Reference Process digitalisation
From a compliance-only system to an end-to-end procurement process.
For years, the laboratory information system had handled the documentation required by law. Procurement, batch testing and invoice approval ran alongside it, by hand and on paper.
Fact sheet
MVZ Chirurgie und Labormedizin, a medical laboratory in a hospital setting and subsidiary of a university hospital. Fewer than 100 employees, around 20 of them working directly in the ERP. Procurement, batch testing and invoice checking digitalised and connected.
- Ordering, batch testing, invoice checking and handover are connected in one process for the first time.
- One e-mail, generated automatically and approved in the system, replaces the paper and e-mail traffic.
- No more re-entry, the invoice data flows straight to the university hospital.
Source: Ascentra Solutions, project at MVZ Chirurgie und Labormedizin
Starting point
The laboratory information system had been running for years and was used for one thing: the documentation required by law. Procurement, batch testing and invoice approval ran alongside it, by hand and on paper. Every step depended on one person and one document.
Two things made it harder. The invoice data ultimately had to reach the university hospital, so a new process could not stop at the laboratory’s own system boundary. And manual operation worked well enough that nobody felt a compelling reason to change.
Approach
- Start with the movement of goods, where the daily manual work was: procurement and batch testing.
- Ordering, batch testing and invoice checking connected into one continuous chain, with all approvals automated.
- The university hospital connected directly for returning the invoice data.
- The multi-stage, paper-based approval process reduced to a single e-mail, generated automatically and approved in the system.
- Extended with tracking of equipment and keys, including issue to individuals.
- The next step decided: document capture entirely by scan.
Outcome
The MVZ sees in one place what was ordered, checked and paid. The parent organisation gets its figures without anyone typing them in a second time. A system that only met the legal requirement has become the system in which procurement, inventory management and consumption actually take place.
We looked at many specialised consultancies. What convinced us was that Ascentra Solutions masters the technology and still understands how we work. Today, inventory management and procurement run digitally instead of on paper.
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