COVID-19 Statement

COVID-19 Update

March 23, 2020

Commport has been advised that due to the current unprecedented pandemic event and subsequent reliance on telecommunications, there are widespread and intermittent issues with voice calls being processed by Rogers, Commport’s voice telephone service provider.

Rogers is working very hard to expand, optimize and improve its network infrastructure as quickly as possible and is responding to service incidents as they are reported and investigated. That said, there may be times when calls are not able to be connected, are dropped or are otherwise of poor quality.

Please know that the Commport Network is up and running and the Commport team is ready and available to help you if you need any kind of assistance with Commport products or services.

As a part of our COVID-19 response plan and in protection of our staff and community, Commport has instituted a work from home policy. We are very fortunate to be able to offer this capability to our staff and customers as we continue to provide high quality support services on a remote basis, just like we do every day.

If you are not able to reach us by telephone on our main line, please reach out via email. Our actively monitored support email address is support@commport.com.

Please continue to check back here for updates as they become available.

COVID-19 Statement

March 13, 2020

As COVID-19 has made its way across the globe and The World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic, we at Commport want to ensure that our employees, customers and partners are supported.

Commport has updated our Business Continuity Plan (BCP) to ensure business continues as normal while minimizing any potential disruption.

Commport’s standard work from home policy has been updated to include unrestricted access for all employees to work remotely and the use of web tools to hold meetings via video call, if necessary.

Online web tools will be utilized to eliminate outside visitors within the building.

Any business travel has been put on a temporary hold until April 30, 2020, at which time this decision will be reassessed based on current health and travel advisories.

Commport owns and operates our own data center so all business systems are to continue as normal during this event.

Commport has strongly encouraged our employees to follow government guidelines and procedures to reduce the chances of infection and spread of the virus.

We appreciate our employees, customers and partners’ cooperation to ensure business will continue as normal. If you have any questions, please get in touch with your Customer Success Manager or Commport Support.

Please continue to monitor Commport's Website for further information and developments as they become available.

Be Ready to Fight COVID19 - World Health Organization

QUICK LINKS

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak Information from the World Health Organization.

Retail Council of Canada Annual STORE Conference

Retail Council of Canada: Commport’s Brian Miles attended the RCC STORE event May 28 -29 at the Toronto Congress Centre. Retail Council of Canada has done a great job of growing its membership, expanding the STORE Conference, and attracting both sought-after speakers and over 2,000 attendees to the STORE event.

This two-day event had a number of noteworthy speakers. Diane Brisebois, the RCC President, and CEO opened the conference telling the story of the RCC success over the past few years. Kevin Graff, President of Graff Retail TV was the MC for the 2-day event and kept everyone on schedule, and showed a lot of enthusiasm and knowledge in introducing each new speaker.

Day 1 had one of Canada’s leading retail gurus, Tony Chapman, presenting and then interviewing other quests.

Day 2 was highlighted by a presentation from Walter ROBB, CEO of Whole Foods, and then Michael LeBlanc coming on stage to interview Walter.

The overriding theme of the STORE Conference was changed in the retail sector. In the news, it talks about the demise of retail but in fact, in a lot of areas, retail sales are growing. The integration of retail with eComm and all facets of a business “omnichannel” is now getting more sophisticated by leveraging big data, AI, and most of all, experimenting with new and different ways to attract, retain, and excite customers. It is the growth of omnichannel that is bringing customers back to stores.

Everyone keeps hearing about the amazing success of Amazon and other eComm sites, and they are growing quickly, but the most “shocking” news we heard is that online sales only represent 8% of the total Canadian government retails sales number; it is 10% in the US. The major reason for these low numbers is that retail spending also includes cars, gas, all food bought in-store or restaurants, and other categories.

My compliments to Diane and the Retail Council of Canada staff as I learned a lot, met some new contacts, and was inspired to make a few changes in what I do... Great Event. – Brian Miles

Commport Attends MEDEC MedTech Conference

Commport attended MEDEC MEDTech 2019 Conference on April 3rd. Although not as well attended as some have been in the past, the topics and presentations were well done and extremely relevant. Many of the presentations were formatted using highly interactive panelists in a relaxed atmosphere. The focus for the most part was on Innovation in Healthcare and involved Patient Outcomes as part of the discussion. In a few panel discussions, actual patients were on stage and involved.

The highlight of Day One of the Conference was the final speaker of the day, Mr. Stan Cho, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board of Ontario. Mr. Cho spoke about the “New Entity” plans for Healthcare and what exactly that means. He made clear reference to the Export Panel Report and how that report illustrates that savings of $500 million can be achieved with very little turmoil in the market. The New Entity plans, as he presented, are to follow the recommendations of that report.

Mr. Cho presented a cost-saving example using rubber gloves. Rubber gloves are an item procured by the healthcare market in large numbers, but at varying prices depending on the hospital’s contract with the supplier. By having a single entity procure rubber gloves for all hospitals, there would be a single contract price for those gloves, with potential cost savings of an additional $500 million with minimal effort.

Commport, of course, supports this undertaking and is highly supportive of the single entity concept after seeing how well our project in British Columbia is going.

MEDEC is the national association representing the medical technology industry in Canada. Our members are committed to providing safe and innovative medical technologies that enhance the quality of patient care, improve patient access to health care, and help enable the sustainability of our publicly-funded health care system. We are committed to supporting the growth of a strong and vibrant medical technology industry that contributes to Canada’s innovation economy. www.medec.org

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RCC’s Leaders in Retail Breakfast Series – October 17

RCC's Leaders Retail Breakfast Series October 17, 2018: Commport was excited to attend the RCC's Leaders Retail Breakfast Series* featuring Sarah Davis, CEO of Loblaws. RCC’s CEO, Diane Brisebois interviewed Sarah on stage in front of over 400 people and asked a number of pertinent questions related to Loblaw and the Canadian retail industry.

Sarah is a gifted communicator and answered all the questions with a lot of clarity, depth, and honesty in telling the Loblaw story and handling hot topics such as online competition and how the largest Canadian retailer manages its various loyalty and credit cards. The Loblaw story is a great Canadian success story and with Sarah at the helm it appears to be in very solid hands.

Loblaws Inc. is a Canadian supermarket chain with stores located in the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. Headquartered in Brampton, Ontario, Loblaws is a subsidiary of Loblaw Companies Limited, Canada's largest food distributor.

Loblaw Groceritas was founded by Theodore Loblaw and John Milton Cork in 1919. Loblaw opened the first Canadian self-service grocery store in Toronto in June 1919. During the 1920s the company grew throughout Ontario. By the 1930s it had 107 stores in Ontario and 50 in New York state.

The company initiated a broad marketing strategy that saw a prototype store renovated and remodeled in new colors and a new Loblaws logo. In the mid-1970s stores in the United States were sold to Bells Markets; however, some Loblaws stores in northwestern Pennsylvania continued operation into the early 1990s.

In 1996, in addition to revitalizing the look of its stores, Loblaw management earmarked $40 million for the development of its in-house, private label program

Retail Council of Canada’s Leaders in Retail Breakfast Series

*The Leaders in Retail Breakfast Series provides an exclusive and unique opportunity for vendors and suppliers of goods and services to hear directly from senior leaders of Canada’s biggest retail brands. with none of their fellow retailer competitors or media in the room.

httpss://www.retailcouncil.org/

Commport Exhibits at GS1 Connect 2018

GS1 Connect 2018 Event

From June 4th-7th 2018 Commport attended and exhibited at GS1 Connect 2018 held at the beautiful JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix, Arizona.

GS1 Connect is the flag ship conference and trade show held each year by GS1 US. GS1 Connect brings thought leaders together each year for a jam packed agenda focusing on the use of industry standards to improve and “Accelerate” business processes and trading partner relationships.

To that end, some of the unique opportunities that are presented to attendees at GS1 Connect are sessions known as “How to do business with…” and “Trading Partner Roundtables”. These sessions are designed to enable major retailers such as Walmart, Office Depot, Wegman’s, Target and many more to be able to directly communicate with their vendor partners regarding upcoming business process requirements and initiatives which are important to the trading relationship.

The sessions at GS1 Connect are broken into different industry vertical tracks; Grocery, Foodservice, Retail and Healthcare. Each track provides vertical specific learning opportunities about the latest trends and initiatives to businesses operating in each space. This year’s big cross industry topic was Blockchain and the transformational prospect that blockchain technology is bringing to the business landscape.

As a global network services provider Commport is a big proponent of industry standards to streamline business operations and improve trading partner collaboration through effective communication. Our participation at GS1 Connect is definitely a highlight of the year.

Come visit us at GS1 Connect 2019 in Denver, Colorado June 19-21^st 2019!

Come See Commport at HSCN 2018!

Each year the Healthcare Supply Chain Network (HSCN) hosts the annual HSCN conference, the preeminent event for healthcare supply chain professionals and leaders with the goal of advancing healthcare supply chain excellence. This year’s conference is being held May 14-16 2018 at the Delta Hotels Toronto Airport & Conference Centre.

In Canada, there remains a significant opportunity for improvement within healthcare supply chain management to deliver cost control, efficiency, automation and positive patient outcomes through the use of technologies that are heavily relied on in private sector markets such as retail.

These opportunities have been spelled out in reports such as the McKinsey Report, Strength in Unity: The promise of Global Standards in Healthcare and the Advancing Healthcare in Ontario: Optimizing the healthcare Supply Chain – A New Model from the Healthcare Sector Supply Chain Strategy Expert Panel, which provide a detailed roadmap for the adoption of Global Standards including the use of supply chain management technologies and identification marks and symbols within internal processes. Commport’s suite of services including EDI processing, GDSN data synchronization and cloud based business intelligence and analytics provide the foundation on which these promises can be fulfilled.

Alongside Commport’s work with our customers to deliver on these promises, Commport is excited to attend and exhibit at HSCN2018. The sessions this year include topics such as Value Based Procurement, the role that Data can play to help identify and address supply chain problems, and global case studies that focus on driving value and innovation across the continuum of care.

Additionally, this year, Commport’s customer BCCSS is being awarded with the HCN Supply Chain Organization of the Year award. The award will be presented to BCCSS as a part of the HSCN conference.

For more information about HSCN2018 please visit the Conference Website.

Drop by and visit Commport at Booth # 2

Customer Satisfaction – 2017 Survey Results

We’re Proud of the Results from our Customer Satisfaction Surveys!

Commport takes customer satisfaction seriously. We know that our clients expect our EDI, VAN, and GDSN services to work flawlessly. A high degree of customer satisfaction indicates that we’re doing our job. Supporting our clients so that they can focus on their business and their customers. That’s why we ask our clients after every implementation and every ticket, “How did we do?” We’ve compiled the results from the survey responses we received last year and we’re proud to share the results!

What did our client say?

Every client that responded said they were satisfied or very satisfied with Commport’s services overall.
91% where very satisfied with Commport’s resolution of their support issues.
Overwhelmingly our clients described our service as Professional, Friendly, Fast, Knowledgeable and Polite.
55% said their issue or implementation was taken care of in a shorter time period than they expected

Thanks to our amazing customer support staff

These positive responses, and the exceptional service Commport provides, is due in no small part to the absolutely amazing customer support representatives and implementation specialists that make up our team. Commport is proud of our knowledgeable and dedicated staff. We strive to provide them with the support they need from all teams internally so that they can act as a champion for the customer.

Always Improving

While the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, there were certainly some areas where Commport can improve. We’re always working on making our services even better by addressing these areas.

Thank you!

We want to say a big thank you to all of our clients that took the time to provide us with their feedback!

Updates from the GS1 Global Healthcare Conference – Chicago #5

GS1 Global Healthcare Conference in Chicago, continued…

GS1 Global Healthcare Conference Day 5: There is a large and growing industry globally in the manufacturing and distribution of counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs. In addition, countries and healthcare organizations need to be able to track and trace each drug and dose within their domains to ensure the patent receives the proper drug and dose and that the actual drug being administered is not past it’s expiry date AND was not subject to a drug recall. To accomplish this type of tracking there are a number of GS1 Global bar code standards that can be used to track the GTIN, expiration date, lot/batch number and serialization which assigns a unique number to each dose. Brazil has adopted these GS1 Global bar code standards and uses what is known as a DataMatrix or 2D bar code (which is square but not the same as a QR code used on consumer packaging). Brazil has a central government registry that tracks all clinical pharmaceuticals to ensure the drugs being administered are not counterfeit and to facilitate proper tracking and tracing for the accurate administration of each dose. Ms. Bianca Zimon Giacomini Ribeiro, Deputy Chief Adviser for International Affairs, National Agency of Sanitary Surveillance (Anvisa), Brazil, presented an overview of how their administration tracks these drugs to ensure proper application and to ensure the drugs are not counterfeit.

GS1 Global Healthcare Conference Day 4 Updates

Click on the link to view her presentation: httpss://healthcare-event.gs1.org/sites/default/files/7_-_pharmaceutical_traceability_in_brazil_-_zimon.pdf

Updates from the GS1 Global Healthcare Conference – Chicago #4

GS1 Global Healthcare Conference in Chicago, continued…

GS1 Global Healthcare Conference in Chicago Day 4: Tuesday afternoon the focus changed to Cost Savings through Standards with 3 separate healthcare groups showcasing what they have done to reduce costs within their systems and how their technology and savings initiatives have generated very acceptable ROI on the investments they made. The first presentation was from Dr. Justin Bitter, Business Manager, Bernhoven Hospital, the Netherlands, another European view into healthcare best practices and the last two groups were from the US showcasing what can be done here in North America as presented by Cynthia Shumway, Director, Supply Chain Business Applications, Intermountain Healthcare, US and Matthew Mentel, Executive Director, Integrated Performance Solutions and Betty Jo Rocchio, VP, Perioperative Services from Mercy Health Network, US. Again, real-life examples of what is being done around the globe using GS1 Global standards and industry best practices.

Some of the Highlights of presentation,

Implementing(GS1) Global Traceability Standards for Healthcare solve:

•No visibility of goods availability

•Strongly dependency on employee knowledge

•High inventory costs

•Excessive loss (yearly expired sterile stock up to$ 150.000,-)

•Higher error probability

•Inadequate monitoring capabilities

•No full scale

•Search and cannot find

•Elimination of non-value adding activities

•Out of stock situations

Implementing(GS1) Global Traceability Standards for Healthcare yield benefits:

•Amplifying balance sheet of the hospital

•Track and trace supports current assets control

•Reduction of stock levels (25%)

•Reduction of expired products(80%)

•Lowering high indirect costs of staff

GS1 Global Healthcare Conference Day 3 Updates

Click on the link to view her presentation: httpss://healthcare-event.gs1.org/sites/default/files/panel_-_cost_savings_through_standards_master.pdf

Updates from the GS1 Global Healthcare Conference – Chicago #3

GS1 Global Healthcare Conference Chicago Day 3: There were 2 very compelling presentations from Wilfried Winzer, Director, University Hospital, Dresden, Germany and Kevin Downs, Director Finance and Keith Jones, Clinical Director of Surgery, from Derby Teaching Hospital, NHS, UK, that showcased leading-edge applications of GS1 Global standards, the usage of the GDSN (Global Data Synchronization Network) to obtain clean synchronized brand owner product data and the use of advanced supply chain practices which together gave 2 similar, but unique real world pictures, of what healthcare can look like from supplier to use in hospitals and from patient admission to discharge. All these technologies exist today, many have for years now, and for Canada to improve our global healthcare ranking we need to follow their lead.

Some of the key highlights of the presentation:

Clear identification of medical products is a complex challenge for doctors and logistics

Medical products are more and more specialized on smaller therapeutic fields due to new, innovative developments

Example: STENTS

2006: 148 different stents were bought from 15 suppliers

2017: 749 different stents are bought from 31 suppliers

University hospital and industry

Challenge

Logistical efforts for optimal patient care with innovative medical products increased over the last years and will continue increasing

Counteractive measures

Reduction of efforts by using modern, electronically supported processes in procurement, distribution, storage, use, and documentation of medical products

Goals of EU Medical Device Regulation (MDR)

Transparency and reasonable access to information by using basic-UDI-DI/UDI-DI/UDI in:

Product marking (direct marking)
Technical documentation
Certificate and declaration of conformity
Brief report on security and clinical performance
Implant identification document and patient information
Downstream market reports (vigilance reports, PMCF, PSUR, Trend reports)
Field Safety Corrective Action (Recall, Withdrawal, Advisory)
Certificate of Free Sale

GS1 Global Healthcare Conference Day 4 Updates

Click on the link to view her presentation: httpss://healthcare-event.gs1.org/sites/default/files/data_for_better_care.pdf