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A vendor management system (VMS) promises freedom from the chaos that can be caused by juggling the vast array of components in a staffing supply chain. It does this by pushing everything through a central pro

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

cessing point. Yet the business side of making these transitions can be complicated and disastrous if not well planned. How do you ensure a successful VMS implementation? After spending months with companies a

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

d vendors in developing ContractCentral we’ve learned some valuable lessons about making the transition to vendor managment system.

1. Know why you’re buying a VMS

Organiza

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

ions deploy VMS systems for different reasons. Will your VMS foster competitive bidding to lower staffing costs? Speed requisition broadcasts? Reduce the time it takes to find and manage contract workers? You’

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

l save time and money by building a prioritized list of those reasons, understanding must-haves and trade-offs, and using that list to spec, evaluate, plan and build a VMS solution tailored to your business.

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

strong>2. Establish success metrics up front

How will you define success or failure in your VMS implementation? Identify at least one measure of success for each of the items on your priority list,

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

nd develop metrics that enable you to prove the value of the new system. Establishing metrics early, before the project has started, allows you to create and track baselines. These days CFOs are increasingly c

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

ncerned with making total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI) a central facet of the solution. Establishing a hard dollar value can be tough (be sure to ask prospective vendors for suggestio

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

s) but can go a long way toward winning loyal support from senior management.

3. Map VMS against your own business processes

Any major solution implementation can require a few tweaks to yo

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

r business process as it’s deployed. The trick is to prevent tweaks from becoming major process re-engineering (unless, of course, a re-engineering is part of the plan).

Before telecommunications company ADC

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

eployed HotGigs ContractCentral, it studied its existing staffing operations and determined that some re-engi

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

eering was necessary. Those changes became an early part of the deployment plan, allowing the team to craft retraining and support strategies to ensure a smooth transition.

4. Understand your costs
dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod
trong>

The industry rule of thumb says a VMS shouldn’t cost more than 1 to 3 percent of your hiring budget, and you can anticipate saving 10 percent to 25 percent of your staffing costs through increased effi
cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin
iencies and more competitive bidding.However, don’t overlook hidden costs. How will your employees manage staffing during the transition? Have you budgeted for retraining your users and participating vendors?
tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen
oes your contract include post-deployment enhancements? Is there an early penalty for canceling a VMS purchased for a set term?

5. Put yourself in your vendors’ shoes

Be realistic about you
t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel
staffing vendors’ costs as well. The higher the cost of integration with your new VMS, or the more deltas there are between their system and yours, the less likely you are to get accurate inputs and prompt re
ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust
ponses.

5. Build a training plan

If training is needed, are there online training and support modules available? How much training time will each user need? Are there different views availa
y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products
le of the user's desktop in the VMS based on their role and relationship to the system?

6. Plan to scale

One of the greatest success factors of a software application is its rate of adoptio
.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de
with the people who are supposed to use it. If your initial roll out is successful, your users will inevitably begin to use it in new ways, find new reporting requirements…and sooner or later you’ll be faced
elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip
ith a need to scale. Make sure your VMS can handle the load without the need for extensive custom-coding, an expensive proposition. In addition, opt for the smartest, most flexible reporting structure possible

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Digg It - Six Steps to a Successful Vendor Management System

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