For Novation's Orthopedics Suppliers, The Internet as Mediator

For a variety of reasons, product companies have responded to the B2B supply chain phenomenon with reserve, wary of high transaction fees and little real benefit. B2B companies, in turn, have teamed up with leading hospital groups to overcome such resistance. But such a strategy only works where suppliers place a high value on GPO contracting. Where group contracting isn't well established, the approach works less well because there's no pull-through for the Internet program. But one group, Novation Inc., is in the early stages of an Internet program that would begin with one of the most challenging of group contracting markets: orthopedic suppliers.