Troubles in Tendering

Those who work in healthcare will be aware of tendering, what it is and the stress that comes with this process. Tendering refers to the process by which bids are invited from interested suppliers (companies) to provide goods or services (or both) to a buyer organization (trusts, hospitals, clinics etc.). When tendering is done correctly, it can help clinical care to improve, while saving costs through value-added programs. Some tendering decisions take months or even years to decide on a supplier, often involving many KOLs, which can get confusing. A buyer wanting to select the right supplier is no easy task and includes hours of research, plenty of meetings and feedback to reach a final verdict.

A handful of healthcare and procurement professionals involved in tendering have said it is a smooth process, while others have been met with complications and roadblocks that make things more challenging. What makes tendering so tough is finding the perfect match for what buyers are looking for, when they start opening the door to new suppliers. Not only is it “which suppliers can provide the best solutions?”, but also “which supplier can provide the best care for patients?”, “which can save money in the long run?” and “which can support the clinical teams in ways their current suppliers are not?”.

Once buyers know what they are looking for in their next supplier, an invitation to tender (ITT) is sent out. After being sent out, the buyer will wait to hear back from respected suppliers, hoping to get responses from all invitations. This, however, is not always the case. In 80% of all public healthcare tenders, 44% had only one supplier show up and 15% had no bidders at all. There needs to be more awareness around buyers knowing which suppliers are out there, and suppliers knowing which tenders to go after that will give them the best chance of winning. This information is not commonly available on the market, but technology is changing that.

When the ITT gets accepted and suppliers decide to partake, there is work to be done until a decision is made (that is, if more than one supplier shows up). This includes sorting out product codes, trialing products and a mountain of paperwork compliance – which is still a manual process. Eventually, once all has been trialed and sorted, a final verdict is reached. What if there was a solution to give the buyer more certainty and guarantee that their decision was 100% the right one?

Through Big Data collection, Machine Learning and AI, Vamstar is supporting this solution. The information we have gathered and provided to our buyer customers has led them to find the best suppliers and save their account anywhere from 15-40% in tendering costs. Time spent on long, manually driven tasks and research can be done within a few minutes, providing a seamless workflow throughout the entire tendering process. Each buyer is different in their supplier requirements. Vamstar understands this and can create the best tendering path for each buyer by quickly adapting to specific procurement strategies.

If you are unsure about your next tender, just interested in having a demo, or want any more information, please get in touch with Josh Pistorius at josh.pistorius@vamstar.io

Tendering Process | Healthcare Procurement | Buyers | Suppliers | Artificial Intelligence | Clinical Care | Value-Based Procurement | Contract Bids | Invitation to Tender | Tender Fulfillment | Hospitals | Clinics |