Economic
Athenahealth Inc. was formed in the year 1997 (Hill 90). Its headquarters is situated in Watertown, Massachusetts. The United States’ GDP trends have improved steadily over the past few years (Evans 24). As of Q2 2014, its GDP was at estimated at $17.3 trillion.
Based on this, it is apparent that the company has an opportunity to increase its business to meet the needs of the expanding economy. A healthy GDP growth that has been experienced over the last one year presents an opportunity for the company to increase its stock prices.
In the US, the interest rates are estimated at 0.250 % (Evans 29). The rates illustrated above are lower compared to the rates offered in other countries. Therefore, for the last few years the US citizens’ purchasing power has increased with improved accessibility of loans. With increased spending power, Athenahealth Inc. has an opportunity to increase its clients.
The US witnessed an increase in its money supply in the past one year (Evans 54). As of August 2014, the country’s M0 had reached $3989063 Million. From the year 1959 to the year 2014, America’s M0 is estimated at 518924.83 USD Million.
An increase in a country’s money supply can have disastrous effects to an economy. Therefore, the above situation poses a threat to Athenahealth Inc. As such, an increase in money supply lowers the value of the US dollar. With a decreased dollar value, the company’s returns will decrease.
For the last five years, the US inflation rates have dropped from 2.7% to 1.7% (Evans 67). The statistics indicate that over the last few years the price of goods and services in America has been reduced. Owing to this, the purchasing power of the US citizens has increased.
Therefore, the company should exploit the increasing purchasing power of Americans to increase their services and expand their branches. Given that the US citizens have an increased disposable and discretionary income compared to other countries, Athenahealth should exploit the opportunity. America’s energy availability and cost is another opportunity that the company should exploit as it acts as an economic development incentive.
The current US unemployment rate stands at 6.1% (Evans 123). During the year 2013, the country’s unemployment rate was estimated at 7.3%. The statistics indicate that the number of unemployed Americans has decreased steadily.
Athenahealth Inc. should exploit the situation to increase its returns. With more employed citizens, access to improved health care services will be possible because more individuals will afford access quality services.
Wage price control is a financial strategy that governments use to curb inflation. When imposed, the government places a ceiling on wages. If imposed, Athenahealth Inc. will be required to pay wages to its employees in accordance with the policy. Such circumstances will act as a threat to the company because most of the money that could have been used in development projects would be used in cushioning employees.
Under a static conversation rate structure, devaluation and revaluation are authorized alterations in the price of a country’s currency in relation to other exchanges. With respect to Athenahealth, currency devaluation and revaluation present a threat to the company.
For instance, devaluation may intensify inflation. In such situations, the government will be forced to increase the interest rates leading to a slower economic growth. The above incidences will affect the returns of the company.
Technological
Ever since the year 2008, total government spending for R&D and total industry spending for R&D has increased (Costigliola 23). For instance, in the year 2013 up to $428 billion were utilized in R&D projects. Increased funding on R&D presents an opportunity for Athenahealth Inc. The company can use the research findings to improve their operations.
Equally, the researchers can help the company come up with more services that are competitive. However, it should be noted that the projects could cause a threat to Athenahealth Inc. For instance, the company’s competitors can utilize the findings from the research to gain competitive advantage in the market. Through this, stiff competition will be witnessed in the country threatening Athenahealth’s market share.
Athenahealth Inc. puts more emphasis on technological efforts. Through this, the company has been able to offer American citizens with unparalleled health care services. Focus of technological efforts has offered the company with an opportunity to increase its market share. For instance, through telemedicine the company can offer its services to remote clients.
The key role of patent protection is to safeguard products and services from illegal copying. Currently, the company relies on other companies’ patents to maintain their operations and enhance their expansion.
If the company comes up with its own patents or acquire the patents’ firms, they will be able to increase their operations without any restrictions (Payson 19). As an opportunity, this will enable the company enhance its skills and competence.
In the future, the increasing influence and impact of information technology in the health care sector will present an opportunity for Athenahealth Inc. At the present, the company has embraced cloud computing to enhance their market share. Through this, the company will gain a competitive advantage over its rivals. New services and application such as PayerView will increase the company’s sale and enhance their ecosystem.
The company should embrace other innovative information technology services and products to better their service delivery. By doing so, it will be able to meet the ever increasing and demanding customers’ needs.
Another major opportunity presented to the company is increased productivity improvements through automation. With automation, the company has managed to enhance its revenue cycle processes. Automation will enhance flexibility, as government demands for medical performance will continue to transform in the future (Relman 67).
Similarly, automation has improved data accessibility and point of service collections. Based on the above illustrations, it is apparent that the company can benefit more if it adopts automation in its major operation. Through the service, the company will be able to offer cheap and reliable services to a number of clients. Equally, automation will enhance the ease of accessing quality health care services by the consumers.
New products, new developments in technology transfer from lab to marketplace, and rate of technological change are the major threats experienced by Athenahealth Inc. The threats put pressure on the company’s future success. Every year, the company must come up with new innovative products to be ahead of its rivals.
If they fail to do so, its rivals will fill the gap and gain an advantage over the company. Of late, the company has not introduced any new feature in their products. Therefore, the company may not introduce an innovative feature allowing competitors’ products to enter the market.
Political-legal environments
In the US, the antitrust law is a group of national and state administration decrees that control the behaviour and organization of companies (Gibbons 56). The laws are aimed at encouraging fair competition with the intention of enhancing consumers’ interest.
The availability of efficient antitrust law in America presents an opportunity to Athenahealth Inc. The company is certain that the alliances that practice restraint of trade in the healthcare sector would be prohibited from entering into the American market.
With respect to environmental protection, Athenahealth Inc should ensure that its policies and acts are friendly to the environment. Through this, the company will lessen legal battles with environmental protectionists. Similarly, the company can receive some incentive from the government and other donors for safeguarding the environment. In such a situation, the company’s reputation will be enhanced.
Therefore, initiatives aim at environmental protection should be perceived as an opportunity for Athenahealth Inc. Just like environmental protection, special incentives and protectionist policies present an opportunity for Athenahealth Inc. The incentives can be used in enhancing productivity and expansion of healthcare services.
Considered that Americans are more loyal to their companies compared to foreigners’ companies, the company should exploit the opportunity (Spagnoletti 60). Similarly, the laws of hiring and promotion in the US are efficient. In this regard, the company should exploit this opportunity to hire and retain efficient task force that will ensure that the goals of the company are met.
Athenahealth Inc. should view foreign trade regulations and attitudes towards foreign companies as a threat. If the company expands into the international market, it will experience a diverse business culture and legal environments.
The diversity and foreign trade regulations increase the threat of confusion when companies engage in global trade. Therefore, the company should factor in the above effects if they want to expand internationally.
Another aspect that Athenahealth Inc derives its opportunity is the political stability. America has a stable government. Therefore, both citizens and tourists visiting the country enjoy peace. A stable government offers a favourable environment for business expansion.
Similarly, a stable government attracts foreign investment into the country. Thus, the company should exploit this opportunity to increase its share in the American market. Through this, the company can gain competitive advantage.
Privacy issues and policies should be considered a threat to Athenahealth Inc. As such, Athenahealth Inc handles huge of data through their healthcare management systems.
Therefore, it is vital for them to safeguard their clients’ data. If the data falls in the wrong hands, the company will be marred with several legal controversies. Given that such legal issues consume a lot of resources and time, the company should consider them a threat to their future’s existence.
Terrorism issues and policies present a threat to Athenahealth Inc. As a superpower, the US is inherently at risk of attack from the terrorist and extremists. The 9/11 attacks on the United States demonstrated the extent to which terrorism can cause damage to the economy of a country and mass murder of innocent individuals (Wright 53).
It is approximated that the terrorists used up to $500, 000 in planning for the attack and wreaked a damage costing trillions of dollars. Given that terrorism attacks cause disastrous effects on a country’s economy, the company will be negatively impacted by such attacks in the future.
Works Cited
Costigliola, Vincenzo. Healthcare overview new perspectives. Dordrecht: Springer, 2012. Print.
Evans, Kimberly. The American economy. Detroit: Gale Cengage Learning, 2014. Print.
Gibbons, Michael Christopher. Impact of consumer health informatics applications. Rockville, Md.: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2009. Print.
Hill, Karen. International directory of company histories. Detroit, Mich.: St. James Press, 2012. Print.
Payson, Norman. Inside the minds the new health care industry : industry leaders share their knowledge on the future of the technology charged health care industry. Boston: Aspatore Books, Inc., 2001. Print.
Relman, Arnold. A second opinion: rescuing America’s healthcare : a plan for universal coverage serving patients over profit. New York: PublicAffairs, 2007. Print.
Spagnoletti, Paolo. Organizational change and information systems working and living together in new ways. Berlin: Springer, 2013. Print.
Wright, Lawrence. The looming tower: Al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11. New York: Knopf, 2006. Print.