Custom Medical Supply Chain Management Portal

During the discovery phase, business analysts define the portal's objectives, scope, and desired functionality. This involves collecting input from a healthcare provider’s executives, procurement managers, operational staff, and other stakeholders about procurement workflows, role-specific tasks, document and data management processes, the specifics of supplier catalogs, and more.

As a result, software requirement specification (SRS) is created, a document containing a detailed description of functional and non-functional requirements. The feature list is prioritized according to the health provider's needs and objectives.

For example, a large health system with hundreds of suppliers would benefit from features that speed up the procurement process and, therefore, may consider implementing AI-assisted vendor selection recommendations and functionality for online sourcing events. A mid-size healthcare provider, in turn, will benefit from more basic features like a convenient supplier catalog and custom supplier registration and validation workflows.

When SRS is ready, software architects analyze the healthcare company's existing software and the systems of its major suppliers to identify integration methods and ways to address any potential interoperability challenges. Then, they prepare architecture diagrams and choose the optimal tech stack for the future portal.

Designers strive to create intuitive workspaces and dashboards for each user role. It's essential to provide tools for smooth collaboration within the procurement team and with partners. To streamline collaboration, quick access to suppliers' contact details, instant messaging, and a view of conversation history directly from the workspace can be designed.

Typically, the deliverables of this stage include wireframes outlining the user journey for each user task. The wireframes are then combined into a prototype that can be tested by medical supplier portal users and improved based on their feedback. After that, designers transform the prototype into full-color UI mockups.

Developers create the front end and back end of the portal and integrate the portal with the buyer's systems (a supply chain management solution, an invoicing and billing system, EHR, CRM, etc.) and medical suppliers' ERPs.

If the portal is involved in clinical data exchange, e.g., if it receives updates directly from an EHR, HL7- or FHIR-compliant integrations need to be developed, depending on the interoperability standards supported by the EHR system. For modern systems, FHIR APIs are the preferred method for data exchange.

At this stage, critical security measures, including user authentication and access control, are put in place to protect buyers' and suppliers' sensitive business information.

QA engineers typically conduct functional, integration, compatibility, performance, and security testing in parallel with development. Developers fix any issues identified during testing, and the corresponding software features that had issues undergo retesting.

Following the portal launch, the development team delivers user guides, video tutorials, and consultations to support a healthcare company's personnel in adopting the new software. A specialized help desk team might also be established to quickly address users' requests and help suppliers with onboarding, integrations, and troubleshooting.

The team fixes any remaining issues as part of after-launch support and can also offer continuous maintenance to timely update the software, monitor and optimize its performance, and further enhance features based on user feedback.