Invitalia streamlines procurement and distribution of vital medical supplies with Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

As the Italian national agency for economic development, Invitalia oversees investments and new incentives that help the country grow and thrive. When COVID-19 spread to Italy, the agency took on important new duties, including managing acquisition and distribution of essential personal protective equipment (PPE), medicines, medical devices, and other supplies from a variety of international sources.

“The prime minister contacted our CEO and asked that we take over emergency responsibility for the PPE supply,” says Fabrizio Bellezza, Chief Information Officer at Invitalia. “The situation in Italy was critical at the time, and the international market for PPE was complicated, with many buyers all chasing a limited supply of equipment.”

Adding to the complexity, each hospital ordered medical supplies in a decentralized, unstructured way. This caused procurement delays and sometimes resulted in partial or missing provisioning of equipment.

To help streamline management of PPE and other COVID-19 supplies, Invitalia immediately started working with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, which includes planning, production, inventory, and transportation features that organizations can use to build agile, resilient supply chains and maximize operational efficiencies. The agency needed a new logistics platform so that it could simplify the complex process of purchasing and distributing thousands of units of PPE from sellers in other countries.

Quickly building a system for PPE management

Invitalia had already established a productive relationship with Microsoft that included moving all of the agency’s datacenter IT resources to Microsoft Azure, so its leadership felt comfortable bringing in more Microsoft technology at such a crucial time. “In a crisis, you turn to your friends—the companies you know and trust,” says Bellezza. “So we decided to use Dynamics 365 because we felt it would be simple to create and configure a new system and quickly address our new responsibilities.”

Over a period of two intense weeks, Invitalia worked with Industry Solutions and Agic Technology, a member of the Microsoft Partner Network, to get the new system up and running. The team launched Supply Chain Management with hundreds of suppliers on file. With it, the team could learn right away when any of the suppliers had products available, and Invitalia could respond appropriately.

“Because demand for PPE around the world was so high, and supply was limited, it was very often a first-come, first-served situation, so it was essential that we react as fast as possible,” says Bellezza. “We used Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management to quickly determine when and where PPE was available and send flights to pick it up, ensuring we could meet critical demand across Italy.”

Using Supply Chain Management, the agency also streamlined the distribution of PPE from shipping locations to hospitals around the country to get the equipment to the people who needed it most.

Reflecting on the choice of product and partners

Invitalia found it easy to get going with Dynamics 365, and the agency is pleased with its solution choice. “Our logistics department understands that it is very important to have a powerful and easy-to-use platform for a situation like this,” says Bellezza. “We considered a competing product, but we felt it was too complicated.”

With Supply Chain Management, Invitalia can now rely on a centralized solution that helps the agency assess medical needs across the country and then quickly provision and distribute critical medical equipment. The agency can process hundreds of orders a day and provide more than 1,000 hospitals with the supplies they need to contain the spread of COVID-19 and help save the lives of affected individuals.

Using the Supply Chain Management vendor collaboration features, vendors interact directly with requests for supplies and with purchase orders. Once vendors are approved, they use the system to provide delivery schedules and other details directly to the agency office, giving Invitalia a central source of truth to efficiently manage procurement. This streamlines and expedites the procurement process, helping Invitalia optimize equipment distribution.

The agency expects to find new uses for Dynamics 365. “We think it will be straightforward to expand our use of Dynamics 365 into other areas of public administration,” says Bellezza. “It connects easily with other Microsoft products, giving us the opportunity to create end-to-end solutions for enterprise resource planning.”

Invitalia believes that the PPE project brought out the best in everyone involved. “Agic and Microsoft really put forth their best resources to help us, and we very much valued their deep knowledge and expertise,” says Bellezza. “We also learned a lot about our own capabilities because a critical moment like this teaches you a lot about yourself, and you discover strengths that you never knew you had.”

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