Elscint retools for product focus

Israeli multimodality vendor Elscint greeted the new year witha revamped corporate structure designed to streamline operations.Elscint has reorganized operations from a functional line structureto a product-oriented structure and has created a new subsidiaryfor ultrasound and mammography products.

Elscint announced last month the establishment of three productdivisions centered around its core modalities: CT, MRI and nuclearmedicine. Each division will be responsible for R&D and customersupport of the products in its division. Marketing and sales effortswill also be handled within each division, according to executivevice president Robert Sohval.

Mammography and ultrasound operations have been folded intoa new Israel-based subsidiary, Elscintec Systems. The new subsidiaryacknowledges the differences between marketing ultrasound andmammography systems and big-ticket items like CT and MRI, Sohvalsaid.

Elscint also formed a separate engineering and infrastructuredivision to streamline product design and manufacturing.

The moves should make Elscint more responsive to customersand improve the vendor's ability to react to changes in the marketplace,Sohval said.

"In a functional organization, sometimes issues get lostor fall through the cracks," Sohval said. "By virtueof having a single manager overlooking the product line, thatkind of situation should no longer occur."

Elscint executives have acknowledged that following throughafter a sale has been one of the company's weaknesses (SCAN 12/29/93).The new structure should improve Elscint's customer focus.

"(The reorganization) is a recognition of the fact thatwe are in a customer-driven market and we need to organize ourselvesto respond as quickly as we can to changing customer needs,"Sohval said.

Elscint's emphasis on improving customer ties was evident inits selection of Dr. Thomas Spackman to head its U.S. operations.Spackman is the only CEO of a major imaging vendor who is alsoa radiologist.

The corporate changes announced last month had been under developmentbefore Spackman's arrival and primarily affect operations in theHaifa headquarters, Sohval said.

Related to the reorganization were the following personnelchanges:

û Benjamin Sabbah will head Elscintec Systems;

û Eliezer Tokman was appointed manager of the CT division;

û Nathan Hermony was named manager of the nuclear medicinedivision; and

û Israel Schreiber was tapped to head the engineeringand infrastructure division.

Moshe De-Levy will continue to manage the MRI division.