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ALLIANCE MEDICAL CORPORATION PARTNERS WITH REEF TO REDUCE THE COST OF HEALTHCARE
Java-Based Internetware Enables Alliance to Strengthen Customer Relationships and Shorten Sales Cycles, Resulting in Increased Efficiency and Cost Savings
SAN FRANCISCO - August 22, 2000 - Reef® (www.reef.com), a global Internet software company that offers a modular suite of Internet applications for e-business, today announced that Alliance Medical Corporation has deployed Reef's Internetware® suite to support its corporate web site, intranet and extranet. Alliance is the leading full-service medical device reprocessing company in North America.
Using Internetware, Alliance is able to enhance brand awareness, strengthen its customer relationships, and streamline its sales processes by delivering personalized rich media information - including digital images and video - to a wide audience of sales executives, hospital clients, prospective customers, suppliers, and investors. Of particular importance to Alliance is that Internetware enables the company to accomplish these strategic objectives - and continue to build and maintain their Web presence - without the need for expensive IT resources.
Reducing the Costs of Healthcare
Founded as the result of a three-way merger in 1998, Alliance recently opened a state-of-the-art reprocessing facility in Phoenix, Arizona. This 42,000 square foot facility enables Alliance to provide the cost-effective service of cleaning, reprocessing, packaging and resterilization of single-use or disposable devices for medical facilities. Once these processes are complete, Alliance returns these devices to their respective owners, which include some of the nation's leading hospitals and surgery centers.
"We are growing at five percent per month," said Arthur Goodrich, vice president of marketing and national accounts for Alliance Corporation. "To keep up this pace while maintaining our reputation for superior customer service and public outreach, we needed to take advantage of the Internet. Our approach was that we wanted to do it once - and do it right. With Internetware, that was both possible and incredibly straightforward."
Goodrich continued, "What really sold us, though, is that Internetware empowers us to easily manage our own Web site - without a lot of IT resources - and that it immediately recognizes a user and customizes itself to provide pertinent information. For example, an infection control nurse will have access to key articles about infection control, as well as appropriate links. A sales person will have access to marketing materials, forms, and so on. And a customer will soon have the ability to track orders. In addition, the Web site is designed to provide an accurate picture of our reprocessing operations by showing visitors the actual process.
"Also, unlike other software providers, Reef offered us a comprehensive solution that addressed all of our immediate e-business needs and one that enabled us to develop an optimal solution in-house to integrate our existing specialized e-business applications. Furthermore, Reef worked alongside our marketing team to ensure we maximized the reach, depth and value of our site."
Internetware: A Single Solution Addressing Many Needs
Alliance is using several of Internetware's integrated components, which share a common Java-based foundation and work tightly together to offer Alliance's customers, as well as its sales representatives, valuable services and information.
For instance, each Alliance customer has its own protected area on the site to track the progress of reprocessing orders and view legal documents, purchase orders, and other paperwork, as well as access a customized library of pertinent industry data. To enhance communication between Alliance and its customers, the company is also using Internetware to hold interactive forums featuring customers and Alliance's experts. To drive new business and close sales, an online Savings Calculator, again powered by Internetware, allows customers to determine how much they will save by having Alliance reprocess a particular device rather than purchasing a new device. And for potential customers who can't visit Alliance's Phoenix facility, the company offers an online virtual tour featuring digital videos to showcase the company's range of services.
The site also benefits Alliance's sales representatives by allowing them to access sales literature, technical information, contracts, and other sales-related materials at any time, from anywhere. This means that Alliance no longer has to send information via fax or overnight carrier, saving the company a significant amount of money and manpower. It also means that Alliance's 130 sales representatives across the U.S. can close sales and serve current customers more quickly and efficiently than before.
"Alliance is a trendsetter in their industry, and it has been a pleasure to help them leverage the Internet to increase their visibility, enhance their customer service, and improve their sales process," said Andrew Byrne, Reef's vice president of North American Sales. "Internetware puts the power of the Internet in the palm of Alliance's hand. As a result, Alliance now has the sophisticated functionality it requires, coupled with ease of use, to enable project managers and marketing personnel to manage and maintain the entire web site. We look forward to working with Alliance in the future as they enhance their site with additional Internetware modules."
About Alliance Medical Corporation
Formed by the merger of Sterile Reprocessing Services (SRS), ORRIS and Applied Medical technologies, Alliance Medical Corporation (www.alliance-medical.com) is the industry's oldest and most experienced reprocessor of disposable medical devices. The company's programs maintain patient safety while providing cost reduction strategies for healthcare facilities suffering from shrinking reimbursements. Alliance's customers include many of the country's top healthcare facilities as identified by U.S. News & World Report, as well as large health systems, community healthcare providers and regional and national hospital group purchasing organizations.
About Reef
Reef is a global Internet software company providing a modular suite of Internet applications, called Reef Internetwareâ. Reef Internetware enables dynamic content, commerce, community, and coordination management for business-to-business portals, intranets and extranets that are the foundation of e-business. Reef Internetware allows corporations of all sizes to increase the efficiency of their business operations by empowering business process and content owners to maintain and administer e-business applications using a common Internet browser interface. Web development firms, systems integrators, and independent software vendors also benefit from rapid and cost effective application development and deployment. Reef's open, integrated application suite allows unprecedented sharing of information and services between applications. Reef is a privately held company financed by Viventures, Cisco Systems, Net Fund Europe, and other private and individual investors. More information can be found on the company's web site at www.reef.com.
© Copyright 2000, REEF S.A./N.V. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Reef, the Reef logo, Reef Internetware, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Reef S.A./N.V. Java and all Java-based marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.