14,000 tickets per year: How imes-icore organizes global support
Global expansion requires strong support: To manage global dealer networks and country-specific workflows efficiently and transparently, medical technology specialist imes-icore relies on the flexible open-source ITSM software KIX.
Medical Technology in the Global Market:
Growing Demands on After-Sales Service
Anyone who needs dental prostheses is probably relieved when the treatment is finally over. For most people, the processes behind the scenes are probably of little concern. Yet state-of-the-art technology is at work here. While in ancient times and the Middle Ages, wood, stone, ivory, or the teeth of the deceased were used, new teeth are now mostly created using Computerized Numerical Control (CNC) machines. In conjunction with a CAD/CAM system that captures the data for the desired shape, the milling machines produce precise, perfectly fitting components. This is true not only in the dental field but also, for example, in industry.
Modern CNC machines have been manufactured at imes-icore in Eiterfeld since 2002. Today, more than 200 employees there develop and produce these high-tech systems in various configurations and for different applications. The product range extends from models for small dental practices to large milling centers where the machines operate continuously. The company now operates on a global scale — imes-icore collaborates with more than 100 dealers and customers in over 100 countries.
Each month, approximately 1,200 support tickets are processed. To ensure that this volume of tickets — spanning multiple continents — does not lead to communication chaos, the company relies on a centralized platform for global support.
Communication with 100% transparency:
No More Outlook and Excel
For many years, imes-icore used custom-developed software in combination with Outlook and Excel to process support requests. However, as the company grew, this approach was no longer sustainable. That’s why the five IT administrators led by Mike Schneider decided in 2019 to implement the ITSM software KIX. Since then, the IT service management tool has become a central component of support, as Schneider reports: “For us, KIX is now the leading system for communicating with customers in support. This is where everything from all over the world comes together.”
Efficient Workflows for 80 Support Agents
Service requests have always reached imes-icore employees primarily through traditional channels: via email or phone. But Outlook no longer plays a role. Instead of distributing information across various channels, mailboxes, or individual employees, everything now ends up in one place. And the actual work then begins in the KIX system: tickets are documented, forwarded, and assigned to the appropriate departments, such as machine service, CAD/CAM service, or commercial claims. Up to 80 agents work productively with KIX every day.
The Hessian company also offers a truly unique feature: Dealers have direct access to their own customers’ cases as well. They can process or track the tickets themselves at any time via the KIX Self-Service Portal. There, they not only find the current processing status but can also view FAQ entries, for example.
This enables prompt responses to customers and completely eliminates the need to wait for information from imes-icore. Everyone involved has the same view of a service case — regardless of which continent they’re currently working on. “Our partners around the world are grateful for this opportunity and use the merchant connection very frequently. That’s a major advantage of KIX. It allows us to offer not only the fastest possible support, but also transparent support,” says Mike Schneider.
When Germany calls it a day:
International 24/7 Support
The service structures created by our employees are particularly important in international business. After all, support doesn’t end when the workday ends in Germany. In addition to the German team, imes-icore works with so-called Competence and Service Centers (CSCs) in the U.S. and Asia. These centers handle first-level support for resellers and end customers in their respective regions. Transparency is a key component here as well. Through the Self-Service Portal, CSC staff also have access to all reseller tickets and can initiate the necessary support steps.
When the workday ends in Germany, the international teams take over. To ensure that inquiries aren’t left unresolved until the next morning, processing, communication, and documentation continue at KIX. Especially with technical products, every hour often counts. Machine downtime can have immediately noticeable effects here. This is particularly true in the medical field. After all, the quality of life of patients who may be urgently awaiting dental prostheses is at stake.
To enable this international collaboration, the IT administrators at imes-icore have configured KIX to fit their own workflows. The result is a seamless process across all areas, as Mike Schneider reports: “KIX really offers a wide range of features and configuration options. And that allows us to easily adapt the system to each user’s way of working. Or to put it another way: The system adapts to us, not the other way around. This has made our day-to-day work significantly easier. Plus: We’re now completely prepared for updates and don’t have to start from scratch with every new version.”
The journey continues
ERP Interfaces and Automated Workflows
Even though the ITSM software has now become an integral part of the company, the work on it is never really over for Mike Schneider and his colleagues. He and his team already have their sights set firmly on the next steps: “Reporting is currently very complex. That’s why we’re working with the vendor to find ways to simplify reporting. But that’s just one item on our agenda. At the same time, we’re planning to integrate a subsidiary into our KIX system. We’re also working on an interface to our ERP system. This will enable organizational and customer data to be synchronized automatically in the future.”
He approaches these tasks with confidence: “With thousands of tickets per year across a global network, at some point it’s no longer just about the software. Something else is far more important: Everyone involved must be working with the same information at the same time. That’s the foundation for precise, transparent support. With support teams spread across the globe and more than 14,000 tickets per year, the most important thing is that everyone involved has access to the same information. That’s exactly why we use KIX as our central platform today.”