Recognition for impressive innovation: Christian Wulff congratulates tecfor care Ltd on making it into the TOP 100 of Germany’s most innovative SMEs. The awards ceremony took place as part of the German SME Summit in Heidelberg for all SMEs that had been awarded the TOP 100 seal at the start of the year. In the scientific selection process, tecfor care Ltd impressed in size category A (up to 50 employees in Germany), particularly in the ‘Innovation Processes and Organisation’ category.
This award does not merely recognise the company’s innovation processes. Above all, it honours solutions that make a tangible difference to the daily lives of people in need of care and their carers. One example of this is the further development of the traditional care bed.
Care beds provided through statutory health insurance are generally clearly defined. The insurance provider covers the costs, the product adheres to a fixed standard, and the influence of users and medical supply shops is consequently limited. With an innovative concept, tecfor care creates additional options here and gives users a greater say. Thanks to upholstered panels and a coordinated range of accessories, the care bed can be adapted to individual needs. This applies both to its integration into the home environment and to functional aspects, such as side rails with an integrated standing aid or other solutions for greater comfort and suitability for everyday use.
This provides medical supply shops with additional scope for action. Supplementary items can be offered directly for over-the-counter sale – independently of the statutory health insurance flat-rate payment. This creates additional revenue opportunities through direct contact with patients, enabling a bed to become profitable more quickly.
Furthermore, solutions such as the Ultra Comfort Bed give rise to a standalone product that combines the world of upholstered furniture with functional requirements. The result is a bed designed for health-conscious sleep, thereby meeting a need that has hitherto been inadequately addressed.
Alongside these additional options for customisation, one factor remains crucial in day-to-day care: cost-effectiveness during operation. tecfor care therefore pursues a consistent platform strategy to reduce complexity. The basis for this is a sturdy standard care bed with a high load-bearing capacity. Many components are identical in design, whilst at the same time a single base bed can be configured into different variants, for example in terms of dimensions or features, such as low-bed solutions. This simplifies handling, maintenance and spare parts management for medical supply shops.
The result is beds that are durable, rarely require repair and can be used cost-effectively over several replacement cycles. This is clearly evident in practice: during our collaboration of around ten years with a partner who purchases more than 1,000 beds annually, spare parts turnover over the entire period amounted to around 4 per cent of the total volume.
In the structured innovation process
New ideas rarely emerge at a desk. They usually stem from discussions with customers, partners or the sales team. They are then put through a reality check: feasibility and benefits are assessed across all departments and supplemented by market and application perspectives. On this basis, the ideas are consolidated and transformed into concrete innovation projects with clear objectives. “In the past, the focus was primarily on the technical solution,” says CEO of tecfor care Ltd, Robin Knabe. “Today, we approach innovation from the perspective of the care model, our customers’ economic circumstances and the entire life cycle of a bed – with clear decision-making processes and market insights incorporated in a structured manner.”
An effective climate for innovation
The company operates within a culture of innovation characterised by direct feedback, short lines of communication and open dialogue on an equal footing. Structured surveys, market analyses and ongoing dialogue with medical supply shops, partners and care facilities provide the basis for this. This gives rise to a collaborative approach that combines care provision with cost-effectiveness. The aim is to develop solutions that specifically expand the market, tap into new needs and, at the same time, meet the requirements of funding bodies, patients and service providers.
TOP 100: the competition
Since 1993, compamedia has been awarding the TOP 100 seal to medium-sized enterprises in recognition of their exceptional innovative strength and above-average success in innovation. Since 2002, the scientific director has been Prof. Dr Nikolaus Franke. Franke is the founder and director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. The mentor for the TOP 100 is the former Federal President and Minister-President Christian Wulff. Project partners are the Fraunhofer Society for the Promotion of Applied Research and the German Association for Small and Medium-sized Businesses (BVMW).
