Vaccine supply chain management under spotlight as its rollout begins

The swift development of the Covid-19 vaccine and its subsequent rollout worldwide has helped shine a light on vaccine supply chain management as a critical component in the creation and distribution of vaccines on a global scale.

The delays in the procurement of raw materials during the manufacturing of the vaccine and the unique requirements for the vaccines’ storage and distribution highlights the importance of having the requisite systems in place and the urgency of migrating to the cloud.

Below we examine how some of the features in a cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system can help a complex cold chain that demands absolute attention to detail such as the Covid-19 vaccine distribution. 

Real-time view of business processes

The logistics firm Boyle Transportation estimates that over 14 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines would need to be delivered worldwide by 2023. As countries are racing to get as many doses of vaccines as possible to their residents, it is essential that companies involved in the supply chain of these vaccines are tracking progress and data on a real time basis to meet urgent demand

A cloud solution like the Oracle NetSuite ERP gives customers a real-time view of activities in the supply chain. This would allow stakeholders involved in the process to not just monitor the delivery of vaccines, but to be able to make quick and informed decisions when required

Strong integration with third-party systems

The Covid-19 vaccine distribution involves the participation of various stakeholders from all over the globe. The systems in the distribution channels may vary across different countries and different third-party logistics providers. 

Companies involved in the vaccine supply chain management will need to adopt  ERP systems that have a robust API to ensure stable integrations across various platforms is essential to operate in such an environment

By the virtue of its architecture that is built for easy integrations, and through partnerships with established integration solutions providers, Oracle NetSuite provides cost-effective and efficient solutions.

Access from anywhere in the world

As a system built on the cloud, the Oracle NetSuite ERP ensures supply chain operations can continue if a lockdown is imposed. The cloud provides remote access for staff in the vaccine supply chain, anywhere, anytime in the world, provided they are connected to the internet. 

As exemplified during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, businesses with cloud systems were the nimblest and quickest to adapt to remote working. This is especially important in an endeavour such as the vaccine supply chain management which needs careful attention to detail, in addition to quick delivery to recipients.