Many supply chain and value analysis professionals believe that value analysis software is a luxury, not a necessity, to improve their VA process. To this point, I’m sure you wouldn’t consider going back to a typewriter for your daily correspondence once you have experienced the power of Outlook for email, Gmail, etc. So, with this in mind, here are three ways you can employ value analysis software to streamline your VA process:
Employ Value Analysis Software to Streamline Your VA Process
1. Eliminate the hassle of receiving purchase requests (written or typed) by email, internal mail, or over the transit. Once you have programmed your own customized healthcare organization’s purchase requests into your value analysis software, there will be only one option to submit a new product purchase request to you that will be delivered to you electronically. This feature will help to eliminate paper shuffling, chasing missing elements, and lost requests since they will all be automatically captured, stored, organized, and maintained in a central system with a central document repository in your VA software.
2. Ensure that your customers have weighed and evaluated all of the alternatives before submitting a new product request. Your VA software’s “Quiz Questions™” feature can force your customers to define their request functionally as opposed to just listing a manufacturer’s product number, as well as estimate annual cost savings, or quantify the product, service, or technology’s improvement in terms of quality or outcome. This feature can quickly value justify or eliminate many new product requests before they ever reach your office.
3. Provide a triage for your purchase requests to inform “need to know parties” of the request. A new electronic purchase request can trigger emails to be sent to your office, purchasing, budget, etc., to make them aware of the new purchase requisition. This will eliminate you performing this service manually.
4. Enhance communications for your supply chain and value analysis teams with your end customers. With all the talk of having more clinically integrated supply chains, one of the key elements is the communications process on new product requests. Remember, we are only facilitators of the processes of value analysis and supply chain procurement, but the end customers are the subject matter experts and end users of the products, services, and technologies we buy. Your value analysis software will help you keep them informed with automated task tracking, email notifications, and end user customer dashboards.
Value Analysis Software Makes Your Job Easier
One of the benefits of technology is that it can make your job easier and process faster and more reliably. Paperwork doesn’t get lost, files can be retrieved immediately, and it improves communications/collaboration. No spreadsheet can do this for you!
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