Implementation and Adoption team: Here to support your trust.
Ensuring our customers can access the right support is a key priority in the delivery of our category management service contract.
Our Implementation and Adoption (I&A) team are a category specialist group working in support of NHS Supply Chain’s wider ICS team. This approach facilitates broader engagement with customers at the initial stages of category development through to implementation of the strategy and aftercare. The I&A team support the category managers in resolving service issues, drive growth and product switching opportunities.
The I&A team provide an additional support function to both our own category team who may need customer intelligence to develop and support frameworks which the team can arrange through workshops, webinars, Teams calls or face to face meetings. They also work closely with the NHS Supply Chain ICS managers to share information on products and frameworks to meet customer needs. They engage with customers to identify opportunities to change products and suppliers to improve quality and identify savings opportunities by sharing information on our frameworks and services.
The team is made up of implementation and adoption specialists working across England and are aligned to specific categories within Facilities and Office Solutions.
Liessa Newnham, Head of Regional Implementation and Adoption, said: ”Providing accurate information for customers and building relationships with key stakeholders is a critical part of the team’s work.
“We are a fairly small team, and we each cover different territories and lead on various categories. We have daily calls as a team to touch base and conduct calls and meetings with customers to offer advice and support on our categories and share our knowledge to better advise customers on their options.
“We have regular interactions with our procurement colleagues to ensure we keep as up to date as possible and feedback customer comments to support category development.”
Customer satisfaction is what drives our entire team, and we rely on the support of one another to make sure we achieve this.
Stephen Gomersall, Implementation and Adoption Specialist, said: “We work well together as a team, using each others skills and knowledge to bring the best results to the table. The best part of the job is getting valuable feedback from trusts on the work you have done for them.”
Liessa added that supporting NHS customers to get the right products, at the right price, for the right reason is one of the most rewarding parts of the job.
She said: “The most rewarding element of our role is building long term relationships with our partners and knowing we have helped them find solutions that save them time and money. We help raise awareness of alternative products that improve patient care, from the chairs they sit on, to the curtains around their beds, or the products used to keep hospitals clean.
“We provide a bridge between the customer and our category teams to improve communication and response times and help to build our understanding of customer requirements so that we can deliver products that accurately meet their needs.“