Special Markets Management Program
In the dental industry, the term “Special Markets” generally refers to small, medium and large group practices, non-profit and government entities, as well as Dental Service Organizations (DSOs) and Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs). These customer segments are growing rapidly and require a greater level of service and price sophistication. To achieve this, manufacturers, distributors and special market groups commonly leverage “chargeback” contracts to establish custom pricing and compete for high volume group and special market business.
Increasingly, participating in special markets has become more complex. Contracts may cover overlapping term lengths, contain varied discounts for specific products, or tiered discounts based on customer type , i.e. government vs. group. Furthermore, determining which entities qualify for specific contracts has become an albatross – too time consuming and rapidly evolving for any internal department to oversee. Worst of all, these administrative and technical challenges often prevent organizations from leveraging an incredible asset: special market transactional data. These data are the key to a viable sales strategy, yet they sit unused because they can’t be interpreted reliably.
It’s clear: in order to succeed in this exploding market, dental manufacturers and distributors must effectively manage sophisticated contract and data requirements, while taking advantage of business intelligence insight to compete in a crowded field.
With this in mind, Elevation Data Group developed the only dental-specific Special Markets Program Management and Validation system.
Contract Management
We start by creating a custom contract repository that allows superb contract flexibility and scale. There are over 36 unique contract combinations possible with the Contract Management and Validation system:
Contract Levels of Detail
- Distributor
- Distributor + Contract Number
- Distributor + Super Category
- Distributor + Category
- Distributor + Subcategory
- Distributor + Item Code
- Contract + Item Code
Calculation Types
- Percent Discount
- Dollar Discount
- Fixed Net Cost
- Distributor + Contract + Super Category
- Distributor + Contract + Category
- Distributor + Contract + Subcategory
- Distributor + Contract + Item Code
- Start Date + End Date
Special Features
- Custom contract assignment rules ensure the program fits your business needs
- Dynamic unit of measure conversions for case breaks, full-case sales
- Currency conversions
- Price book & territory integration
This system allows organizations to design the best contracts for their needs and store them in a cohesive, accessible data source for sharing with partners or validating terms downstream.
Special Market Data Management
Each month, we utilize automation and data engineering tools to extract special market data submissions and unify them into a single accessible data source. Our extraction supports the data in the form you get it, minimizing back-and-forth with partners.
Our special market data program comes out-of-the-box with hundreds of data cleaning and supplemental rules developed over years of working with dental market data. This includes standardized unique identifiers, geographic cleanup and item exception management. As an added feature, our team monitors special market group consolidation and automatically integrates it to your data, keeping your data relevant and timely.
Next, our custom contract assignment rules ensure the right customers are linked to the right contract. This is critical for programs with multiple contract tiers for different market segments. To ensure the requested chargeback rebates are accurate, each line of chargeback data is assessed and compared to the best chargeback it qualifies for. If the requested chargeback exceeds the qualified amount or falls outside of the contract eligibility period, the records are separated and sent back to the submitting party for review and re-submission. The remaining records can be staged or automatically integrated to the main data warehouse. By ensuring 100% validation review, organizations and their partners can be confident the contracts will be honored as designed.
Business Intelligence Report Design
While most automated programs might stop there, Elevation Data Group analysts hold certifications in PowerBI and Tableau. Our design team utilizes the cleaned, validated and categorized data to publish a series of dashboards and reports in whatever BI tool you prefer. Our proprietary data model is standardized, allowing for quick configuration and connection. Our analysts will work with your team to customize the specific reporting metrics and access roles to fit your business needs, ensuring that every report supports your specific requirements.
Why It Works
There are several reasons why the EDG Contract Management and Validation system is the leading special markets data solution for the dental industry:
- It provides the flexibility to manage contracts that work for everyone; manufacturers, distributors, and groups alike.
- It is a standardized system that helps the dental supply chain speak the same language.
- The assessment tools minimize over/under compensation for special market sales.
- The managed system allows special market teams and analysts to focus on maximizing services and growth. This not only cuts administrative costs by an estimated 60%, but also increase ROI on special market staffing!
- As an exclusively dental program, implementations can be up and running in as little as a few days.
- Another benefit of the dental footprint is that the system is tuned to pick up dental anomalies that external software isn’t built to manage. Examples include group convergence or file formatting changes.
- The Special Market Management and Validation system works seamlessly with other data services provided by Elevation Data Group, including probabilistic matching, end user data processing, Business Intelligence consulting, and Sales Management consulting