If there is one thing we are known for, it’s the complementary approach we’ve developed for customers to integrate aptitude into their operations. To ensure customers stay up to date on all that we have to offer, we conduct group and customized training sessions for both our provider and supplier customers.

Last week we hosted a supplier education webinar which reviewed some of our new features and functionality plus a few “tips and tricks” to ensure that businesses are fully leveraging the resources available to them as aptitude users.

In this two-part blog, we will explore some of the highlights from our recent training session, starting with best practices.

Best practices

Review, then respond

As a foundational approach of the aptitude platform, we suggest suppliers first review a buyer’s spend history and purchases before responding to ensure they understand the landscape and create an optimized offer for the provider that has made the request. From their dashboard, suppliers can analyze spend by UNSPSC, by facility and quickly identify which ones to target. They can also look at cross references and competitors in the market – or quickly check if it would be beneficial to provide more cross options to the market based on current business mix.

Adding documents

When you have finished building your offer, you have the option to attach any relevant documents to the bid. For example, an executive summary to respond with the offer or white papers on your products, videos – anything that would supplement the offer itself and that the provider would look at with your offers to add clarity and insight. Be sure you are taking advantage of this unique communication channel.

Setting up your profile

Participants at the webinar were shown a behind the scenes look at what providers see when they look at a supplier organization. This is another opportunity to provide them with any materials you want providers to access – clinical value analysis information, white papers, etc. The ability to add documents supports another layer of selling and informing the provider side.

Access to data drives different conversations.

Another important differentiator for aptitude is the ability to manage and monitor your new and existing contracts. It can move the conversation in quarterly business reviews away from the unknown and assumed, to a shared source of truth that builds relationships.

For example you can see exactly how each member and facility is performing and have conversations, month over month, about trends with the overall system and by location – even all the way to the product level.

Our team works with industry-leading suppliers daily to discuss challenges, opportunities, and future initiatives to continue advancing the healthcare supply chain.

Check back next week to read Part 2: Recent Releases + What’s Coming in 2020.