Case Study: The Aurum Institute’s digital transformation journey demonstrates how innovation can drive meaningful impact

The Aurum Institute is an African organisation that generates evidence for policy and translates policy into practice to positively impact the health of communities globally.

As part of its ongoing digital transformation journey, it successfully launched a new financial data warehouse and implemented Microsoft Dynamics 365, which has enabled it to automate more business processes and consolidate technologies. This has streamlined the organisation to execute even more efficiently against its strategic mandate.

The Aurum Institute is dedicated to researching, supporting, and implementing innovative, integrated approaches to global health. The institute partners with governments, the private sector and civil society to design and deliver high-quality care and treatment to people in developing communities.

In a high-paced world with diverse audiences and benefactors, Aurum Institute needs
on-the-pulse visibility of its processes and end-user interactions in order to best deliver on its mandate of advancing health science and innovation and creating a healthier world for future generations.

As part of the Aurum strategic directive and vision, and to achieve the most efficient outcomes, Aurum elected to standardise on the Microsoft ecosystem and it therefore, made sense after completing due diligence on a fit-for- purpose ERP solution that Microsoft D365 came out on top.
To undertake the implementation, Aurum decided to partner with Altron Karabina because of their longstanding partnership and understanding of the Aurum business.

Altron Karabina exists to deliver innovation that matters to its customers. Through partnering with customers, it has developed an understanding of the challenges inherent in digital transformation journeys. Altron Karabina offers Microsoft cloud solutions covering Azure infrastructure, data & analytics and artificial intelligence solutions, digital workplace and Dynamics 365 business applications and managed services across all Microsoft cloud platforms. In the case of Aurum, Altron Karabina embarked on a project to move from a myriad of systems to Microsoft cloud platforms.

The Aurum Insitute’s Group Chief Financial Officer Arshad Hassim says that the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP enables Aurum to transform and automate its business processes and consolidate its technologies, thereby streamlining the entire organisation. The process – while involving many moving parts – has resulted in the ability to have a comprehensive and real-time view of all processes, which has a direct impact on efficiency and execution of key deliverables across the organisation. He adds that the first phase of the implementation was to build a solid foundation, with all the necessary reinforcements, so that the institute could continue to enhance its systems going forward in future phases.

Pravesh Parbhoo, Head of Business Applications at Altron Karabina says: “The project entailed a phased approach towards striving for a holistic Microsoft solution, not just for their customer relationship management (CRM) but also their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Data Warehouse.”
He says the immediate benefit gained through the migration has been increased visibility on how the institute’s operations function. “In addition to this, the system which was deployed, improves traceability and auditability,” says Pravesh Parbhoo.

“Aurum’s business had evolved, and they required a modern platform where bringing together the front office and back office was required.”

Arshad says that this phase is one leg in a long journey. “We plan to roll out HR and build on a platform that will enable us to deliver on our digital transformation journey, which in turn will support our Aurum sub-partners, as well as the expansion of our African and foreign entities.”

He adds: “Beyond this, we have been able to reflect on gaps in our business processes and how to improve knowledge management. It is important to us that we always ensure seamless business knowledge-sharing and transfer. I look forward to seeing how more live data in the system is going to positively affect our reports for both feedback and decision-making purposes. We’ve well and truly entered the digital age which will make us more effective in our core activities.”

Altron Karabina MD Collin Govender concurs, adding that the impact must be felt in any digital transformation project in the customer’s business. He says: “technology is never used for technology’s sake but to make a tangible difference, which in the case of Aurum, is delivering high-quality care and treatment to people in developing communities across Africa.”

He says there have been several key changes that the enhanced Microsoft ecosystem has enabled. Aurum’s customers are using a new vendor portal, interacting directly through Microsoft Dynamics 365. “This is a strength of the Microsoft ecosystem, and as future deployments unfold the ability to build onto the existing foundation is crucial, where functionality, compliance and security all work together seamlessly.”

Govender adds that one of the keys to the success of the first phase of this important project is that the team fully understood the purpose behind the importance of Aurum’s work. “In addition to this, we must congratulate the project leadership teams of both businesses for their commitment, steering the project through hundreds of meetings and providing the template for the teams beneath them to see the project through. This is how partnerships breed success.”

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