GEBLOG Med AG – Procurement and supply centralised and automated across more than 10 hospitals

Rising cost pressures in healthcare, cost reduction targets from health authorities and consolidation processes are forcing hospitals to deliver services more cost-effectively and efficiently. Achieving cost reductions without compromising quality primarily occurs in administration, where digitalisation and centralisation pave the way to new solutions. When GEBLOG Med AG was founded in 2008, the most important requirement for the software was that it could be easily integrated with the ERP systems of the respective hospitals. Each hospital uses its own ERP system, which often has high complexity. It was extremely important to find a lean ERP that would make it simple to design interfaces for orders and the return of delivery notes, and that would allow the process to be automated without media breaks.

The core of the solution is based on Proffix standard functions for procurement, order management and warehouse management. GEBLOG's product management system records 7,500 products and up to 12 article numbers per product and hospital. Hospitals place orders using the article numbers recorded in their ERP system, which are automatically recognised and matched in Proffix. When an order is placed, an automated process is triggered: the order is transmitted to an FTP server, imported directly into GEBLOG's ERP system using electronic order import, a pick list and delivery note are created, the delivery is prepared in the warehouse with all required documents, the goods are booked and dispatched. At the end of the day, the delivery notes created are automatically transmitted to the hospitals in the same way and imported into their ERP via order import. Through numerous additional integrations, the ERP system has been progressively customised over the years according to GEBLOG's needs and processes have been digitalised. This includes integration of the vertical lift system Logimat, which supplies 1,000 items in parallel with the conventional warehouse. Another example is the integrated app-controlled scanner solution, with which orders are picked and fed back into order processing.

The greatest benefits are the simplicity and openness of the system, which allows individual customisations and third-party systems to be integrated. Another important feature is the high scalability of the solution. After starting with 3 hospitals in the canton of Zurich, the system now supplies 12 hospitals from various cantons, which can be connected to GEBLOG Med AG's ERP system with minimal effort. Every day, 2,000 – 3,500 order items from a service catalogue of approximately 7,500 products are compiled and delivered to the respective hospitals. Automated workflows for order management, seamless data exchange between Proffix and the hospitals' ERP systems, demand-driven service delivery to hospitals, reliability and investment security are ensured through the chosen system.