Allegiance Healthcare
"The tools that Schindler Technology has provided the sales force have been critical to our success. They help us distinguish ourselves from the competition in a very tight market," Dave Schaefer, director of glove management services, Allegiance Healthcare.

Through its subsidiaries, Allegiance is America's leading provider of health-care products and cost-management services needed by hospitals, laboratories and others in health care. Founded in 1922 as American Hospital Supply Corporation, Allegiance is now a $21 billion healthcare products and services company.

In 1993 Allegiance began a glove management program for a large medical institution that was spending $9 million per year on gloves. Recognizing glove management as an important area of cost savings for health care organizations, Dave Schaefer, director of glove management services for the East/West Coast Glove Sales Division of Allegiance, decided to create a software program for glove management as a useful tool for sales representatives and for customers. Mr. Schaefer, looking futuristically, wanted the system to be open and to include analysis modules; "My vision was that everything would eventually be on the Internet and information could be readily available to everyone at any time." Mr. Schaefer chose Schindler Technology for the project because the company came highly recommended and because Schindler Technology could deliver on Mr. Schaefer's vision.

Schindler Technology created four tools for Allegiance: GMP analysis, a glove management program; iGlove, a customized reporting tool; CrossReference, a competitive price comparison tool; and Custom Glove Ladder, a glove selection tool. Before Schindler Technology created these tools for Allegiance, sales representatives had to manually search through assorted competitive information and multiple product catalogs in order to develop competitive quotes for customers. With the use of the tools, sales reps not only can quickly access competitive information and automatically run reports, they also provide a valuable tool to assist customers in choosing gloves most suited to their needs, thereby helping customers realize significant cost savings and differentiating Allegiance from the competition in a very tight market.

As one example of cost savings realized by a customer, Mr. Schaefer noted that, "Mass General was incurring $1.5 million in expenses on gloves per year. Through the use of the Schindler Technology tools, Allegiance was able to implement a glove management program that saved Mass General $300,000, cutting 20% off the budget."

Approximately 100 people at Allegiance use the Schindler Technology tools on a regular basis, and another 500 to 600 sales people in other divisions have access to the tools. "The tools have put so much more information in the hands of our sales reps, that it has become a point of difference from the competition and within our own company," said Mr. Schaefer.

Schindler Technology's expertise has allowed the East/West Coast Glove Sales Division to grow by 18 to 20% per year, an impressive 16 to 17% more growth than is realized by other divisions within the company. "We are the only division within Allegiance that currently has this type of interactive software available over the Internet," said Mr. Schaefer. "Our success has caught corporate attention and other divisions within Allegiance are now eager to implement this type of technology."

<< Back to Services