Q&A -
E-commerce = efficiency, consolidation, information with
Larry Dooley
Larry Dooley is vice president of e-commerce supplier relations for Novation, Irving, TX, the supply company of VHA and UNC. Novation and Neoforma are partners in the e-commerce offering known as
marketplace@novation.com.
HPN: What is the chief impact that Internet buying will have on manufacturers, distributors and GPOs in the coming years?
Dooley: The major impact will come in two areas: The efficiencies the supply chain will gain by moving numerous manual activities to electronic, and the access to real-time information across the supply chain.
HPN: What is the value proposition that e-commerce offers to hospitals?
Dooley: Efficiencies gained from moving manual processes to electronic, but most important the consolidation of information for making more informed purchasing decisions, along with access to real-time information to drive product standardization and utilization.
HPN: What barriers to e-commerce adoption do you think will be broken down by this time next year?
Dooley: The number of hospitals and suppliers accessing e-commerce will provide the critical mass to drive operational efficiencies and provide robust real-time information.
HPN: Would you describe the e-commerce adoption rate as fast or slow, and why?
Dooley: The adoption rate by hospitals is medium to high. The adoption rate by suppliers is slow to medium. The reason is that hospitals see the value, especially in the operational efficiencies and consolidated real-time data, while suppliers are in denial over the operational efficiencies since they will have to pay for this value and are afraid of the real-time data and its impact on their business.
HPN: Why do you believe that many of the early players in e-commerce failed?
Dooley: Those companies did not understand the business, used threats and oversold the capabilities of e-commerce to suppliers.
HPN: What can the industry learn from the early years of medical supply e-commerce?
Dooley: That if as an industry we work together through organizations such as the Coalition for Healthcare eStandards, we can provide a standard operating system that will be far more efficient than the current system we operate under.
HPN: What has marketplace@novation.com learned from the early years of medical supply e-commerce?
Dooley: That it takes will power, collaboration and trust to build a successful marketplace. Without these elements, and without being teamed with a strong e-commerce company such as Neoforma, success will be fleeting.
HPN
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