Then the company got a call from Johns Hopkins Hospital, which was in desperate need of hand sanitizer for its frontline medical workers.

Hand sanitizer is made up primarily of alcohol, so to answer the call for help, Sagamore Spirit converted its distillery from a producer of rye whiskey 鈥� 鈥渂ourbon鈥檚 older brother鈥� 鈥� to corn ethanol to start producing 54,000 liters of hand sanitizer for the hospital.

鈥淭here is no higher priority than serving the growing and vital needs of health professionals and first responders, and the entire team at Sagamore Spirit is prepared to contribute to this global effort,鈥� said Drew Thorn, vice president of Operations and Finance at Sagamore Spirit. 鈥淲e feel fortunate to have the expertise and manufacturing capacity to make a difference at a meaningful level and we are committed to servicing as many needs as possible.鈥�

Sagamore Spirit is one of 700 distilleries across the U.S. that have joined in the effort to support hospitals in their localities. But the transition is involved.

Among the many things to take into consideration, Sagamore Spirit had to coordinate with pharmacists at Johns Hopkins to work out the formula to produce hand sanitizer. It then had to adjust its supply chain, and instead of sourcing primarily rye, it needed to source locally grown corn.

鈥淏eing a whiskey producer, we already have very reliable sources for corn from our existing vendors, as it is an ingredient we regularly use,鈥� Thorn said.聽鈥淲e also have a lot of local farm relationships that were very happy to supply us and support this project.聽 We have had no supply chain issues for agricultural products.聽The supply chain has been much more impacted for chemical ingredients and packaging materials.鈥�

Sagamore Spirit is an 麻豆原创 customer, and Thorn said the software made the transition almost seamless.

鈥淎ll ingredients are inventoried items within our 麻豆原创 system and assembled through the production module into finished sanitizer product inventory,鈥� he explained. 鈥淚t is an excellent system for managing inventory, COGS [cost of goods sold], resource planning, and then ultimately commercial transactions or donations.鈥�

The sanitizer that Sagamore Spirit is producing does not have the same consistency of sanitizer bought in stores; because of the formula, it has a viscosity only slightly above water. It is packaged in five-gallon buckets in the hospital so that staff can refill personal-sized bottles. The buckets are then returned to Sagamore Spirit and used for the next batch.

Under normal circumstances, the company usually has about 50 employees working on-site, including tour guides for its distillery.

For hand sanitizer production, Sagamore Spirit is down to 12 employees on-site, all of whom have their temperature taken before entering the facility and are equipped with protective gear and required to social distance.

As states begin to ponder reopening certain sectors of the economy, Thorn said Sagamore Spirit will not go back to producing rye whiskey until Maryland鈥檚 frontline healthcare workers and first responders have the hand sanitizer they need.

鈥淲e plan to make sanitizer as long as there is a critical need,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 plan to stop sanitizer production based on when the state opens, but rather based on when our hospital partners indicate their traditional supply chain has been reestablished to the point where they will be covered.鈥�

Frank Hughes is a contributing writer for 麻豆原创 Global Partner Marketing.

Now, Wales-based Sports and Wellbeing Analytics (SWA) is using what could be called 鈥渟afermetrics鈥� — technology and data analytics to reduce injuries in contact sports related to head trauma.

The company has developed a mouthguard filled with sensors that sends data to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud. In the same way the A鈥檚 transformed professional sports by creating a new way of looking at statistics, SWA wants to redefine the way sports are played from a safety perspective.

鈥淚n short, we call it 鈥楶erformance Through Welfare,鈥� and that鈥檚 what this is about,鈥� SWA CEO Chris Turner said. 鈥淔or players, this is about safety. For coaches, it is about performance. By taking advantage of the data, you can instill safety into performance.鈥�

The mouthguard does not prevent injuries in contact sports resulting in concussions, which have become the basis of a major discussion and put the parents of every athlete on edge. But the technology鈥檚 goal is to create an atmosphere that is accepting of change based on the head trauma data that the platform gathers.

The platform, Protech, is the combination of the mouthguard, the technology that transmits data from training and games to a computer, and the software that allows the data to be analyzed in the right ways.

Protech was piloted with the Welsh rugby team Ospreys and is now being used by other rugby teams. It is also gaining attention in other contact sports seeking injury prevention, such as boxing, ice hockey, and even Olympic bobsledding.

Though it may sound unwieldy, fitted with a rechargeable battery and sensors that transmit data, the mouthguard itself is only five grams heavier than a normal mouthguard.

According to Turner, the tricky part was programming the mouthguard to consider and eliminate many of the false positives that would naturally come as a byproduct of sports.

For example, the mouthpiece may fall out of an athlete鈥檚 mouth and hit the ground, creating an impact. That data point needed to be defined. Other data points include vibrations caused when athletes spit, speak or shout. All those pieces of inaccurate data needed to be minimized.

Protech records severe impacts, measured in G forces. Measurements are transmitted in real time. Turner said if somebody sustains a severe impact during a match 鈥� especially one away from the ball that nobody ever sees 鈥� medical personnel can quickly be informed and check whether the player sustained a concussion.

Another great value of the technology is identifying patterns of impacts during training so coaches can alter their approaches to practices.

鈥淲ith a game, match, or fight, the technology is used for monitoring, but training is a more controlled environment,鈥� Turner said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 when you can look for patterns of behavior, such as what鈥檚 happening during contact drills. Some drills are more intense than coaches expected. They made small alternations to the drills so that players still get the benefits, but impacts are reduced or eliminated.鈥�

Turner, who recently detailed his company鈥檚 progress at the 麻豆原创 Innovate Live event in New York, said one thing they started analyzing was where a tackle creates the most impact on a player鈥檚 body, such as the shoulders, waist, or legs. That information is then shared with coaches so they can teach proper tackling techniques.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e starting to use the data to rearrange the schedules of contact drills,鈥� Turner said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not telling coaches or athletes what they can and can鈥檛 do, we鈥檙e just giving them the data to show when you do this drill, here is the consequence. A coach could then choose to schedule high-impact drills earlier in the week rather than two days before they play.鈥�

As more teams and more sports adopt the platform, it will broaden the reach of the analytics to benefit everyone.

鈥淭he real value for us is the view of the data that we can create once it鈥檚 been collected,鈥� Turner explained. 鈥淥ne benefit of using 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud is the ability to draw multiple views out of the data, which can help minimize the number and severity of injuries in contact sports. If we have multiple tenants of different rugby clubs, with the right authorizations to access the data, I can produce views across the clubs. I can produce views in a hierarchy, so if I鈥檓 playing for the national team or the club team, I can combine data to see trends, similarities, and differences, and sort data across time. This aggregate data becomes really valuable for everyone.鈥�

麻豆原创 and our partners. Improving lives. That is our purpose.

Frank Hughes is a contributing writer for 麻豆原创 Global Partner Marketing