Learn how PROS helped this medical devices company increase profitable growth with a $40M uplift in revenue
This medical and pharmaceutical devices company has been at the cutting edge of science as a medical devices manufacturer and treatment provider for over a century. However, as their business began to grow, the web of people, spreadsheets, and emails used for pricing and contract infrastructure became challenging to manage.
The challenge of remaining competitive
The organization found it increasingly difficult to remain competitive and grow in the challenging healthcare landscape. Progressive group purchasing organizations (GPOs) have expanded beyond the traditional capacity of pricing negotiations with suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors; they now play a more significant role in procurement, outcomes, and payment while integrated delivery networks (IDNs) leverage their size to negotiate price breaks for member facilities and reduce supply costs. The goal of these large buying groups is to use data and negotiated business to win the lowest cost for their customers. GPOs and IDNs were consolidating rapidly and seemingly one step ahead of B. Braun in their digital transformation.
The changes these organizations had made gave them an edge when negotiating custom-priced, multiyear contracts for the hospital networks that made up a large part of their client base. The GPOs and IDNs already used advanced pricing, quoting, and contract management tools, whereas this company had not. They needed to streamline their pricing and contract infrastructure to:
- Remain competitive
- Give customers the fast and personalized service they expected
- Reduce revenue leakage
- Drive growth
Also, as a part of the healthcare industry, the business touches patients in the real world, making it important for them to have the right tools to create accurate proposals and improve operational efficiency so that patients receive the best possible supplies and services. They also understood the need for the best data and facts to remain competitive while delivering safe products and treatments to the world. Unfortunately, their current pricing system did not allow them to profitably grow and deliver in the way they wanted.
Identifying a solution
PROS has specialized in AI-based pricing and selling software for decades to help customers grow, increase profit margins, drive profitable growth, and reclaim their time and efficiency by modernizing and streamlining the pricing, quoting, and contract process. PROS software offers a suite of choices that help companies save time and drive profit optimization goals by better understanding supply and demand, buyer histories, SKU categories, rebate management, and more. The company turned to PROS for their pricing expertise, depth of industry knowledge (in pricing and the health sector), and ability to provide the high-quality, customized solutions they sought.
The organization chose to deploy AI-powered Pricing by PROS globally. The solution would provide them with fast, real-time pricing at the scale they required. In addition, they integrated PROS Rebate Management Solution powered by Enable into the company’s EMEA region to assist with off-invoice rebate incentives and agreement terms.
Putting things in place for profitable growth
The initial phase, completed in the US, was a success, with the Associate Director of Pricing and Analytics reporting that “we immediately started using PROS on RFPs before the go-live date, and adoption was very fast after everyone saw the initial results.” With the help of the PROS implementation team and project management resources, the company could adopt the implementation immediately and began to see results immediately. The same process was followed across the globe with similar results.
How PROS delivered
After the adoption of AI-powered Pricing by PROS, the company experienced significant improvements in their pricing strategies, processes, and outcomes. For example, they experienced a $40 million lift in revenue within the first 6 months of using PROS. They also found that they could keep up with the competition, better serve their customers, and work on expanding their US branch. “When you move to a digital platform like this, it’s just incredible. We’re experiencing many efficiencies and quality of life improvements,” the Associate Director of Pricing and Analytics said.
Before PROS, the organization had spent unprecedented employee hours going back and forth in long meetings to make decisions and work out customer prices manually in Excel, and in even more meetings to gain pricing approval before getting the quote out the door. The long, tedious, and manual processes were automated with PROS software, and the company was able to reduce internal meeting times by a factor of 10; so what was once an hour-long meeting turned into 6 minutes. Fixing these pricing process problems significantly reduced deal cycle time, provided a better customer experience, drove accurate pricing, allowed employees time to focus on customers and growth, and ultimately increased revenue.
The new implementation also gave the company confidence when quoting customers and a better understanding of their customers and the supply chain. Subsequently, the deployment’s contract and rebate management arm allowed EMEA employees to get rid of their infinitely long spreadsheets and emails, and allowed them to price supplies at rates that were beneficial to both the company and the customer.
The AI-powered Pricing by PROS and PROS Rebate Management Solution powered by Enable allowed the company to move completely away from spreadsheet-based pricing mechanisms and slow manual processes, enabling them to price accurately and quickly, reduce revenue leakage, and drive growth. PROS helped them achieve their goals of remaining competitive, providing better customer service, reducing revenue leakages, and gaining time to focus on growth.
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