GHX and StratCenter Announce Bundled Services Distribution Agreement

LOUISVILLE, Colo. and MECHANICSBURG, Pa., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- GHX and StratCenter today announced that they have entered into a bundled services distribution agreement through which the companies will provide collaborative solutions that incorporate StratCenter's OSCAR™ online healthcare supply chain and clinical demand data with GHX Business Intelligence solutions. This cooperative effort is intended to provide medical-surgical manufacturers with a more comprehensive view of their distributed sales, the competitive landscape and customer-level demographics, empowering manufacturers to have a greater understanding of their existing customers and identify new sales opportunities.

In addition, the combined resources of GHX's Channel Intelligence solutions and StratCenter's data cleansing capabilities can help manufacturers meet market demands for the use of GS1 Global Location Numbers (GLNs) for organization and location identification.

Current business intelligence offerings from GHX enable companies to understand their own sales information as well as their competitive position in the marketplace. GHX Market Intelligence, which includes data provided by 27 of the nation's leading distributors and third-party direct data sales, makes it possible for companies to compare their market-share activities versus their competition at a U.S. census or three-digit ZIP code level. An analysis of medical-surgical sales through distribution conducted by GHX found that among the top 100 U.S. medical-surgical manufacturers, those that use GHX Market Intelligence data grew medical-surgical revenue through distribution by an average of 6.42 percent in 2009, while non-users grew similarly classified revenue by an average of only 3.88 percent, an increase over average performance of 65 percent.

GHX Channel Intelligence collects, formats and cleanses sales data from manufacturers' channel partners and then verifies distributor contract pricing, unit of measure and claims data.  

StratCenter's OSCAR repository provides manufacturers with quick and easy access to market segment information, allowing them to identify the most profitable potential accounts and obtain actionable insight and tools to accelerate their time to market. StratCenter's OSCAR repository includes more than 6,000 key hospital demographics such as revenue, number of beds and procedure volume. Combining that information with Market Intelligence and Channel Intelligence data from GHX provides users with a comprehensive picture of their direct and indirect customers. This helps manufacturers better profile their current customers with financial and clinical procedure information, create ideal customer profiles for their specific products, and identify provider organizations that are more likely to purchase their products.

Most manufacturers don't have a clear view into which hospitals are purchasing their products through distribution, so they don't know whether they are selling to the right hospitals and if they are missing potential sales opportunities.

"GHX is the only company that can provide insight at the three-digit ZIP code level, enabling a new level of business intelligence for healthcare manufacturers," said Ed McCauley, vice president, e-Sourcing and Business Intelligence at GHX. "With access to sales data coupled with demographics, manufacturers have greater visibility into their customers through distribution and can better understand likely product usage to improve sales performance through their channel partners."

"For the first time, we are bridging the supply and demand side of the healthcare data equation," said Patrick Michael Plummer, founder and CEO of StratCenter.com. "With this unified view, manufacturers will be able to drive action to effect change by measuring the success of their current strategies, developing tactical approaches and determining how they can best execute them in the marketplace."

About GHX

As the business hub for healthcare, Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX) enables healthcare providers and suppliers in North America and Europe to reduce costs and improve margins by automating processes, reducing operating expenses and increasing knowledge-based decision making.  Products and services include trading partner connectivity, order and contract management and validation, data synchronization, sales force automation and business intelligence. Equity owners of GHX are Abbott Exchange, Inc.; AmerisourceBergen Corp.; Baxter Healthcare Corp.; B. Braun Medical Inc.; BD; Boston Scientific Corp.; Cardinal Health, Inc.; Covidien; C.R. Bard, Inc.; Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.; GE Healthcare; HCA; Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc.; McKesson Corp.; Medtronic USA, Inc.; Owens & Minor; Premier, Inc.; Siemens; University HealthSystem Consortium; and VHA Inc.  For more information, visit www.ghx.com.

About StratCenter

StratCenter integrates thousands of public and proprietary data sources into a practical, market-penetration toolkit to empower suppliers and group purchasing organizations to increase revenue by hitting the market faster. The StratCenter offerings allow their clients to consistently outsmart, outmaneuver and outperform their competitors. StratCenter is privately held and is headquartered in Mechanicsburg, PA (also the home of other national healthcare firms, including Select Medical, and the MAGNET group purchasing organization), which is a suburb of Harrisburg, the state capital. StratCenter has enjoyed sustained rapid growth since its inception in 2002, and now counts more than 10,000 healthcare supply chain subscribers to its offerings. For more information, go to www.StratCenter.com.

SOURCE GHX