I attended RSNA last week for 24×7’s sister publication Imaging Economics and, never shying from an opportunity to talk about biomeds and the service industry, sat down with a member of the GE service division to discuss the company’s new initiatives. One of the first things he mentioned was the current landscape of the service industry and how the company had to find ways to compete with third-party service providers who offered lower contract prices. The most interesting feature he mentioned was the InSite technology that GE offers. Through the software, GE can remotely monitor all of your GE systems and predict when parts will fail/need replacement or should be serviced. This decreases downtime and acts as a service that the third-part providers cannot offer.
Since GE realizes that third-party companies can offer cheaper prices, they are creating new benefits that only an OEM can offer. With features like remote monitoring, would your facility be willing sign a more expensive OEM contract to avoid downtime? Or do you monitor your equipment sufficiently enough that this added service is superfluous?
