Oxford Radcliffe & Nuffield Orthopaedic join the eMarketplace

Posted on Jan 5, 2005

Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre NHS Trust have announced that they have jointly signed-up to UKprocure Systems eMarketplace. The solution, which will go live in April 2005, is a core element of the Trusts’ combined eProcurement strategy to achieve efficiency savings and free-up clinical time. The two Trusts will benefit from a more transparent procurement process, transaction cost savings and improved relationships with suppliers. They will also benefit from improved management information that will lead to better informed negotiations and purchasing savings.

The eMarketplace will enable the two Trusts to engage in fully electronic trade with their suppliers, by automating the entire procurement process, from requisitioning and catalogue management to document transmission. In phase two of the roll-out, the Trusts will also implement UKprocure Systems eInvoicing solution, which will deliver further time and cost savings through the auto-matching of invoices with catalogue descriptions and purchase orders.

Oxford Radcliffe and Nuffield Orthopaedic will achieve significant benefits from working collaboratively to implement the eMarketplace. It will enable them to share development costs, pool expertise and work across organisational boundaries. The two Trusts also plan to work collaboratively with other members of the UKprocure Systems eMarketplace on supplier adoption and catalogue management. With fifty public sector members including forty NHS organisations, the UKprocure Systems eMarketplace is the largest eCommerce community in the public sector, which means significant efficiency and cost savings can be achieved from collaborative working.

Philip Bonnier, Project Manager, Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust said: “Forty per cent of procurement time is currently made up of nursing time. There are also six different procurement processes, so requisitioners have to use a different process to procure items such as stationery, stock items and non-stock items. The eMarketplace will mean that the total of 850 requisitioners across the two Trusts can seamlessly procure any item from accurate online catalogues, through a single access point. This will result in significant time savings for nursing staff and will have a direct impact on clinical service delivery.”

Louise Holmes, eProcurement Lead, Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust said: “The eMarketplace and the online catalogues that this makes available underpin our eProcurement strategy. Accurate catalogue descriptions and pricing and the ability to auto-match catalogue items and purchase orders with invoices will result in significant efficiency savings. We chose the UKprocure Systems eMarketplace because it could offer us the highest number of trading connections. The critical mass of buyer organisations already signed up to the eMarketplace maximises the success of supplier adoption and we plan to work collaboratively with other members of the UKprocure Systems eMarketplace to bring even more suppliers into the UKprocure Systems eCommerce community. A number of our major suppliers are already trading via the UKprocure Systems eMarketplace and this means that we will start to reap the benefits of fully automated trade from day one.”

The eMarketplace is a fully managed service from UKprocure Systems, based on market-leading Oracle Exchange technology. eMarketplaces provide the lowest cost and most efficient way for public sector organisations and their suppliers to achieve fully electronic trading. One link to the UKprocure Systems eMarketplace enables suppliers to transact electronically with over fifty public sector organisations. For Oxford Radcliffe and Nuffield Orthopaedic, a single link to the UKprocure Systems eMarketplace will enable access to high quality, supplier-managed electronic catalogues, and will provide a single technology platform and business process for managing electronic transmission of purchase orders, order status information and electronic invoices. The eMarketplace will seamlessly with the Trusts’ Oracle 11i Financial and iProcurement systems, to fully automate the flow of purchasing and management information.

Shish Lal, CEO, UKprocure Systems said: “With the critical mass of buyer and supplier organisations now established on our eMarketplace, we are pleased to see strong collaborative working between the different NHS organisations within our eCommerce community. Oxford Radcliffe and Nuffield Orthopaedic have demonstrated a forward-thinking and innovative approach to procurement by working together to share the development costs and benefits. By working with the wider UKprocure Systems community, they will bring additional benefits to both themselves and existing members.” The two Trusts also plan to implement a programme of reverse eAuctions with UKprocure Systems in 2005.

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About UK Procure

UKprocure Systems (www.ukprocure.com) is the leading supplier of end-to-end procurement solutions to the UK public sector, with an emphasis on healthcare, local government and education. UKprocure Systems provides managed services and hosted solutions that support the full procurement process, from sourcing and managing to ordering and invoicing. Its industry-leading eSourcing and eMarketplace solutions, which are based on the robust Oracle platform, are reinforced by UKprocure Systems consultancy services and unrivalled knowledge of the public sector supplier base and business processes. UKprocure Systems enables its customers to achieve dramatic cost savings through the transformation of the procurement process, savings that can be re-deployed to improve front line service delivery. At the same time, UKprocure Systems innovative solutions help public sector organisations meet Government targets for Modernisation, Best Value and Collaboration.

For more information please contact:
Tara Williams
UKprocure Systems
T: 020 7936 9489
M: 07976 906673
E: tara.williams@ukprocure.com

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