Our strategy has long been driven by the idea that deep integration of the many isolated systems and services throughout the supply chain, from manufacturing to animal patients, will increase efficiency and profit for both our customers and our business, while also improving patient outcomes. This drove the consolidation of wholesale distribution, practice management software, and buying groups into what we call AmerisourceBergen Animal Health UK.

Today, many of our customers say that they appreciate having a single point of contact for a broad range of enquiries. However, because we intend to deliver dramatic improvements in workflow, there’s still work to be done.

Armed with our new purpose, 2018 will be the year our UK Animal Health companies begin to deliver on the promise of better business and better animal health through combined effort and innovation.

We believe that by combining our resources into highly integrated solutions we can remove the necessity for day to day decisions that are not a valuable use of your time, while preserving and streamlining choice where you can make the biggest impact to your business and your patients: saving you time for strategic thinking (and life outside your practice); helping to inform and powering the changes you want to make.

In this article, we would like to introduce you to a few of the changes that we are delivering today. Our strategy will evolve quickly and we plan to keep you in the loop, but please feel free to contact us with questions, comments, concerns, as well as glowing accolades and even constructive criticism. We’re in this together, and we would like to hear from you.

Deep integration of Centaur Services and Vet Space

Centaur Services and Vet Space believe that the deep integration of wholesale distribution and practice management software systems will reward customers with significantly improved workflow, better availability of medicines, higher accuracy, improved compliance, increased profit, and greater efficiency.

The first phase of our integration focused on delivering an advanced shipping notice (ASN) to the Vet Space software, before the order was delivered and regardless of how an order is placed. This ASN includes quantities, lot and batch, net pricing, and expiry information for individual medicines and provides a method for easy and accurate receiving in the practice. This is the foundation for efficient inventory management. Requests for credit (e.g. if a product is damaged during delivery), and return authorisations are also automated.

While it is possible to place an order from almost every practice management software system to any of the major wholesale distributors in the UK, the underlying processes aren’t integrated (e.g. the sharing of data in real time) and

are only automated (e.g. a machine doing something in place of a human, in this case sending an order file). However, this new level of true integration between a wholesaler and veterinary software provider is unique to Centaur Services and Vet Space. And this is just the start. The current and future phases of development include our proprietary inventory management logic and automated cycle counting from Centaur’s myInventory solution, real time product availability in your practice’s primary Centaur warehouse (Castle Cary or Stoke on Trent), integration with net-net pricing and online price tracking integration with St Francis Group and Vetswest.

Demystification with St Francis Group, Vetswest and Centaur Services

Despite the extraordinary growth of corporate veterinary practices in the UK and Europe, St Francis Group and Vetswest together represent the largest and potentially most influential assembly of independent veterinary practices in the UK. Over the next few months we will launch a new unified web platform for St Francis Group and Vetswest that will form a building block in our efforts to enhance our support of member practices. Additionally, we recently launched the first substantial set of integrated offering to veterinary practices that are both members of St Francis Group or Vetswest and customers of Centaur Services. These benefits include:

▪ Instant rebates. As a customer of Centaur Services and a member of St Francis Group or Vetswest, you will receive all rebates in the month of purchase. No more waiting, reconciling, or “matching-back.” You can now purchase at net net price and know that you are getting the full benefit in the same month. Members using alternative wholesalers will continue to receive their manufacturer rebates in the normal way. For practices using alternative buying groups or alternative wholesalers, manufacturer rebates remain up to three months in arrears.

▪ 15% discount on Direct Debits for Pet Health Care Plans. If your practice is a customer of Centaur Services and member of either St Francis Group or Vetswest, you will pay a reduced direct debit fee for St Francis Group Pet Health Care Plans. This makes wellness plans as profitable for independent practices as the preventative healthcare services offered by corporate practices.

▪ Extra seats at Business Academy. If your practice is a customer of Centaur Services and member of either St Francis Group or Vetswest, you are now eligible for an extra place on both the Management and Team Business Academy seminar streams every year. These CPD events not only provide a learning platform, but also provide an opportunity for you to learn from and collaborate with other independent practices.

▪ 33% discount on Human Resources Services. Joint customers are now eligible for savings on HR audits, plus advice on policies, procedures, and best practice.

▪ 8% rebate on medical consumables. For joint customers there is an automatic rebate of 8% on all medical consumables purchased through your Centaur Services account.

These things alone provide benefit to joint customers, but our new buying group member portal, which will launch later this year, and its deep integration with Centaur and Vet Space systems will provide game changing solutions for our customers.