A recent press release from International Business Machine (IBM) disclosed that the company won a deal from Implanet in the medical devices segment. Implanet, a manufacturer of implantable medical devices, selected IBM sensor technology to keep track of its product movement throughout its supply chain. This new sensor technology from IBM will take the help of BeepNTrack technology to monitor the movement of products.
 
This new technology will help Implanet to reduce cost incurred as a result of human error, keep track of inventory and help the company replenish out-of-stock products, at the same time alerting the company about any problem in its supply chain. Previously, Implanet was unable to track the product once it left its manufacturing facility, but now, with the use of BeepN’Track service based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, the company will be able to keep track of them.
 
The usage of the device does not end in the hospital itself. Before a surgical procedure is conducted on a patient, the hospital authority scans the tag on the device to be implanted to the patient, and keeps the record along with the patient information. The information on the tag is extracted by IBM’s WebSphere Sensor Events software, which can be accessed by the manufacturer of the device as well as the patient.
 
So this is another lucrative area for IBM to enhance its business. If the system installed by IBM can solve the problems faced by Implanet, then other big players in the medical devices space will be attracted to employ this new human error-eliminating technology. The only thing that remains to be seen is the execution of this new project and how satisfied the customer will be after using the new technology.
 
The company posted good second quarter results and also raised the guidance for the fiscal year. We remain optimistic that the company will be able to retain its position in the technology space.
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