Healthcare 21 Group is Europe’s leading independent medical device distributor. We offer sales, marketing and technical services solutions for many of the world’s leading healthcare equipment manufacturers.
The company has tripled in size in less than three years, beginning with the acquisition of the Aquilant Group in 2018, which doubled our size. Since then, we have had three other acquisitions. It has been a very interesting time in the group’s history and really exciting to be a part of it.
Reporting to the CFO, I have a wide-ranging role. My responsibilities include the smooth running of the group’s finance functions, and planning and execution of the group’s strategy. It is a really varied role with lots of projects and initiatives accompanying monthly tasks like month-end reviews, working capital and people management.
'Always ask to be involved in projects critical to the company. It will mean extra work, but the rewards should follow'
As a key supplier of respiratory and PPE to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and National Health Service (NHS), we saw a huge spike in demand virtually overnight as a result of the pandemic. New suppliers had to be sourced and onboarded to meet this unprecedented demand, ensuring robust processes and controls were followed.
Any hold-up to the supply chain could see life-saving equipment diverted to an alternative country, so we knew we couldn’t let the side down. At a time when transaction volumes exploded and remote working presented its own challenges, I am extremely proud of what my team achieved.
Given the spike in transactions, remote working and a paper-based system, we knew we had to adapt to the new reality quickly. We partnered with Apridata to implement optical character recognition (OCR, which extracts relevant details from PDF documents) and robotics to transform our accounts payable and accounts receivable processes.
Within six months, our robot ‘Henry the Hoover’ was processing a third of our invoices and just under half our incoming payments. The team now has a paperless, user-friendly and efficient system that facilitates remote working.
The most important career advice I would give to others is to always ask to be involved in projects critical to the company. It will mean extra work, but you will gain experience, exposure and the rewards should follow. Asking senior people in your organisation for advice or help is a great way to solve your problems. Letting them know how useful using their advice proved might also gain you a mentor.
