Author Archives: Tom Finn

SpendBoss was founded by Scott Schneider. His objective was simple: Develop extraordinarily easy-to-use spend management software that integrates well with the other technologies typical of the small to midsize ecosystems. This required making the software easily accessible as a service and, obviously, choosing a subscription price that would be a no-brainer. And SpendBoss has done just that.

As complex operating structures, healthcare providers have long tended to segregate operations, thinking that by addressing them as disparate tasks they’ll be better able to manage them. One effect, unfortunately, is how this approach often confounds attempts at eliminating variance, regardless of type. To compound the matter, such divisions filter down, even into otherwise functionally integrated operating environments. Procurement and supply chain, despite their convergence, are not exempt. 

I recently read a Forbes piece penned by my friend Paul Martyn. Essentially, it took hospitals to the woodshed, pointing out how many of them remain victims of Stockholm syndrome. It’s an unfortunate analogy meant to describe the state of mind of far too many acute care supply chain practitioners. The implication here is that hospital purchasing staffers tend to identify with the goals and objectives of their “captors.” In this case, the captors are the major pharmaceutical and device manufacturers (OEMs).

As a super-category of spend, purchased services continue to pose challenges that are felt across all industry. Although there’s a well-known playbook (i.e. get your data-act together; benchmark; rationalize suppliers and source better arrangements), what is it about purchased services that continues to confound our best efforts? Among healthcare providers — an industry that is just now learning to take control of its supply chains — it has been exposed as a huge problem.

Almost overnight it seems that the supply risk management (SRM) solution area has exploded with new options. Available solutions fall into a range of categories. On one end of the spectrum, technology suite vendors are adding basic supplier risk functionality, providing what amounts to a starter package for procurement organizations to quickly “risk categorize” their suppliers. While solutions like this may lack the feature and monitoring depth that more advanced procurement and supply chain organizations may require, they deliver a combination of integrated ease of access and use that can be difficult to pass up as an add-on to existing capabilities.

At the other end of the spectrum, more advanced supply and supply chain risk management solutions now provide multiple dimensions of insight through integrated software and content packages that can stand on their own as an independent solution area separate from traditional “source-to-pay” suites and modules or integrate with existing systems. These types of solutions, which include LexisNexis Entity Insight (LNEI), the subject of this analysis, are typically best suited for procurement and supply chain management teams where risk management practices and solution requirements are well developed or more strategic.

This Spend Matters PRO Vendor Snapshot provides facts and expert analysis to help procurement organizations make informed decisions about LNEI and whether its solution is a fit for their supplier and supply chain risk management needs. Part 1 of our analysis provides company background information and a solution overview, as well as recommended fit suggestions. The remaining parts of this research brief will cover product strengths and weaknesses, competitor and SWOT analyses, and insider evaluation and selection considerations.

Although he surely wasn’t the first to point it out, Warren Buffett grabbed the market’s attention when he described healthcare as a “tapeworm on the U.S. economy.” In fact, his voice carried enough weight to trigger a stock market selloff. Interestingly, not even Walmart’s actions, along with those of other major retailers, have garnered similar attention. Combined, they have quietly opened thousands of healthcare clinics for the past several years. But unlike CVS, Rite Aid, Kroger and other pharmacy and grocery chains, Walmart has effectively positioned itself as a true primary care provider, capable even of treating patients with chronic diseases.  

Truckload contracting is a fragmented market in dire need of better management tools. But is that why as much as 25% of all road miles are still being driven empty? A new company called LogisticsExchange (LE) has taken an entirely fresh look at that question. Interestingly, here’s where it has landed: It is attacking the industry’s traditional contracting practices.

Joining a GPO is like getting a Costco membership. You know you’re not going to get ripped off, so you probably won’t put much thought into joining. But therein lies the rub for GPO members. Like Costco, a GPO is a one-size-fits-all marketplace where you may overbuy when you get there or underbuy by not getting there at all.

In an increasingly Amazon-dominated world, however, this model is not the only available option.Today, the assortment and pricing of items available to consumers are tuned to the user and monetized most efficiently by intermediaries that can source better and optimize for lowest total landed costs better than individual buyers. Procurement organizations are now looking to bring this experience to the complex world of B2B purchasing. And where GPOs fit into this more sophisticated equation is not a simple answer (many are still trying to figure it out themselves). 

But that doesn’t mean GPOs will go the way of the 1980s big box retailer. Instead, GPOs will have to take on a role beyond the race to the lowest price. This multipart Spend Matters PRO series explains what motivates GPOs and helps procurement organizations best decide when and how to engage them. In this second installment (see our initial GPO introduction), we explore GPOs from a supplier perspective and offer recommendations for vendors working through GPOs to make these relationships more successful. We also explore how GPO options and capabilities are evolving and segment the GPO market by model and type and provide case example looks at different GPO business models. These include vertical/industry independent, member-owned, horizontal, affinity, category-specific and procurement technology led GPO models. 

The purpose of almost every business contract is the same: to define the relationship and allocate risk. To effectively do the latter, supply chain managers must manage external risks and internal risks. But even considered separately, the point is that managing both kinds of risk is challenging. With a plate that full and interdependent, is it any wonder that contracts seem to create more operational friction than they’re worth? Why haven’t we figured out that we can’t adjudicate such variability?

Group purchasing organizations (GPOs) are not a new idea. Agricultural cooperatives aggregated the buying power of farmers hundreds of years ago. That said, GPOs have evolved quite a bit, and the infusion of new digital capabilities is taking that evolution to an even higher level. This evolution also means that procurement organizations must go in “eyes wide open” to best utilize this important tool in the procurement tool belt.

Not all GPOs (or GPO models) are the same. Understanding the differences will make you a more educated, and thus likely more successful, buyer. Therefore, we’ve decided to delve a little deeper into this obscure sector of the procurement provider market and shed some light on how to best extract value from it.

This multipart Spend Matters PRO brief is designed to demystify GPOs and put procurement organizations on the same information playing field as the GPOs attempting to sign them up, expand their utilization of contracts and sell additional services. Within this series, we will explore GPOs by type, as there are several business models in play, and by industry segment, as GPOs are heavily embedded in certain markets and are little more than a supply option in others.

This first installment in our GPO coverage:

• Defines what GPOs are (and are not)
• Explains how GPOs operate
• Explores GPO “spend coverage and fit”
• Analyze the GPO market segments and how to engage them
• Offers tips and tricks for engaging GPOs based on their own constraints/models
• Provides both basic and advanced takeaways for procurement organizations that are thinking through GPOs as an alternative supply option
• Offers a checklist of activities to consider when sourcing GPOs

Alfred Hitchcock provided a great definition of the difference between surprise and suspense. It goes like this: If a bunch of guys are playing poker and a bomb goes off under the table, that’s a surprise. If, however, we know that the bomb is there and we watch the timer tick down while the men play on, that’s suspense. When Warren Buffett said that the ballooning costs of healthcare “act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy,” the financial markets acted like a bomb went off and the media covered the story like none of us knew it was there. Let me save you the suspense: egregious profiteering in the medical-industrial complex is the head of the tapeworm that Buffett spoke about.

These days especially, there’s an unlimited supply of hotly politicized topics perfectly suited to make sure we talk past each other — and learn nothing. Healthcare provides numerous examples. For example, President Trump got a rise out of the Brits last week tweeting barbs at its beloved National Health Service (NHS), a topic which, by his own account, he knows little about. Trump zeroed-in on a recent NHS protest and sparked a backlash saying that the “NHS is going broke and not working.” The protest he referenced, interestingly enough called “NHS in crisis: Fix it now,” was organized by the People's Assembly and Health Campaigns Together. The movement is supported by most all of the U.K.’s largest unions.