Demand Management in the Healthcare Industry
About the Client
The client is a leading player in the healthcare industry in America. As a market leader in healthcare, the client’s business goals revolve around the need to improve their customers’ health, well-being, and sense of security with the power of preventive care.
Business Challenge
Spiraling healthcare costs and the growing demand for efficient healthcare services, against a backdrop of financial austerity, make healthcare demand management a real challenge for healthcare companies in North America. However, leading healthcare organizations are turning to demand management, crunching numbers to help them determine potential device usage patterns, patient demands and even to decide whether or not to develop new medical devices. One of the biggest demand management challenges faced by healthcare companies revolves around accurate demand forecasting, demand planning, and data management.
To improve their portfolio management ability the healthcare company was looking at focusing on improving the efficiency of their services while driving up performance in delivering outputs through the imposition of targets. But the shift in demographics along with the changes in policy made it difficult to predict the future healthcare needs. Hence the healthcare client approached Infiniti Research to leverage its demand management expertise to anticipate customer behavior and respond proactively to market demands.
The healthcare market can be difficult to navigate because of the over-abundance of terms for technology and processes, making it necessary for healthcare companies to understand the various categories of demand management. Request a FREE brochure.
Top Demand Management Challenges Faced by the Healthcare Industry
Overcoming key demand management challenges, though difficult, is a critical part of the industry-wide effort to deliver high-quality care at a much lower cost. Fortunately, a new approach to demand management is on the horizon- one that streamlines and integrates market intelligence to achieve better outcomes.
Problem Statement 1: Limited Data Access
The client failed to create a coherent picture of their customers’ care management needs owing to their inability to obtain and consolidate patient data from disparate sources such as- EMRs, medicals claims, and other data sources. Acquiring such data was necessary to analyze the patient situations and formulate an effective data management plan.
Problem Statement 2: Lack of Standardization
Stratifying customer demands and aligning their needs with their services was a major challenge that prevented them from achieving the desired outcome. Achieving a standard business management workflow required them to hone skills associated with demand sensing and strategic planning.
Problem Statement 3: Limited Visibility and Transparency
The client lacked the ability to monitor key operational metrics, identify industry best practices, and develop reports on the obtained results. Their inability to evaluate and optimize customer needs prevented them from identifying new unmet customer demands that may have benefitted the development of new programs.
An increasing number of healthcare organizations are turning to demand management to effectively forecast demand and enhance service efficiency.
Solutions Offered and Value Delivered
Addressing the demand management challenges listed above will necessitate profound changes in the delivery of healthcare services and in the way how healthcare providers are organized and supported. The transformation is complex, and it will require you to take a strategic approach to build and maintain effective demand management and inventory management system.
However, upon closer examination, the experts at Infiniti realized the client’s approach to business management was surrounded by a myriad of complexities which are hard to execute successfully. In fact, a detailed healthcare market assessment revealed that the existing demand solutions were increasingly inadequate, inefficient, and ineffective in improving the clinical and financial outcomes needed in the upcoming value-based healthcare environment.
Our experts developed a comprehensive approach to implement demand management best practices and tackle their key challenges. The solutions offered were divided into the following four phases:
Phase 1
The initial phase of this demand management engagement revolved around leveraging different market research methods, tools, and methodologies to identify ways to enhance cross-functional collaborations and gain better insights. The use of behavioral insights helped identify patterns to improve demand sensing abilities.
Phase 2
Through customer collaboration, we were able to bring substantial benefits to both the client and their customers. Better communication, visibility and information flow between the different links in the supply chain was key to strategic planning. Strategic supply chain planning not only enabled the client to develop strategic relationships with customers and suppliers but also enhanced collaboration to create an efficient and lean supply chain, and ultimately, a competitive advantage.
Phase 3
Demand forecasting has a key role to play as part of accurate demand planning. When used as part of an integrated demand management process, it aided the healthcare client to anticipate changes well in advance and develop demand solutions to respond accordingly.
Phase 4
The final phase of this demand management assessment revolved around the consolidation of demand solutions and demand execution. It involved linking the demand management process with the client’ sales and marketing strategies to facilitate the identification of identify performance gaps.
Though overcoming the demand management challenge was difficult it was a critical part business management and the client’s organization-wide effort to deliver high-quality healthcare services at a much lower cost. The demand management process was streamlined and enabled the client to put patients and not healthcare models at the center of demand management. This also helped them align the principles of prudent healthcare with demand planning and portfolio management approaches.
What is demand management in supply chain?
Demand management, in a supply chain sense, refers to the management of relationships between suppliers and customers to deliver the best value to the customer at the least cost to the demand chain as a whole. It is a cross-functional process that ranges from- supply chain planning, supply chain management, market sizing, demand solutions planning, demand sensing, demand forecasting to supplier forecasting and demand capture but with special regard to the customers.
Why leverage Infiniti’s market intelligence solutions?
Infiniti Research is a leading market intelligence solutions provider, specializing in offering intelligent solutions to address all your business challenges. With over 15+ years of expertise, we have been instrumental in presenting a complete range of demand management and market intelligence solutions for over 550+ businesses across the globe.
To learn more about how our demand management solutions can fit your needs,
Our strength lies in the unrivaled diversity of our international market research teams, innovative research methodologies, and unique viewpoints that merge seamlessly to offer customized solutions for your every business requirement.We help our clients make smarter decisions to achieve rapid business growth
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