Source: TechNation Magazine, December 2013
About 15 years ago, three experts in the medical device industry started a new venture and Pronk Technologies has grown each year to become a leader in biomedical test equipment products.
The Sun Valley, Calif.-based company boasts a combined 50 years of experience in designing, producing, and supporting vital signs monitors and patient simulators. The company’s vast experience in design, quality and support of customers has allowed it to be successful in the biomedical test equipment market.
The company has grown since it started in 1998. The main facility occupies approximately 4,000 square feet in an industrial area about 20 miles north of Los Angeles. The building houses areas for the complete manufacturing and support of all of the devices it manufactures, including a calibration laboratory, customer service and sales support area, a service department, and a research and development center.
The growth over the past few years, coupled with the launch of a new product and plans for future growth prompted the need for more space and additional professional team members. Earlier this year, Pronk Technologies tripled the size of its facility and increased the size of its team by 30 percent.
Advances in technology are inevitable and Pronk Technologies is able to adjust and adapt to continually provide great products to go along with its outstanding customer service.
One of the biggest trends in the industry is the production of smaller and smaller test equipment.
“One of our greatest core competencies is miniaturizing products substantially relative to what was available on the market previously,” said Greg Alkire, Vice President Sales and Marketing at Pronk Technologies. “All of our current products are smaller than what was available to the hospital biomed/clinical engineering community before we entered this market. In addition to designing smaller more portable devices, we focus on making kits that provide customers with all the accessories they need to use our products and put a lot of time and energy into thoughtful packaging of those kits.”
Pronk strives to deliver what their customers want.
“Our major focus on portability, ease of use, reliable/rugged designs at a very cost effective price point has given us a significant advantage over the competition,” Alkire said. “We are also very mindful of cost of ownership factors with products, and go out of our way to meet those challenges. For example, we price repair and calibration services very close to our cost and don’t design it to be a profit center for us. We also offer a 14-day money-back guarantee, a four-year warranty, and NIST-traceable calibration certification.
“We launched a new product last year, which can be challenging to most companies,” he added. “It was a new infusion pump analyzer, FlowTrax, and we dedicated a lot of time and resources in our engineering labs testing new designs, but even after we were convinced we had it right, we conducted field testing for several months getting feedback from numerous customers on its features and reliability.”
The process was long, but the end result made the wait worthwhile because it produced the best possible device for customers.
“This was a challenging process for us as it lengthened the time it took to introduce the product to the market,” Alkire said. “However, the collaboration enabled us to incorporate some great ideas from customers and fine tune the design to ensure it would meet customers’ needs before moving into final production.”
Employees and customers are excited about the new FlowTrax.
“The new hand held IV pump analyzer, FlowTrax, is definitely what we are most excited about currently,” Alkire said. “It, like our previous products, is revolutionizing the way that IV pumps are tested. Predominantly because it is much smaller than other IV pump analyzers and it is more accurate and faster. We didn’t stop there, we included features in the FlowTrax that replace other devices our customers would normally carry such as a pressure meter, temperature meter and stopwatch.”
The FlowTrax is also the source of one of Alkire’s favorite success stories. “There are many examples of our designs having a dramatic impact on our customers ability to do their jobs much more efficiently and effectively,” he said. “Probably my favorite is the large customer that was testing thousands of IV pumps each month and told us that once he started using FlowTrax he was able to reduce his test time from 12 minutes per pump down to as little as 2 minutes per pump (for volume testing).”
That is just one example.
“Another great success story that comes to mind is how a customer told us that our SpO2 simulator saved him from having to go into patient rooms while patients and their family were in the room,” he recalled. “Our device was so easy to use he said that he simply showed the nurse how to use it in a few seconds and she took it into the room to test the oximeter and sensor.”
It is an exciting time at Pronk Technologies and Alkire said the company’s plans for the future help fuel that excitement. He is also excited that the company continues to include the men and women who use the company’s products in the development of new products.
“We plan to continue our focus on quality, portable products for biomeds and look for ways to expand the collaboration with customers to review new designs and get feedback on new products before we introduce them,” he said. “We strongly believe working closely with the biomedical/clinical engineering community is a key to our future success.”
After all, these are the men and women Pronk looks to serve.
“We chose to be in this market because we like working with biomeds and we believe in the importance of the work that biomeds do everyday,” Alkire said. “Our goal is to make that work just a little easier and faster.”
For more information about Pronk Technologies, visit www.pronktech.com.
– See more at: http://1technation.com/company-showcase-pronk-technologies/