Great opportunities and fierce competition in the UK – high volume development in the health sector

For Finnish health technology companies, the UK is full of opportunities, but success requires perseverance and getting to know the local environment. Success stories say that "attitude and the will to succeed are decisive."

Health care in the United Kingdom is wrestling with familiar problems: people are getting older, workers are scarce, hospitals are worn. With diminishing resources, more needs to be done.

To improve the situation, the National Health Service (NHS) is now investing heavily in digitalization. There are many public tenders underway and coming up in the country, forming a huge opportunity for Finnish health technology companies.

"The NHS is investing in digitalization – raising the level of units lagging behind. For us, this is a giant opportunity, as in many tendering processes mobile applications and using them to digitalize workflows are an essential element," says Juha-Matti Ranta, CEO of Medanets Oy, which has gained a solid foothold in the market.

Buying locally

The UK market is made unique by the NHS, the world's largest public health care system.

The NHS has framework agreements covering the entire organization, but as a buyer, the NHS is not monolithic. NHS organizations locally, including NHS Trusts, i.e. hospitals, general practitioner clinics, and Integrated Care Systems organizations, can choose solutions for themselves.

"In the NHS, decisions are very rarely made by one person, such as the commercial director of a hospital. Clinical staff, doctors, and nurses are usually also involved. So, it pays to look for a clinical contact who is excited about the solution and will promote it within the organization,” says Janna Mure, Senior Advisor at Business Finland.

"On the other hand, finding such a contact often requires very persistent and determined work. Then, when one NHS Trust acquires the solution, it will become more widely known in the NHS through the grapevine.”

Dolls made an impression

Haltian, specializing in the digitalization of hospitals, found the right NHS contact at a fair in Birmingham.

Gunnar Hansen, head of Haltian's hospital offering, had created an exhibition stand during the pandemic in close cooperation with Quuppa who specializes on indoor positioning systems.

The idea of the booth was to let people see, try, and feel how the solutions work in real life. The booth showed a digital ward on the screen where you could see Barbie and Ken who were also there physically on the booth. When the booth’s visitors picked up Barbie and Ken they could see them move on the screen in true time. People were amazed and immediately started thinking about possible use cases in the hospitals.

Barbie and Ken were so memorable that shortly after the fair, Milton Keynes University Hospital made contact. The contract on the system’s delivery was signed shortly after.

Haltian's solution was piloted in the Milton Keynes cancer ward, and afterwards its implementation was extended to a number of additional areas of the hospital. The results speak for themselves, and Milton Keynes is now Haltian advocate.

"We decided to do the project as well as possible as the hospital’s partner, exceed their expectations, and build good relationships and trust. We believed that this way other hospitals would follow suit. We were right," Hansen says.

Hard work even with partners

Medanets entered the UK market through a partner.

Medanets' mobile application, which enhances patient care and lightens the workload of nurses, is integrated into the patient information system. In collaboration with Oracle Cerner, one of the world's largest patient information system companies, Medanets' solution is now used by the first British client – County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust. The customer base will expand significantly in the coming months and years.

Entering a new market is always hard work, and good partners are essential.

“I have been asked many times if I could help, if I could give a name to contact. Personally, I feel that we have had to convince more than a hundred people at our partners alone to get to this point. There is no one door to open the path to the market,” Ranta points out.

Forging connections and the importance of trust are also highlighted by Hansen and Mure. You cannot be successful without understanding the local practices, challenges, and decision-making model. The best way to get market information and insight into its workings is to network on the ground.

Be prepared for intense competition

Finnish companies are strong in many health technology areas under development in the UK. The list is long: remote solutions, digital diagnostics, cyber solutions, digital solutions for mental health services, smart hospitals, use of genomic data, wellness solutions – and all of these, of course, in a sustainable manner and supporting the improvement of the health sector’s carrying capacity.

In health technology exports, the UK is one of the most important target markets. Finns and Finnish know-how have a good reputation in the country, but the competition in the UK is very fierce. You need to be prepared for it, and the groundwork must be done thoroughly.

"First, the company needs to find out if the UK is the right market for it. If it is, you have to commit to entering the market, be present, and allocate sufficient resources to the work,” Mure advises.

Business Finland, for example, helps businesses understand how the market works, shares information about business opportunities in the market, speeds up the creation of networks, organizes events and delegations, and supports participation in trade fairs.

"For me it’s a boost just to know that someone outside our organization wants to help us and is rooting for our success," Ranta says.

Attitude and pride

In sales, you should always remember the users' point of view: what their everyday work is like and what would make it easier.

"You should not be too technical but find creative ways to show what you can do with the product. This is why it pays to consider carefully who is going to sell the solution to the new market and how. Who can convey the idea in the most exciting and interesting way?” Hansen emphasizes.

He also recommends avoiding consultants who say that entering the market is impossible without a framework agreement. The red tape involved only takes time and money with little to show for it.

Both Hansen and Ranta underline the importance of the right attitude and pride in your own solution.

"In any business, it is easy to come up with a million reasons why entering a new market will not succeed. It can be done, but only with the attitude of turning the impossible into possible. If you find yourself in a dead end, you just have to look for a different route,” Ranta sums up.

Further Information

Janna Mure
janna.mure (at) businessfinland.fi
Tel. +44 7841 233 734