As a way to improve the effectiveness of the supply chain of essential medicines and medical supplies, NMS embarked on the process of digitizing the entire supply chain from suppliers to the end user. NMS understood that for the right medication to get to the end user, the quantification process must be done well. NMS started by availing qualified pharmacists to work with the health facilities to ensure that the quantification process was not only within budget but also a true representation of what the facilities needed based on the disease burden of the area and the population density.

NMS with the support of development Partners (USAID), started the rigorous process of digitizing the supply chain through the implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) that is currently known as NMS+. The system enables the health facilities to submit their requests to NMS online. Health facilities are able to know the progress of their orders on the system and when the delivery will be done. The ability of knowing when NMS is expected to deliver enables the health facilities to plan accordingly to avoid stocks-outs. It also empowers the health facilities to request for emergency supplies from NMS as and when need arises.

The new ERP system, NMS+, is also used by NMS suppliers to schedule deliveries to NMS. For NMS to service the orders from the different health facilities, it must have a mechanism of receiving sufficient stock from different suppliers. The new system enables NMS to manage receipt of stock in the warehouse, perform warehousing processes and issuing out of stock to the individual health facilities as per the published delivery schedule.

The implementation of NMS+, has made it possible for health facilities to receive supplies from NMS on time as per the published delivery schedule. Having the supplies in the health facilities is one aspect of enabling accessibility of medicine to the end user. The remaining part is having the end user access the medicine from the health facility that they go to.

With NMS+ in place, the focus is now shifting to ensure that all hospital Information Systems are integrated with NMS+ so that the hospital information systems are able to send alerts and notifications to end users whenever they are due for medication. The systems will be able to inform the end user if the medication is out of stock and propose the nearest health facility where the medication can be accessed.

NMS+ does not only enable online submission of orders from health facilities to NMS but also facilitates the accessibility of available medicine to the final consumer.