In a hospital setting, health providers rely on suppliers to deliver medical supplies quickly and with prompt responses on a daily basis.
But issues with medical suppliers continue to exist. From supplies not being delivered on time, and poor compliance with purchasing policies to moving back and forth before the final purchase order, these gaps, when unattended, result in a delayed medical supply.
For this reason, InterLeukin Innovations Inc., a digital platform based in the Philippines, is here to enhance this supplier-buyer connection. Eliminating the supply chain gap, it collaborates with local and international distributors and manufacturers to enhance the buyers’ retail experience. The company ensures to provide a smooth interaction between supplier and buyer while the product is manufactured, purchased, and delivered to its end client.
This platform, led by Laila Marquez, the CEO, and Founder, provides the most advanced digital solutions, facilitating affordable and quality-assured medical supplies to foster a better healthcare delivery system.
Let’s peek into InterLeukin’s operations to see what makes it a perfect digital solution for suppler-buyer interaction.
The Journey to Resolving the Healthcare Crisis
One of Marquez’s partners was once a medical distributor who kept trading and selling medical items for twenty years in Manila and nearby provinces. For years, she had gained the trust and support of hospitals in those areas, gaining her business large profits.
But during the COVID-19 pandemic, the same business was severely disrupted. Not only she was unable to meet the demands of her customers due to the high cost, but also the sales went down. Customers began to entertain other suppliers, and she was unable to promote her products directly to the hospitals.
On the other hand, hospitals and labs are experiencing issues with the suppliers, as there are greater delays in receiving the supplies they need. For instance, Marquez, by profession, is a Medical Technologist. During her practice, she would often find herself in the position of a buyer and fix the procurement needs of her department. But after a while, working in the laboratory became routine work for her. That’s when she decided to try the other side of the world, i.e., to become a supplier.
“I grew my sales career with local and international medical device companies wherein I would digest every bit of experience I had in this field. That led me to have a burning desire to build a company that will solve the pains of being a supplier and a buyer in the medical industry,” adds Marquez. In that instance, InterLeukin was born, with the initiative to enable these different customers to integrate into a digital space to make their healthcare business crisis-proof through technology.
Being a digital solution, it has been helping offline medical businesses create a cost-saving revenue stream by simplifying medical supply distribution across different medical institutions through e-Commerce technology.
Key Products and Services
There is always a challenge of penetrating different markets across the Philippines that requires a lot of investment, energy, and effort. But both the medical suppliers and institutions are looking for ways to connect with each other without the hassle of waiting, making tough negotiations, and closing a sale that in turn will lead to creating a purchase order.
Addressing the challenge, InterLeukin offers a comprehensive procurement management tool (to manage all medical purchasing needs), end-to-end e-commerce support, and data in the industry. This has enabled space for smooth interaction between the buyer and supplier until the purchase order has been made and the product is delivered.
Abiding By Six Values
InterLeukin aligns its operations with the six core values, like:
Integrity: We deliver what we commit by all means.
Innovation: We believe in the continuous art of improvement
Diversity: We love everyone’s differences, and we appreciate everyone’s ideas
Quality: We make sure to bring the best quality products and services
Excellence: We strive to go beyond our limits to become the best
Lastly, Customer-focused – for we work to serve, not to be served.
All these values are crucial to building a team that will grow the company together. In addition, they would become its ambassadors, bringing forth these values when dealing with internal and external customers and attaining InterLeukin’s objectives.
Seeking Technological Advantage to Simplify Medical Supply Delivery
To streamline the traditional offline way of medical purchasing, i.e., from selling up to delivering products at the warehouses of medical institutions; InterLeukin utilizes different technologies that can be implemented, such as cloud technology, AI, and machine learning.
Since InterLeukin is a digital solution, Marquez and her team make sure that they are updated on the latest happenings in the industry by attending several networking events, conferences, and meetings with industry experts. This allows them to prepare things ahead and offer their clients a quality user experience. In addition, collaboration is yet another strategy that serves the company in keeping everything on pace for the clients.
Creating Opportunities for Growth
One must have a certain level of involvement with the healthcare industry in order to grow. For those entrepreneurs who desire to walk in Marquez’s footsteps, she suggests, “Your patience and resilience will be overly stretched. You will find a lot of things here that will frustrate you. Don’t settle on complaining about the things that are lacking. See scarcity as a shot for growth, and what’s present is your foundation of improvement.”
InterLeukin’s Future Plans
InterLeukin has been a constant support in assisting with medical supplies since its establishment. In the previous year, it was nominated for 2021 Startup Newcomer of the Year and Startup of the Year 2021 in the ASEAN Startup Awards, recognizing its contribution to the healthcare and medical sector.
Looking ahead, the company is ready to take off on offering an innovative business model to the medical industry that will bring them better business across different countries that they wish to expand to. InterLeukin will lead the enablement of several big medical device companies to a healthcare eCommerce space that will solve their challenges in market penetration, regulatory, supply chain, and logistics.
