Carmen Le and Kris Kelly from Advanced Test Equipment Corp. (ATEC), discuss their Enterprise Page

Developing relationships with customers

'Field Service Engineers are the eyes, the ears, and brains of the organization'. People in the field see the customers' challenges, and experience how the problems are impacting them. Service Engineers give sales people insights into the customers experience and level of satisfaction with the company's products. In the latest Podcast from The Field Engineer [https://www.linkedin.com/company/74891215/admin/page-posts/published/?share=true#] YouTube Channel Paul Camidge [https://www.linkedin.com/company/74891215/admin/page-posts/published/?share=true#], Vikram Bhasker [https://www.linkedin.com/company/74891215/admin/page-posts/published/?share=true#], and Charlie Apps [https://www.linkedin.com/company/74891215/admin/page-posts/published/?share=true#] offer insights into how companies can develop top quality relationships with customers by empowering Field Service Engineers to delight their customers.If your company has Field Service Engineers don't forget to thank them for the work they do. Your company's sales, and customer relationships are heavily dependent on them. During the discussion Paul Camidge introduces the following quote. “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption on our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider on our business. He is a part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so.” For the full history of this quote see https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/08/02/gandhi-customer/

Service Revenue, Contracts, and Service Level Agreements

Service Revenue, Contracts, and Service Level Agreements is the topic for our latest roundtable discussion on The Field Engineer [https://www.linkedin.com/preload/#] Podcast.    Thanks to Maurizio De Poli [https://www.linkedin.com/preload/#] for suggesting the topic, Bruce Breeden [https://www.linkedin.com/preload/#], Charlie Apps [https://www.linkedin.com/preload/#], Jerome Varvaro [https://www.linkedin.com/preload/#], Vikram Bhasker [https://www.linkedin.com/preload/#] and Guy Eid [https://www.linkedin.com/preload/#] for the great discussion, with a special thank you to Guy for moderating the discussion.  Guy Eid is Customer Support Manager for Systemex Automation in CanadaCharlie Apps is a MedTech Consultant and former Global Technical Support Manager for CMR SurgicalMaurizio De Poli is Partner Account Manager – Italy (Distributor Channel) / Service Operations Manager EMEA for Prática Europe.Bruce Breeden is Chief Service Officer for Michelli Weighing & MeasurementJerome Varvaro is Head of BPS Service, Americas for SartoriusVikram Bhasker is Principal at Jarvis Bay Thanks to Bruce Breeden for mentioning his company's GRIP programme,   which stands for Greet, Relate, Inform, Promote.   Promote what you did, promote what you prevented, promote the fact you might know something the customer might value, promote your company and the services it offers.    Jerome Varvaro mentioned his company's SPIFF program (Sales Performance Incentive Fund), which is not selling, but encourages their service personnel to feed leads and interest from customers back to the company so their sales department can follow up.     Should Service Engineers be involved in the selling of service contracts? Or will they lose the trust of the customer?    If you are involved in selling service contracts, we'd love to hear your feedback on this discussion.   https://thefieldengineer.com/

Carmen Le and Kris Kelly from Advanced Test Equipment Corp. (ATEC), discuss their Enterprise Page

Carmen Le and Kris Kelly from Advanced Test Equipment Corp ATEC, discuss their Enterprise Page on The Field Engineer community website. https://thefieldengineer.com/groups/atec-rental-test-equipment/In ATEC's own words,"Advanced Test Equipment Corp. (ATEC) rents test equipment for compliance certification across a variety of industries. Every day we help businesses around the world test the products that consumers buy and use.We are primarily a rental company with select sales opportunities and a full in-house calibration service that is accredited to ISO 17025 by A2LA. Over our 40-year history, ATEC has rented and sold equipment to customers such as Caterpillar, L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and more. We have also assisted with automotive development for Tesla, Rivian, and LucidCompany HistoryFounded in 1981 by Jim and Jill Berg, Advanced Test Equipment Corp. (ATEC) has grown from a modest garage startup to a prominent leader in the test equipment rental industry. After overcoming a major setback due to a fire in 1986, ATEC expanded its facilities and partnerships, achieving significant growth by 1994 which culminated in us moving to our current headquarters in Sorrento Valley, San Diego.The company diversified in 2018 with its Advanced Amplifiers brand and in 2019, partnered with Narda STS as their exclusive North America distributor. Under Jamison Berg's leadership since 2020, ATEC has continued evolving. We are now partnered with leading manufacturers across many industries such as EMC, RF, and electrical. View our full list of rental partners. https://www.atecorp.com/rental-partnersAdvantages of Test Equipment RentalsHere are a few reasons you should consider:Provides cost-effective solutions for short-term projects or overloadProtects against capital investments and product obsolescenceSaves time and money with immediate deliveryProvides the ability to evaluate equipment before purchasingAvoids wasting time and money on maintenance costsProvides a “plan-B” when allocated equipment failsRental expenses are tax deductible on your business taxesATEC AssuranceOur ATEC Assurance program consists of our 20-Point Inspection Process, which ensures you the peace-of-mind that the equipment you rent will operate as specified, includes all ordered accessories, customer and technical support is provided, and equipment requiring calibration is within spec. ATEC Assurance ensures every rental order gets the attention it deserves and is treated with the utmost care".

Meet Mercy Ships' Biomedical Services Manager Simon Bor

The Field Engineer meets Mercy Ships' Biomedical Services Manager Simon Bor.'As a healthcare professional, I am passionate about improving patient safety and optimizing processes and systems to make care more efficient and cost-effective. I believe that good ideas are only valuable when they are actually put into practice; therefore, I am dedicated to implementing changes in healthcare.With a degree in Healthcare Technology from the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and my experience as a Medical Technician and Medical Technology Advisor (including Quality Assurance & Regulatory Affairs) at Erasmus MC, I possess broad knowledge of ensuring the safety of healthcare and medical technology.In 2022, I worked for four months as an (act.) Senior Biomedical Technician for Mercy Ships on the Global Mercy. I also started working for Mercy Ships as a Biomedical Technician II (Medical Technician) in Rotterdam. I have since recently taken on a new role: Biomedical Services Manager. In addition to my expertise in medical technology, I possess skills focused on computer use, ranging from design and technical calculations to word processing and web development: 3D-CAD, (Libre)Office, MATLAB, Mathcad, Ultimo, HTML, PHP, (My)SQL, Windows, and Linux (such as Ubuntu). I personally prefer Open Source solutions.My keywords are Medical technology, quality assurance, asset management, and processes.It is my passion to help others and contribute to safer and better healthcare worldwide by implementing good ideas, where I believe my knowledge and experience are invaluable'.Mercy Ships is a faith-based international development organisation that deploys hospital ships to some of the poorest countries in the world, delivering vital, free healthcare to people in desperate need.Conditions requiring surgical treatment kill more people in low-income countries than HIV/Aids, TB and malaria combined. Globally, five billion people have no access to safe, affordable surgery when they need it.In sub-Saharan Africa, up to 69% of people live on less than £2 a day. Healthcare in these countries either doesn't exist or is unaffordable to the vast majority of the population.Partnering with host nationsTo achieve this, Mercy Ships delivers a customised five-year partnership model with every country it is invited to support. Relationships are built with the national government and ministry of health, so that the needs of each country are met.In this way, Mercy Ships doesn’t just address the immediate need on the ground, but also works to strengthen the country’s healthcare systems and drive policy change. The aim is to tackle the root causes of the problems rather than just the consequences.As well as completing thousands of urgent operations onboard our floating hospitals, the Africa Mercy and the Global Mercy, Mercy Ships volunteers also work closely with host nations to improve the way healthcare is delivered across the country, by training and mentoring local medical staff, and renovating hospitals and clinics.Founded in 1978 by Don and Deyon Stephens, Mercy Ships has worked in more than 55 countries, providing services valued at more than £1.3 billion. By improving healthcare delivery in every country it visits, Mercy Ships is working to eradicate the diseases of poverty and effectively do itself out of a job. Mercy Ships follows the model of Jesus by “bringing hope and healing to the forgotten poor”, helping people of all faiths and none.Among the countries Mercy Ships serves, which lie on the lower third of the World Health Organisation’s Human Development Index, access to safe, affordable and timely surgery is extremely limited. As a result, countless people suffer and die from “diseases of poverty” that can easily be cured.

Vikram Bhasker discusses his work in Systems, Performance, and Outcomes in Service organizations

The Field Engineer Podcast today released an interview with Vikram Bhasker [https://www.linkedin.com/company/74891215/admin/page-posts/published/?share=true#] hosted by Guy Eid [https://www.linkedin.com/company/74891215/admin/page-posts/published/?share=true#].  Vikram Bhasker discusses his career journey, and his evolution into Service Architecture for Complex Systems. Helping Service organizations to Align their Operations, Risk, Performance, and Outcomes.  In Vikram's own words,  'I work on how systems actually deliver outcomes.  Not how they’re intended to. Not how they’re described.  But how they perform under real conditions.  Most organizations focus on execution.   Fewer design the architecture that determines whether execution leads to consistent results.   That gap is where systems break down.  My background is in service and support operations within MedTech, environments where performance, compliance, and commercial outcomes are tightly coupled. What I’ve learned is that the same structural problem exists across many domains.  The system is built, but the architecture that connects operations, data, ownership, and risk is fragmented. This can show up as performance variability, hidden risk, delayed escalation, misaligned incentives, margin, revenue and outcome leakage.  Today, my focus is Service Architecture for complex, outcome-critical systems.  That includes how systems are designed across:  • operations and service delivery  • customer experience and access  • compliance, risk, and quality  • commercial performance and growth  • infrastructure and economic viability  • broader system interactions across regions and environments  I’m particularly interested in where these domains intersect because that’s where most systems fail.    Healthcare systems. Industrial operations. Infrastructure networks. Regional and economic systems.  Different domains. Same underlying pattern.  Fragmentation at the architectural level leads to instability at the outcome level.  My work focuses on making that visible and designing systems that can operate predictably, not just function.  Because in complex systems Architecture determines outcomes.'