Johannesburg, 22 Jul 2016
Healthcare delivery in Africa has long been one of the biggest challenges the continent faces. While funding, inadequate resource allocation, customs gridlock and counterfeit pharmaceuticals are major contributors to the problem, a significant portion of the total delivered cost of medicines in Africa - up to 40% - is made up of supply chain, distribution and other non-core costs. For healthcare delivery in Africa to improve, transformation in the area is essential.
Supply chains across the world have become complex global networks, no longer focused on vertical integration. With each trading partner focused on a narrow slice of the fulfilment or manufacturing process, prices for the end-consumer have decreased. Supply chain visibility and control have also decreased, however, as enterprise technology and management strategies have failed to keep up with the new supply chain business model.
Supply chain control tower (SCCT) technology is increasingly proving to be the answer to these challenges, with the single biggest driver of the development of this technology being the complexity and management challenges of today's global supply chains. Big data, outsourcing and higher customer expectations are also contributing factors.
Simply put, an SCCT is a central hub that captures and uses supply chain data to provide improved visibility, which enables better decision-making in both the short and long term, for alignment with strategic goals. It does so using a combination of technology, processes and orchestration that work together in concert to integrate, optimise and synchronise the activities of various parties in the value chain, despite their being otherwise autonomous.
The benefits of bringing SCCT technology to healthcare delivery in Africa are immediately apparent: implementing this solution would ultimately ensure the end-user - in this instance, the patient - receives the right medicines, in the right place, at the right time.
SCCT technology does not stand alone, however. Without the right infrastructure in place - whether physical, systems or technology - a supply chain control tower would not be able to operate optimally, or sometimes even at all.
Resolve Solution Partners, an Imperial group company, has long seen the need for an SCCT solution in Africa, and its combination of centralised expertise and capabilities, processes that drive integration and orchestrate activities, and cloud technologies that make sense of big data, will be the key to unlocking value in supply chains going forward. Resolve Solution Partners' expertise and experience in both the retail and healthcare arenas position the company uniquely to deliver this solution anywhere healthcare delivery needs improving.
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