“Cost optimization can only be done with rock solid data in 2024 and beyond.”
Let’s face it, everything is data driven in the cost/value optimization world. It is mission critical that you set yourself up with a consistent flow of data that will help you create the best savings and quality outcomes. We depend upon data to make mission-critical decisions on major and minor categories of purchase all the time. All of our GPO contracts are established based on data that we send to our GPO. We pull past spend history and statistics for benchmarking, key performance indicators, and clinical supply reporting. When we send out bids, we need to have the data right or we will get garbage back in return – the data must be clean.
We can list many more reasons why data is so important to us and not just data but the right data that we feel confident enough to use for our mission-critical decisions. Below are some key points that may change your perception of data.
How Do Solution Providers Take Our Raw Data and Sell it Back to Us in a Fancy Format?
One of the reasons that companies like SVAH Solutions can do more and create more value with your own data is that we set up separate databases, queries, and reports with your data to enhance it. Why? Because if just one line item is wrong in a category when we present a savings or quality change then the end users are going to use that one- or two-line items against us to show us the data is wrong in some way. This can slow down an initiative or in some cases the end users will use this as a reason not to trust the corrected data moving forward. As solutions providers, we cannot take that chance and thus we normalize, cleanse, and enhance our clients’ data without changing the raw data provided to us. This is paramount in making your data mission-critical worthy in the future.
With the data bulletproof, we then can combine it with other areas like patient volume centric statistics and create benchmarking and key performance solutions that are powered off your data. It is not just taking your data and putting it in another database, there is much more to the equation, but you may want to start thinking about how you could do this too.
Don’t Depend on Your ERP/Purchasing System’s Categorization
The biggest reason that solutions providers create a separate database with our client’s data is that the categorization used in the ERP/purchasing systems is not always correct or could be missing altogether. Even when organizations spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to cleanse their data and add in UNSPSC coding/categorization, that is only a snapshot in time. We see, on average, 17% to 23% of products changing from month to month and quarter to quarter. If you don’t consistently maintain that UNSPSC coding with these changes, you are going to have incongruent categories. We need these categories to run any and all analysis so it has to be right every time or we will get blown out of the water by the end customers.
With Enhanced Data You Will Be Unstoppable
With enhanced data you will be able to handle the entire before, during, and after effect of your supply chain actions and know with certainty that these were the right decisions made at the right time. Plus, you will know exactly the end net results of these actions that will give you peace of mind that you can share with your senior leadership.
Once you have upped your game to the new level of enhanced categorization, this will take you a long way into the future and give you confidence in all of your contracts, standardization, bids, value analysis reviews, and recall management. Cost/value optimization can only be done with rock solid data in 2024 and beyond. We cannot afford to waste time and effort spinning our wheels fixing bad data.
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