SubPop Health’s Mission is to Transform How Healthcare Benefits are Acquired by Employers

Summary

SubPop Health, a sourcing platform and purchasing organisation for self-insured employers, faced the challenge of conducting a quick and cost-effective RFI event to gather market intelligence from healthcare providers.

To tackle this challenge, Chris Gormley, Co-founder and CEO of SubPop Health, and Adam Ellsworth, Senior Director of Operations, sought an efficient sourcing solution within a tight timeframe and budget.

Chris conducted thorough research and found that many larger organisations posed difficulties in terms of the sales process. However, Market Dojo stood out as a viable option due to its ease of use, affordability, and unique on-demand pricing structure. SubPop was particularly attracted to Market Dojo’s Sandpit feature, which allowed them to explore the software freely. Additionally, the company’s outstanding account management and responsive customer support played a crucial role in their decision-making process.

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Challenges

eSourcing on a tight timeframe and budget

SubPop Health (SubPop) provides a sourcing platform and purchasing organisation for self-insured employers who struggle to deliver high quality and affordable healthcare benefits to their employees and their families.

A need arose for an RFI event to gather general market intelligence and information from healthcare providers, but it had to be done quickly.

To tell us how this was done, Market Dojo spoke with Chris Gormley, Co-founder and CEO of SubPop Health, and Adam Ellsworth, Senior Director Operations.

Both Chris and Adam have many years experience in a variety of sourcing roles. In fact, Chris was VP Product Management at FreeMarkets (later acquired by Ariba). Between them they have a wealth of knowledge on eSourcing and the different platforms currently on the market.

This is how a US start-up company gets up and running with a sourcing solution when on a tight timeframe and budget.

Finding the right sourcing software

First, Chris did his research, “I did a fairly exhaustive look for different platforms that could fulfill the need that we had, and could do it quickly,” says Chris. 

Ultimately, he was looking for something that was simple to get started with and relatively inexpensive for their needs. 

Subpop’s procurement requirements:

• Cloud-based RFx software
• Low barrier to entry
• Speed of deployment
• Minimal training overhead

Having looked at various competitors and requesting information, Chris quickly hit some barriers in terms of the sales process typical with these types of companies.

“The thing that struck me is that some of the bigger organisations are a pain in the neck to deal with,” explains Chris. “I had to answer numerous questions and attend multiple meetings just to get some information. I thought; I don’t have time for this.” 

Solution

Why Market Dojo?

“The thing I liked about Market Dojo is that it was pretty easy to get started,” states Chris, with Sourcing Dojo’s free Sandpit feature he was able to “Get right in there and start playing around with the software.”

Also, Market Dojo’s on-demand pricing structure was ideal for SubPop and not something offered by other eSourcing companies. “From what I saw, it’s rare to get something that was (licensed) per event. Other companies wanted to sell me on doing 15 events, over 15 months, for $15k. We’re an early-stage company without $15k laying around to spend on anything but what is absolutely needed,” says Chris

In addition, Market Dojo’s account management was “outstanding” according to Chris, and goes on to say that one of Market Dojo’s biggest selling points is the outstanding support throughout, from the initial product demo to the fast response time from the Customer Success team when they were setting up the RFI.

“This was really critical because we had a very demanding customer, and a short timeline, so we needed to execute quickly and not screw anything up!” elaborates Chris.

Adam echoes this sentiment saying that their Market Dojo account manager “was above and beyond in terms of responsiveness and willingness to help improve the RFI”.

What did they like about Sourcing Dojo?

Aside from Market Dojo’s customer service, there were a  number of technical features that stood out for Adam.

“The ease of the seller registration process was a big thing. The ability to track who’s registered and who’s downloaded documents was very important for our client. The tool allowed us to track all that information,” he explains.

He goes on to say, “In my 13 year career of working with these platforms, I don’t think I’ve ever once run an event where I haven’t needed to perform a technical support role. But I did not get a single technical support call from any of the suppliers during the process. That definitely stuck out to me.”

The intuitive design of Sourcing Dojo meant suppliers were able to upload information and respond in the correct format. And from SubPop’s side, the RFP could be set up in a clear and concise way in terms of instructions for suppliers. 

From Chris’ point of view, he liked the way the software could be co-branded which helped him overcome any potential barriers to using the tool, largely due to healthcare being quite a conservative industry.

Results

Did the results meet expectations?

SubPop’s client was unsure of how many suppliers would participate in the event, but the number of participants exceeded both the client’s expectations as well as those of Adam and Chris who are looking at how they can use Sourcing Dojo next.

“We’re contemplating a RFP next so I’ve started looking into how we can do this,” exclaims Chris.

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About SubPop Health

Based in Nashville, SubPop Health provides a sourcing platform and group purchasing organisation that leverages the collective purchasing capacity of its members to achieve better pricing and to precisely meet their solution needs.  

Unlike health plans, benefit advisors and brokers, SubPop is fully transparent and works solely the interests of its members.