How the Cloud is accelerating COVID-19 vaccination programs
A couple of months ago, Salesforce announced Vaccine Cloud, a new technology solution to accelerate global vaccine management. This solution is a compilation of Salesforce’s existing services on its 360 platform to help government agencies, health care providers and organizations register, schedule and monitor COVID-19 vaccination efforts, supporting it from a logistics and inventory point of view.
Orchestrating global vaccination efforts is no easy task, but cloud-based supply chain solutions like Vaccine Cloud are here to help. Big problems require big remedies.
The big problem: The scale and speed of mass vaccinations put supply chain management to test
As Bret Taylor, President and COO of Salesforce, said in Vaccine Cloud presentation:
“The biggest challenge the world faces right now is orchestrating the distribution of billions of vaccine doses. Technology can play a critical role in ensuring it’s done efficiently, effectively, and equitably” Bret Taylor, 2021
Indeed, the scale of vaccination programs and the complexity of information flow — various users (providers, states, citizens) across several stages (planning, registration, scheduling, distribution, outreach to patients, administration and reporting) — require an infrastructure for which many healthcare organizations are unprepared. Organizations need a tool to effectively and efficiently manage the process, there is a lot at stake. Technology, logistics and healthcare collaboration is essential to overcome the intricacies of the process. Solutions like Vaccine Cloud are the result of such collaboration in the form of cloud-based solutions for supply chain management.
The big remedy: where does this come from? What is cloud computing? How does it transform Supply Chain management and operations?
Using the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) definition of Cloud computing:
“Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction” (Mell & Grance, 2011).
The cloud builds upon the concept of a holistic platform accessible by many; facilitating communication and increasing productivity. Supply chains are complex systems of interconnected and interdependent networks that collaborate together to deliver a product or service to a final destination or user. Supply chains require adaptiveness, agility and successful delivery, requirements that can be best satisfied by cloud services.
In its Supply Chain Management in the Cloud report, Accenture introduces us to the new capabilities that cloud computing brings to the table:
· Facilitates improved responsiveness to volatility and disruption
· Empowers data flow through system networks, enabling better decision making and actionable insights
· Increases flexibility and customization
· Enables end-to-end collaboration
To thrive in today’s World, practically all supply chains present some degree of cloud-based enhancement.
What can cloud computing do for the COVID-19 Vaccination SC specifically?
Jim Rogers (VP of Healthcare Solutions at Traction on Demand, provider of vaccine administration solutions partnering with Salesforce’s platforms) defined the fundamental challenge of vaccination programs as:
“How do we get the right vaccine, in the right place — which is where we’re going to vaccinate — at the right time and in the right quantity to match that need based on priority and population volume”
Sounds familiar… [Hint: this looks like a job for a cloud-based solution].
How the cloud will help us accelerate vaccine management? First, it enhances planning — exhaustive data sets on inventories, gaps in coverage, community needs, etc. allow to optimally target needs with the just right solutions. Second, it provides agility — streamlined computing with minimal effort and interaction empowers decision and action agility at all levels of the process, treating data as an asset. Third, it enables integration and end to end visibility — basically, one exhaustive real-time source of truth for all parts involved. Fourth, scalability — access to real-time data enhances collaboration across all actors and helps tackling key inefficiencies within the fulfillment process. And last but not least, efficiency — the right vaccine in the right place at the right time and quantity means reduced waste (referring to the lean manufacturing definition of waste).
With the above capabilities:
· States can plan, allocate, prioritize, verify, report and control global vaccination efforts
· Healthcare providers can ensure the distribution and administration of vaccines
· Citizens can register to be vaccinated, schedule and appointment and be notified across the whole lifecycle of the process
What solutions are out there?
Numerous vendors leveraging Salesforce’s platforms and other cloud solutions are working with government health departments and healthcare providers in the development and deployment of comprehensive vaccine management solutions. These partners leverage their expertise and tested solutions to help organizations accelerate their vaccination programs. Just to name a few; companies like Deloitte, Accenture, IBM, Infosys or Traction on Demand extend the powers of Vaccine Cloud globally. Others based their solutions on alternative platforms like Microsoft and EY utilizing Microsoft’s platforms or SpringML leveraging Google’s platform.
As next steps, partners are now looking into the future of the pandemic. After months of lockdown and mobility restrictions, vaccine programs are expected to gradually take us back to normality. Until then, we need solutions that can help us control the spread of the virus and safely reopening economies, travel, etc. Salesforce and IBM announced in December that they would integrate IBM’s Digital Health Pass within Vaccine Cloud solutions. Digital Health Pass is IBM’s “health passport” solution. Based on Blockhain and Cloud technologies, this passport will allow us to prove our medical status, allowing society to reopen. Citizens, in control of their data, will be able to show their credentials to a verifier in return for permission to attend social gatherings, venues, work, etc.
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