Question

1) What is Analytic Systems Automatic Purchasing and how did American Hospital Supply (later Baxter) use it to capture more sales?

Answer 1

Analytic Systems Automatic Purchasing is a symbiotic information system. The core element of the system is the association with the potential customer. A primary party (product or service provider) establishes a synergistic association with the other companies to ensure in fulfilling the customer’s demand and also enhances its ability to serve better. Likewise, external companies are encouraged to participate in this system for their own performance improvement (w.r.t information systems). American Hospital Supply’s ASAP (Analytic Systems Automated Purchasing) is the best example of the same. In this case, the competitors in the healthcare industry share the similar information technology to have the competitive advantage. Due to this, American Hospital Supply (AHS) has established a network of suppliers and customers to deal with the system directly by offering them the computer terminals. The orders places by the customer directly transmits to the regional AHS center. By this time, the information on product availability and back order time is shared with the customer. This system helped AHS in faster fill rates, order cycle time reduction, inventories reduction, improvement in supplier’s relationship, etc. The resultant association of customers made other competitors to have restricted market share. After the merging with Baxter, the competitor system was listed under the ASAP system.