone.
The owner: renewals, profit by contract and handovers
The owner watches what no single team owns. Which warranties end in the next quarter? Which CMCs come up for renewal, and which contracts cost more in engineer visits and spares than they earn?
Each handover between teams is where a record can drop. Sales to service, service to stores, service to accounts: each needs one shared record of the machine. A single installed base register, read by all four teams, does that job.
Machine handover sheet
A one-page sheet that travels with each new order, from sales to service, stores and accounts. It lists the model, serial, site, contact, payment terms, warranty start and contract type. Each team signs its part before passing it on.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Should service engineers also sell CMCs?
They often raise the lead, since they see the machine and the users every visit. Sales or the owner usually quotes and signs the contract. Record who raised the lead so it is not lost.
Who should own the installed base register?
Service usually keeps it current, because engineers see the machines. Sales and accounts read it. The owner checks it for warranty and contract dates each month.
Does GullySystem have a ready product for medical equipment dealers?
No. There is no ready product for this trade today. A system would be built around your principals, contracts and engineers, after a look at how your teams work now.