24 Oct 2016 07:00
24 October 2016
Legendary Investments PLC
("Legendary")
Virtualstock Holdings' Ltd ("VS") technology platform ("The Edge"),
to be implemented at leading UK teaching hospitals across England
· The Edge being adopted as the common catalogue management solution by the Shelford Group, which comprises ten leading NHS multi-specialty academic healthcare organisations
· Lord Carter highlights VS in his landmark report, "Operational productivity and performance in English NHS acute hospitals: Unwarranted variations", February 2016, ("Carter Report"), into operational productivity and efficiency in NHS England
· Virtualstock in discussions with many further NHS hospitals and service providers
Legendary is pleased to announce that its investee company, VS, has been appointed by the Shelford Group, to deploy The Edge to engage with NHS trusts' suppliers. The Shelford Group, which comprises 10 leading NHS multi-specialty academic healthcare organisations, employs over 100,000 people and has a turnover of over £10 billion, making up over 13% of acute trusts' turnover across England, will deploy VS's cloud-based module catalogue management solution, part of The Edge, providing a solution to what Lord Carter described as one of the major issues affecting the NHS.
The trusts that make up the Shelford Group are of strategic significance to NHS care, the life sciences industries and the wider UK economy. VS, through The Edge platform, aims to support significant savings over the next five years through supply chain optimisation and procurement process efficiencies.
This landmark appointment will allow The Edge to provide a faster, cost-effective and consistent e-Catalogue solution ensuring procurement is efficient and effective. VS is in talks with other hospitals with an aim to roll out the platform across all trusts throughout England.
The Shelford Group will be the first group of trusts to collaborate in the adoption of a single catalogue management solution to address the key recommendations in Lord Carter's report. The Carter Report, estimates that £5bn is lost in the NHS through waste and unwarranted price and product variation across acute trusts: a sample of 22 trusts exposed that they used 30,000 suppliers, 20,000 different product brands and more than 400,000 manufacturer products. Procurement-led efficiency initiatives specified by Lord Carter will aim to deliver savings of up to £1bn per annum (out of £5bn) by 2020. Lord Carter's report concluded that catalogue management, enabling control, compliance and reduced product and price variation, continues to be serious issue for the NHS.
VS has a history of deploying digital solutions to leading retailers including Tesco, Argos, Maplin and Office Depot. Selected for its ability to implement agile, scalable technologies, VS continues to provide its retail partners with the tools to optimise supply chain operations, while delivering significant cost savings. VS's strategy is now being replicated across NHS Trusts with the aim of delivering comparable results.
VS first launched in the health sector last year, rolling out The Edge at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. VS was cited in the Carter Report as exemplary of best practice in employing digital technology to deliver significant cost reductions, through supply chain optimisation and procurement process efficiencies with Guy's and St Thomas.
David Lawson, Chief Procurement Officer at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, said: "The Shelford Group recognise the importance of adopting common systems to drive process efficiency both for our hospitals and our supply chain. We wanted to embed best practice by replicating the best in retail. We need to deliver at pace, so we have adopted VS, the same digital platform used by some of the UK's largest retailers to deliver both a common catalogue solution and a platform for future process improvement."
Andrew Mills, CEO of VS, emphasised this critical period to 2020: "We are delighted to be part of revolutionising procurement performance with trusts across the UK. Lord Carter has laid out ambitious targets for the NHS, which we can support through the VS Edge system. Supply chain optimisation is crucial, not only for the trusts' benefit but also the patients. VS will use The Edge to replicate the efficient and agile systems of our retail clients in order for the successful result to be rolled out across the NHS."
Zafar Karim, Executive Chairman of Legendary, said: "In a few short years, Virtualstock has gone from winning its landmark contract with Tesco to being adopted by other leading retailers. Momentum in this sector continues to grow. Significantly, Virtualstock's sector agnostic nature enabled it to win its first NHS client just over a year ago, and now, its systems have been cited as "exemplary" and are to be deployed in the NHS by the Shelford Group further afield.
"Legendary's strategy of searching for deep value, its patient opportunism and its proactive investment strategy is now starting to pay off."
ENDS
Legendary Investments Plc | Zafar Karim / Thomas Reuner
| 020 8201 3536 |
Grant Thornton UK LLP
| Colin Aaronson / Harrison Clarke | 020 7383 5100 |
Beaufort Securities Limited | Elliot Hance | 020 7382 8300 |
About Virtualstock Holdings Limited
VS is a British software company providing new generation, enterprise solutions to the Retail and Public Sectors.
The Edge is a game-changing agile data platform, built on open, scalable, secure technology that consumes, validates and exposes data in any format, seamlessly unlocking business critical data, without the need for traditional systems integration.
The Edge is GS1/PEPPOL compliant, delivering best-in-class eProcurement functionality, including an Amazon-style, procure-to-pay (P2P) online marketplace, inventory management, product information management (PIM), catalogue management, e-invoicing, track and trace, and analytics.
The Edge delivers real-time interoperability and an exceptional user experience.
Founded in 2004, the VS Team combine deep industry knowledge, to transform complex supply chains, within the Retail and Public Sectors, enabling VS clients to be the disrupters, not the disrupted.
GS1 is an international organisation that develops and maintains supply chain standards in healthcare, retail, transport and logistics and more. 2. PEPPOL (Pan European Public Procurement On-Line) is a system which provides organisations and its suppliers with a standardised connection for eOrdering, eInvoicing, electronic Credit Notes and Advance Shipping Notifications. This single eProcurement link eradicates the need for several individual connections.
www.virtualstock.co.uk
About the Shelford Group
The Shelford Group, which comprises 10 leading NHS multi-specialty academic healthcare organisations, employs over 100,000 people and has a turnover of over £10 billion, making up over 13% of acute trusts' turnover across England, will deploy the catalogue management module of VS' cloud-based solution, The Edge.
As leading tertiary centres, Shelford Group members deliver training and education to clinicians, as well as vital infrastructure for medical research.
The Shelford Group was formed in 2011 to share best practice in key service areas across its membership and to engage with Government, Parliament and industry to represent large tertiary centres and the wider NHS.
About Legendary Investments PLC
Legendary Investments Plc is a proactive investment company that focuses on making investments in and assisting companies which exhibit the potential to generate returns of many multiples through capital appreciation. Typically, Legendary invests in small companies where there are clear catalysts for value appreciation and the companies are operating in sectors exhibiting long term growth. Examples of such sectors include technology, energy and natural resources.