Lumisys, Sunnyvale, CA
Category: Market Development, Channel Development, Sales and Marketing, M&A
Market: Medical Devices, Networking, High-Tech
Lumisys was a Silicon Valley startup with a new breakthrough product in Medical Devices. The company’s products were used by radiology departments to digitize x-ray films so that medical images could be read and stored electronically. The company was built on the premise of building a hardware device only and letting VARS built their interface software.
I was brought in to help develop a global strategy that included product line extension and market expansion. Though the company had a strong presence here in the US, the international presence was spotty at best. To accomplish our goals we came up with a strategy to do the following;
- Move our focus from hardware device to a complete solution to increase margins
- Build global channels for the sale of the products
- Design and build new products (medical CR) that would be complimentary
- Acquire complimentary technologies like software / IT rather than build them in-house
In less than one year we built an international channel network for OEM’s and VAR’s and increased sales from $15M to $30M. The company added to its product line by adding medical CR and embedded hardware for digitizing images, and acquired a couple of companies to provide PACS / Medical IT solutions.
Not only did Lumisys enter new markets like industrial testing, nearly every OEM and VAR throughout the world switched over to selling and distributing our products. The company even convinced some major competitors to stop manufacturing and sell Lumisys products instead under an OEM agreement.