4 Hospitals’ experience: How sales increased with the right automation

At 4 Hospitals, about 1 year ago, the Balance system was introduced, which contributed to the proper automation of sales.

The company’s business process in the direction of sales looks like this: the representatives meet the staff of the clinics, offer the products and register a new order with them. In order to place an order, they should know exactly the following issues:

• free balances of products for that given moment;
• availability of delivery in the desired time for the clinic;
• Special prices set for a specific client.

Prior to the implementation of the mini ERP system, balance, the sales process was running in the background of significant gaps and problems. In the wake of the rapid growth of the product range, naturally, problems have increased. Accounting for current balances using a simple accounting program was very difficult. Sales representatives needed to be in constant telephone contact with the back office to check the estimated available balance of each product, note the quantities ordered, and receive verbal confirmation of further orders from the superior manager.

Standard sales operations, loading of invoices and preparation of reports were performed manually by the accounting department. Consequently, the probability of making mistakes was high, and it was difficult for the management to view the current financial information.

The main goal of 4Hospitals was to automate the processes as much as possible, so that between the back office and the representatives in the meetings with the clients outside the office, there is a continuous connection and access to common bases.

The company covered almost all clinics operating in Georgia, and with the growth of clients, an inevitable need arose for a perfect mechanism for monthly control of their payments and debts.

In order to solve these problems, 4hospitals decided to introduce a balance system.

The balance base is located on the company’s server and all users have remote access. Sales representatives work in the program with pads where the full version of the program is located. They and the office workers have a common base.

During the meetings, the representatives see the available balances of the products, the statistics of the clinic’s purchases of the past period, and thus help the buyer to make the most efficient order, which is instantly recorded in the program itself. Also, depending on the delivery priority, the status of the order is determined, which helps the logistics service to properly plan and implement the delivery process. At the same time, the created orders are seen by the manager in the office and confirmed or corrected as necessary in a short period of time. After final authorization, the order is sent to the logistics department for delivery. At the end of the delivery, the final “closed” status is determined by the logistics department, which indicates to the sales representative that his order has been fulfilled.

Balance made it possible to complete the sales process with the customer in just one visit, where the probability of making mistakes and errors is almost non-existent.

In the balance, it is possible to compile any report, depending on the specifics of the business, which managers can easily monitor. In accordance with the request of 4Hospitals, a special report of customer debt control was created in the program.

Accounting has become much more automated: a complete package of financial statements is generated automatically in the program.

As for the results, with the help of the balance, the time spent on negotiations by the sales representatives decreased by 3 times, their daily efficiency increased and, accordingly, the sales. Also, the risk of errors and omissions during orders has decreased to almost zero, which has caused considerable losses to the company.

The time spent on declaring and administering salaries was reduced by 2 times, and the risk of errors was also minimized here.

Through live control of warehouse and product balances, the company was able to optimize purchases and reduce the time spent by employees on this process by 3 times.

The logistics delivery service has become much more efficient, which has led to an increase in customer satisfaction.

Working capital increased by 70% through effective automation of business processes.

The analytical process has also been simplified, because all information is gathered in one place.

How is the balance evaluated at 4 Hospitals:

“The introduction of balance has made our processes very flexible. It saved us a lot of time and energy. It allowed us to direct our human resources and efforts towards business growth: work on attracting new partners, increase sales and take even more care of perfecting our services” – Nino Gamkrelidze – Director of “4 Hospitals” company.