Atlanta—April 8, 2013—MedAssets Inc. entered a multi-year strategic partnership with Ariba, an SAP company, to expand its supply chain management and outsourced procurement capabilities. The partnership offers healthcare providers and suppliers with a comprehensive electronic commerce platform. The platform includes requisition to purchase order (PO) transmission; shipment notification; invoice transmission and reconciliation workflow automation; expense posting; supplier payment; and early-pay discount solutions.
“This strategic partnership creates a total transaction management solution for healthcare organizations,” said John Bardis, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, MedAssets Inc. “We will use the strength of the nation’s largest shared services procurement organization, with over $5 billion being transacted annually through our National Procurement Center, in combination with our world-class analytics and invaluable insights, to accelerate much needed savings initiatives for healthcare providers.”
Through this partnership, healthcare providers will be able to conduct fully automated e-commerce with the nearly one million companies connected to the Ariba Network through the MedAssets eCommerce Exchange. The combination of MedAssets’ technology-enabled services with Ariba’s cloud-based applications and business network will deliver unparalleled cost management and healthcare provider-supplier collaboration opportunities. Providers, for instance, will be able to eliminate up to 100 percent of paper invoices received from suppliers using Ariba’s “smart invoicing” applications, which automatically validate supplier-initiated electronic invoices through a provider-managed rules engine and post them directly to their accounting system for true “touchless” processing.
“In today’s healthcare environment, providers face a number of significant challenges—rising costs, limited resources and rapidly evolving market conditions,” said Bob Calderoni, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ariba. “MedAssets has taken the lead in embracing innovative, technology-based solutions to eliminate these barriers by improving the efficiency of the healthcare supply chain—and we are pleased to be partnering with them on this mission.”
Using Ariba’s cloud-based applications and business network, MedAssets can enhance and expand its capabilities and create even greater value for healthcare providers including:
- Contract compliance enhancement
- Operational cost reductions through automated invoice matching and validation
- Improved contract price accuracy
- Opportunities for providers and suppliers to collaborate to achieve early pay discounts
In addition, capturing all supplier invoice data electronically for both PO and non-PO based transactions will accelerate a provider’s ability to identify and execute upon cost reduction opportunities for all non-labor spend, including purchased services, a growing area of focus in all healthcare organizations.
“Ariba’s solutions are natural extensions of MedAssets spend management and outsourcing capabilities,” Bardis continued. “Our experience and analysis found that healthcare providers’ accuracy of contract pricing and terms increases significantly and their contract compliance can triple to more than 90 percent when procurement is managed through a single solution platform. We look forward to leveraging this partnership to deliver innovative procurement and accounts payable solutions that will minimize back-office administrative expenses, thereby affording healthcare providers the opportunity to reinvest such funds in direct patient care delivery.”
