2020 VAN Scorecard and Narrative

Publication date: 2020

SCALE COUNTRIESSC SCALE PRODUCTSSP O V ER -A LL Average rating on the pain scale to rate experience using the current systems and processes for collaborative FP supply chain mgmt decisions 5.9 4.4 4.1 3.9 P E O P LE # members organizations in the cross-organizational Steering Committee that meets regularly to advise on rollout - 6 6 6 # of multisectoral task forces (by topic area) identified and formed to advance GFPVAN activities - 4 4 4 # entities participating in GFPVAN activities (steering committee, task forces, etc.) - 16 16 18 # countries involved - 2 2 4 # manufacturers involved - 4 4 4 P R O C E SS EF FI C IE N C Y % of respondents reporting “a lot less” or “less” time spent on triangulating data each month to make collaborative supply chain mgmt decisions for pilot countries and products - 0% 21% 44% % of respondents reporting a “lot less” or “less” time spent on communication to review data and make supply chain decisions together for pilot countries and products - 0% 38% 53% % of respondents indicating that it was “somewhat easy” or “very easy” to access the supply chain reports and data analyses needed for review with the FP community 19% 75% 63% 47% % of “past due” orders that do not have associated shipment records - 1% 6% EF FE C T IV EN ES S % of respondents who “agree” or “strongly agree” that they are able to reliably anticipate expected arrival dates of FP commodities 24% 33% 43% 44% % of respondents who expect in the future that the GFPVAN will allow them to make more timely and specific supply chain recommendations and decisions* regarding Nigeria and Malawi compared to before - 85% 77% 87% % of respondents who report that the data they currently have allow them to make timely and specific supply chain recommendations/decisions regarding Nigeria and Malawi* 41% 0% 44% 39% % of respondents who “agree” or “strongly agree” that the status and progress of the collaborative FP supply planning process are transparent and visible at all times 27% 42% 69% 84% % of targeted countries providing complete supply plans at least once per quarter - 67% 100% % of targeted countries providing complete inventory updates - 95% 95% % of supply plans with a projected MOS below Min alert as of the end of the quarter - - 16% % of Action Request tickets resolved in line with the original request for the year-to-date - 45% 50% SC A LE % respondents who report that it is “likely” or “very likely” that with the GFPVAN processes and systems, they will be able to cover more countries than currently possible without increasing total work hours - 63% 75% 80% % respondents who report that it is “likely” or “very likely” that with the GFPVAN processes and systems, they will be able to cover more products than is currently possible without increasing total work hours - 63% 75% 80% C O ST % of respondents who “agree” or “strongly agree” that current systems (CSP Online, RHI, PPMR) could be retired if the GFPVAN covered all countries/products - 97% 87% 92% CSP Online Tool retired - Y Y Y PPMR retired - N N RHI retired - N Y PPT retired - N N Pipeline retired - N N P O LI C Y # versions of official Terms of Use (effective dates) - 1 1 2 # GFPVAN users invited to join - 31 37 59 # official GFPVAN users (accepted the TOU) - 21 58 124 # GFPVAN member organizations (accepted the TOU) - - - 15 T E C H N O LO G Y COUNTRIES WITH SUPPLY PLAN DATA 2 PREV 12 CURR 24 SCOPE COUNTRIES WITH INVENTORY DATA**** 37 PREV 37 CURR 37 SCOPE METHODS** 7 PREV 9 SCOPE 11 CURR PRODUCTS** 19 PREV 25 SCOPE 33 CURR COUNTRIES WITH ORDER AND SHIPMENT DATA*** 105 PREV 136 CURR 136 SCOPE Baseline Time 1 Time 2 Time 3 PROCESS IMPROVEMENTPI * Aggregate of the following supply chain decisions/recommendations: adjusting orders and shipment timing to reduce stock imbalances; funding proposals to better align demand with limited resources; adjusting supply plans to avoid future shortages, stockouts and overstocks; and planning production and shipment schedules. ** The count of method and product coverage beyond the total universe has to do with the inclusion of medical supplies (syringes and sharps) not originally included in the total universe, and more variation in male/female condoms than originally included. *** The total universe has been updated to reflect the complete coverage of active countries in the RHI dataset as of 2017. Since 2017, the highest coverage has been 136 countries. The complete set of 136 was transferred to RH Viz, so 136 now represents the complete coverage. **** The total universe has been updated to reflect the coverage of 46 countries proposed in this business case. VISIBILITYV DECISION-MAKINGDM SYSTEM USABILITYSU COSTC TIME SAVINGSTS TS TS PI V BC BC BC SC SP C BC DM DM DM SU SU NOT LIVE NOT LIVE NOT LIVE NOT LIVE NOT LIVE NOT YET NOT YET NOT YET NOT YET NEW INDICATOR VAN Scorecard and Narrative 2020 - 2 - Scorecard progress against efficiency, effectiveness, scale, and cost Overview This section uses existing data to analyze scorecard progress (see 2020 VAN Scorecard above). The scorecard is designed to pull together a snapshot view of key indicators across both the objective KPIs measured by the platform and the subjective KPIs measured by the longitudinal evaluation survey, as well as other relevant statistics. Three timeframes are included in this version of the scorecard across 2018, 2019, and 2020.1 As noted in the last Business Case, certain KPIs and statistics are grayed out for the “Time 1” column, given that the VAN platform was only launched in live production mode on January 22, 2019. Overall, the inefficiency and ineffectiveness pain felt by those using current processes for collaborative FP supply chain processes has reduced consistently from 5.9 to 3.9 on a 10-point pain scale. This trend is positive, as it reflects less pain in collaborative supply chain management since the introduction of the VAN. In terms of people and policy, the scorecard offers numerical support to the results described in the section above. The scorecard highlights the continued breadth of community involvement over the last three years. Buy-in has been achieved on all key decisions across six Steering Committee member organizations, four of which vote, and 18 participating entities. Closely related to the people involved in the VAN are the policies that lay the foundation for its operation. The VAN now has an updated TOU in place, adjusting key content in response to member feedback. Participation in the VAN is considered “official” when the respective user from a member organization logs into the platform and accepts the TOU. Official VAN membership and usage have grown significantly, with 124 individual users across 15 member organizations as of March 2020. We expect membership (both members and users) to grow significantly in the coming year, as preexisting platforms are merged with the VAN and outreach and onboarding are conducted with potential member organizations. As for efficiency, effectiveness, cost, and scale associated with the process side, available data have been included in the scorecard and are further explained below. Efficiency Under efficiency, the trend over the three timeframes showed that, increasingly, respondents felt that less time was spent on triangulating data and back-and-forth communications to make decisions regarding pilot countries and products2 than in the past, suggesting increased efficiency. Forty-four percent of respondents reported less time triangulating data on a monthly basis (compared to 21 percent at Time 2), while over half (53 percent) spent less time communicating back-and-forth to make decisions (compared to 38 percent at Time 2). The overall positive efficiency trend aligns with the progress described under Objective 1 in the section above, whereby previously siloed supply chain management functions and activities under tools and groups like the RHI, CSP, and CARhs have been merged under VAN management and the parallel processes discontinued. The VAN is finally beginning to fulfill the initial expectations described to ideas42 by one global procurer: VAN is going to come not just as the technology but as the process to replace the CSP and CARhs processes. To make it more efficient…[decisions] could be expedited if the right people are being notified as opposed to this constant telephone chain—like, okay, let me reach out to this person who has to reach out to this person, who has to reach out to this person. If those people are identified and are in the VAN and have roles, you could bypass all of that, right? And it should be theoretically a lot faster. Thanks to the efficiency trend, one Control Tower Planner (CTP) survey respondent noted the following: For countries with supply plan and inventory data in the VAN, I was able to use the VAN to assess recent UNFPA Supplies requests to provide feedback to CSB [Commodity Security Branch of UNFPA] on the requests. Using the VAN was much easier than using my Excel sheets! Yet another global user emphasized the positive efficiency trend in these words: I feel compelled to let you know how impressed I am by the GFPVAN platform after this morning's hands-on training. I hadn't yet appreciated the leap in the evolutionary change I think it will have in global supply chain information (and 1 The data time frame for Time 1 is December 2018 for the survey and platform KPIs and February 2019 for the other indicators. For Time 2 the data time frame is August 2019 for the survey KPIs and the 4th quarter 2019 for the platform KPIs and other indicators. For Time 3 the data time frame is January 2020 for the survey indicators and the 1st quarter 2020 for the platform and other indicators. 2 Malawi and Nigeria, and oral contraceptive pills and implants. VAN Scorecard and Narrative 2020 - 3 - system) management and the almost certain acceleration it will have on countries’ quality and use of data, efficiency, and overall collaboration in-country and between the two levels. With all the time I will save in gathering and checking spreadsheets, websites, smartsheets, etc. there will be so much more analytics that can be done; and that's just me. Imagine anyone who procures, orders, supplies, analyzes, views, makes decisions with FP supply chain data, all of a sudden having an easy, simple, efficient way of answering their questions! Moving forward, improvements will be made in better onboarding users to the location of reports and analyses, as less respondents reported ease in findings these resources in Time 3 (47 percent in Time 3 compared to 63 percent in Time 2). Overall, we see encouraging progress with efficiency metrics and expect this will increase in future rounds now that previously siloed tools and processes are managed under the VAN umbrella. Effectiveness The effectiveness metrics remained fairly steady across rounds, with some standout developments. Notably, the scorecard highlights continued increase in the percentage of respondents who feel the collaborative supply planning process via the VAN is fully transparent, ranging from 27 percent at Baseline to 84 percent at Time 3. Such transparency is a critical ingredient to the perceived value of enhanced collaboration that ideas42 emphasized in their research findings. Ideas42 found that focusing on the opportunities the platform offers for increased collaboration and transparency may increase countries’ willingness to pay for the VAN. The positive trend in this indicator provides important insight to the membership messaging that we will develop to promote country engagement. We also saw 100 percent of targeted countries sharing complete national supply plans with the VAN at least once per quarter in Time 3, a 33 percent increase from the last round. This is encouraging as timely and complete supply plans are crucial to effective supply chain management. It also shows that the perceived value of the VAN to member countries is so high that it promotes regular use and reporting in ways that have not been seen before. We aim to maintain this positive trend with the new countries that will be onboarded over the coming years. Additional findings from the survey show that respondents feel the VAN is highly usable and reliable for contraceptive supply chain decision-making. At the Time 3 survey, 84 percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed the VAN was easy to use after receiving training. Similarly, about three-fourths (73 percent) of respondents reported the VAN was a reliable platform for contraceptive supply chain management. Scale A key component of the VAN Business Case is the belief that efficient, effective, coordinated supply chain processes will improve coordinated supply chain management across more countries, more products, and more actors without additional costs. Bringing this coordination to scale requires buy-in from everyone involved and consistent engagement with RH community. Over time, respondents are gaining confidence in the VAN’s ability to meet the needs of many, with 80 percent of Time 3 respondents agreeing they can cover more countries and more products without increasing costs when working through VAN systems and processes. While 20 percent of respondents remain unsure, we are confident that as the migration of other platforms to the VAN is complete and more countries become members (33 additions expected in 2021), this number will continue to decrease. In terms of scaling up data aggregation to cover more countries and more products, the VAN has achieved this goal. The rapid scaling of the VAN platform as a data aggregator is evident in the bar graphs at the bottom of the scorecard. All of the current country inventory shared with the global community through PPMR (37 countries) has been formatted and uploaded to the VAN. Half of country supply plans currently shared with the global community have been formatted, mapped, and uploaded to the VAN, up from only two in the last scorecard. Eleven contraceptive methods and 33 products are now covered in the VAN, exceeding the agreed scope and growing from the previous scorecard (7 and 19, respectively). Overall, the 124 VAN users from March 2020 can now track more than 4,000 orders and 5,700 shipments across 136 countries and 33 products. We expect these bar graphs to keep shifting to the right, maintaining the trend of exceeding expectations. Cost A key value-added benefit of the VAN is the potential to merge multiple contraceptive supply chain management platforms into one globally accessible technology, thereby reducing operating and training costs and increasing efficiencies in decision-making and troubleshooting. In the Time 3 survey, 92 percent of respondents felt that current systems (CSP Online, RHI, PPMR) could be retired should the VAN be able to absorb all countries and products covered under those long-standing platforms. There was growing support and optimism over the years about the potential of the VAN to replicate the existing systems, and eliminate duplication and VAN Scorecard and Narrative 2020 - 4 - cost by doing so—so much so that we were able to officially bring the functions of RHI, CSP, and CARhs together under the VAN this year and eliminate the old, duplicative tools and processes. PPMR is in process and due for complete graduation by June 2021. 2020.10.20_VAN_Scorecard_FINAL.pdf 2020_VAN_Scorecard_Narrative.pdf Scorecard progress against efficiency, effectiveness, scale, and cost Overview Efficiency Effectiveness Scale Cost

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