Vaccination Hub Palazzo delle Scintille

Cisco and Axians, a technology provider and system integrator, have combined their knowledge and expertise for a project of great national importance.

We are talking about the technological infrastructure behind the Vaccination Center of the Palazzo delle Scintille.

An extraordinary commitment, completed thanks to great skills, experience and design skills. All indispensable qualities, demonstrated by both Cisco and Axians.

Stefano Menoncin, System Architect of Cisco Italia and Roberto Corraro, General Manager & Head of Sales – North West, Axians Italia, spoke about the role of technologies and collaboration. They told us about the satisfactions, the difficulties and the preparatory activities essential for a realization of this importance.

The Palazzo delle Scintille: test passed with flying colors by Cisco and Axians

The project activity began about 2 months before the opening of the Palazzo delle Scintille, following the contact by Fondazione Fiera and at the request of the Lombardy Region.

The need expressed was to be able to vaccinate a large number of people in a single working day.

A result widely achieved, given that at the time of writing there are well over 100,000 vaccines inoculated thanks to the work of the two companies.

Being able to provide to healthcare personnel tools of great technological complexity, but at the same time simple to use and understand, is a source of great pride. Moreover, in the face of a user experience as simple as it is linear, the system created by Cisco and Axians reveals extraordinary ideas.

The key role of data: analytics from Cisco and Axians

A project that allows health institutions to take advantage of the enormous amount of data collected in 360 degrees. All in full compliance with regulations and privacy: Cisco and Axians do not have access to the data in any way.

Stefano Menoncin pointed out that the technology put in place performs several tasks, and some of the less obvious are actually fundamental.

The flow of people in the Palazzo delle Scintille, for example, has been the subject of careful analysis. By exploiting data from Wi-Fi networks, Cisco and Axians have allowed an important optimization of interior spaces.

Understanding at which point in the vaccination path bottlenecks form, or where it is necessary to set up more chairs for people in the queue. All valuable activities for the smooth conduct of vaccination, and all the result of analytics.

Of fundamental importance is, even for recent news events, to have complete and timely tracking of inoculated vaccines. Both during the vaccination campaign and afterwards, the health authorities will be able to safely store this data to carry out long-term studies.

The technologies developed by Cisco and Axians enable institutions to examine statistics and numbers in a clear and immediately usable way. It is unthinkable that scientists and health organizations should carry out work of this magnitude.

Design and collaboration are the secrets of a digital project

Roberto Corraro pointed out a key factor: the preparatory phase of a digital transformation project is not optional.

Not surprisingly, both Cisco and Axians participated in all the meetings from the beginning, to better understand the needs of all parties involved.

A best practice that, Cisco and Axians emphasize, should always be respected. In fact, the project of the Palazzo delle Scintille is completely superimposable to what would be applied in a large organization.

As much as a company has business continuity as its priority, even in this case no stop of the vaccination machine is conceivable.

Without a valid design, underlines Corraro, it would have been impossible to realize this project in such a short time. Axians, in fact, had only 15 days to set up a huge structure.

An immense effort made by Cisco and Axians, in coordination with all the companies involved in the set-ups. Dozens of companies, which have coordinated efforts to carry out a fundamental project for the entire country. A common and cohesive effort. With this spirit and with the same design capacity, say Corraro and Menoncin, we should operate every day in Italy.

Treasure the experiences made, so as not to waste a unique opportunity

For Cisco and Axians, the experience has shown, once again, how important cooperation between organizations is.

The two partners, who are completely complementary, have demonstrated by their actions that no result is impossible to achieve. Menoncin did well to affirm that the National Recovery and Resilience Plan must be based on excellent planning. Able to carry out on the ground what has been decided at the political level.

The mountain of money that will be invested, without careful management, risks turning into a colossal boomerang. A debt of unprecedented proportions, which will be impossible to repay if the projects are not realized.

However, the premises of the Draghi government are positive, as is the creation of the Cybersecurity Agency. Cybersecurity that is also and above all fundamental in the healthcare world, as Menoncini well recalled.

Technologies and system integration, two sides of the same coin

Cisco and Axians have proven that getting to know each other unleashes the full potential you have. The technologies created and manufactured by Cisco are fundamental, but they cannot do that without a perfect implementation.

At the same time, Axians’ expertise and knowledge of numerous vertical industries would be useless without the best technologies. We are therefore not surprised to have spoken with the two managers and to have almost had the impression that they were the expression of a single entity.

The best advice for organizations struggling with digital transformation is perhaps this: choose solutions calmly, and spend no less time selecting the system integrator. Neither works without the other.