This is the third year that IDC has presented the IDC EMEA Award for ICT Innovation. The award recognizes organizations in EMEA that have substantially improved their competitiveness and business results by applying information and communication technology (ICT) to product and process innovation. A highly qualified expert committee evaluated and rated all projects. The award ceremony was held during the Gala Dinner of the European ICT Forum 2007, at the Axel Springer Passage on Monday, September 10, 2007.
Winners of the IDC EMEA 2007 Award for ICT Innovation
"Swedbank convinced the expert committee of its ability to develop and launch a complete business-to-business e-invoicing solution for ERP systems within one year, leading to new revenue streams and improved customer intimacy and retention," said Frank Gens, senior vice president, research, IDC, and chairman of the IDC/IDG expert committee responsible for overseeing the award nomination and voting process. "Witnessing how the use of technology directly benefits human beings is always very exciting and therefore we are pleased to see that two award winners are also from the healthcare industry. The U.K. Met Office and Fondazione Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori (the Italian National Cancer Institute Foundation) provided innovative healthcare solutions improving patient care with easy-to-use, cost-effective, and safe use of technology."
Fondazione Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori demonstrated a project that addressed both patient safety and cost- and process-efficiency. The Istituto's ICT department created a new, end-to-end blood transfusion tracking system in its Transfusion Centre and Allogenic Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit. The project aimed to develop a technology solution that would help avoid preventable errors related to blood transfusions. The project integrated three disconnected information systems (lab, clinical, and regional transfusion management systems), used radio frequency identification technology to track both blood bags and patients to ensure they match with each other, and provided mobile devices to medical staff to access this information any time. The new system makes transfusions safe by issuing a visual and acoustic alarm and halting the application if a conflict between the data read from the bag and the patient's wristband is detected. The system achieved 98% user adoption, and provided measured benefits in traceability, process efficiency, patient safety, and cost reductions.
Swedbank, a leading financial institution, realized a business-to-business e-invoice exchange service within only one year. The system features customized solutions for sending and receiving invoices, integration capabilities with a range of customer ERP systems, and advanced messaging capabilities. The solution enables organizations to automate processes to replace labor-intensive manual handling of invoices. The potential return-on-investment is enormous as only 8% of B2B invoices are sent electronically to date. The European Association of Corporate Treasurers estimates potential cost savings in Europe of €243 billion including labor costs for manual processing of invoices.
The U.K. Met Office has developed a model that correlates weather forecasts and their outcomes on certain diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The system automatically contacts and warns patients through automated voice phone calls with interactive voice recognition. In the previous (manual) process, only about 10% of the calls conducted by nurses reached patients. With the new, automated system, 85% of the patients were reached without taking away time from nurses dealing with patient care. The system led to a 52% reduction in admissions to the hospital. Medixine, a Finnish ehealth solution provider and co-owner of the solution, supplied the IT infrastructure.
For further information please contact:
Katja Schmalen
IDC Central Europe GmbH
Nibelungenplatz 3
60318 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
Tel.: +49 (0) 69 905 02 115
Fax: +49 (0) 69 905 02 100
Email: kschmalen@idc.com
