Inventory Management
Procurement
Method Pay
Analytics & Reporting
Dee Fischer
CEO of Fischer's Professional Group & DSO Expert
Let’s say you've invested in a new software for your dental practice, expecting streamlined operations and reduced costs.
Three months later, you're still dealing with duplicate orders, rogue spending, and staff bypassing the system entirely.
Yes, procurement platforms are incredibly powerful tools, but they're only as effective as the people using them.
When your team embraces the technology, you'll see dramatic improvements in efficiency and cost control. When they don't, you've licensed some expensive 1s and 0s.
The difference between procurement success and failure comes down to one thing: whether your staff genuinely adopts it as part of their daily workflow.
Every dental practice has its own version of supply chaos.
The front desk coordinator maintains her "trusty" spreadsheet. The dental assistant places urgent orders with whatever supplier they can find, bypassing vendor agreements. The office manager discovers expired supplies hidden in closets.
These disconnected approaches create inefficiencies that eat away at your bottom line. There's only really a four-point spread between the average practices that are really struggling and the best run practices. Studies show dental practices typically spend 6-8% of revenue on supplies, but efficient practices keep it under 5%.
That difference can tally up to thousands monthly and is the ultimate signifier of how well procurement operates at any given practice or DSO.
When procurement isn't centralized, you lose spending visibility, miss bulk purchasing opportunities, and struggle with vendor contract compliance. Fortunately, these challenges are more than solvable should staff become active participants in the solution.
When your team uses a centralized platform consistently, everyone gets instant visibility into current inventory and pending orders. Real-time information can prevent those costly mistakes that fester within disconnected systems.
Let's say your dental assistant needs nitrile gloves in their size. Instead of guessing whether there's an order in progress or trying to find out if someone’s already on it, they instead log in and see a case was ordered two days ago with tomorrow's delivery. No duplicate order, no excess inventory, no unnecessarily tied-up cash.
The best dental procurement platforms help staff embrace this visibility. They can make more informed decisions that protect cash flow and prevent having multiple boxes of composite material expire because nobody knew about the others.
Maintaining compliance to an approved product list or formulary becomes exponentially easier when your entire team follows standardized procurement procedures through a centralized platform.
When staff consistently use the system, they're automatically guided toward approved suppliers and products meeting clinical standards. They can't accidentally order from unauthorized vendors or purchase unvetted products.
Centralized procurement also creates clear audit trails for every purchase. If questioned about supply chain practices or needing to track product sources, complete documentation becomes invaluable for regulatory compliance and quality assurance.
Staff buy-in creates immediate, tangible benefits for daily operations. When everyone uses the platform properly, repetitive tasks like tracking order status, matching invoices, and managing vendor communications become largely automated.
Your office manager no longer spends hours weekly updating spreadsheets or other siloed systems. Staff don't waste time hunting through emails for purchase approvals or remembering which credit card was used. Everything is tracked and accessible centrally.
Practices achieving full adoption often save 3-5 hours weekly on supply-related tasks. That's time redirected toward patient care, growth initiatives, or simply reducing operational stress.
Staff adoption creates a culture of accountability. When every team member uses the platform for all procurement, there’s no more rogue spending or unexplainable invoices.
Role-based permissions ensure staff access only appropriate functions while maintaining complete transparency about who ordered what and when. Your hygienist can order cleaning supplies within budget but can't accidentally purchase an autoclave without approval. The platform creates natural guardrails preventing costly mistakes while empowering efficient routine purchasing.
This transparency makes budget management significantly easier. Managers can quickly identify spending patterns, track budget performance by department, and spot issues before they become serious problems.
When any platform genuinely makes your team’s jobs easier—whether that’s reducing phone calls, paperwork, and supply stockouts—team members will naturally embrace change.
This positive experience often extends to other practice technologies. Staff successful with one well-implemented system become more open to future innovations. They develop confidence in learning new tools and see technology as an ally rather than obstacle.
When staff feel ownership of various processes, they often identify additional improvement opportunities and cost savings that management might miss.
Complete team adoption creates unified workflows that scale naturally as practices grow.
Cost savings multiply across spending categories—practices with full adoption typically see 15-20% supply cost reductions within the first year through eliminated waste, reduced emergency orders, and optimized inventory.
Regulatory compliance becomes a competitive advantage. Complete documentation and standardized procedures position practices well for inspections, insurance reviews, and acquisition opportunities. Most importantly, unified procurement creates sustainable growth foundations without proportional administrative complexity increases.
Getting staff enthusiastic about procurement technology requires thoughtful change management, not just training.
When staff help evaluate options, they develop ownership of decisions.
Instead of discussing "cost optimization," explain how the platform eliminates supply stockout frustrations or lunch break order tracking. Provide practical training solving real problems they face regularly.
Celebrate those early wins publicly. Create feedback loops for suggestions and issue reporting. When you respond promptly to concerns and implement reasonable suggestions, team members feel valued as partners rather than passive technology users.
A procurement platform is only as strong as the team embracing it. When staff genuinely adopt technology as part of daily routines, you'll see remarkable improvements in efficiency, cost control, and operational consistency.
The choice is yours: continue managing disconnected purchasing processes, or invest in getting your team excited about procurement excellence.
Practices choosing full engagement see dramatic technology investment returns and create sustainable operational advantages.
Once you’ve seen the difference comprehensive technology makes, you'll understand why leading practices prioritize staff adoption.
