Blood transfusions are commonly used to provide blood or blood components to a patient who has either lost blood due to an accident or suffer from a medical condition that affects their blood.

Typically, blood is donated anonymously and then stored by hospitals or blood banks until needed. Due to the critical nature of the procedure, donated blood must be collected, stored, categorised, and transported using extremely high levels of safety and care.

Donors must be carefully screened for a variety of medical conditions and lifestyle aspects to ensure the blood is free of potential risks to the patient. Blood is tested according to national guidelines and stored according to blood type.

It is estimated that one in ten people entering hospital need some kind of blood transfusion as part of their treatment.

Data, traceability vital to safe transfusions

The key to successful, lifesaving blood transfusions is accurate documentation to ensure consistency and avoid any unnecessary risk. Due to the sensitive nature of blood, the way it is transported and stored is equally important, especially when the blood supply chain network covers a large geographic area where donated blood must travel thousands of kilometers.

Ultimately, hospitals and clinics seek the ability to track the journey from vein to vein in real time with accurate data and while maintaining the integrity of the value chain.

Here, blockchain technology holds huge potential. Blockchain encodes data in a secure and transparent way that can add visibility and security to the blood transfusion value chain. Blockchain could be a more effective way of storing the precise records that allow medical professionals to use donated blood with confidence during life-saving and other medical procedures.

Using blockchain, medical facilities can register vital data about every step in the blood transfusion value chain, from donation to testing to transport, storage and ultimately its use in a medical procedure.

Due to strict requirements for how blood is stored, technologies such as IoT can also play an important supporting role by tracking the temperature at which the blood is stored and recording that to the blockchain. As blood travels through the value chain, the data stored to the blockchain creates an audit trail that links the entire value chain from donor to recipient.

Advances expected from emerging tech

Other emerging technologies hold promise for greater efficiency and transparency in the blood transfusion value chain. Augmented reality could solve one of the key issues with blood donations by helping medical professionals find the vein more consistently and without the trial-and-error that most donors experience.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence also holds huge promise for driving improvements in the blood transfusion value chain, especially since so much data is already created and stored to ensure transfusions are safe and effective.

used machine learning to optimise the time between blood donation intervals to ensure donors don’t experience adverse outcomes. Using the model, the researchers could estimate the risk of adverse outcomes and how such risks may change with longer or shorter intervals. This data could then inform how often the donors could donate blood without suffering iron deficiency or other complications.

So-called digital footprinting using AI and machine learning could also help reduce errors when doctors order blood samples. Using RFID integrated to an AI platform, doctors could improve specimen identification and reduce specimen labelling errors while also ensuring accurate transport tracking.

Technology platforms unlock new capabilities

New advances in Laboratory Information Management Systems have also unlocked access to unprecedented levels of visibility and control over lab data and other associated processes. A Laboratory Information Management System is used to manage samples, lab users, instruments and other lab functions, as well as back-office operations such as invoicing.

For example, the Â鶹ԭ´´ Quality Management helps businesses implement and run quality control processes, and is designed to prevent defects, enable continuous process improvement, and establish sustained quality control programs. Global pharmaceutical companies use Â鶹ԭ´´ Quality Management as a primary Laboratory Information Management System to drive supply chain processes, maintain high levels of quality control during production processes, and support research and development.

When matched to a business transformation platform that enables the seamless integration of new technologies, there is virtually no limit to the powerful capabilities that laboratories can unlock. With an intelligent core in place and a quality management system to maintain the highest information standards, laboratories and other stakeholders can protect the integrity of the life-saving blood transfusion supply chain while enabling greater innovation.

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Hospitals are using technology to improve the patient experience, banks are changing how they engage with customers through digital channels, sales teams are discovering the benefits of real-time insights into orders and sales, and organisations across industries are powering their decision-making with data and analytics.

At a recent award ceremony recognising excellence in digital transformation among African enterprises, the extent to which organisations have embraced digital technologies to power their businesses became clear.

Market leaders such Capitec, Lenmed, and Discovery showed how technology could power innovation and operational excellence through the development of intelligent enterprise capabilities.

An intelligent enterprise integrates technology and business processes to deliver significant value to the business through improved supply chain management, better sales processes, more intelligent spend management, and a transformed talent management capability.

Simply put, an intelligent enterprise has access to accurate real-time data about every aspect of its business, helping it deal with complexity while unlocking greater scope of innovation and efficiency.

And as recent examples show, South African enterprises of various sizes are taking bold strides toward achieving intelligent enterprise capabilities – to the benefit of their customers, their employees and their long-term success.

Scaling banking service excellence

Capitec, one of South Africa’s largest and most innovative banks, faced the challenge of a rapidly growing customer base at a time when pandemic-enforced restrictions disrupted face to face customer operations.

Prior to its award-winning digital transformation project, Capitec grew from acquiring 94 000 customers a month to 160 000 customers a month. With many branches closed and customers avoiding branch visits in light of the dangers posed by COVID-19, Capitec realised its reliance on manual data capturing was hampering its ability to provide seamless customer experiences.

Powered by a dedicated project team that enjoyed full executive support, Capitec implemented a business transformation project that equipped its support services teams with improved data capturing, information analysis and business optimisation.

Capitec can now more easily ensure its support services teams meet their service level agreements and can deliver on the bank’s goal of making banking interactions easier and simpler for customers.

Technology healthcare amid pandemic

Arguably no industry has been under more pressure since the start of the pandemic than the healthcare sector. Hospitals in particular have had to run optimally and ensure no disruption to their operations while also dealing with the impact of COVID-19.

For private hospital group Lenmed, the acquisition of a new hospital in the midst of a global health crisis sparked an award-winning onboarding process to its core systems, in rapid time and with clear cost savings.

The group wanted to bring a new hospital it had acquired into its core Â鶹ԭ´´ system, but understandably couldn’t afford any delays or disruptions to the hospital’s processes.

Using extensive standardisation and templates to limit cost overruns, Lenmed brought the new hospital onboard in under twelve weeks and at a total cost saving of nearly 40%.

The onboarding is also a template for future acquisitions, enabling the group to confidently grow its footprint without the risk of unnecessary interruptions to its core operations.

Talent management transformed

The past 18 months have not only forced vast changes in the ways businesses interact with customers, but also how they attract, manage and retain their employees. When the country first entered into lockdown in March 2020, most businesses had to radically change how they engage with, motivate and empower their workforce.

In the highly competitive financial services sector, building greater employee experiences gives organisations an edge in attracting and retaining top talent. For Discovery, the quality of talent it attracts has played a vital role in the organisation’s success.

Discovery has a stated ambition to have the best people function in the industry, using a strategy that combines data, skills and technology to find, develop and retain its employees. To support and execute this strategy, the company initiated a project named SmartPeople that leverages Â鶹ԭ´´ SuccessFactors to create a standardised, transparent, objective and continuous approach to how Discovery executes its people strategy to drive positive business performance.

This includes recruitment management, which enables the company to track and report on the quality of hires, the types of applicants, where those applicants are from, and more. Using Â鶹ԭ´´ SuccessFactors gives Discovery full visibility over its talent force and pipeline and, since everything from recruitment to onboarding to offboarding is handled via SuccessFactors, the company is able to deliver a consistent and positive employee experience.

As companies continue to operate in an unstable and unpredictable business environment, the role of technology will only grow in importance. However, as these examples illustrate, organisations from all sectors  can supercharge their growth and success with the correct investment into intelligent technologies, full support from the C-suite and with clear business value always front and centre in their planning and execution.

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The past 18 months have had a transformative impact on the world of work. It is unlikely we will return to pre-pandemic work models, even if vaccination efforts are wildly successful and a safe return to the office is possible.

Organisations and employees have had a chance to experience the benefits of remote work. It is almost unthinkable that talented employees will easily volunteer a full-time return to traffic congestion, lengthy commutes and inflexible work environments.

Instead, organisations will need to build attractive employer brands and put the employee experience and employee wellbeing at their core, and then develop systems and processes to ensure employees are enabled and supported at every stage.

When done well, employee experience (EX) can be transformative for business success. Satisfied and engaged employees are proven to produce higher quality work, are more agile and productive, and can more easily be retained for longer tenures.

Great EX can drive increased revenue, superior customer experiences and a more competitive employer brand. Organisations with engaged employees enjoy 80% higher customer satisfaction and experience half the talent churn of their less engaged peers.

In fact, a recent survey of 900 global HR decision-makers found that 78% of HR managers believed EX will become one of the most important factors impacting their ability to deliver on key business objectives.

Closing the EX gap

However, in the same survey only 9% of HR decision-makers said employee needs were the top priority when setting EX strategy.

This at a time when many professionals are struggling as a result of the pressures created by the pandemic. The longer the global health crisis continues, the greater the pressure on employees in terms of their careers, their finances, their health and families.

Organisations need to have systems and processes in place to support employees at every stage of their journey, from recruitment to onboarding and into full productivity. This support should be available at a skills level – for example through learning and coaching programmes – and at a wellbeing level.

This has become more difficult as teams continue to work remotely, with most new hires largely cut off from corporate offices and engaging with their employers mostly via their work-issued devices.

There are clear steps organisations can take toward closing the EX gap, namely:

• Implementing effective listening programmes to ensure organisations understand employee sentiment and needs;
• Building and sustaining a positive workplace culture;
• Making effective learning and coaching processes and tools available; and
• Taking factors such as mobility and accessibility into account when choosing employee technology.

Building a hybrid workplace that works

How can organisations create a hybrid workplace that supports the needs of employees while driving better bottom-line business outcomes?

Firstly, business leaders need to set values that include empathy and transparency. This will provide additional support to employees even when they are cut off from the support structures that corporate offices provide, and ensure they can engage fully with their work.

Secondly, a clear and focused EX strategy driven by a skilled team and supported from the top down will help ensure the organisation continues to understand and meet employee expectations. This can lead to higher retention rates, improved productivity and better quality outcomes.

A strategy for getting regular feedback from employees regarding their experience will enable organisations to keep their finger on the pulse of employee expectations. Where EX falls short, data should point the way to which measures organisations need to implement to maintain high levels of employee engagement and satisfaction.

Using a cloud-based human capital management tool will give organisations real-time insight into the performance of their hybrid teams and help HR identify opportunities to provide additional support. Organisations that use tools such as Â鶹ԭ´´ SuccessFactors for example report 17% higher productivity, 21% higher profitability and .

Lastly, adapting organisational culture to better fit the needs of employees during such a disruptive period as the ongoing pandemic has created won’t happen overnight. Organisations need to take a long-term view and focus on continuous improvement instead of one-shot fix-all solutions.

Hybrid workplaces have become the norm and are likely to continue finding favour with high-performing organisations and the talent that drives them. By building a culture of engagement that continuously tracks and aims to meet employee expectations, organisations can ensure they attract, retain and mobilise the talent they need for success.

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Over the past twelve months, the pandemic has demanded of every organisation and every worker to continuously adapt. The use of technology has become essential to the survival of most businesses. Office workers, the majority of which still work remotely, have adopted new technology tools to keep them connected to colleagues and customers, and maintain some form of business-as-usual.

Having led my own teams in Southern Africa through the ongoing pandemic crisis, I have learned some valuable lessons that I gladly share with the hope that it will help others through the difficult period we are all collectively experiencing.

Learning #1 – Immediate innovation was essential to organisations surviving the initial impact

When the first lockdowns were announced, some sectors could adapt by enabling office workers to perform their duties remotely. Those organisations that had invested in digital transformation could more easily enable remote work. Everyone else had to undergo a process of rapid innovation to keep their business going. These investments are likely to play a vital role in the ability of organisations to continue to adapt to a very volatile and uncertain operating environment.

Learning #2 – But long-term innovation cannot be left for later

However, organisations cannot only focus on short-term productivity gains: there is a pressing need to build capabilities that can help businesses succeed well into the future too. It is vital that organisations develop clear plans for how new technologies such as 5G, IoT and artificial intelligence will support their business, and build suitable capabilities.

Learning #3 – Organisations need purpose-based leadership now more than ever

The pandemic has highlighted and – in many cases, worsened – some of the prevailing inequalities in our society. Any effort to build back and recover from the devastating economic and social impact of the past year will require a concerted effort to close the equality gap. For organisational leaders, this means taking responsibility for driving an inclusive economic recovery agenda, which requires them to look beyond only short term profit to longer-term socio-economic value drivers, such as skills development, enterprise development and innovation.

Learning #4 – All industries are interconnected

The impact of the pandemic has created ripple effects across every industry. For example, the disruption to China’s manufacturing industry had directly affected global supply chains. As the levels of manufacturing activity in China fell, organisations elsewhere in the world that depend on parts and components from Chinese manufacturers could not develop their own products, which in turn has ripple effects further down the supply chain.

Learning #5 – The supply chain is the lifeblood of our economy – and our vaccine response

The distribution and administration of vaccines at the scale demanded by the COVID-19 pandemic is a monumental challenge that has put immense pressure on global supply chains. Any disruption in the supply chain could prevent the delivery of vaccines to communities that need it most, which may cost lives and push out the prospect of achieving herd immunity. Continuous innovation is required to strengthen global supply chains, especially as countries embark on their vaccination programmes.

Learning #6 – Connectivity is critical

If the past year revealed one truth, it is that internet connectivity is absolutely essential to life during the pandemic. Without it, remote workers could not work, school kids could not learn and families and friends would find it nearly impossible to stay in touch. The rollout of 5G in South Africa’s urban centres is likely to be one of the most significant technology events of 2021, and could transform remote work, home entertainment, and online learning.

Learning #7 – SMEs are key to our recovery – but they need access to tech

According to the World Bank, SMEs in emerging markets are responsible for creating as much as 70% of formal employment, and are critical to driving inclusive economic growth. As South Africa rebuilds its economy, SMEs in formal and informal markets will be essential to job creation and GDP growth. SMEs that have built technology capabilities would have found it far easier to adapt to the past year’s challenges. This year, technology providers are likely to enhance their offerings to SMEs to support this critical sector of the economy.

Learning #8 – Work-from-home works (and it’s going nowhere)

One of the most visible and widespread changes of the past year is the incredible growth in remote working. Organisations that were previously hesitant to allow employees to work from home would have had no other option during lockdown. Since the early days, many organisations have seen tremendous benefits to the remote work model, as employees remain productive but with the added benefit of not having to commute to the office during rush hour traffic.

Learning #9 – New ways are needed to manage and motivate remote workers

Organisations will however need new tools for measuring, managing and motivating the performance and productivity of remote workers. New management styles will need to emerge to ensure remote teams operate optimally. Organisations are likely to develop more outcomes-based KPIs, conduct more regular checkpoints, and provide greater flexibility to accommodate working times and styles.

Learning #10 – Digital skills are vital

The sudden switch to remote work and virtual teaching has had a surprising upside: many digital skills development initiatives have actually seen an increase in uptake and impact since the start of the pandemic. Â鶹ԭ´´’s Young Professional Program, for example, was able to expand access to candidates in new countries and regions following a switch to an all-virtual model. The flagship Â鶹ԭ´´ Africa Code Week initiative also expanded access to all African countries for the first time, enabling youth from even some of the more remote regions to learn critical digital skills for the first time.

Learning #11 – Our relationship with technology will only deepen

As the cost of specialised machine learning computer chips continue to fall and 5G connectivity spreads, the world is rapidly approaching a time when every device is intelligent. The growing adoption of AI technologies will enable humans to partner with AI in every aspect of their work, with AI algorithms becoming entrenched in everyday business operations.

Learning #12 – Sustainability is critical to our recovery – and our future

The pandemic has been a warning sign that our current relationship with the natural world is unsustainable. Organisations and governments will likely prioritise investment into new, clean technologies to ensure minimal harm to the environment. We are also likely to see a renewed drive to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with a focus on reducing reliance on harmful products, practices and processes.

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Â鶹ԭ´´â€™s strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world’s transaction revenue touches an Â鶹ԭ´´Â® system. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. Â鶹ԭ´´ helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, Â鶹ԭ´´ helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit

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The so-called ‘Amazon Effect’ on B2C sales has also hastened the demand for faster, easier purchases, with sellers required to offer quick and simple-to-use options for procuring products and services.

Economic pressures and a radically changed operating environment are pushing B2B companies to innovate in how they promote, sell and support products and solutions. found that B2B buyers are motivated by many of the same factors as B2C buyers: speed, convenience, a frictionless buying experience, and transparency in pricing and product features.

Learning from B2C

Thanks to advances in e-commerce, B2C customers today enjoy a seamless buying journey with quick fulfilment and consistently excellent customer experiences.

In contrast, B2B procurement can be a slow and laborious process. Gartner estimates that as many as six to ten people form part of a B2B buying process. Each person typically operates independently, with joint decisions over the procurement only occurring toward the end of the buying journey.

This can result in slow and resource-intensive buying cycles that leave organisations without the agility to quickly respond to opportunities or challenges in their operating environment.

For sellers, the process can undermine efforts at winning and retaining customers. A 2019 report into digital buying found that nearly .

Instead, decision-makers purchase solutions whenever one is needed to keep the business moving, or when there are great potential returns on the investment due to low-lying sales opportunities.

The focus is on achieving business outcomes, not simply deploying new solutions or purchasing the latest tech. Sellers should provide a smooth and frictionless buying process while ensuring on-going support that helps customers derive maximum value from their investments.

How? Here are three measures businesses can use to improve the B2B sales process and delivering business outcomes:

Capturing and retaining customer affinity

The Experience Economy has raised customer expectations over the type of experience they enjoy when interacting with a business or brand. Investment into enhancing customer experiences are at an all-time high: one study found that

These investments are bottom-line driven: McKinsey estimates that  while lowering costs by 50%.

Organisations need to deploy experience management solutions that gather and process data to deliver insights into customer expectations and shortcomings in the existing customer experience. Using a data-driven approach, organisations can then implement appropriate measures to meet customer expectations and needs at every step of the customer journey.

Removing friction in the customer journey

The consumer-friendly convenience of a service such as Amazon has raised expectations of what people want from their interactions with a business or brand. Removing friction from the customer journey is one of the most effective ways of improving the overall customer experience.

To achieve a frictionless experience, organisations need to integrate physical and digital channels to gain contextual insights into customer behaviour and preferences. Investment into a powerful CRM platform enables sales teams, customers and partners to improve how they nurture leads. Critically, organisations need to invest in an omnichannel experience that connects sales, service and support to ensure customers are supported at every turn.

Lifetime value engineering

The focus has shifted away from ’sell-and-forget’ to ‘adopt-and-use’, with demands from buyers for long-term support and ongoing value engineering. It’s not enough to make a great first impression and converting that to a sale.

The most successful organisations become trusted partners to their customers across the entire customer journey. Organisations can achieve this by integrating customer-facing, front-office operations with back-office applications. The objective is to integrate everything from the shop floor to the top floor.

In addition, organisations should build toward a perfectly orchestrated order management and fulfilment experience for customers to ensure every sale is seamlessly deployed and integrated. Finally, by encouraging internal departments to collaborate, organisations can break down internal silos hampering the customer journey to deliver a seamless, memorable and valued experience to customers.

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