Elly Yates-Roberts |
Working in partnership with Microsoft over the last 10 years has taught our leadership team that we can challenge the status quo and create a new type of partner, with meaningful change at the heart of everything we do.
This is reflected in our core mission: to change the world through technology. With a passion for inclusion, sustainability and a better way of working, Akari sets out to design solutions that help our customers change the way they currently do business.
Now more than ever, people and organisations want to reduce their carbon footprint; but how do you realistically track, report, and most importantly, action that?
Having spent the last three years building innovative and unique solutions for customers using Microsoft Teams and the Power Platform, we’ve seen sustainability goals become an ever-increasing factor, even if the initial engagement with our team is to solve other business challenges.
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, paper-based processes became obsolete and desperately accelerated the need for digital transformation within the Norfolk and Waveney Health and Care Partnership (N&WHCP), which comprises local GP practices, hospitals, community care, social services, and mental health teams in east England.
Akari worked with the members of N&WHCP, including Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital (NNUH), to support their Microsoft Teams change management programme so that remote consultations could be delivered seamlessly at a time of mass panic, confusion and chaos.
The partnership saw a huge shift in attitude, converting over 50 per cent of staff who hadn’t previously used a lot of technology in their day-to-day job. This was due to the confidence gained from the Akari-led trainings they attended. Now equipped with the tools and knowledge to do their jobs more efficiently, nearly 13,000 staff are communicating, collaborating and sharing files, allowing staff from GP practices and hospitals to connect securely and efficiently. This, in turn, has ensured 1.1 million people continue to receive the highest level of care.
Beyond healthcare, Akari also worked with Menzies Aviation, a global aviation services provider, as their strategic partner, to transform one of its paper-based processes: the compliant recording of signatures to confirm that employees have received, read and agreed to comply with the contents of any necessary documentation. These documents include security briefings, operating procedures, and updates from airlines as well as health and safety materials.
Akari worked with Menzies to digitise its read-and-sign process. Previously, teams across the global business relied on printing out documentation and briefing staff in one location. Staff were then required to manually confirm acceptance. Akari saw an opportunity to develop a digital solution that users could access via Microsoft Teams, drastically reducing paper usage and the organisation’s carbon footprint.
Turning Point Scotland, the biggest provider of services to people experiencing or at risk of homelessness in Scotland, is another organisation that turned to Akari. The business wanted to develop an expenses solution that would address a previously tedious, manual, and not-very-user-friendly task. We created an app that not only saves time, but also reduces the need to print expense sheets each month and enables staff to submit expenses on the go.
Akari recently worked with one of the world's largest media and communications organisations in the run-up to the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) which was held in Glasgow to build a solution that would measure, track, report and action on all their sustainability goals for the event, with the aim of it then being used as part of their ongoing environmental policy.
The Akari team is currently streamlining a product to make it adaptable to any industry or organisation. We’ll be launching EnviroTrak later this year, with a free trial available in May.
Lindsay Climson is commercial director at Akari Solutions
This article was originally published in the Spring 2022 issue of Technology Record. To get future issues delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for a free subscription.