Leadership, knowledge, and value-based positioning: Key success factors in Public Procurement

MYSPHERA develops technological solutions to automate, simplify, and expedite the most complex processes within healthcare organizations. 

From an RTLS solution (indoor location tracking), the Spanish startup orchestrates all the tasks within a clinical service, placing the patient at the center. A very clear example of its application is the operating room. Knowing the patient’s location enables exhaustive coordination and automation, improving information flow for all parties and process management. This turns the patient’s journey into a “lean healthcare” process. 

It has a lot of benefits, both for professionals and patients: optimization of non-value-added time (resulting in a 10% increase in surgical performance), significant improvement in the patient experience, reduction of waiting times… 

In summary, it’s an extremely effective solution whose sale, however, hasn’t always been as easy as one might expect. 

Both Toni Mateo, Commercial Director of MYSPHERA, and Jordi Rovira, its Innovation Director, experienced this firsthand. And, on April 4th, they shared their insights with us in the webinar “Innovation and Value-Based Procurement,” hosted by Ticbiomed. Let’s review the main points of the discussion. 

Toni began by telling us how they got into public procurement. After a period of trying to sell their technology through project financing mechanisms, they realized that when the solution doesn’t come from a need identified by the healthcare organization it’s intended for, it’s very difficult for the project to be successfully carried out. The general perception was that they were implementing a solution foreign to the organization, whose value was hard to perceive and didn’t maintain long-term interest. 

Lesson #1 – Working from demand (demand-drive innovation) significantly increases the chances of success. 

That’s why when the opportunity to collaborate with Vall d’Hebron Hospital arose, they didn’t hesitate. The initial requirement was for a small solution, on which they worked closely with the hospital itself, making both parties perceive the project as their own, appreciate its value, and take the necessary steps to facilitate adoption. 

Over time, the project grew, expanding requirements and functionalities and leading to a larger sale. Within Vall d’Hebron itself, in other hospitals, and even in other countries. 

 Lesson #2 – A first “small” sale can be an interesting entry point into a public organization. The secret lies in scalability.  

Scalability, however, wasn’t easy. In fact, both Toni and Jordi encountered several obstacles that they now recognize as common difficulties in project development. 

One of them concerns timeframes and tender documents. When a disruptive solution is introduced to the market, aligning tender documents with certain specifications can be very complex. Additionally, timeframes are usually very tight. This causes bottlenecks in procurement departments, with two consequences. 

On the one hand, there’s a tendency to request simple solutions (for example, equipment) to ensure the use of the budget without complications. Toni explained that MYSPHERA’s solution requires data collection, which, in most cases, starts from scratch because previous records are often manual and unreliable. Just to obtain the data for an assessment, MYSPHERA may need a year, a timeframe that exceeds what’s stipulated in most tender documents. 

On the other hand, purchases are made “at auction.” 

Lesson #3 – We must emphasize the value of the solution. Without giving anything for free and without prioritizing price over other benefits. 

This is a complex issue with many nuances that Toni and Jordi helped us unravel. On the one hand, Toni himself acknowledged that it’s human nature to seek the best price, we all do it at home with our internet provider! 

But it’s not the right approach to selling a disruptive solution to a healthcare organization.  

One of the challenges of selling based on value (and not on price) is the difficulty in explaining convincingly the benefits that the solution will bring to both professionals and patients. In addition, usually organizations don’t have adequate evaluation mechanisms. MYSPHERA has experienced cases where a hospital called them months after a tender they didn’t win to ask them to fix a solution from another provider that never worked as it should have.  

This could be resolved with compliance clauses and real consequences, even penalties, but these mechanisms are difficult to implement. 

They both agreed that in organizations where there has been adequate monitoring and evaluation, the conclusions have been astonishing: MYSPHERA has been the key tool for evolving and setting the pace for optimizing clinical processes within organizations. 

Jordi told us as well about a pilot project they gave for free, trying to captivate a potential client with the possibilities of a solution, which also didn’t end well. Probably because it was free, the organization never valued the product. 

His recommendation is, again, whenever possible, to seek projects that allow for co-creation of solutions and do so with organizations that genuinely want to innovate. It doesn’t necessarily have to mean starting from scratch. Sometimes it’s an expansion of a solution or new applications or functionalities. By working together with the healthcare organization, the perception of value will be greater, even more so if that organization has adequate leadership interested in innovation. 

Lesson #4 – Projects have infinitely better outcomes when the organization has good leadership. 

Another complicated issue with various aspects to consider. Firstly, there isn’t always the knowledge to articulate certain types of procurement. Sometimes, it can be challenging to fit highly disruptive solutions into both technical and administrative concepts of a generic public procurement. Without adequately trained personnel to shape tender documents and the willingness to do so, existing tools (which do exist) aren’t leveraged, which harms less standardized proposals. Paradoxically, these proposals are the ones that can ultimately provide more value. 

Injecting a bit of hope, Jordi pointed out that in recent years, he has seen many European projects move in this direction, proposing more flexible mechanisms and using agile tools, which don’t get bogged down in bureaucratic issues.  

And although he lamented that this knowledge wasn’t being disseminated nationally, he mentioned regions like Catalonia, Andalusia, or Murcia where interesting things are happening, with experts pushing in that direction and even offering consultancy for challenging aspects. 

And this brings us back to talking about leadership. The number of people and departments affected by the implementation of a disruptive solution is very high. Without firm pro-innovation leadership, it’s difficult for proposals to be adopted. Toni spoke about the excess workload often IT departments suffer from, which can make them very reluctant to get involved in any new projects. MYSPHERA has even offered technical support in some projects to prevent them from stalling. In fact, this is something that could also be included in tender documents, when appropriate. 

Jordi added that when the directives from the financial or legal department of an organization, typically very conservative, prevail over the inclination towards innovation of, for example, the CEO, companies don’t innovate. And thus, they become smaller. 

To avoid these barriers, strong, clear, and motivating leadership is needed, capable of involving all teams and making them feel part of the projects. 

The need to share a vision also applies to international expansion. 

Lesson #5 – An excellent way to reach markets outside of Spain is to have a partner who believes in your product, shares your business model, and knows that market very well. 

That’s what MYSPHERA did to enter the UK market, where they have a partner perfectly aligned with their business and solutions, who has specific knowledge at legal, administrative, and certification levels… A partner who worked internally with the client until the validation of a solution through a small public tender in a hospital became possible. 

For international growth, Jordi also recommends keeping up to date of what’s going on. Calls for proposals are continually being launched, instruments are being enabled, large-scale European projects are being launched… we all need to be constantly on the move to keep growing and, of course, innovating. 

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Those were the main conclusions of a conversation that could have lasted for hours, given Toni and Jordi’s extensive knowledge on the subject. It’s curious that before starting the webinar, Toni claimed they were “apprentices of everything and experts in nothing.” And while we totally agree with their apprentice character, and that restless spirit is probably one of the main drivers of the success they now enjoy, we couldn’t disagree more with the “experts in nothing” part.  

MYSPHERA has a great team of professionals who work exceptionally well and know a lot. Want to check by yourself? Watch webinar. 

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