The economic downtown and cutbacks driven by health care reform have led many facilities to hunker down and hold on to equipment longer. That trend has meant brisk business for one sector in particular — parts providers. But more business means more companies want to get in on the money to be made.

“It seems that every time you turn around these days there is a newcomer to the parts market,” says Josh Glas, president of PhiGEM parts. “It is getting increasingly important for the established players to continue to think of innovative ways to differentiate ourselves and rest on our experience and industry maturity.”

At the same time, the slowdown in equipment replacement has also created a decrease in supply for some important parts.

“People are keeping their devices longer so there are less devices out there to be parted out, so to speak. So you see a pretty healthy demand for parts, and a dwindling supply,” says Brent Howison, president of The Remi Group.

Lower supply and a more crowded market space means parts providers have to do more than ever to set themselves apart and hold on to loyal customers, whether it’s by getting a more advanced certification, carrying hard-to-find parts or creating a welcoming website or Facebook page. Some companies have also expanded more into international markets —and can help customers with unneeded equipment to do the same.

Parts providers from around the country shared some of their strategies on standing out, and what their innovations mean for potential customers.

Software solutions
One way parts providers impress customers is by being exceptionally organized. When parts providers have upwards of 25,000 parts, they need a way to know what they have without stepping into their cavernous warehouses. Having a reliable and finetuned software system helps companies find parts easily and, by extension, provide fast, efficient customer service.


Many providers create their own software programs to match their specific needs and integrate with accounting software or other programs. At Technical Prospects, the company’s proprietary software allows them to track when parts have been added to inventory and when they’re on their way to the warehouse.

“It gives us a lot more ability to be more up front with the customer, to say ‘hey listen it looks like we might have something coming in, I’m just going to go out in the warehouse and double check we don’t have this part,’” said John Vandersteen, sales representative at Technical Prospects. “Maybe we’re showing no stock, but we had two systems at the door that day.”

The software can also track trends so the company can know when certain parts need to be stocked.

“The ‘no-stocks’ has been really helpful,” says Vandersteen. “We’ll record a no stock, and as we pull those reports, it may alert us to a system that’s needed. It could be that not only do our current customers need it, but it could be potential customers calling in on it. It has been a tool that we’ve used to station and really benchmark some equipment that we need to add to our portfolio.”

The company’s software system is less helpful for predicting trends before that happens, mostly because the parts world is generally unpredictable, says customer service manager Eric Probst.

“In this industry, it seems very, very difficult to find trending,” he says.

Other companies are able to bring the organizational value of their software systems to customers by including searchable databases on their websites.

“We have a homegrown database which tracks our inventory, incoming requests, quotes, sales and trends,” says Phi GEM’s Glas. “The parts inventory portion of this database is searchable in real-time on our website and we have taken great efforts to make searching for parts on our site as simple and comprehensive as possible for our users.”

While personalized software has its value, some companies have decided to purchase a full solution in order to better consolidate all of their information.

“We invested in enterprise resource planning software called Vantage,” says Mike Helms, president of Troff Medical. “It helped with the complication of having accounting, customer service and inventory,
and all of it being in disjointed systems. Now it’s all under one software package.”

Troff Medical recently signed up with MPX Cloud, a service that organizes and categorizes medical equipment parts into an integrated online platform.

“It’s all in an effort to communicate with our customers,” says Helms.

Matt Ulman, CTO of DOTmed.com, agrees that organization and customer communication is key to growth in the parts industry, “Over the past twelve months we’ve launched a new full featured service for parts inventory management via DOTmed. com at the request of our parts sellers. This system has allowed us to increase the parts inventory listed on DOTmed.com by nearly 40 percent.”

You “like” us, you really “like” us!
Do you want to be your equipment parts provider’s LinkedIn connection, or Facebook fan? How about its Twitter follower? Parts providers are an important part of maximizing equipment uptime, but they may not be in the forefront of facility decision- makers’ minds.

Though the ultimate efficacy of social media efforts can be debated, it’s clear that a sizable chunk of the business world has jumped on board. A 2012 study from the University of Massachusetts found that 66 percent of Fortune 500 companies have Facebook pages, and 73 percent have Twitter accounts.

Whether parts providers are managing their own pages or enlisting the help of younger employees or interns, many are getting in on social media for marketing or just customer engagement.

“We are now as of the first of the year moving towards a digital presence,” says Troff Medical’s Helms. “We are redesigning a web page that goes hand-in-hand with social media.”

Meanwhile, Technical Prospects hired a summer marketing intern to boost its Facebook and Twitter presence.

“It just seems like that’s the way the whole world is going,” says Technical Prospects’ Probst. “Those big companies have very strong networking devices, so it’s something that we recognize. We haven’t done a whole lot with it, but it’s definitely a great tool I believe, for any style business.”

But not everyone is convinced of social media’s value for parts providers. Though consumers may feel compelled to “like” their favorite musicians and authors, James Holman, parts sales manager at BC Technical, for one, doubts that many customers would be interested in engaging with his company on social media.

“Honestly, there are just so few people who are going to ‘like’ a BC Technical Facebook page,” says Holman. “I don’t think it’s worth the time.”

Holman said he does have some email marketing campaigns, and attends trade shows to meet potential customers.

Although Troff Medical has started pushing its social media presence, Helms tends to agree.

“Relationships are not built on platforms,” he said. “Relationships are built by people talking to each other and getting to know each other.”

Parts providers go global
Online savvy also helps parts providers dig into the international parts market.

“We do about 25 percent of our business overseas, and I think a lot of that has been driven by search engine optimization,” says Vandersteen.

He says that Technical Prospects’ website also helps bring in international business. The site has a live chat option that allows visitors to send messages to a customer service representative at any point during the day.

“It’s been a great tool for individuals who don’t speak the best English, but can type something out and we can figure out what they mean,” says Probst.

PhiGEM’s Glas says he’s noticed an uptick in his international business in the last year, but overall it’s always been a key part of his business.

While developing markets are a boon for parts providers, companies say they generally stay away from the sometimes-complicated European market.

“I’ve done it and it can be done of course,” says Glas. “However with the non-favorable exchange rate and the additional costs, coupled with the difficulty of quality inspection capabilities and logistics challenges, I, as well as many colleagues I speak with on the subject, do tend to shy away from acquiring European equipment.”

Tim DiCarro, COO at Classic Diagnostic Imaging, says his company focuses on sales in the U.S. and does limited international sales. DiCarro cites language barriers, time restraints and currency fluctuations as significant challenges when dealing in the international parts market.

Parting with parts
Quality customer service also kicks in when end users want to get rid of parts or equipment. If there’s an older machine a facility thinks isn’t worth fixing, parts providers are happy to share the value of its parts, purchase the parts if they want them or direct the customer to someone else who might buy them.

“It is all about communication and connecting the end user with the best opportunity available,” says DiCarro. “Our customer service department is always available to discuss different options, and depending on the type of equipment, can help navigate our customers through the process.”

A reputable parts provider should be able to provide the end user with an honest bid for the system. If the company happens to have a large inventory of parts from a specific system and can’t offer market value for the system, it may provide contact information for a reputable medical imaging broker, according to Daniel Gasparovich, CTO of Universal Medical Resources, Inc.

“In either case, the end user needs to be made aware of the cost to remove the system, the cost to ship to its final destination, and the time necessary to test each part to be sold in the market,” says Gasparovich.

If the parts provider isn’t interested in the unit in question, there may be a market for it internationally. Many pieces of equipment considered end-of-life in the U.S. are still in use in developing countries.

“For example, as the older Picker equipment diminishes in the US, there’s still a demand offshore,” says Rich Greb, parts director at Image Technology Consulting. “Those items are kind of past end of life, and you think for a lot of reasons they’d be going away, but they’re not going away as fast as I would have expected.”

For example, Technical Prospects has found a strong demand for CT and mammography equipment in international markets.

“There are countries that are finding us and finding alternatives to reduce their capital outlay on repairs,” says Vandersteen. “I ship parts to Trinidad, Malasia, Russia, China — all over the world.”

Even as certain parts are shipped to emerging markets, parts providers predict that business will continue to grow in the United States, and competition will keep climbing, too. That’s good news for customers.

“We’re just trying to build a relationship, and save the customers money,” says Vandersteen.

All in the details
Besides connecting with customers online and helping them through every stage of owning equipment, parts providers also try to stand out by emphasizing what makes them different from or more reliable than the next guy.

“One trend that is coming to the forefront is ISO certification,” says Gasparovich. “UMRi is in process of becoming ISO certified, and we anticipate being able to announce that we are certified within the next six to 12 months.”

Parts providers who go through the ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management Standards certification process are made to give careful consideration to their processes to maximize quality and efficiency. The standards also set out clear instructions for audits and process reviews, as well as documentation of all processes and any changes, errors and discrepancies, all of which make record keeping easier.

“Going on our fourth year of being ISO 9001:2008 certified, we know what it takes to create a quality product, and the positive impact a QMS has on increasing customer satisfaction,” says Classic Diagnostic Imaging’s DiCarro.

Similarly, BC Technical says it sets itself apart from its competitors by being ISO:13485 certified, a medical device industry-specific QMS.

“We renew it every year so it’s more work and more expensive, but we can provide better parts,” says BC Technical’s Holman.

Besides finding a provider whose credentials have been checked out, part providers also recommend checking on how long of a warrantee the company in question offers.

“A reputable company should have a large parts inventory, provide technical support, and offer an extended warranty of at least 90 days,” says Gasparovich. “Our standard warranty is 180 days, and we provide technical support to help identify the correct part to resolve the failure along with technical support to help install the part properly.”

Experts predict that as the parts market continues to get more crowded, customers will look even closer at the quality of the parts and the support they get after purchasing.

“It’s not just the price piece, it’s really the quality of the part and the ability to provide parts that are issue free,” says Al Moretti, executive HTM consultant at CE Visionary Solutions. “That’s a change from what we’ve seen before.”


Click here for the full list of DOTmed Certified Parts Vendors, with information including their location and their parts specialties.