Case study

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC) is the largest locally-based health insurance provider in the region. Founded in 1938, Blue KC provides health coverage services to more than one million members. Most recently, the procurement department has undergone a dramatic transformation as a service provider to the company and to the constituents in their community.

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Leadership at Blue KC realized the need to improve processes and embrace technology. The operational and technological changes in their organization resulted in increased use of the procurement department’s services. As the department reached its maximum capacity, it became increasingly difficult to meet bidding policies and ensure strategic partners were staying competitive. They needed a tool to bring some efficiency and automation without hiring additional full-time employees.

The team at Blue KC saw positive results very quickly after implementation. Time to value was a key measurement of their success—they realized an ROI after only 3 months and saw an average savings of about $2,000 per RFQ. Seeing cost savings, even with a limited scope of spend, validated expanding to more spend categories soon after. Because they were getting more competitive bids than before, the team could ensure they were getting value from their partnerships. “It is a significant source of process improvement, resource improvement, and identifying opportunities that we never knew existed before,” said Tim Genter, Manager of Procurement and Sourcing Governance.

There were other positive outcomes that the team didn’t anticipate, as well. Having diverse vendors available, both from a compliance and a risk mitigation standpoint, proved to be key in adjusting and testing their supply chain partnerships. Most significantly, when requests came in during the COVID-19 crisis for highly sought after items, Blue KC was able to immediately send out requests to over 50 international vendors through the marketplace and ensure they left no stone unturned.