Excelerant Consulting | Top Medical Device Consulting Company 2021

MedTech Outlook Magazine

Excelerant Consulting
Accelerating Growth of Medical Products and Services with Healthcare Corporate and Enterprise Accounts

Frank Ripullo, Co-Founder & Managing Partner and Nancy Kailas, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Excelerant ConsultingFrank Ripullo, Co-Founder & Managing Partner and Nancy Kailas, Co-Founder & Managing Partner
A rapidly increasing emphasis on value-based healthcare has called greater attention to the need for, and importance of, Integrated Delivery Networks [IDN] and Group Purchasing Organizations [GPO]. More than ever, administrators at healthcare systems are searching for ways to purchase more wisely and operate more effectively, especially after a year-long, pandemic-driven strain on financial resources.

IDNs and GPOs are critically important in the effort to secure contracts for medical devices and purchased-services companies, pharmaceutical companies, and biotechnical providers. These contracts must simultaneously serve the interests of both parties – the healthcare system [seeking a fair price] and the innovators [seeking a fair profit] who created a better, more advanced healthcare solution.

While the logic is very clear, the execution can be quite challenging for many small- and mid-sized healthcare companies without the proper insight, knowledge, and experience of how best to navigate the often-complex process. Many of these companies lack full-time, dedicated corporate account teams who expertly understand the tricky “ins and outs” of group purchasing, making it difficult to establish the relationships needed to bridge gaps between product development, market placement, and, ultimately, profitability.

Getting from Here to There

Excelerant Consulting, with offices in Scottsdale, AZ, and Laguna Hills, CA, is an independent consultancy that guides companies through this arduous process [www.excelerantconsulting.com]. Their team of deeply experienced healthcare veterans, all with their own unique areas of expertise, helps small- and mid-sized companies secure these all-important contracts. This involves positioning products and services successfully for value analysis committees, contract negotiation, and sales modeling and execution to commercialize medical devices or services.

Healthcare suppliers with new products or services must also understand no two pricing strategies should be the same, and no one price fits all. Every product presentation must be preceded by extensive homework done correctly, including rationale to prove that a product provides true clinical value, the price is fair, and everyone walks away happy once the contract has been inked.

“We offer comprehensive, end-to-end services from putting the right parties together, helping firms navigate the contract negotiation process then putting together a vertically integrated plan to accelerate sales, and deliver the necessary bandwidth to succeed,” explained Nancy Kailas, Excelerant’s Co-Founder, and Managing Partner.
“Relationships are the key and we’ve got long-tenured, trusted relationships with all the major GPOs, IDNs and healthcare systems. Our goal for everyone involved is to succeed, whether you’re looking to secure a fair price or a fair profit.”

The process begins with a discovery call with the healthcare supplier. This enables Excelerant to assess the likelihood that a product or service being offered would capture the attention of a GPO or IDN. Next, Excelerant develops a Scope of Work, including key objectives, tactics, and timelines, and presents it to the healthcare supplier for review. [Timelines are impacted by the GPO review calendar. In cases where a product category will not be issuing a Request for Proposal in the near future, Excelerant moves to an IDN strategy and identifies those IDNs willing to review new products and services without an existing GPO contract.] Once a contract has been executed, Excelerant works with the company to deploy sales professionals assigned to the different verticals to drive contract uptake.

Frank Ripullo, Excelerant’s other Co-Founder and Managing Partner shared a situation in which Excelerant was contacted by a medical-surgical supplier that had struggled for a decade with little success to drive sales in the acute-care market. Excelerant met with the supplier, identified weaknesses and shortcomings, and put together a holistic value proposition based on the supplier’s customer base and their ability to meet the demands of a GPO after a contract was signed.

  • Relationships are the key and we’ve got long-tenured, trusted relationships with all the major GPOs, IDNs and healthcare systems. Our goal for everyone involved is to succeed, whether you’re looking to secure a fair price or a fair profit.


Before long, the supplier was able to capture some of the largest healthcare systems and even earned sole-source provider contracts with some of the aggregation groups. The supplier evolved into a significant player in the market and was later acquired by a major medical device company.

Excelerant: A Diverse Client Base

Excelerant’s client base has been wide-ranging, including purchased services, physician preference items, medical devices, medtech, med-surg distribution, orthopedics, IT, and biologics. This is a result of relationships forged over the years with many of healthcare’s biggest players and influencers. Excelerant’s primary mission is to enhance the healthcare landscape by bringing innovative medical devices and services to providers, ultimately helping to improve patient outcomes.

Ripullo is considered the firm’s visionary, while Kailas is more focused on operations and achieving desired results. “My role is to help develop the strategy and plan, and to ensure we achieve the goals and objectives agreed to by all key stakeholders,” Kailas said.

Moving forward, Ripullo and Kailas plan to move Excelerant into other areas of healthcare in search of new and innovative healthcare solutions, identifying the most promising products and services, and assisting suppliers along their journey to market and profitability.

Top 10 Medical Device Consulting Companies – 2021

Company
Excelerant Consulting

Management
Frank Ripullo, Co-Founder & Managing Partner and Nancy Kailas, Co-Founder & Managing Partner

Description
Excelerant Consulting is a strategic consulting firm advising medical device, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and healthcare services companies in the essential areas of healthcare contracting with GPOs and IDNs. Their team of deeply experienced healthcare veterans, all with their own unique areas of expertise, helps small- and mid-sized companies secure these all-important contracts. This involves positioning products and services successfully for value analysis committees, contract negotiation, and sales modeling and execution to commercialize medical devices or services. Excelerant’s client base has been wide-ranging, including purchased services, physician preference items, medical devices, medtech, med-surg distribution, orthopedics, IT, and biologics. Their primary mission is to enhance the healthcare landscape by bringing innovative medical devices and services to providers, ultimately helping to improve patient outcomes

Excelerant Consulting News

Capital Equipment Strategic Plans Boost Your Bottom Line

Excelerant Consulting The process of planning for, successfully executing and later efficiently managing the lifespan of hospital capital equipment can quickly turn into a complex, multi-faceted, multi-tiered mish-mash of checklists, priorities and considerations. And lots of opinions, self-serving requests, and unnecessary expenses.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Yes, there are many factors to take into consideration – when to pull the trigger on a purchase and managing the high-dollar cost most notably – but if you draw a correlation between the CapEx purchasing/management process and setting a household budget, suddenly matters become far less daunting. Let me explain …
Say you ’re driving an aging vehicle but putting money into major repairs is no longer a wise decision. Your car is nearing the end of its usefulness and the need for a replacement vehicle is on the not-so-distant horizon. Undoubtedly, you’d prepare for the inevitable purchase by first identifying the specific type of vehicle you need, a price range within your budget/cash flow, essential features, the benefits of financing versus outright purchase, the viability of a service warranty, and anticipated lifespan based on data. Once you’ve done your diligence, it’s much easier to make an informed, non-emotional decision that ensures you’re making the best decision and achieving the greatest bang for your buck, as they say.
Same’s true when purchasing expensive hospital capital equipment. Let’s take a closer look at how to optimize the process by creating a Capital Equipment Strategic Plan [CESP].
The Importance of Having a CESP in Place
The best decisions are informed, non-hurried decisions and the best hospital administrators and purchasing agents know this. That’s why getting ahead of the process via a CESP is so vitally important.
With a CESP in place, opinion-based investments step aside in favor of decisions made based on qualitative data and analysis provided by a third-party who has no skin in the game and can set aside emotions and personal preferences.
If you don’t already have a CESP in place, you’re likely wasting time and energy pursuing purchasing decisions that may or not be the best decisions. Here are the steps to developing a custom CESP that will optimize future capital equipment purchases:
1. High-Level Assessment - Begin by taking a top-to-bottom look at all capital equipment currently in use in your hospital. How old is it? How satisfied are your providers with its performance? Are you assessing its operational efficiency and quantifying its success rate relative to patient outcomes? Is the equipment protecting the hospital from unnecessary expenditures?
Next, prioritize your capital equipment needs going forward. Where are there gaps in your existing patient treatment programs that need to be filled? How can you improve operational efficiency while driving higher levels of profitability and improved outcomes
Step 1 ensures you’re factoring in all perspectives and serves as the foundation of your CESP.
2. Dig Deeper - Look at your list of current capital equipment in use and add meat to the bones. Compile vendor-provided lifecycle data, warranty programs, maintenance history, and quantify in dollars and cents what the cost of ownership has been for each item.
Along the way, you will begin to see where money has been spent unnecessarily and where there are still gaps, and you’ll be able to make a better decision once the equipment has reached the end of its road. You’ll also be able to identify and prioritize which type of equipment is needed most and develop a multi-year timeline for these purchases that will work within your future budgets.
It’s critically important to strike the balance between purchasing new equipment versus the cost of keeping aging equipment up-to-date. At some point, those lines will cross and you’ll know the time is nigh.
3. Hire a Consultant - Independent, third-party perspectives help you make objective decisions based on fact. It also opens the door to a broader understanding and knowledge of current vendor offerings, best practices in the industry, and next-gen equipment expected to hit the market in the near future. Independent consultants are also likely to be more aware of purchasing program options and can steer you to the best available phased or group purchasing plans.
Stripping the Emotion Out
The three most important factors in hospital equipment purchasing are data, data and more data. Did I say data? Yes, I did. Data supporting ROI, equipment lifecycles, maintenance costs over time, group purchasing programs, etc. must be assessed and factored into all purchasing decisions. Doing this ensures you’ll be making a strategically-sound, priority-weighted program for all upcoming capital equipment purchases and associated maintenance plans.
Developing a trusted relationship with an unbiased, clear-thinking third-party consultant helps you decide, given the existing economic environment, whether you should delay replacement and update your current equipment or take the plunge and make the investment now. Building and honoring a strong CESP while leaning on the independent consultant means you’ll know exactly what your options are and you may even discover you’re able to upgrade or add equipment sooner than expected.
Bottom line: The CESP protects and enhances your bottom line. Making informed decisions will likely lower your top-line capital costs, improve patient outcomes, and protect or enhance your bottom-line profitability.