Introduction
The way most of the hospitals and other medical facilities in the world operate today includes a personal visit of each client, data collection (often recorded by hand), an examination by a professional, and diagnosis. Connecting all the institutions through an international network is not feasible with modern technology and economic requirements. Developing a computer program for collecting and retrieving data about patients has potential. This paper describes proposals of intuitive software that could be synchronized with a person’s electronic gadgets and later retrieved by hospitals and pharmacies in needed locations in different countries.
New Products
Modern technology develops at a rapid speed contributing to various areas of everyday human life, including healthcare. Gadgets collect terabytes of personal data regarding cardiovascular state, physical activities, sleeping habits, and even blood composition (Malik et al., 2018). Currently, there is no convenient way to synchronize personal digital data with the medical institution system globally. Hospitals and pharmacies use separate storages, and manually inputting data on each patient and client requires much time. The author of this paper proposes creating two cloud-based applications that could be used by potential customers of medical institutions and pharmacies.
The prime function of one, named MedSynch, would be providing doctors, nurses, and pharmacists with physiological data to better serve clients. The second application, MedMap, will include a list of international hospitals and pharmacies with contacts so that tourists and immigrants could find medical help even before they travel to a new place. The proposed products could be connected through a contact database but are designed to function independently of each other. Both of them are planned to be offered as potential products to a company Digital Science Ltd., a technology start-up based in Dallas, Texas.
Currently, this business focuses on recording the data from high-school science laboratories and maintaining US biology institutions’ interactive map. One of their announced areas of interest is international health care supportive software. The proposals suggest entering the global market starting with France charging individuals €3 per month for MedSynch and €1 for the same period for MedMap.
Determination Methods
The first method to determine whether such applications are needed was studying the medical specialists’ usage of patient databases. Reading and Mill (2018) compared several available sets of digitally collected information to the hospital requirements and found that several could help the patients. However, even with the selected group and just one institution, it took several weeks to filter through data. Such time abundance is not available in the medical field as millions of patients seek help every day. Being able to upload the data could solve the issue of checking the validity of the information if it meets safety criteria from the beginning.
The reason for choosing France to test MedSynch lies in it currently having the best healthcare system in the world (Tandon et al., 2020). Since the citizens of this country are already highly satisfied with the services, they are likely to pay for the efficient usage of their time.
An interview of a group of international students and their acquaintances, a total of forty-seven people currently living in France, revealed that ninety-six percent of them were willing to increase the speed of the medical services for a fee of several euros per month. The current method of receiving the patient background information through a survey leads to numerous errors due to human factors and misunderstanding. A precise application with a person’s health history could solve this problem.
Since the proposals are directly connected to electronic gadget usage, the second method included analyzing the data on personal devices, such as smartphones and smartwatches. People use them in everyday life for work, leisure activities, and health data tracking. According to Gadget Cover, the number of devices currently existing in the world exceeds the planet’s population (Brown, 2019). The direct observation in the hospital hallway by the author during the waiting time has revealed that about sixty percent of the visitors refer to their gadgets when registering. A conversation with a local pharmacist showed that about half of the visitors confirm their prescription using their smartphones. That opened the broad potential for collecting and transferring the electronic health data to hospitals and other medical facilities.
The third method to determine if there were a need and existing global market for such applications included analyzing the statistics on traveling and migrating in the past. The World Migration Report 2020 showed that last year 272 million people officially emigrated (McAuliffe & Khadria, 2019). At the same time, 1.46 billion travelers visited foreign countries, according to Statista data (Lock, 2020). Most of them likely considered receiving medical help or consulting at some point but had to perform individual research to decide the necessity of the hospital visit and the potential treatment method. The universal database with numerous hospitals and pharmacies across the globe would make the decision quick and convenient. France is the right choice for testing the MedMap as it was the most popular destination for international traveling in 2019 (Big 7 Travel, 2017). It could provide an accurate overview of the products’ advantages and flaws over one year.
Competitive Advantage and Risks
Currently, the universal health data application compatible with the hospital and pharmacy systems does not exist, at least in the known business segments on the global scale. It is tested in the US by Apple Inc., but only for devices of their brand. The international medical help database with pharmacies today is not available either, except basic business maps by Google and Maps.Me. Travelers have to rely on sparse online data and random recommendations from the locals. All of the mentioned companies are large but not narrowly specialized in either data synchronization or detailed pharmacy mapping. The proposed software could be the first of its kind in both spheres, which would stimulate the medical institutions and pharmacies as well as applications developers to adjust to it for better and faster customer service. Entering the market when there is no competition allows the company to gain the time and placement advantage over the followers.
The first inherent risk of these proposals when applied to France is the potential lack of support from the investors. According to Manhattan Street Capital (n.d.), returns delay is among the most common problems for a start-up company. Investors may be reluctant to finance the new international technological instruments, especially considering the economic uncertainty of this year. The projects could ask for Government sponsorship to minimize the risk. This may make the bureaucratic part of the approval more complicated, but funding can be more fundamental and long-term. Another way to appear more confident in the market involves a potential partnership with a well-established business, such as Apple Inc. or Xiaomi. Both of these firms already produce gadgets that collect personal health data and geographical information about hospitals and pharmacies.
The second inherent risk is the safety of the technical data as it would be transferred between several databases and stored at different servers as well. According to Digital Guardian, any international projects related to health data security have to follow the EU’s General Data Protection regulation and similar guidelines. Entering the French market would mean following them closely and accurately. The recommendations include educating healthcare staff, controlled logging, and monitoring, and encrypting data (Lord, 2020). Incorporating the newest available cybersecurity methods would also provide the patients, customers, and employees with more confidence when using personal data and geographical locations.
Customer Relation Management (CRM)
The recommended CRM instrument for both proposals is Markentive CRM Software working in partnership with Elite Hubspot. It is considered the top agency in France based on the customers’ reviews and the quality of services provided (Hubspot Solutions Directory, n.d.).
The features that would be helpful for MedSynch and MedMap include the following: work with targeted customers, support of English and French languages, bases in both US and Europe, developing of sales plans, and close connection with social media trends. Focusing on people and organizations with the ability to pay for the proposed products could make marketing effective and avoid wasting resources. Supporting the developer’s country and target area languages decreases the probability of cultural misunderstanding. The location of the Markentive office in the US is convenient for business discussions and transactions. Detailed sales plan developing and using social media for product distribution are effective when technological products are introduced to a foreign country’s market.
Markentive also provides primary data about transactions, clients, views, clicks, and responses to the products. MedSynch would receive the data regarding the signed-up and potential clients, their gadgets, reviews, time of active usage, and hospital synchronizations. MedMap specialists could get information about the pharmacies and their clients regarding referring to geographic and demographic data. In addition, Markentive already has a credible reputation in France, so a partnership with them could help build customers’ trust. The initial required budget is $5,000, but the final payments may vary depending on the complexity and duration of the partnership.
Distribution Channel
Since the programs will presumably be available through applications, it would be logical to distribute them via the Internet. The information will be readily available on the designed websites and in the App Store/Play Market product descriptions. The promotion could be done through two strategies: SEO target marketing for individuals and direct contact of the medical institutions and pharmacies through emails, phone calls, technology conferences, expos, and personal visits.
The international controlling organizations and rules for each participant country should be considered before offering the products. Examples of global institutions that have to be taken into account include the World Health Organization, World Bank, and the European Health Organization. Specialized institutions, such as the International Pharmaceutical Federation, would have to guide the relations with national drug stores. Once the permission to incorporate the new software is received, the cybersecurity and trade regulations inside each country would have to be studied and followed. In general, the people are relatively open to new technologies, but in-depth marketing research for each particular country would increase the chance of global success for the proposed applications.
The International supply chain in the case of these products is focused around servers, cloud storage, and laws inside the countries, as these factors influence the availability of the software for the clients. The instruments for implementation are already available internationally: application stores, personal digital devices, and electronic data exchange are used all over the world today. However, the legal regulations could affect the products either positively or negatively, depending on the countries’ openness to foreign applications using citizens’ personal data. The typical supply chain for MedSynch and MedMap would include program developing, receiving the necessary permissions, adding them to the electronic stores, and monitoring the sales process. Any disruption of the chain, technical or legal, would stop the process until the acceptable solution is available.
Pricing Strategy
The starting pricing strategy would depend on numerous factors, including the possibility and desire for software development outsourcing, obtaining licenses, training specialists, and performing marketing activities. Since there are no direct competitors for MedSynch and MedMap, the preferred method of defining the cost would be based on potential customers’ income. French citizens, on average, pay about €23 per month for a doctor’s visit (TransferWise, 2017).
According to Healthcare Financial Management Association, successful modern strategies should consider the increased push for price visibility, extended methods to reference competitive pricing, and establishing the trust bond with the clients (Sears & Sukenik, 2020). A detailed explanation of the services and possibly adding several customer levels would make the applications more attractive for the French customers.
Therefore, it is important to note that the major pricing will be based on the price skimming strategy due to the lack of competition and well-established numbers within the market. The software product can be considered as a novelty, which means it is vital to exploit the acquired monopolistic position in earlier stages of the lifecycle. Since there is no clear reference point for the price due to lack of competition, price skimming is the most plausible approach.
The main reason is that costs will be recovered quickly, and additional profit can be quickly used for improving and maintaining the program. It is common for a software product to contain bugs and other technical issues, which are revealed after the launch. Therefore, prompt and quick corrective follow-up actions will ensure that trust and reputation will not be destroyed. For example, if one uses a price penetration strategy, such a company will not be able to perfect its product effectively, which will lead to low-cost-low-quality perception. It will lead to the fact that a potential competitor will be able to exploit the damaged company image by positioning itself as a high-quality alternative.
Hospitals and Pharmaceutical corporations may be willing to pay hundreds or even thousands of US dollars for software approved by management. The logic is based on the fact that such institutions generally possess more capital compared to individual consumers. In addition, the described product is novel, which means that there is no well-established price within the market. Therefore, consumer acceptance will most likely have a wider spread, where the given pricing strategy will attempt to capture the higher end of this spectrum. Evidently, the price will not be lower than the development and distribution costs, and thus, consumer acceptance will be mostly derived from the budgets of hospitals and corporations.
The method will be based on offering various versions of the product during earlier stages, where the software will be presented with multiple upsells. For example, the basic understanding of the program will primarily contain the software itself, but there could be more expensive packages, which can contain staff training, technical support, individualized changes, and other modifications. Such an approach can be used to identify the highest amount of money the hospitals and corporations are willing to give for the product. The following deals might remove these packages and focus on the version, which is at a high-end of the consumer acceptance spectrum.
The initial spending on software development would depend on numerous factors but is likely to be in the range of $25,000-100,000. Products similar to the medical data synchronization application exist on a US national level, but the developers generally do not share the complete information about their software development costs. The government agencies could partially subsidize the proposals if they become interested in projects’ support.
The Promotional Strategy
The promotional strategy will be primarily based on the push strategy because there is little to no awareness in the selected market. In other words, the software needs to be brought to an unaware customer in order to increase product exposure. It is evident that the pull strategy is only plausible in well-established markets, where consumers know about the product and service, and thus, a competitive advantage is gained by attracting the clients and building relationships. However, the given case mostly revolves around an empty market, where the program can be considered as a novelty.
Therefore, it is important to note that an only plausible option is to aggressively utilize a push promotion strategy to both determine the consumer acceptance range and implement a price skimming strategy. In addition, one should understand that there are fewer channels to expose a product to an organization compared to individual consumers, which means that such customers are less exposed to novelties in general.
Subsequently, it is critical to emphasize the fact that the promotional strategy of the proposed software in the global market will help find points of interest with large health organizations and medical companies. If they approve the new products, their support could build customers’ trust on both sides: individuals and institutions. After confirming that regulations of France allow the products distribution, marketing methods could include standard SEO promotions via Internet-based platforms and direct discussions with the hospitals and pharmacies. Peer-reviewed scientific journals and medical conferences could be used to build the credibility of the proposed applications. At the same time, Instagram and Facebook marketing is capable of conveniently delivering the option to individuals.
The world is global today regarding social media, so choosing virtual platforms for promoting new technology to people of the age of eighteen and older seems effective. At the same time, science conferences concentrate specialists in different fields, including medical and financial, so approaching the international market via researchers could lead to satisfying results. The two sales promotion activities that can be used for the proposed software include promo codes with discounts for a selected group of clients and alpha testing with feedback during the first implementation stages. Since the products are modern and technological, the chosen activities would be the most fitting for them.
Conclusion
The first proposal described in this paper, MedSynch, includes developing new software that would allow health data from any preferred electronic device to be transferred directly to a chosen medical facility’s database. The second, MedMap, suggests a list with contacts of the hospitals and pharmacies that could help the travelers and emigrants to receive medical help of their choice globally. The development and implementation plans require further careful consideration as they largely depend on the countries where the software will be approved.
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