02/ 11/ 2008
by Summer Huggins
Spending a day at Dell energizes the winner of the 2007 Dell/NFIB Small Business Excellence in Customer Experience Award
Winner of the 2007 Dell/NFIB Small Business Excellence in Customer Experience Award:
Jim Cox
Medkinetics LLC
www.medkinetics.com
Franklin, Tenn.
Jim Cox was busy running his business as usual one afternoon in Franklin, Tenn., when a Dell catalog showed up in the mail. Somewhere in the pages between the laptops and the servers was a picture of Dell chairman and CEO Michael Dell with Megan Duckett of Sew What?, last year's winner of the Dell/NFIB Small Business Excellence in Customer Service Award. "We ought to enter this, too," Cox told his team. And they did.
"I didn't think we would win, but I thought we might get some exposure from the entry," Cox says. "Winning was a real shock for us!"
As part of their award, Cox and his team at Medkinetics spent time with Dell leaders on the Dell campus in Round Rock, Texas.
"We learned so many things," Cox says. "And we were asked so many good questions about our business that it really made us take a whole new and different look at what we've been doing, especially in the marketing area."
Staying focused on the customer was one important lesson underscored by the visit, Cox says. "I know that sounds like something everybody already knows, but Dell takes it to a whole new level in terms of commitment and effort, and it really shows. The award money is great, but the time at Dell will change our business, which in some ways is worth far more."
Medkinetics has been a pioneer when it comes to adopting technology in the health care industry. Its Web-based software allows medical facilities to keep track of which procedures physicians are certified to perform and updates those privileges as quickly as possible from anywhere Internet access is available.
"Hospital IT departments are grossly overworked," he says. "Our software helps them out."
But it has been an uphill battle.
"There are two things that are a constant challenge," Cox says. "First, we have to continuously improve and innovate our software. That requires not only creativity, but the ability to implement those ideas in a practical way. We've managed to stay ahead of our competitors by hiring great people, and we've been successful at finding the right people at the right time."
The second challenge facing Medkinetics is related to being a Web-based company, Cox says. "Not only must we have the system capacity to accommodate increased sales, but we must also be available online 24/7 for our customers," he says. "We've been able to do both by carefully monitoring our servers and adding hardware when it's needed and affordable."
In addition to spending a day with Dell leaders to share best practices, Medkinetics also received a lifetime NFIB membership and $30,000 worth of technology and services from Dell.
"We need more servers and server capacity," Cox says. "We also need to upgrade our development equipment, and the award will go a long way toward doing that. We're also going to take advantage of Dell's recycling services."
For $25, Cox can recycle a piece of equipment through Dell. It doesn't even have to be Dell hardware.
"I'm pretty environmentally aware, and like most small technology companies, we have a lot of old equipment lying around. I just can't bring myself to throw it in a dumpster somewhere," he says. "So, not only do we get to solve our storage problem, we do it without harming the environment."
Interested in applying for the 2008 Dell/NFIB Small Business Excellence in Customer Experience Award? Cox has just one piece of advice for those considering the application process: "Just do it. There is zero downside, and the upside is just fantastic," Cox says. "We were so sure that we didn't even have a chance that I ordered a laptop from Dell the week before we found out we won!"
For more information on applying for the 2008 award, visit www.dell.com/ceaward.
