In the past decade, the healthcare industry has been subject to constant and steady rates of progress until the pandemic hit. Covid-19 triggered a whirlwind of changes across all business sectors around the world. However, the healthcare domain witnessed an unexpected spike of events that demanded ultra-rapid progress and development without the luxury of time. Healthcare is therefore, without a doubt, the fastest digitally evolving industry. Covid-19 has been a chief driver of revolutionary healthcare innovations and shifting consumer preferences. Consumers have been prioritizing convenience and accessibility of healthcare facilities and products above all. This has yielded digital transformation in healthcare inevitable. Digital advancement in healthcare has positively altered the relationship between patients and healthcare providers. This has unprecedently enhanced the quality of service delivered to consumers individually.

Advanced and modern technological solutions like Microsoft Dynamics 365 have played a critical role in accelerating this transformation that has allowed retail in healthcare to push boundaries, reducing the long-standing distance between healthcare facilities and consumers.

Pandemic As A Catalyst For The Growth Of Healthcare Retail

The pandemic has vigorously ramped up healthcare retail with an indefinite demand for vaccinations, masks, sanitizers, and several other unique hygiene products. The emergence of 24*7 drugstores around every corner testifies to this transformation. Various e-commerce delivery platforms have included prescribed pharmaceutical delivery into their list of services and ensures quick and prompt doorstep-delivery. Additionally, multiple locations around the world have witnessed the advent of retail health clinics, wherein patients can walk into grocery stores or pharmacies with attached clinics that offer minor and affordable health treatments without any prior bookings. This way retail health is realizing new and unique opportunities driven to fruition by increased adoption of digital technologies that enable businesses to analyse, automate and build new relationships with the consumers.

D365 Applications Streamlining Retail

Business management solutions like Microsoft Dynamics 365 are designed in a way to help streamline the smooth and efficient execution of retail innovations that best serve customer needs. Adoption of the right technology unlocks multiple dimensions to every retail experience. Dynamics 365 Retail for the healthcare industry leverages the power of AI and analytics to deliver valuable insights and predictions regarding customer needs and behavior, that forms the core in propelling a customer-centric retail business. Retailers benefit from this automated real-time facility, as they have end-to-end visibility of the entire supply chain right at their fingertips. This way inventory management, tracking and tracing of stocks, foreseeing of deficiencies, product information management etc., are all streamlined proficiently. Besides the Retail module, other Microsoft Dynamics 365 business applications that may drive value across healthcare retail are Supply Chain Management, Finance, and Commerce. The POS (point of sale) system in Dynamics 365 Commerce, besides improving cashiering, also streamlines the entire in-sales process by providing insights into the available stocks, thereby generating better customer experience.

Serialization To Combat Counterfeit Drugs

Advanced technology solutions have empowered retail pharmacies in overcoming traditional retail challenges like the sale of counterfeit and substandard medicines and healthcare products that was a major threat to community health. To combat this situation, many countries have been implementing Pharmaceutical Serialization, which includes allotting unique serialized barcodes to medical supplies. This process has drastically curbed the circulation of counterfeit drugs and other medical products. Using a robust ERP solution these products can be tracked and traced in real-time, ensuring their authenticity.

The future of healthcare retail clearly depends directly on the degree of investment made in technology. Digitally driven retail is about to get bigger and gain greater momentum in the near future with the rising consumer demands and preferences. Healthcare is expected to be at the forefront of such upcoming retail innovations. To navigate through the shifting global markets and tap into the power of the latest technology, businesses need to collaborate with modern and progressive technology solutions such as Microsoft Dynamics 365.