London - 5 November 2009: Healthlogistics (http://www.healthlogistics.co.uk/), hybris (http://www.hybris.com/) and Tier 2 Consulting (http://www.tier2.com/) today announced that Epsom & St Helier, Royal Brompton & Harefield, Royal Free Hampstead, The Royal Marsden and The Whittington have selected HL-hybris as their e-catalogue and contract data system. A total of ten acute Trusts and acute Foundation Trusts are now piloting this system. King's College Hospital, Basingstoke & North Hampshire, Chelsea and Westminster, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trusts were the first Trusts to confirm their selection of HL-hybris.

HL-hybris brings validated electronic catalogue, contract and net price data from leading NHS suppliers into each Trust's purchasing system in exactly the format required. By early 2010 more than 900 suppliers of all types will be providing data on 1,500,000 items using HL-hybris. There is no requirement for any supplier membership and no charge to suppliers, so HL-hybris Trusts can select whichever suppliers they wish. This is a major and ground-breaking project for the NHS and its supplier community.

Commenting on its selection of HL-hybris, Steve Williams, Deputy Head of Procurement at Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, said: "In our view Healthlogistics operates an ‘open access' cataloguing system which enables freedom in e-sourcing by the Trust to whomever vendor we may choose to trade with under our own terms as agreed with each supplier. We are much in favour of this approach and as a consequence the available supplier catalogue from Healthlogistics is several orders of magnitude greater than any other indirect competitor. We envisage that as a result of this, support for the HL-hybris approach will grow. We expect that this model will prove to be the way forward for external e-catalogue management."

Richard Miller, Associate Director of Procurement at King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We have recently signed a five year contract with Healthlogistics for the provision of HL-hybris as it is giving us high quality, validated catalogue, contract and net price data and the excellent control over contract items and prices in our purchasing system that we require."

Tony White, Procurement Director at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: "The robust product and price data that is being provided by HL-hybris will underpin our roll out of electronic requisitioning, the creation of meaningful purchase analysis reports, accurate net price inputs into patient-level costing and the resolution of invoice / purchase order mis-matches. HL-hybris is enabling us to achieve the quality of data that private sector businesses now take for granted, and without it we cannot aspire to equivalent levels of performance."

Suppliers recognise that Healthlogistics' approach has been proven in many other leading industries, and their level of support has been excellent: already 450 leading suppliers have provided data on 1.25 million items. This initiative is strongly supported by the ABHI and BAREMA industry organisations.

The benefits for HL-hybris Trusts include:

• use of accurate supplier item codes, descriptions and net prices in purchase orders
• validation of data against NHS Trusts' precise requirements including NHS eClass
• inclusion of all contract and framework agreement net prices
• an encouragement of contract creation and adherence
• visibility of all common e-catalogue data in HL-hybris, with list prices
• inclusion in purchase order systems of only those items authorised by Trusts
• the ability to select any items for inclusion in new Trust-supplier contracts
• continuous and direct maintenance by suppliers of their data in HL-hybris
• ease of invoice reconciliation by using correct descriptions, codes and net prices.

Every NHS Trust in the UK can now subscribe to HL-hybris, and the level of interest from other Trusts and Commercial Support Units is substantial.

Andrew Piscina, UK Country Manager for hybris, said; "We are delighted to be involved in such an important cost-saving initiative for the NHS. HL-hybris has the potential to revolutionise the purchasing process for Trusts across the UK and we are pleased to be working alongside Healthlogistics and Tier 2 to ensure the success of this ground breaking project."

Further information (external website)