How online delivery and support services will help to improve medical software for doctors

This is another guest post from Mr Aditya Patkar, Marketing Director of Plus91.

2 weeks ago, I spent the better part of a day travelling back to Pune from Bhandara ( near Nagpur ) after having completed an installation of Ultrasite in a diagnostic center. As anyone who has travelled on Indian roads can testify, this was a long and arduous trip. There has to be a better way of installing software - and we think the internet now provides a much better solution ! For example, in the last week , we completed two installations at Varanasi and Solan without even visiting the locations.

I think the era of using the web not just to market but also to deliver and deploy is here. Remote support has become a reality and doctors are very comfortable with this as well ! What Frances Cairncross predicted in her book, The Death of Distance: How the Communications Revolution Will Change Our Lives in 1997 is coming true !

However, there is a process involved, which we have now mastered. This involves the following steps: software delivery; training: exchanging information for providing troubleshooting and support; and accepting online payment.

It is vital to have a good website which educates doctors about your products and services. It's then important to use a program which allows remote management. Teamviewer and Logmein are effective - and are free ! Finally, your process flow for installation should be simple and easy to perform. At Plus91 , we take only about 10 minutes to complete an installation through the net !

What have we learned so far ? If the doctor's net connection isn't fast , it makes sense to courier him a CD with the executables ; or ask him to download it from secure temporary links when he is free . Our files are not big, but then again the Internet speeds in India aren't brilliant everywhere either. Next , it is vital to be able to provide training remotely. We have many online training tools on our website, including a comprehensive Help manual ; video help files and screencasts. We still get the occasional call asking for help, but these have been few and far between .

Email and chat are the best ways to exchange information and track any changes required. A formal ticketing system on the website is also a good idea to help improve customer satisfaction .

Finally, payment by NEFT ( National Electronic Funds Transfer) is a simple process with each branch of each bank being seamlessly connected. Doctors usually never have a problem with this part , though they do argue about the pricing :).

Over all , our company with its lean and mean sales force has been able to serve and manage sales and support for doctors from all over the country thanks to this method. We now have quite a few doctors in remote parts of India using Plus91 software , many of whom I have never even met - and perhaps never will !