Success stories from real customers in the real world

A Case of Way Too Many Suppliers

PROBLEM: We see it all the time. Supplier networks that have grown completely out of control, with huge corporate databases that continually need updating. It's nobody's fault, it just happens naturally over a long period of time. Suppliers are added piecemeal, in response to an immediate need, and nobody checks for overlaps or conflicts.

One recent Ancillare client was facing exactly this problem. Their network had grown to over 300 suppliers, many of which provided overlapping products and services. This had created a tangled web of costly inefficiencies that was making a huge dent in the company's bottom line. It also created a number of annoying compliance issues, since too many "similar" products were being purchased and shipped to end users.

SOLUTION: We teamed up with our customer to help eliminate a host of these unnecessary suppliers providing like products, thereby reducing their supplier network from 300 to five.

RESULT: This process eliminated overlaps and confusion, drastically reduced the number of contacts, reduced the pay-to-procure workload, and ultimately reduced our client's cost-to-procure by 31%.

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Clinical Trial on a Strict Diet

PROBLEM: Bringing a new drug to market is a long and arduous path, marked by clinical trials that must adhere to the strictest of standards. Even the slightest variations or inconsistencies can result in a the trial being scrapped—at huge cost to the drug company.

Ancillare was recently brought in to assist one such trial, one that required all patients to stay on a consistent, regulated, nutritionally-balanced diet for the duration of the trial, eating the same three meals and three snacks every day.

Cultural and religious food restrictions further complicated the process, as did bans due to potential chicken and beef diseases.

SOLUTION: Ancillare found solutions for each of these complications, sourcing a specialized beef product available in the EU, a kosher mayonnaise from Israel, and a tuna product that could be used in countries where imported chicken was banned—all with the exact nutritional components needed.

RESULT: We were able to coordinate the purchase, storage, and subsequent shipping of all products meeting all consistency requirements, and making timely deliveries to every trial site, every week. Thanks to our efforts, the trial came off without a hitch, and formed the basis for three new trials that have been launched since.

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Infusion Confusion

PROBLEM: A Fortune 50 pharmaceutical company had a strange problem. A global clinical trial involved the use of intravenous (IV) infusion bags. There were multiple trial sites all over the world, which meant four different sizes of bags or bottles were being used for the infusions, each with its own labelling system.

Since the trial required "blind" infusions—the patient was not to know the contents of the bag. Yet the medical team needed to monitor the infusion of the contents to the patient, in order to properly administer the tests.

SOLUTION: The Ancillare team came up with an elegant solution—a customized infusion bag that could accommodate all four sizes of IV methods. These new bags were manufactured with a color-coded system based on the particular trial, and were designed so that only the content levels were visible. The new bags allowed the medical staff to monitor the flow of the IV during transmission, without letting the patients see its contents.

RESULT: Thanks to this one-bag-fits-all approach, the client was spared the need to ship four different kinds of bags all over the world, as the trial often required. It saved the company a great deal of money, and the medical teams a great deal of confusion.

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Can't clear the border? Change the product

PROBLEM: Sometimes, we need to scramble to meet compliance, regulatory, and documentation issues, all at the same time.

One Ancillare client needed a special kind of vision chart machine shipped to a number of locations—including Europe—for use in a clinical trial. Unfortunately, the product had the wrong specs for use in Europe, and the client couldn't obtain the necessary CE certificate to enter the European Union. It was clear that no other machine was acceptable. What to do?

SOLUTION: The Ancillare team went to work figuring out just what it would take to modify the product to meet EU standards, then laid out a step by step to-do list for the factory making the machine.

RESULT: Thanks to our efforts, the product was modified to meet EU regulations on time and within the budget. The trial went on as scheduled, the factory is now able to offer a CE-certified product and sell it abroad, and Ancillare had a happy client. A win-win-win situation.

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A model of inefficiency

PROBLEM: It's great to have field reps all over the US and Canada. It's not so great when each one has an improvised support system that wastes huge amounts of time and money each year.

Our client's field reps were buying whatever was needed from whomever was selling it. Office supplies, furniture, printing of all kinds—they were all spending valuable sales time sourcing their own solutions to every purchasing problem, then wasting even more time filling out expense reports for reimbursement. The inefficiency was appalling, not to mention expensive.

SOLUTION: Ancillare came up with an e-commerce solution that standardized everything. We used our buying power to contract with a small number of suppliers that could meet all the standard needs of all offsite sales functions. Then we set up a dedicated website that made everything available within 24 hours.

RESULT: The sales reps were able to spend more time selling, while the company saved a bundle on inefficient purchasing. In other words, the increased sales sent revenue up, even as expenses went down. What could be better?

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