SAP Boosts Industry-Wide Innovation with Startup Partnerships
The COVID-19 pandemic is an extreme test in business agility, particularly across some of the hardest hit industries like healthcare, supermarkets, and manufacturing. Iristrace, a European-based startup, has developed a cloud-based platform that one hospital in Spain is testing to provide better patient care regardless of unpredictable demands.
Healthcare providers can use the COVID Patient Record Management mobile app to monitor real-time data about everything from hospital bed capacity by room to what equipment each patient is being treated with, and their vital signs.
“The algorithm helps simplify decisions for more informed and effective conversations about next steps,” said André Kingham, chairman of Iristrace. “Like most organizations, hospitals can’t easily rework IT systems to add new protocols. Our cloud-based solution allows the hospital to quickly evolve protocols and cascade compliance into patient care without IT expertise.”
Save Time, Reduce Mistakes, and Improve Patient Care
Physicians, nurses, and other healthcare practitioners on the front lines can rely on the mobile app for continuity of daily patient care. Whether they are at the patient’s bedside or behind the scenes with testing and research, providers can use the app to reliably capture and analyze relevant information. This can speed up hospital admissions and patient transfers for surgery and support safer handovers during shift changes along with better release decisions.
“Instead of making time-consuming telephone calls and consulting paper-based planning sheets at separate stations, providers can immediately see where beds are available and act faster,” Kingham said. “With multiple people involved in the patient’s care, everyone is inputting data, which is captured in SAP Data Warehouse Cloud and analyzed in SAP Analytics Cloud. Eventually, this data can support forecasting and other research imperatives.”
Tech Eases Change Management
Agility will be critical in every industry as organizations slowly reopen and adjust to shifting mandates and restrictions. Kingham said the Iristrace solution can help organizations keep employees and customers safe while meeting quality assurance standards. The startup serves organizations in many industries including manufacturing, retail, food production, and energy.
“Typically, it takes time – communication and repetition – for people to change their mindset and incorporate new processes into the way they work,” Kingham explained. “The closer you can get to the employees who are servicing customers or managing machines that produce goods and services, the quicker you can bridge that gap for more agile business to mitigate risk.”
While some Iristrace customers were initially dismayed to discover high rates of non-compliance throughout operations, Kingham said they valued the feedback, which helped drive results such as improved customer experiences. Customers also appreciated the ability to manage audit compliance with fewer resources. Foodbox, a restaurant chain based in Spain, has relied on Iristrace to support daily compliance processes over the past three years.
“Working with Iristrace is part of our data-centric strategy that allows us to better anticipate customer preferences and provide them with an outstanding experience,” said Salvador Olmedilla, director of Operations at Foodbox Group. “In the post-COVID deconfinement period, the platform allowed us to quickly respond to the applicable regulations throughout our establishments to keep our employees and customers safe.”
Faster Innovation with Flexible Startup Partnerships
Iristrace was among the startups that participated in the accelerator program at SAP.iO Foundry Berlin last year. According to Thomas Saueressig, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Product Engineering, Iristrace is a great example of how SAP speeds up digital transformation for customers.
“Combining the power and scale of SAP with the agility of startups like Iristrace allows us to accelerate innovation, which is especially critical during the pandemic and long after,” Saueressig said. “Our open innovation strategy with an ecosystem of startups is emblematic of SAP’s modern ERP cloud, SAP S/4HANA. We’re building in integration from the start, while making it easy for partners to extend innovation on our cloud platform, helping customers become intelligent enterprises and realize the experience management vision.”
The Iristrace cloud-based platform is integrated with SAP governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) solutions.
Plans to Support Economic Recovery
Kingham sees expanded opportunities for Iristrace in numerous industries as supermarkets, hotels, and other businesses begin to reopen. Indeed, SAP is piloting the Iristrace app in select hygiene stations at its headquarters in Walldorf, Germany. Facilities management plans to rely on the algorithm to maintain office standards for cleanliness and safety, including proactively monitoring soap levels based on real-time usage data.
Kingham also said that governments in various regions have expressed interest in the solution to support citizens during the pandemic crisis and beyond.
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This story originally appeared on SAP BrandVoice on Forbes.