Modernise Healthcare Procurement Strategy

Amazon Business’s Bulk Spend solutions helps healthcare procurement leaders reduce supply costs, streamline supply buying, and gain visibility into their spend.

In 2024, there has been increasing scrutiny and attention paid to the procurement function within healthcare organisations as every purchase has an impact on the bottom line. With increasing labour costs, volatile economy and disruptions to supply chain, the healthcare industry is feeling the pressure on their revenue and expenses.

When reshaping their procurement strategy, leaders should focus on several areas: cost reduction, streamlined purchasing, and spend visibility. With its solution for Bulk Spend, Amazon Business helps organisations achieve all three.

Reduce costs in healthcare supply chains

Traditional healthcare supply chains and supply sources often aren’t as agile or responsive as the industry needs them to be. With an online store like Amazon Business, healthcare organisations can consolidate their purchases through a single channel, saving time and energy for patient care.

With Amazon Business, you can get access to a large number of suppliers and get quantity discounts on thousands of products. Access eligible products across categories with quantity discounts and bulk suppliers who compete to offer the competitive pricing. “"Integrating Amazon Business into our ERP has allowed us to make an evolutionary leap in the digitalisation of tail spend purchases and in the efficiency of the procurement process across all our 30+ companies on the national territory, enabling the company to standardise the purchases and employees to enjoy greater autonomy. Furthermore, due to a series of strategic initiatives and analysis tools, we were able to increase visibility and control over expenses, allowing the company to make informed decisions and identify savings opportunities across different product categories." Raffaello De Fidelibus, Procurement Manager, Eurofins.                     

Deep discounts are often available on high-volume purchases with the Bulk Buying Tool and Request for Quote

The Bulk Buying Tool (BBT) can help you meet your bulk buying needs by:

• Consolidating inventory from multiple suppliers when a single supplier doesn’t have enough inventory
• Combining offers from multiple suppliers to find the low price - even if a single supplier has enough inventory to fulfill your order. Any single-product, one-time purchase > £10,000 or 999 units that requires custom pricing and/or additional inventory than listed on Amazon Business.

A quote can be requested using our Request for Quote (RFQ) tool. When buying in bulk, the RFQ tool can help when:

• You need more inventory than what’s available on Amazon Business
• You expect a better price or a bulk discount when buying in volume
• You need specific B2B selection for example (pack sizes/pallets/product assortment)

Streamline purchasing for healthcare organisations

When healthcare leaders are constantly asked to do more with less, increasing operational efficiencies has become top of mind. The need for agility calls for simplified, smart procurement. Digitising your supply chain can’t wait for another public health crisis. Automating processes such as product identification and workflow approvals can improve inefficient, manual processes to allow buyers to focus on more high-value work. Empower your staff from nurses to admins to make guided purchasing within guardrails; use Business Lists for frequently purchased items and manage employee spending with Guided Buying (a Business Prime feature). Meanwhile, the central procurement team can create Buying Policies within the shopping experience to meet your criteria. Direct your team to Preferred Products or Preferred Suppliers. Steer them away from Restricted Categories. Apply Spending Limits for product categories.

Of course, ease of ordering is nothing without dependable shipping — and Amazon Business gives you both. You can trust that your orders will show up at your locations quickly and reliably. Don’t wait days (or weeks) for your supplies to get to you — you can choose a cadence for recurring delivery or select one day of the week to receive eligible ordered items with Amazon Day, a Business Prime feature.

Healthcare spend visibility

Short-term cost reduction is simply not enough; healthcare leaders are proactively looking for long-term cost saving opportunities. Data, unlocked from digital transformation, can empower even the most risk averse. A central channel of data is a stark contrast to a fractured and incomplete data landscape. For example, with tools like Amazon Business’ analytics and custom order fields, you can quickly drill data into insights you might not see with traditional reporting methods.

Alex Blatherwick, Head of Procurement at HCRG Group, one of the largest commissioned providers of healthcare to the NHS in the UK explains how they were struggling with an overly complex supplier ecosystem which made it difficulty to have oversight over spend. “The efficiency savings we have made by consolidating our supplier list using Amazon Business means that we have more time within the procurement team to spend on projects, tenders and strategy. By reducing our supply base we have simplified our processes, lowered cybersecurity risks and can more easily abide by NHS standards.” The procurement team at HCRG Care Group can now focus their time on large strategic projects that drive more savings for the business across different categories.

The future is now

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Procurement and supply chain leaders have been and will continue to be the change agent in their organisation to optimise costs, drive operational efficiency, and identify saving opportunities.