6
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cerecdoctors.com
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quarter 4
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2012
Overcoming Barriers to Realize Full CEREC Value
The Agile Practice
for years now, we’ve been told that
the way we move money is going to
change. For most of us, it already has —
and to a significant degree. Things like
online banking and card-swiping at the
counter didn’t exist for some of us in
some of our younger days. But I mean
something truly transformative, like the
smartphone, for example. You don’t have
to be a futurist to see that iPhone, Black-
Berry and Android are changing the way
we engage with the world, and that one
day we will be doing most of our financial
transactions with our handheld devices.
But that future is already here. Millions
are alreadyusing a virtual-currency system
to easily deposit and transfer funds, give
money to a friend, paybills, buy apizza, pay
for a cab ride — all with a
few taps on their phone.
So, why aren’t you using
these widely popular and
successful spending apps
and services?
Probably because you
don’t live in Kenya. More
than 50 percent of the
adult population there
uses a service called
M-Pesa (M is for mobile, Pesa is Swahili
for money) for day-to-day financial trans-
actions. It’s now spreading to places like
Tanzania, Afghanistan and South Africa.
The growth ofM-Pesa in these countries is
a glimpse into the future, where the “elec-
tronic wallet” is already a reality.
Beating the Barriers to Entry
How is this possible? How is it that some
of the most desperately poor communi-
ties in theworld are leading thewaywhen
it comes to revolutionizing how we deal
with money?
t h e c o m p l e t e d e n t i s t
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b y i m t i a z m a n j i
The simple answer is that there wasn’t
much standing in their way. The banking
and economic infrastructure there is
notoriously weak. Many people don’t
have bank accounts, and those who do
often have to travel far to get to their
branch. In most cases, they don’t have
home Internet access to do their banking.
But they do have mobile phones — in Sub-
Saharan Africa, 73 percent of families
own one. That seems like a surprisingly
high number until you realize that land-
lines there are few and far between. In
other words, the M-Pesa concept spread
quickly because competition and “old
habits” were practically non-existent.
Compare that with our “developed
world”: where the widespread embrace-
ment of the e-wallet
looks to be a ways off.
We are seeing some fresh
approaches from the
usual leaders in innova-
tion — Apple has all but
done away with the tradi-
tional checkout process
in their stores in favor of
a streamlined and flexible
on-the-spot, pay-and-go
system. Starbucks is hooking up with the
mobile payment company Square to intro-
duce smartphone-based instant ordering
and payment. But, for the most part, if you
want torevolutionizea fundamental part of
Americans’ lives, you’re going to come up
against significant barriers to entry. There
will be resistance from powerful organi-
zations with an interest in maintaining
the status quo. There will be resistance
in the form of peoples’ long-entrenched
habits. But sometimes the most common
barriers to overcome are the ones we put
up ourselves. And that’s what I think is
happening with the implementation of
CEREC in dentistry.
The Importance of “In The Now”
Before I get into the specific barriers that
stand in the way of realizing full CEREC
value, let’s stop and think about an impor-
tant trend in our consumer society: the
concept of shopping “in the now.” We may
not have an M-Pesa system of our own,
but smartphones have definitely redefined
the shopping experience by putting the
world’s biggest mall in our pockets. People
are buying clothes and even TVs while
they are sitting in a coffee shop, or in your
waiting area. They’re making decisions —
and acting on them— “in the now.”
And just look at how retailers are
responding to this new reality. In today’s
world, for anyone who serves people,
agility is the watchword. Amazon is
looking at expanding the number of
places where it can offer-same day ship-
ping. Zappos lets you return as many pairs
of shoes as you like, hassle-free, so you can
try on styles to your heart’s content. Trips
to the local video store have been replaced
by online streaming services like Netflix
and iTunes. Easier, faster, more respon-
sive — that’s what consumers want.
This is the kind of thinking that should
inspire CEREC owners, because CEREC
is the ultimate “time machine” for dental
patients. It’s a technology that is designed
to capture that “in the now” sense of
urgency. But the question is: are you really
using it in that way? Or have you let the
barriers of your existing infrastructure
stand in the way of ideal implementation?
It’s a Matter of Perspective
CEREC has the ability to utterly trans-
form the way dentistry is perceived and