Procurement as a lever for efficiency and sustainability in the healthcare sector in Italy

Optimising indirect procurement represents a growth opportunity for companies working in the private healthcare sector. Efficient savings, which do not compromise product quality and sustainability, enable them to cope with resource scarcity and rising costs while delivering better results for both the budget and patients. New technologies and centralised, all-encompassing solutions are a game changer for those working in this sector.

The economic resources allocated to healthcare are often too low compared to real needs. Rising costs and the complicated conditions under which supply chains operate present a challenge for private healthcare facilities, which have to offer high quality services with limited budgets.

While purchases of medical equipment are a large and unavoidable part of the costs, it is undeniable that a large part of the budget is taken up by goods and services that are not strictly medical, such as office supplies, maintenance services, cleaning products and energy costs. These costs are often fragmented and difficult to control, but offer enormous optimisation potential if managed centrally and transparently.

Just imagine the purchasing manager of a private clinic. Every week, he spends precious hours managing dozens of different orders. He has to contact one supplier for printer paper, another for sanitiser products and a third for equipment maintenance. Each process requires phone calls, emails and the management of separate invoices. This fragmented approach not only consumes time that could be devoted to strategic activities, but also makes it almost impossible to gain an overview of spending and identify opportunities for savings.

In fact, more and more players in the private sector have realised that intelligent management of indirect procurement, characterised by greater visibility of purchasing flows and more control over suppliers, is a winning competitive tool. To achieve this, it is necessary to adopt digital and centralised solutions that allow real time monitoring of expenditure.

But the costs of introducing high-level technologies into their internal systems are not always sustainable, not to mention the time and resources that would have to be spent teaching staff how to use these tools. And this is where corporate marketplace services can come into play and make an essential contribution.

These services offer centralised solutions that integrate seamlessly with internal systems, are intuitive and have tools to monitor purchases, as well as a wide range of reliable suppliers to choose from, and the ability to analyse and predict future spending using AI-based technologies.

According to Amazon Business' Redefining the Future of Corporate Purchasing report, 85 per cent of organisations use online marketplaces to manage marginal expenses, i.e. indirect purchases.

Monitoring purchasing data and obtaining real-time spending forecasts with the right digital tools can achieve three central objectives: containing spending, ensuring the availability of essential goods and services, and promoting sustainable purchasing.

Centralised and transparent purchasing management can help identify waste, reduce procurement time and obtain more advantageous terms. At the same time, the use of digital tools and marketplace services - such as Amazon Business - can simplify administration, ensure continuity of supply and maintain compliance with industry standards of quality and sustainability.

In addition, automating procurement processes means relieving staff of repetitive and time-consuming tasks, leaving them freer to care for patients and provide a more efficient service and a better experience for people in their care.

This is why private healthcare companies using online stores are seeing an overall improvement in the quality of the services they offer. Efficient procurement processes have become an essential strategic factor not only in reducing costs, but also in ensuring a better healthcare service for patients.

The experience of many companies in the private healthcare sector, which have started to adopt marketplace services, has shown how successful this choice has been.

If you want to find out how Amazon Business can also help your organisation optimise costs, visit https://business.amazon.it/