The same "grid" technology has been deployed throughout RepairEngine®.  You'll find it in Asset Management and you'll see it in a few more locations inside the system next week, including Contracts, Price Lists, Reports, etc., when another RepairEngine® update is deployed.  Contact us if you have any questions or ideas about how we can improve RepairEngine® -- our goal is to make it the best Repair Management System for Enterprise Mobility equipment available anywhere.

The RepairEngine "spring-fling" of new feature rollouts rolls on later today with our new splash page "Dashboard", which we guarantee that you'll like and find useful.  There is an 'Alerts' mini-grid that identifies any and all items that may need your immediate attention, as well as three other sections to help you monitor your overall Repair Mangement status, recent trends, and user/location activity at a glance.  RepairEngine's dashboard mini-grids are linked directly for fast access to the full and complete information you need to successfully manage your team's enterprise mobility equipment and maintenance.

All RepairEngine users should expect to see the new features we've been beta testing by mid to late next week, when we plan to roll all of the enhancements out to our entire user community. 

RepairEngine® users will enjoy a greatly enhanced ability to navigate, filter, sort, group, and analyze all of their Lexicon repair and refurbished equipment transactions.  Ease of use and user experience have been dramatically improved.  The New RA Status page should allow users to spot trends, analyze failure patterns or repair history, and prioritize management responses faster and easier than ever.

We've retained the "Rapid Estimate Approval" feature for volume users and made sure it stayed "quick" and easy to use.

Oh, also in this release, we're replacing the "tired" and cryptic automatic emails that didn't give enough specific information with ones that do -- and that are much easier to read -- and that contain links that will take you exactly where you need to go in RepairEngine®, not just get you close. 

We think you'll like these new features -- and you can expect even more in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.  Also, please tell us what you think.  We value your suggestions for improvement.

There was a great article in yesterday's New York Times business section about business model innovation in the delivery of health care services.  The author, Janet Rae-Dupree, did a solid job of pointing out how tired, inefficient business models employed by most physicians and general hospitals actually limit improvements in "care-quality" for patients and keep costs high.  She quotes Harvard b-school professor and author of "The Innovator's Prescription", Clayton M. Christensen, who argues that "health care hasn't become affordable because it hasn't yet gone through disruptive decentralization".

Briefly, the article explains that important point thusly:  "by putting the financial interests of hospitals and doctors at the center, the current system gives routine illnesses with proven therapies the same intensive and costly specialized care that more complicated cases require".  So in a phrase, it's "one-size-fits-all" treatment -- and it's an expensive size!  For a fuller explanation, please read the complete article here.

The other business model problem the article addresses is the lack of focus on a "continuum of care" for the patient, in favor of a system which treats patients only during periods of acute crisis.  Again, the result is high costs -- at least partially driven by wrong incentives in place for doctors and hospitals. 

Several organizations including Kaiser Permanente and the Mayo Clinic really seem to be getting it right, though, "with fixed-fee integrated systems" that are delivering better results for less money.  Hey they're focused on the patient (aka "the customer"), not the doctor or hospital.

Many similar strategies are employed by Lexicon in our barcode equipment repair and maintenance business.  RepairEngine® helps us and our customers keep track of the "health history" of Symbol, Intermec, and HHP equipment, and on many products we've incorporated special SIP (single-item-pricing) options instead of higher "one-size-fits-all" flat rates that frankly, are often not needed, and are not economical.

It's a reminder to not fall in love with your business model so much that you miss a big innovation opportunity . . . you can bet that at least some of your competitors won't.