The Challenge: I use a third party spend analysis service, sending them my PO history each month and waiting for them to format and load it. When I see the analysis, it can be days or weeks old. And because it’s based solely on PO history, I don’t get a complete picture of my spend—file, non-file and non-PO. 

MediClick believes strongly that the best analysis leads you to action. This fundamental principle determines the way in which MediClick for C&A collects your information, how it’s presented it to you, and the options C&A provides you.

This process enables you to act quickly when you find an opportunity.

Analyzing Your Complete Spend

C&A is not limited to analyzing your file spend or information we can gather from your purchase orders. We recognize that some of the highest dollar spend comes from non-file spending (often called “specials”) or even purchases that don’t originate from a PO.

Without that information in your analysis, you’re left with big gaps when trying to understand your spend patterns.

Through the integration with your ERP system, C&A pulls your invoices and purchase orders, grabbing the complete picture of your spend. We present it to you in the C&A Analysis Workbench where the system sorts by highest dollar to show you the best savings opportunities by UNSPSC code, manufacturer, item description, department, organization and more.

Up-to-the-Minute Analysis

Timing matters. C&A uses its connector layer integration with your ERP to update your spend information as frequently as every five minutes. There is no downloading of files. No sending data off to a third party. No waiting for data cleansing.

C&A provides you with a complete picture of your spend as soon as PO or invoice information is updated in your ERP.

Data Normalization

Many hospitals don’t maintain their spend data in a very user friendly way, which makes it difficult to use the data for analysis. To glean anything useful from the data, supply chain leaders believe they must go through the rigors of data cleansing before they can access good spend analysis.

MediClick’s Product Index Layer plays a critical role in providing spend analysis you can use immediately. It works constantly behind the scenes, normalizing all the data that passes from your ERP and enriching it with manufacturer information, UNSPSC codes and standardized descriptions before it comes into C&A.

This automated, data normalizing process organizes your spend information in C&A’s Analysis Workbench. You now have one set of updated, accurate data, making it easier – and quicker – to find savings and take action.

For C&A customers that integrate with multiple ERP systems using disparate databases, the Product Index Layer provides the simplest approach for aggregating spend information in one single place.

Analysis Leading to Action

Analysis should not be an academic exercise: gathering information that is unusable. Far too often spend analytics tools deliver limited analysis, deliver it weeks too late, and deliver it without a firm tie into your everyday operating tools.

With C&A we want to show you a savings opportunity via the Analysis Workbench, and we want you to be able to act on it immediately.

For example, through C&A’s off-contract analysis, you notice that one of your facilities has begun ordering a new product for which you don’t have an active contract. Chances are they’re being charged list price for the item. A quick search of your GPO portfolio shows that the product is covered under a contract that you can activate immediately for a 15 percent savings. So, you activate it, upload it into C&A, and pass the new pricing to your ERP to take immediate effect.

Your analysis led to quick action.

Or another example: You use C&A’s Analysis Workbench to identify that your coronary stent business is divided evenly among three separate manufacturers. This market share split means you’re not getting the best price from any of the suppliers. But if you consolidated 80 percent share to just one, the price different could be significant.

Within C&A, you turn this analysis into a Project using C&A’s Project Tool to create and send an RFP to each of the suppliers, engage your clinicians in the evaluation, award bids and create contracts. Read about the rest of the process here.