Executive Summary
Mercy Hospital is coming up with a new strategy of offering products to its customers through an ambitious online strategy. In this project, Mercy Hospital will come up with a website that has a capacity to offer a lot more service that it currently does. This new strategy will offer customers ability to book for the services of this firm from any part of this country. This new strategy will also offer this hospital an ability to offer some of the services online, such as consultation. This project comes with a number of strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and strengths. The project comes at a cost, but in the long run, the firm stands to benefit from increased sales.
Introduction
Healthcare is one of the most important aspects of the social life of a human being. Mercy Hospital in Riyadh offers a product that is considered a basic need in lives of people who live around this place, and visitors coming from other parts of the world. Given the fact that the hospital is owned by private institutions, it is expected to serve various clients, some of whom may come from regions outside Riyadh. Healthcare is very important and various facilities offering this product have come out strongly to improve their services to customers. This product is very sensitive because any little mistake done by the doctor or nurse in charge may be fatal. It is therefore, important that the concerned individuals use appropriate equipments that will ensure that they deliver quality services to their clients. This firm has a website that helps it reach out for clients both within Riyadh and abroad. This websites helps in communicating with the clients to understand the status of the firm. The website must reflect the current condition of the firm. It will be illogical for the firm to advance without showing the advancement on their website. It is therefore, a basic necessity for the management to ensure that their website is changed regularly to reflect the current status of the firm.
Going online has its pros and cons. When a firm makes the decision to go online, there will be extra charges that the firm will have to meet in order to be successful in managing online business. The cost of hosting and maintaining a website is an extra cost that would have been used elsewhere if this option were not considered. Cyber crimes are other challenges that Mercy Hospital must be ready to deal with. Cyber criminals are increasingly getting sophisticated (Holden & Gulbrandsen, 2009). They use advanced technology to crack into sensitive information about their target firms. This can result into massive distortion of the information of the firm. They can also add or delete some information on the website of a firm, leading to miscommunication between the firm and the targeted audience. Depending on the magnitude of the distortion, the impact will vary, and this may injure the image of the firm in the corporate world. The firm will be tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that the website is protected from intruders. Despite these challenges, online business has become increasingly important to firms, especially in developed countries like the United States. Most of the citizens in this country have internet connectivity either through their phones or personal computers. Going online would help a firm reach out for customers who are beyond their immediate environment. It helps in marketing to individuals around the world. Online business also eliminates the need to have a physical facility in every part of the city. Clients can easily communicate with the firm online, and then fly to the firm’s facility or a doctor be sent as may be appropriate. This research is focused on offering health services at Mercy Hospital in Riyadh through online means.
Current marketing situation
This strategy of offering products to the clients is not very new in this industry. There are other firms that have adopted the strategy and are making huge profits out of it. Baptist Health in Riyadh is one of the fiercest rivals of Mercy Hospital. The market place has turned to e-business as a way of expanding their growth. Competition is so stiff in this market that any slight misstep may lead to a closure of a firm permanently. Firms are therefore, forced to come up with mechanisms through which they can remain competitive in the market (Cruz-Cunha & Varajao, 2011). Just like Mercy Hospital, Baptist Health is a private church. This means that none of the two firms may claim to have a competitive edge over the other because of their sponsors. There are many other firms within this region that also boasts of state-of-the-art facilities in their hospitals. The firms have gone online, and Baptist Health is keen on attracting online customers. With a phone or a personal computer with internet connectivity, a customer can easily get in touch with a doctor and get his case listened to. Mercy Hospital enjoys the fact that there are no other major hospitals in Riyadh marketing themselves to international clients. Narrowing down the region to Riyadh area leaves Mercy Hospital with three closest competitors. The competitors are Shiners International, International Riyadh Hospital and International Program Broward Health. According to Imparato (2000) one of the main economic activities in Riyadh is tourism. International tourists from various corners of the world always visit this city all year round. It is common that weather changes always have an impact on their health. They therefore, always try to ensure that they get a hospital where they can be attended to when in this city. Mercy Hospital operates internationally, and is online. The hospital has travel specialists who coordinate the entry of visitors into the country, assist patients to make bookings, conduct interpretation if there is need, and ensure that patients experience the state-of-the-art facilities in this hospital.
Mercy Hospital faces a challenge from three competitors who have developed their websites and can now reach out for the online clients. The firms include Shiners International, International Riyadh Hospital and International Program Broward Health. International Riyadh Hospital has a website that explains various facts about the firm, and how a customer can access the facility. However, it lacks a number of important ingredients. The website lacks enough graphics that can help convince clients to make the hospital their preferred choice. The case is the same with International Program Broward Health. However, Shiners international has made an effort to develop a good website that can attract clients. However, the facility serves children only. The competitors of Mercy Hospitals are health facilities within the entire Riyadh, and more specifically in Riyadh. These firms share some general objectives in regard to conducting business online.
An opportunity and issue analysis (SWOT)
SWOT analysis is always a very important tool that helps in determining the internal ability and weaknesses of the firm, and the opportunities and threats that are available in the external environment. This analysis will help in understanding this firm, and in knowing some of the factors that have propelled it to its current position in the market.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Company
Mercy Hospital has some special abilities that can be considered its main strength in the market. The ability of this firm to diversify its products is a special ability that makes it stand out in the world as one of the few firms in this country with diversified health products. To help it succeed in these industries, this firm has come up with a quality control unit in all its subsidiaries in order to ensure that it delivers quality services to the customer (Kidd & Stanford, 2000). Ability to deliver quality service to the customer has made it develop a special niche in the market making its products popular across the country. The firm is also one of the first firms that embraced value chain management. Through this, the firm has been able to continue satisfying its customers at a cheaper cost. The ability of this firm to adopt the emerging technologies has been considered as strength by other firms.
Despite the above strengths for this firm, it has some weaknesses that have impeded its growth to a given degree. One of the main concerns that this firm has not addressed properly is the issue of environmental management. The disposal strategy of this firm is not properly planned. This firm has been criticized, alongside other firms, to be one of the leading firms in pollution of the environment. This firm is yet to come up with a clear structure on how it can manage environmental pollution caused by its wastes around the city. The firm has claimed that it has been engaging in corporate social responsibility. However, this has not been enough to make the public believe its commitment to a cleaner environment.
Opportunities and Threats
In every industry, there are always opportunities and threats that a firm may come across in the external environment. There are various opportunities that exist for Mercy Hospital in its operations in the global market. One of the opportunities that this firm has had is an expansive and unexploited market in this country. Most of the health firms have focused their effort on building large base of loyal customers in the leading economies like the United States and the European markets. This firm has managed to tap into the emerging markets in Saudi Arabia. The stable economic growth in the major economies means that there is increased opportunity for this firm to increase its sales in Saud markets.
This growth of the economy means that the consumers will always have enough to spend on health services. There is an interesting trend in the market where this firm is competing with other firms in this market for supremacy. Although this may be considered as a threat, this competition has offered the two firms an opportunity to acquire a special niche in the industry, outsmarting some of the former industry giant. The emergent of an economically empowered youth around the world is also another opportunity that this firm has been able to exploit (Lehman & DuFrene, 2008). With an economically empowered youth, this firm can generate a lot of benefits through increased sales.
There are threats that exist in this industry that is worth noting. Technology is probably the main threat that this firm faces in this industry. Mercy Hospital has used technology to reach its current position. It is one of the few firms that have managed to adapt to the emerging technologies very fast. However, it is a nightmare trying to figure out what some of the competitors can do with this same technology. Another biggest threat that this firm faces is the stiff competition posed by rival firms. This industry is one of the most competitive industries in the world. Any slight mistake by the firm may result in a situation where its market share is taken over by other rival firms.
Objectives
The following are some of these objectives.
- Ability to develop a strong social media marketing techniques.
- Ability of customers to pay for the products they plan to purchase online.
- Ability to have a system that is interactive with the customers.
- The need to grow and capture international markets.
Marketing strategy
Marketing strategy that this firm will use will emphasize on the nature of this product. This is a new strategy of delivering an existing product. It is the delivery process that is new. The following action items clearly shows that stages that will be taken when introducing this new strategy.
Action items
In order to introduce this product in the market, there are clear stages (action items), that should be followed in accomplishing this project. The following are the steps to be taken in new product strategy development.
- Idea generation: this is the stage where the idea about going online with the firms services is developed
- Screening and evaluation: this is the second stage where the generated idea in the above step is tested for viability. The management will need a special team to evaluate viability of the idea before it may advance to further stages.
- Business analysis: after the idea has been screened and confirmed to be viable, the team will analyze its impact on business.
- Development: the next stage will be the development of the product. In this case, it will involve development of the website that will be used for marketing products of this firm.
- Testing: this is the second last stage where a product is tested for its effectiveness in the market. The team will use a sample customer to test the new product.
- Commercialization: this is the last stage where this new product will be released to the market.
Financial projections
This project will have financial impacts on this firm. The project will need some serious financial investment. However, the project will have positive financial impact after some time. The increased coverage of the market will have increase profitability of this firm.
Implementation controls
It is always important to understand some of the risks that are always presented in any given project, and how to manage them. In this project, the management of project risks will be conducted by a special group which will be responsible for quality management (Salehnia, 2002). They will be responsible for detecting and managing of the risks in time. The team will be responsible for monitoring various activities within the firm, and determining the best control methods for these risks and other issues that may arise in the process of project implementation.
References
Cruz-Cunha, M. M., & Varajao, J. (2011). Innovations in SMEs and conducting e-business: Technologies, trends and solutions. Hershey: Business Science Reference.
Holden, G., & Gulbrandsen, D. (2009). E-business. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Imparato, N. (2000). Public policy and the Internet: Privacy, taxes, and contract. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press.
Kidd, P. T., & Stanford, B. (2000). E-business: Key issues, applications and technologies. Amsterdam: IOS Press.
Lehman, C. M., & DuFrene, D. (2008). Business communication. Mason: South-Western.
Salehnia, A. (2002). Ethical issues of information systems. Hershey: IRM Press.