“Like so many good stories before it, this one starts in Vegas,” laughs Dr. Nathan Kupperman, founder of NAK Dental Group. Founded in 2018, NAK offers dental practice management services and is currently supporting five dental locations across Northwest Florida.“I didn’t even know what procurement was when I ran into Dan Traub, Method’s Vice President of Product, at a dental conference,” said Dr. Kupperman. “Seeing how passionate he was about procurement and this digital spend solution they had engineered specifically for dental organizations just like NAK lit my fire.”
“Dan really is a trailblazer, and I think Method has started something revolutionary,” Dr. Kupperman continued. “At NAK, we’re all about finding better ways of doing things, and I wanted our group to be right there along with them at the forefront of this new technology that has the ability to change the dental industry for the better.”
“As practice owners, we are constantly trying to refine how we do things and lower operating costs by working smarter, not harder. I'm always on the lookout for ways to improve our offices,” explained Dr. Kupperman. “Bringing on Method, with their barcode scanning systems, inventory management, and online real-time shopping portal that lets us easily compare pricing on everything we buy, just like you would on Amazon, seemed like a no-brainer.”
“I’m glad to say that it turns out I was right,” Dr. Kupperman continued. “The training and onboarding were seamless, thanks to Method’s client success team. And with five offices, the benefits and cost savings add up quickly. But what I also love about Method is that it allows us to take the reins of our organization and drive home our core values, providing clinical autonomy for our providers and mindful growth and improvement.”
“At NAK, we like to say that although we treat teeth, we are in the people business. The automation and streamlining of processes help us implement best practices, so we can save on supply costs while working more efficiently,” he explained. “This frees up our employees to spend more of their time focusing on what’s most important — taking care of people. Not only does this save on labor costs, but it helps us become a better service provider. And ultimately, it helps us to grow. As dental practice owners, how can we not get excited about that? It’s a game-changer.”
Looking to save time, many dental practices today rely solely on their supplier’s e-commerce. But although online shopping makes buying easy, there are dangers. By creating a frictionless purchasing journey that makes buying dental supplies as simple as throwing items into a shopping cart, vendors ensure you bypass the negotiation process, keeping you buying at the price they want you to pay.
As we all know, nothing in life is free, and you’re likely to be incurring a hefty cost for that ease. Method understands you may already have preferred suppliers or contract pricing in place and designed a procurement system that gives you ultimate flexibility, allowing you to select the suppliers you want to deal with. Their supplier-independent approach puts you back into the driver’s seat, providing you with real-time market pricing analysis tools that help you forge through a catalog of over 400,000 products. Their grid-style price comparison allows you to easily compare pricing on your basket of goods.
Working with real-time market data, including discounts and any existing contract pricing or received quotes, Method allows you to compare suppliers side by side, thus enabling the kind of data-driven decision making that makes for realized cost savings.
“The interesting thing we’ve found is, without even putting in too much effort on price negotiations or even price shopping, onboarding Method and communicating our new procedures and abilities to our suppliers creates accountability,” explained Dr. Kupperman. “As the saying goes, when the cats are away, the mice will play. Knowing that you can easily monitor what others are charging incentivizes suppliers to offer more competitive pricing and ensure their service levels are optimal. This is where the power to change the marketplace comes in.
”Standard inventory management practices allow you to mitigate the risk of stockouts and limit costly rush orders, giving you the opportunity to purchase based on price rather than availability and delivery time.Method drives further improved control procedures through their order approval process, so you can monitor spending against budget to better manage your cash flow and hit your monthly objectives. Role-specific dashboards allow you to stay current and give you actionable data to improve spend controls and planning.
“It really is a business management solution that gives us the tools we need to monitor our spending against our budget,” Dr. Kupperman said. “We can implement standard processes, such as approving or declining proposed purchases before orders are placed, and avoid surprises so we can stay on target. We can work with any supplier we want to and allocate our volumes any way we see fit, and better yet, leverage them for stronger pricing.”
“Once you’ve been using the system for some time, you can gain insights and use spend data to analyze your purchasing patterns and volumes, implement procurement strategies that leverage them for even further savings. The great thing is, Method vets their vendors, so you can rest assured that you can do so safely. Method even has a request for quote (RFQ) procedure where you can ask suppliers to bid and then compare the responses and issue awards.”
“When I sit down with my accountant at month-end, after being with Method for almost a year now, it’s nice to see how much that supply percentage has dropped,” said Dr. Kupperman. “The stars must have been aligned that night in Vegas, and with Method on our side, I can’t wait to see how far we’ll go.”
