Building a medical logistics provider is no small task. The specialized facilities, knowledge and regulatory hurdles pose challenges that are much more demanding than a typical start-up.

Last year, two supply chain executives saw an opportunity to help create a medical logistics provider that would serve private and publicly held companies. Brandy Peterson and Zachary Daniell joined TriVenture Logistics (TVL) as CFO and COO respectively. They knew they were up to the task based on their shared previous experience with a not-for-profit healthcare distribution cooperative.

Peterson says, “It can be very expensive to move healthcare products. Our goal was to provide full transparency for shipments moving from manufacturers to hospitals, to support high levels of reliability and safety, while cutting the costs associated with complex logistics and minimizing shipment exceptions.”

A Logistics Partnership Built on Trust

To ensure success, she and Daniell knew they needed to lean on Tecsys, a supply chain management software provider and a leader in this space.  Over the years, they had enjoyed the long-standing relationship with Tecsys and had come to depend on the depth of experience and knowledge the company provided.  “We felt we could draw on that experience to support the creation of TVL to serve public and private healthcare companies,” says Daniell. “But we also knew we would need a WMS that did more than what is required to move less-sensitive goods — this would not be a ‘plug-and-play’ situation. By incorporating the flexible platform and strong systems from Tecsys, we felt we could meet the challenge.”

Even with that experience, the transition wasn’t going to happen with the push of a few buttons. So TVL’s team looked to build on the strong relationships they had established with key talent at Tecsys. “Certainly, one of the biggest factors in favor of working with Tecsys was our familiarity with them, but more than that was the trust we had in their people,” says Daniell.

Central to that trust was the involvement of Don Martin, platinum application specialist at Tecsys. “I’ve worked with Don for several years and we’ve spent countless hours brainstorming with his organization,” says Daniell. “What we’ve seen is that Tecsys has a pretty unique user group platform where many different users come together and share ideas for different ways to utilize the system capabilities, which are substantial.”

Martin agrees there are benefits derived from starting from a position of mutual respect and trust. Taking a fresh look at the situation — knowing that everyone was committed to mutual success — has opened more opportunities. “Tecsys,” Martin notes, “believes that when supply chains are properly transformed, good organizations can become great.

Tecsys’ solutions and services create clarity out of operational complexity, with end-to-end supply chain visibility to reduce operating costs, improve customer service and uncover optimization opportunities.”

Streamlining Operations to Overcome Healthcare Complexity

TVL and Tecsys moved quickly to realize that vision.  “Even with the solid foundation between us, there are always lessons to be learned,” Daniell says. “Moving forward, one of our biggest new challenges with TVL will be the integration of a blockchain solution with our Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) capabilities. We have worked with the Tecsys team to understand that combination and I think both sides have learned a lot of new capabilities and how to expand capabilities that are in the system to streamline this process.”

The delivery of healthcare products is inherently complex. Every stage of a shipment, from the manufacturer to the supplier to the dock of the hospital, must be in a format that the hospital can work with and then the product must be moved through the hospital into the patient’s room.

“Our ability to successfully manage this entire chain is what distinguishes us as a medical logistics service provider, versus a more general 3PL,” Daniell says. “With Tecsys, we can take advantage of all the system’s capabilities. We’ve moved through several upgrades with them, putting us in a position to deploy a system that’s ready to roll as additional upgrades become available.” 

From a practical, dollars-and-cents standpoint, Peterson appreciates that Tecsys provides additional strength.

“We started with one warehouse,” she says, “but we’ve planned from the beginning to operate more. Even with our first operation running successfully, we recognized that we would likely need unique processes in future facilities that would all tie together. We like the flexibility Tecsys gives us to add locations. We know our growth will be easier with them. Additionally, their system upgrades happen seamlessly, which really helps keep costs under control. Upgrades happen overnight, rather than putting us through a long and daunting process. I like going to sleep at night and, when I wake up, it’s done.”

The system’s flexibility also excites TVL about significant process changes with potential risks but great benefits.

Future-ready Systems Designed for Growth

“Our next big adventure,” says Peterson, “is going to be integrating with Tecsys’ billing management software. We haven’t used this application until now, but we know it’s a solid system. I’m very excited that it will simplify billing. For example, we won’t need to hire more employees to count pallets to account for peak demands and inbound or outbound volumes. That will be a big help to us.”

The level of trust between the two companies allows everyone to move with confidence through change. Opportunities are collaboratively vetted to quickly surface and implement those that will deliver the highest value to TVL. 

“The open communication we enjoy enables optimization for continuous improvement,” Martin says. “Being able to frequently revisit the health of our process is something that could seem daunting, but it isn’t, and TVL has been able to make its service better, faster and smarter. It’s really gratifying to help this client position itself to be able to accomplish their vision and goals.”

Watch the related video here.