THETFORD, U.K. and LEVERKUSEN, Germany —December 9, 2004 — Global Healthcare Exchange Europe GmbH (GHX Europe) and TecSol Ltd. announced they will create a single company focused on improving supply chain efficiencies for healthcare in the United Kingdom (UK). The new company will be called TecSol- A GHX Company (TecSol-GHX) and will be headquartered in Thetford in Norfolk. Both GHX Europe and TecSol have independently provided e-commerce and supply chain services to National Health Service (NHS) Trust hospitals and their suppliers. “By combining resources, we will be able to provide an even higher level of service to our customers in the UK in a more cost effective manner,” says Roy McDonald, current TecSol Managing Director, who will hold the same position with the new company. As an independent company, TecSol-GHX will benefit both hospitals and suppliers by increasing supply chain efficiencies through e-commerce and process automation. The two companies currently serve approximately 90 hospitals and 115 suppliers in the UK. Existing customers of GHX Europe in the UK will be able to conduct e-commerce through the new company with minimal disruption in service, and all participants will have access to more of their trading partners through a single connection point.
Eric Jackson, the Director of eCommerce for the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA), says, “The new company offers a tremendous opportunity to dramatically increase error-free electronic trading between the English NHS and its suppliers, taking out costs and providing savings for the NHS that can be re-invested in frontline services. It’s an exciting new development for the English NHS and healthcare suppliers. NHS PASA will closely monitor its progress.”
Suppliers participating in the new company include major healthcare suppliers, as well as smaller companies operating solely in the United Kingdom. “Consolidation to a single organisation for the healthcare supply chain is a natural and welcome progression,” says Walter Hak, Johnson & Johnson Company Group Chairman, MD&D, Europe. “With one company, the costs associated with operating two separate systems are eliminated, and supply chain participants have a clear choice as to the e-commerce solution that can provide the greatest value, now and in the future.”
The new company will be co-owned by TecSol Ltd. and GHX Europe, which in turn are owned by representatives of the entire supply chain, including hospitals and suppliers, as well as buying and supply chain logistics organisations and individual shareholders.
In February 2002, the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust began transacting business on GHX, purchasing supplies from major medical manufacturers including Boston Scientific Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, GE Medical Systems Accessories, Baxter International, Medtronic, Becton Dickinson and Guidant. Keith Lilley, Director of Facilities for the Trust, says improved order accuracy has been one of the biggest contributors to cost reduction. “We look forward to even further savings as TecSol-GHX expands the number of suppliers available to us, as well as the tools we can use to further automate our procurement processes.”
TecSol offers a software product known as PowerGate, which is an e-commerce-based purchasing system incorporating web-based requisitioning, bar-code data-capture and stock-control, through to purchasing, receipting and invoice-matching. Focused on NHS hospital procurement needs, PowerGate can also meet the demands of today’s e-commerce world by facilitating e-trading with suppliers through “The NHS Pharmacy Messaging Service.”
The new company will also have access to technology developed by GHX Europe, based in Leverkusen, Germany, as well as Global Healthcare Exchange’s North American operation (GHX), which is headquartered in Westminster, Colo. With strong support from medical suppliers representing the vast majority of products purchased regularly by hospitals, GHX has developed advanced services to cleanse and synchronize buyer and seller product data and thereby minimize purchasing errors. While Tecsol-GHX will address the needs of provider and supplier organisations in the UK. GHX Europe will continue to focus on the healthcare supply chain in countries on the European continent, including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and Portugal.
About Global Healthcare Exchange Europe GmbH
Global Healthcare Exchange GmbH (GHX Europe) provides an electronic data communications network through which hospitals, pharmacies and other healthcare organizations can purchase both medical and non-medical products more easily, quickly and accurately than ever before. Medical and pharmaceutical manufacturers and wholesalers can receive orders from customers and send order confirmations, dispatch advices, and invoices to their customers electronically via GHX Europe. GHX Europe is owned by Global Healthcare Exchange LLC (GHX) and D.Logistics AG, and has more than 475 providers, 5000 public pharmacies and 75 suppliers connected to its exchange in Europe.
About TecSol Ltd.
TecSol Ltd. is a leading developer and supplier of packaged and bespoke software to the National Health Service (NHS) and allied organizations within the United Kingdom (UK). Its software solutions are deployed across the UK, ranging from full NHS Trust e-Procurement systems, to departmental stock-control systems and e-commerce gateways. For the last 13 months, TecSol has been successfully piloting and expanding the use of “The NHS Pharmacy Messaging Service” – a Web-based e-trading service for the NHS, which to date has been primarily focused on the hospital pharmacy sector.