After Sale Service, a Key Ingredient in the Support of Health Programs

07 June 2017

Early 1998 when Okkar Thiri started operation in Myanmar it was obvious that in spite of a possible sourcing of cheap Indian or Chinese equipment, hospitals and laboratories suffered from a trading mentality of existing suppliers and a total lack of after sales service support.

Considering the low budget Ministry of Health could get from the government, it was a major concern for end users to have equipment lying in a backroom and not providing anymore the service it should have.

In a first step and as a new comer into this field Okkar Thiri decided to provide on a free of charge basis their technicians to diagnose and repair locally, whenever possible, these equipment.

Electricity conditions were at that time quite poor and most of the damages we could identify came from low voltage supply and a lack of adequate protection to the equipment.

Most of the time however the repairs could be easily carried on locally with non-major components like transformers rewired locally or electronic component replaced.

Our commitment to help with existing equipment allowed us within a few years to be recognized as a potential and reliable partner for medical and laboratory solutions in Myanmar, integrating proper installation and long term after sale service solutions.

We then introduced quite early in the country new international manufacturers from Europe, Japan and USA.

Thanks to their support and the training of our engineers locally and abroad, we could increase our service capability year by year and insure a long lasting life to our installations.

Since very few dedicated medical engineers and laboratory technologists are available in the hospitals, service should still be offered on a free of charge basis to the public sector.

Until now hospitals do not have a specific budget for service and delay for intervention would be too long if we had to wait for end users to get an authorization from their administration.

Since 2012 we started to see a very positive change in the private sector and with the venue of international organizations with a request for local support over a minimum period of three years or service contracts.

To the present Okkar Thiri is proud to have many references installed for more than 15 years in Myanmar and is still in operation and providing good services.

It is more and more evident to end users that price driven competition as well as not integrating a proper service support for parts and consumables comes at a loss in a short term and nowadays quality and service is becoming a major consideration in the choice of suppliers.

There is a great awareness in our company towards the fact that if equipment can save lives, failures can kill and our mission is to make sure that we continuously improve our service capability to offer safe and efficient solutions.

Okkar Thiri is a Bronze Sponsor of the 3rd annual Aid & Development Asia Summit, taking place on 14-15 June in Myanmar. Find out more at asia.aidforum.org.

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