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Key
features & functionality used
by
Ideal Medical Source |
| Accounting |
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General ledger |
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Accounts receivable |
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Account payable |
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Financial statements |
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Customer/vendor |
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statements |
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| Sales |
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Sales orders |
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Sales invoices |
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| Inventory
control |
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Graph inventory levels |
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| Purchasing |
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Purchase orders |
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Purchase receipts |
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Drop-shipping |
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| Management |
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Custom reports |
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| Return
authorization |
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Manage customer/ |
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vendor return |
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authorizations |
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Company
Background |
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Ideal takes business
to heart
Founded by owner and president, Rick
Haynes, who has been in medical sales
business for over 25 years, Ideal Medical
Source specializes in purchasing
and selling new and pre-owned diagnostic
ultrasound imaging equipment to both
wholesale and retail markets. It is
also a factory-authorized distributor
for Philips Ultrasound equipment in
Florida. Ideal’s expertise in the
field of diagnostic ultrasound is the
result of working directly with Hewlett
Packard/Agilent Technologies, Philips
Medical Systems, and Toshiba Ultrasound
and Biosound for more than 10 years.
Ideal Medical Source is dedicated
to offering diagnostic imaging solutions
quickly and cost effectively to customers
in North, South, and Central America,
and the Caribbean, serving doctors'
offices, hospitals, clinics, and mobile
services in the cardiovascular market.
Ideal Medical Source runs on iCode’s
Everest. |
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The
Challenge |
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According to Haynes, ultrasound equipment
is time-and mission-critical and it's
important that the software that runs
the business lets all transactions be
clean and accurate. "My transactions
run $30,000 to $50,000 and sometimes
upwards of $150,000. Like in any sales
business, it's critical that we match
our products to customers' needs,"
Haynes said.
Haynes started out his business with
a laptop, QuickBooks, and Microsoft
Office. "I just embedded an Excel
spreadsheet into a Word document, and
then added the database symbols from
Act, which wasn't great," said
Haynes. Ideal was forced to run databases
that weren't integrated – two on
QuickBooks, and a database of existing
vendors, customers plus prospects on
Act. "The databases lacked continuity
to quotations because we kind of did
them on-the-fly," Haynes added.
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During this time he would use Post-It notes
to write down his accounts receivables and
payables. Some of the items in inventory were
already paid for, and some of them carried
a balance due. When it was just a handful
of transactions to track, his little yellow
pad worked well enough to allow him to determine
how his business was doing. But this primitive
system quickly became ineffective as his business
grew.
Upgrading every year to the QuickBooks latest
version, Haynes finally reached breaking point
when he just couldn't trust the reports. "QuickBooks
just didn't seem to suit out needs. I wanted
to be able to assess my business' performance
on at least a monthly basis," he said.
"We were ready for changes; we were outgrowing
the piece-meal we'd put together and I wanted
something easier."
Haynes' accountant recommended a program,
which he felt was marginal and didn't consist
of a contact manager and therefore didn't
meet all of his needs. "I wanted to buy
a complete package and not pieces and customized
things," Haynes recalled. |
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The
Solution |
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Having purchased Everest Advanced
Edition 1.0 in April 2002, Haynes has never
been happier. "Integrating everything
with Everest really saves us time from creating
a quote to making a purchase order or invoice
– those types of things have become much
smoother," Haynes asserted. "There's
a real professional look and feel that we
have to our business now."
With four full-time employees and a couple
more working part-time, Haynes is still responsible
for the majority of the sales, apart from
just running the business. "What we've
really gained is discipline, structure and
integrity with Everest," said Haynes.
Today the front office assistant handles the
accounting work, answers the phone, manages
purchase orders from vendors, and makes sure
things are shipped out on time. "With
Everest what she does now is so much more
efficient – it's cleaner and everyone
can view it; with QuickBooks it was like flying
with blinders on," said Haynes. Now not
only is the front office much more productive,
but the assistant also has the ability to
handle more orders with accuracy and is much
happier. "Overall, I think everybody
in the office is much more productive. Even
simple things like creating a quote can be
done by anyone and it's ready in no time,"
Haynes explained. "I can go to my computer
and pull up the quote and make some changes
to it in a blink of an eye."
Everest has also improved collaboration and
internal communication within the company.
"The task manager is awesome – we
never used an electronic calendar before -
now everyone's networked. I get a task and
forward it to the appropriate person. We are
all in the same office but the trails and
the ability to hand things back and forth
has been great," Haynes said.
The company has improved productivity by 50%.
“I think when you look at productivity
you have to look at accuracy along with it.
We thought we were productive with QuickBooks
but in a lot of ways we were not accurate.
We didn’t have any of our inventory in
QuickBooks and now we have our whole inventory
in Everest,” added Haynes.
Ideal Medical Source also drop-ships items
ranging from $40,000 to $50,000 and carries
about 700 unique items. "With Everest,
we're able to have a clear idea of what we
have in stock and on hand," said Haynes.
Haynes pulls up sales quotes and reports,
and uses sales and purchase order summaries
to manage the usually large outstanding orders.
According to Haynes, when it comes down to
accounting the company has been more productive
from the standpoint of being able to do quotes
accurately. "Everest has allowed us to
balance our books for the first time. The
accounting functionality in Everest has to
be number one. The integration with quotes,
invoices, and purchase orders has been huge,"
Haynes commented. "From the contact manager
standpoint, I think the communication in the
office is better, and with the reminders and
the tasks, we all know what everyone's doing
at a particular time. Inventory, too, is one
area where we've just started to grow, and
that has been a wonderful thing to see."
At Ideal Medical Source, employees are using
most of Everest's functionalities – from
accounting, inventory to contact management.
Haynes plans to upgrade to Everest Advanced
Edition 2.0 and implement e-commerce as well.
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The
Result |
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Improved overall productivity by 50% |
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Saved time and improved operational
efficiency with real-time information
and smoother |
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transactions |
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Enabled improved collaboration and
internal communication |
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Better structured inventory and processes |
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