SYNERGY 2011 Presentation Overviews

Advancing the science of pharmacy care: procurement strategies to control pharmacy spend and improve health outcomes
Asif Ally, RPh, MBA, Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Development, CVS Caremark
In the era of reform, controlling rising health care costs is a business challenge. It is generally accepted that effective use of  pharmaceuticals through the pharmacy benefit can have the greatest impact on outcomes and total health care costs. The pharmaceutical landscape is dramatically changing. Learn about the latest science to improve pharmacy care and how plan sponsors can employ cutting-edge solutions to Get the Medicine Right and Get the Behavior Right. For example, plan sponsors can capitalize on the “generic wave” to reduce the cost of pharmacy care for those with chronic conditions. In addition, more than $290 billion of avoidable health care expenditures are directly attributed to medication non-compliance. Finally, specialty biologic medications are the fastest growing component of spend and will lead the advancement of personalized medicine.

The speaker will provide insights on how pharmacy benefit strategies are evolving and share specific questions procurement officers should ask benefit managers to optimize pharmacy benefit performance.

Champions of change: how procurement and finance leaders are creating cost-conscious, savings-driven cultures
Rob Bernshteyn, Chief Executive Officer, Coupa Software
Cost-cutting and saving have become fundamentally engrained in our corporate culture. Long gone are the days of anything goes spending to gain market share and overtake the competition. Today, success is defined by the way organizations control costs and manage spend to deliver value to their end users, drive company growth and bottom-line profitability.

Procurement’s time is now.
After being largely confined to backroom operations for the last decade, procurement has finally arrived.  It’s procurement’s time to lead, to bring about change that will allow the organization to optimize process efficiencies, drive user adoption and eliminate wasteful spend once and for all. 

Join the CEO of Coupa Software as he takes you through a series of best practice case studies where you will:

• Learn how forward-thinking CXO’s at leading retailers, financial institutions, biotechs, technology firms and service providers, have evolved procurement from a tactical, backroom function to become the savings authority within their organization
• Get tips and tricks on how to champion change within your organization from those who have “been-there-done-that” to ensure that procurement continues to deliver value and success in the years to come
• Look into the future of e-procurement innovation and how the cloud will fundamentally change the way procurement drives organizational efficiencies and savings

Partnering for performance: achieving value in a volatile economy
Tim Cummins, Chief Executive Officer, IACCM
With the many uncertainties facing business today, increased flexibility has become a critical issue. Many organizations seek that flexibility through their supply relationships, yet this often runs counter to the way that such relationships are structured and managed.

Dealing with today’s market conditions demands a new approach to the assessment and management of risk. This requires new thinking about supplier selection criteria and a fresh emphasis on increased partnering. This presentation will provide insights to the new approaches to contract terms, negotiation and relationship management that enable higher value outcomes from your suppliers.

Exploring managed print services to create a cost-effective printing environment
Sam Errigo, Senior Vice President, Konica Minolta
This presentation will offer an in depth overview of managed print services and provide best practices for bringing your printing environment up to speed with industry standards.  Sam Errigo will share his insight on what a world-class managed print program should encompass and how it can generate long term sustainable savings for your organization.  During this session, he will also share best practices and concepts that drive corporate adoption while maintaining employee satisfaction.

Trends and innovations in sourcing and outsourcing
Dawn Tiura Evans, President and Chief Executive Officer, Sourcing Interests Group
Innovations have redefined the way we do just about everything—from getting information to traveling to buying. On a corporate level, innovation has redefined procurement and outsourcing as well. Over the past 20 years, the sourcing and outsourcing industry has evolved dramatically. Procurement has shifted from being a back-office clerical function to becoming a strategic one that creates shareholder value. Similarly, outsourcing has stayed at the forefront of the news, sometimes being touted as the holy grail and other times showcasing its demise on the horizon. This presentation will demonstrate the power of innovative thinking and some of the more radical transformations we’ve seen this century. It will also showcase some of the trends SIG is seeing in procurement, sourcing and outsourcing and how they will continue to revolutionize the space.

Before you spend thousands for a consultant…ask your supplier
Jerome Gerber, VP of Client Solutions, Volt Information Sciences, Inc.
Too often companies feel that they must utilize major consulting firms to help them solve complex problems at work.  Work groups that are often very decentralized have caused communication gaps that many times present themselves as major barriers.  Unfortunately, organizations turn to large consulting companies to help them measure the effectiveness of their internal processes and systems, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process. 

In this presentation, Jerome Gerber, VP of Client Solutions for Volt Information Sciences, Inc. will offer insights on how companies can utilize simple tools to bring together large groups to solve these complex problems.  Applying the principles of Lean Sigma, Jerome will detail how a single Kaizen event saved a Fortune 200 company over $200k in consulting fees. 

Key takeaways for attendees will be: 

1. How to assess current projects slated for outside consultants to determine if there are other alternatives
2. Get a basic understanding of key Six Sigma principles that can be used to organize ideas and brainstorm

Quantifying and predicting supplier risk
Bill McBeath, Chief Research Officer, ChainLink Research
Discover how leading companies measure supplier risk and anticipate potential supplier problems to ensure continuous, affordable supply. ChainLink’s research shows how early warning gives companies a much broader range of options to deal with potential problems in a systematic way. In this session you will learn about:

• How top companies quantify supplier risk and rank supplier readiness
• Predictive approaches to spot the trouble signs early, before problems happen
• Assessing suppliers business continuity preparedness
• The keys to “sourcing in times of uncertainty”

These lessons are culled from our research projects, from interviews and surveys with hundreds of the best run companies in the world.

The next big thing – independent contractor misclassification: A practical guide to identifying  and managing risks associated with independent contractors
Christopher Minnick, Managing Partner, Brightfield Strategies
Contingent workforce strategy consultancy, Brightfield Strategies, describes the latest trends, such as increased employment audits by federal and state agencies and regulative impacts, such as new recordkeeping and notice obligations associated with use of independent contractors.  Brightfield will share its approach to quickly identify misclassified independent contractors, quantify the financial impacts of misclassification, and outline practical steps to mitigate risks.  Attendees will learn some of the most common red flags that federal and state auditors look for when evaluating workers classifications, such as issuing Form W-2 and Form 1099 to the same worker in a calendar year. 

If you’re a procurement or supply chain professional, your company is dealing with the following challenges, you won’t want to miss this session:

• How to identify the size of your independent contractor population across the enterprise
• How to engage former company employees (e.g. retirees)
• How to ensure your contract documents are protecting your company

Expensive Sentences^® – cutting through assumptions, politics, and laziness to become a hero
Jack Quarles, Principal, 3Q Stategies
Sometimes, it only takes a few words to throw a great sourcing project off-track:

• “It costs more, so it must be better.”
• “We’ve been with this vendor too long to change now.”
• “That analysis makes sense, but we do things differently here.”

These and other Expensive Sentences may be costing your company millions. Unfortunately, process, facts and analysis often take a back seat to assumptions, politics, and laziness.

As savings professionals, our battles are often won and lost in the conversation before we can get to the spreadsheet. More often than not, our success depends on our ability to persuade others and re-set their attitudes.

This presentation will identify some of the most Expensive Sentences at your company and demonstrate how you can tactfully counter them with the right questions and a few minutes at a whiteboard. It will also analyze the thinking behind Expensive Sentences, and how you can lead your team away from attitudes that costs time, money, and opportunity.