Meeting Public Sector Needs Through Trusted Partnerships
At Dreamforce 2021, Salesforce’s biggest event of the year, one word came up over and over again: Trust. Trust is a pillar of every relationship, without exception. So when Covid-19 hit and public sector organizations had to figure out how to meet unprecedented goals–many of which involved people’s health and wellbeing at a time of crisis–and do so in record time, what ended up mattering the most? You guessed it: Trust.
We heard from many inspiring trailblazers and community leaders on how they partnered with Salesforce to catalyze life-saving programs into full effect under extreme circumstances. What follows are just two amazing stories of how innovative Salesforce platforms are helping the public sector build relationships with the people they serve while actually saving people’s lives.
CoVax: Ireland’s Health Services Brings Vaccinations to the People
When Covid-19 vaccines came onto the international scene, Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE), the publicly-funded healthcare system that provides all of Ireland’s healthcare services, was faced with the same massive challenge that nations around the world were facing: how to administer the vaccine to as many people as possible in as short a time as possible. Though the task was great, HSE partnered with Salesforce to build CoVax, a platform that enabled HSE to embark upon a massive vaccination rollout. The impact? According to Fran Thompson, CIO at HSE, they succeeded in vaccinating 90% of Ireland’s population.
Fran and his team were at the forefront of delivering the technology needed to stay ahead of the pandemic, and they faced many challenges. Because Covid-19 brought with it so many unknowns, they didn’t know the granular details of how they were going to build this end-to-end vaccination process solution. They knew they wanted it to be on a cloud network, and that they needed to be able to deliver the technology to any part of Ireland.
“That ranged from going to people in nursing homes and vaccinating them at the bedside to rolling max vaccination clinics, providing the vaccinations in general practice, and providing the vaccination at pharmacies,” says Thompson. “All of these ways of vaccinating people had to be accommodated with CoVax, and CoVax was able to do that for us.”
Using Salesforce’s Vaccine Management Cloud, CoVax relies on simple processes and an agile system. It manages real-time data in order to provide critical, timely information to the public. Having it on the cloud provides security, and enables the public to engage on a real-time basis. Mobility is also key. For instance, one woman talked about how having the system on a tablet was crucial for patients who needed information outside of the vaccination booth, or for people who were frightened and needed some assurance before going in. Ultimately, CoVax helped HSE vaccinate the vast majority of the Irish population while meeting the everyday needs of patients, ensuring data security, and enabling personalized mobile engagement.
Thompson says the effort required an incredible amount of staying power for his team, but that they were motivated by seeing so many people leave the clinic fully vaccinated. “The difference it makes in people’s lives is incredible,” he says. Added another HSE employee, “When I look at my [CoVax] dashboard, I see families reunited, I see business reopening, I see hope.”
When asked if he had any advice for public health leaders that would like to see this kind of success in their own organizations, or even their countries, Thompson had this to say: “One of the key parts of our success–and it’s not technology, funny enough–it’s actually trust. People trust what we are doing, they trust the messages that we’re providing, and we trust both our service providers and our partners to deliver.” He went on to say that the role Salesforce played was crucial in making this a reality. “They’ve been able to provide us with help and support, at the right level, and have always been there for us.”
Helping Veterans Find Homes with SQUARES
Innovation can’t wait. Whether delivering services at the local, national, or global level, there is a need for speed and efficacy, especially when it comes to people’s livelihoods. Homelessness is one of many issues that requires immediate attention and the best that technological solutions have to offer.
“We have to see homelessness as a life-threatening situation,” says Monica Diaz, ED of Homeless Programs at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). “Within the last ten years, we have decreased homelessness almost 50%, but on any given night we have over 37,000 veterans that are homeless on the street. We should have none.”
The VA has partnered with Salesforce to build SQUARES, a VA web application that provides detailed and accurate information to homeless service providers so they can quickly determine a veteran’s eligibility. Determining eligibility for any number of public services is often harrowing and inefficient, particularly for the person in need. Because SQUARES is able to determine eligibility immediately, providers can start delivering life-changing services to houseless veterans right away. “The sooner you can get a person connected to resources, the better the chances that they will exit homelessness,” says Anthony Love, Director of Community Engagement at VHA.
Codey Meyer, a Veterans Services Specialist at Transition Projects (Portland, OR) gave us a tangible example of how SQUARES works to change someone’s life on a profound level. He spoke of a veteran who was accessing services for the very first time last year when he got injured on the job. He and his family were facing eviction, and he needed help fast. Using SQUARES, Transition Projects was able to quickly verify that he was eligible. They enrolled him in services and prevented the eviction. Had this veteran been forced to go through a long, backed-up process of verification, he and his family might be houseless today.
When it comes to successfully implementing a digital transformation, VA Senior Director of Saas and Paas Solutions, Tom Guido, underscored the importance of building a trusted partnership between IT and the business itself. “Everyone takes ownership in the outcome, “ he says. “I’ve really come to the realization that influence doesn’t come with a title,” Guido says. “It comes through trusted partnerships, and that’s really how we’ve been able to achieve what we have in this timeframe.”
More Inspirational Stories at Dreamforce
To learn more about how public sector organizations are working with Salesforce to achieve incredible things, visit Salesforce+.
