National Pharmacies and SuiteBox were among the winners of Oracle's 2016 innovation awards announced at Oracle Open World.
Australia's National Pharmacies and New Zealand's SuiteBox joined organisations from North and South America, Europe and Asia on stage during the 2016 innovation award presentations.
National Pharmacies was one of two winners in the mobile category.
The National Pharmacies app provides access to membership information, online shopping, online booking for health services, and the company's knowledgebase. It also reduced the time needed to onboard a new member from 14 days to a matter of minutes, halved the cost previously associated with postage and paper, and delivered other benefits.
{loadposition stephen08}Oracle group vice-president for mobile Sri Ramanathan described the app as "an example of how mobile is positively transforming healthcare".
National Pharmacies general manager of technology and innovation Ryan Klose said the desire to make faster changes to consumer-facing systems spurred a move to the cloud, even though these systems did need some links to on-premises systems.
That did mean an upfront investment in integration, but the company was able to achieve that with its internal resources. Cloud-based systems are more about assembly than development, and this allows more accurate costings.
Auckland-based SuiteBox was recognised in the application development and deployment category. It offers a system for online collaboration and meetings, including the ability to digitally sign documents.
The company's use of Oracle tools and technologies mean "you can see a new version every two or three days", said Oracle vice-president of application development and deployment Mike Lehmann.
SuiteBox is enjoying rapid growth and has more than 50,000 prospects, he noted.
SuiteBox chief executive Ian Dunbar said the company's primary target markets are financial services, property, and call centres (SuiteBox integrates with the widely used Genesys contact centre software). One high-profile customer is Deloitte Private.
Disclosure: The writer attended Oracle Open World as a guest of the company.