GPOs today are struggling with an identity crisis.

As hospital environments adopt more and more technologies, GPOs must evolve and stay current. They need to embrace the technology movements and augment and improve their services to continue providing value to their members. All major GPOs are affected by this trend, and are responding.

To keep pace with the demands all suppliers, GPO, and member hospitals face several fundamental challenges today: the transformation of the portfolio in the imaging space; education of the sales force and the member/buyer and; movement of the decision makers and process from procurement to radiology and IT departments.

Keeping pace with the demands of the healthcare continuum and the increased pressure to reduce costs and to improve the quality of care, suppliers need to offer more comprehensive solutions in their immediate domains to meet the healthcare institutions' requirements. Likewise, the GPOs need to offer those solutions their ever-changing portfolio, as well as find new and appropriate ways to add value to their membership. Agfa and its contracting GPO are meeting those challenges and needs head on.

Technology - GPOs are evolving their portfolio and have recently awarded contracts for PACS, RIS, cardiology and portals - technologies that weren't in their portfolio a few short years ago. Agfa HealthCare's portfolio also has changed significantly as Agfa has evolved into a Healthcare IT company. In fact, Agfa's strategy was recognized by Frost & Sullivan, who awarded Agfa HealthCare its 2007 "North American Medical Informatics Competitive Strategy Leadership of the Year Award."

Decision-making - Complex technologies impact broader audiences in a healthcare institution. As new technology is adopted, areas like networking, storage, security and HIPAA compliance are impacted. New decision makers are in play, and different selling models are often needed. Many GPOs have added IT contracting and consulting arms to their organizations to bridge the gap. Working directly with the new influencers and decision makers these GPO consultants are having a marked impact on sales within the groups that offer these services.

Advanced technologies can create additional challenges for all stakeholders and for suppliers, GPO and members understanding the value, use, and benefit of these technologies can be challenging. The Agfa HealthCare team is here to help you meet these challenges. For example, team selling with GPO sales and consulting arms will help improve penetration and will help make sure that the right solutions are introduced.