A B2B Dental Approach To E-Commerce

A B2B dental company is pushing E-Commerce in an especially B2B fashion, including letting its customers control access by buyers based on their area of responsibility, and—of particular importance to its health industry customers—maintaining detailed records of how particular surgical and other products are packaged and sold to health care professionals according to the regulatory requirements of government agencies.

The efforts, detailed by an Internet Retailer story, show how Implant Direct, a manufacturer of dental implants and related products used by dental surgeons is trying to make B2B operations easier.

The story quotes Ahmad Rashidi, Implant Direct’s director of IT and web operations, offering examples of the site’s functionality.

“For example, when buying a ScrewPlant Implant, a customer now sees a product page that also displays links to several related categories of items that are compatible with that specific product: a properly fitting healing collar, a specially calibrated torque wrench, the properly sized dental drills, and the proper grafting material. ‘For a particular implant by size, we enable our customers to easily and quickly purchase all of the items they need to complete a procedure,’ Rashidi said. ‘It helps us meet our due diligence as required by government agencies. We make sure we’re including all product details from start to finish, making sure doctors make the right decisions.'”

The system also gives customer service agents a tool-verification systems “that provides agents with information on which instruments, tools and materials are needed to go with the products that a dental surgeon orders online. They can also use the application to determine whether the surgeon has already ordered any of those items,” the story noted.

The system has also delivered a drop in returns, Rashidi said, because of the way the system can organize data and help Implant Direct organize it’s teams. “Implant Direct can assign specific order management functions, like invoicing purchase orders and managing shipping, to particular groups of employees. This has provided for consistent levels of service and data reporting—which were difficult to manage under its former e-commerce platform—resulting in fewer returned items,” the story said.