The FINANCIAL — Accenture (NYSE: ACN announced a comprehensive vaccine management solution to help the government and healthcare organizations rapidly and effectively plan and develop COVID-19 vaccination programs and related distribution and communication initiatives.
The solution expands on Accenture’s contact tracing capability to help public health jurisdictions meet newly released guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in preparation for COVID-19 vaccine distribution. It brings together Accenture’s industry, analytics and consulting experience and includes components built on the Salesforce platform. Local, state and national governments as well as healthcare organizations worldwide are expected to similarly undertake planning, development, coordination, distribution and management of COVID-19 immunization programs.
“Our solution is designed to meet widely varying needs for developing, launching and running mass immunization programs by public authorities and healthcare bodies around the world,” said Ryan Oakes, senior managing director of Accenture’s global public sector practice. “Efforts need to be launched quickly and encompass a broad range of activities, as emphasized by the CDC guidelines, and we are prepared to systematically help organizations clarify and rapidly advance their priorities for managing COVID-19 vaccinations.”
The solution includes the following components that can be used together or individually, based on specific client needs:
- Vaccine Management and Tracking Platform – Expanding on Accenture’s contact tracing capability that leverages Salesforce’s manual contact tracing solution, the platform is rapidly deployable and designed to securely track a resident’s vaccination journey, from registration and appointment scheduling to final vaccine administration and symptom follow ups.
- Supply Management – Using state of the art commercial software for constraint-based optimization, and drawing on Accenture’s extensive supply chain experience, the solution supports vaccine supply ordering, inventory management and demand forecasting.
- Community Education and Engagement – Leverages Accenture’s robust marketing and campaign management capabilities and the Salesforce platform to help drive awareness and adoption amongst providers and critical populations using a people-first, data-driven approach.
- Contact management – Built on the Salesforce platform, this solution is designed to help with large increases or surges in call volumes by deploying virtual agents to address frequently asked questions and leveraging automated SMS/text and email for community engagement, eligibility screening and health surveys.
- Analytics and reporting – Using AIP+ from Accenture Applied Intelligence, public health and third-party data is leveraged to create equitable vaccine distribution plans to define and redefine high-priority populations, allocate vaccine supply, monitor population engagement and dosage regimen adherence, provide last mile/distribution logistics analytics, as well as effectiveness and safety pattern analysis.
- Organizational Support – Consulting support to assist with the CDC-recommended creation of internal planning and vaccine implementation committees and business process requirements for a successful vaccine roll-out.
Accenture and Salesforce have been quick to develop joint solutions throughout the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic to help governments and organizations with new issues and needs that have arisen as the situation has rapidly changed. In May, Accenture collaborated with Salesforce to build public health and care management solutions as an inaugural partner for Work.com—a set of solutions from Salesforce to help organizations around the world work safely, including vaccine management capabilities through Work.com for Vaccines.
“Accenture is a proven and strategic leader in solving complex challenges for public and private sectors using the Salesforce platform,” said Dr. Ashwini Zenooz, chief medical officer and GM of Healthcare and Life Sciences at Salesforce. “Just as Accenture is ready to help government and healthcare organizations implement Salesforce’s Work.com for Vaccines, we are ready to help them successfully tackle vaccine management with their solutions built on Salesforce.”
Yusuf Tayob, senior managing director of the Accenture Salesforce Business Group, added, “We are proud to extend our investments on Salesforce’s Work.com and Customer 360 platforms to offer solutions for vaccine management to our clients in healthcare and public service, as well as the life sciences and logistics sectors. Accenture has a longstanding alliance with Salesforce and a strong track record for solving the most pressing business and government challenges. We’re excited to be working together on this important societal imperative.”
