CRM Vendors Work on COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, is working with Salesforce to manage critical information to distribute approximately 2 billion COVID-19 vaccines to 190 countries by the end of 2021.

Gavi needs a single source of truth to understand how many vaccines are needed and where. Salesforce Work.com for Vaccines, Experience Cloud, and Nonprofit Cloud will power Gavi's COVAX country engagement platform.

Work.com is a suite of solutions and resources to help organizations reopen safely and support the health and wellbeing of their employees, customers, and communities. Work.com includes technology for employee wellness, shift management, contact tracing, vaccine management, and more.

As part of this large-scale, global effort, Salesforce is enabling a single, secure portal that countries can use to communicate and share information, such as vaccine requirements and access reports. Lower-income countries will use the portal to provide information to facilitate planning of doses. Higher-income countries will use the portal to get updates about their financial position as that changes over time.

"The scale and urgency of the COVAX mission calls for tools we can expand quickly and use to manage what has become one of the largest and most complex undertakings ever in global health," said Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, in a statement. "With our colleagues at Salesforce, we will establish the backbone that allows COVAX participants and partners to share essential information and communicate with greater efficiency and accountability. The partnership will give people worldwide, especially in the poorest countries, access to vaccines that help protect them from COVID-19 and stem the continuing catastrophic social and economic disruption the pandemic has already left in its wake."

"We're thrilled to continue our work with Gavi as they embark on one of the largest and most rapid vaccine distribution campaigns of our lifetime," Rob Acker, CEO of Salesforce.org, the social impact center of Salesforce, said in a statement. "Leveraging innovative technologies has always been a shared vision of Salesforce.org and Gavi. Now, we are arming 190 countries and economies with the platform they need to communicate critical information around COVID-19 vaccine requirements and equitable distribution for as many as 2 billion vaccines by the end of 2021."

But Salesforce is not the only CRM vendor taking part in the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out. DocASAP, a patient access and engagement platform provider for the healthcare industry, has launched the COVID-19 Vaccination Coordination Solution.

DocASAP's COVID-19 Vaccination Coordination Solution will help providers and payers guide people through the vaccination process with pre-appointment engagement, online appointment scheduling and reminders, and post-appointment wellness tracking.

"We will be working closely with the healthcare community to help them coordinate access to these vaccinations. Together, we will navigate these challenging times and continue to help providers and payers connect patients and members to the right care, when they need it," said Puneet Maheshwari, co-founder and CEO of DocASAP, in a statement.

Additionally, Nuance Communications this week introduced an AI-enabled COVID Vaccine Assistant to help organizations on the front lines of vaccine distribution, such as pharmacies and healthcare providers, manage the influx of questions consumers will have on availability, eligibility, dosage timing, and more. The platform will guide customers throughout the vaccination process from before a pharmacy visit to post-vaccination follow up.

It provides predictive, personal solutions to predict and automate answers to frequently asked questions through channels like websites, SMS, or customer service lines.

Nuance previously created something similar that organizations use for flu shots and is applying that same technology at a much bigger scale and pace to handle questions consumers have about the COVID vaccine.

And Genesys has introduced COVID-19 Vaccine Rapid Response, a digital solution that will enable companies to use AI-driven chatbots to help address the wave of expected requests for information.

"Businesses like retailers, grocery stores and pharmacies are playing a critical role in getting the vaccines out into our communities," said Tony Bates, CEO of Genesys, in a statement. "They will also face unprecedented demand to provide consumers accurate and relevant information about the availability of vaccines and the administration process. Our goal is to support these companies, many of whom are Genesys customers, to provide the most responsive service during this extraordinary time."

Built on Genesys Cloud, COVID-19 Vaccine Rapid Response can include digital tools such as AI-driven chatbots, voice, messaging, email management, self-service, call recording, and notifications to handle consumer inquiries at massive scale. It can relay the most up-to-date, curated COVID-19 vaccine information, such as availability, general timing, and manufacturer updates; respond to customer inquiries about vaccine safety, efficacy, durability, and adverse event monitoring and reporting; provide transparency into the number of vaccines in stock at specific pharmacy locations; and facilitate an escalation path to the organization's contact center supported through voice and digital channels.

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