E- , E-Commerce, and Information System - Business Plan Example

E-Commerce, E-Business and Information System and Section # of EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS 5 BUSINESS PLAN 9 Implementation Plan 13 ASSESSING E-COMMERCE INITIATIVES 14 RECOMMENDATIONS 16 BIBLIOGRAPHY 21 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY PharmQuip, a wholesaler of mobility healthcare products, is considering stepping into the global arena. This report contains the analysis of the decision of expanding the business to global markets and a plan which can be implemented for going global. Currently, the company’s website is a static set of web pages which only provides an online catalogue to the customers. It does not allow the users to place orders online, get a price quote or get full product specification from the site. The company’s core competency is to build and maintain relationships with the customers and the development of a better website will allow PharmQuip to gather useful customer data and retain the customers’ loyalty. The global healthcare equipment industry is anticipated to grow around 5% more till the year 2012. Therefore this is the best opportunity for the company to go global and increase its market share. The developing countries such as Pakistan, India and Malaysia are the most attractive markets because these markets are not concentrated, hence, the demand for healthcare equipment for the disabled will be much higher than in developed countries. NGOs have played another role in creating demand for healthcare equipment as 1500 jobs were created in India in 2005 for the handicaps. The physically challenged individuals who go to jobs or are living alone are the main target segment for PharQuip. Although the international expansion looks very attractive at first glance but it presents a number of issues. As the PharmQuip business will enter the global arena, it will require more ICT resources and streamlining of the current processes to meet the demand of international healthcare retailers and chemists. The company will need to employ more security measures to enhance the current payment system for its B2B customers. Security of customer data and supplier information will also be needed and will require significant expenditure when the company goes global. A higher budget will be required to advertise and for the promotional strategy to be implemented in all the countries where the company will operate. The single greatest risk that the company faces is from the changes in technologies and introduction of lower cost healthcare equipment. New regulatory requirements can be introduced in the countries which can harm the business. Other risks are the changes in the market dynamics, introduction of alternatives to healthcare equipments and breakthroughs in biotechnologies which can cure the physical disabilities of the physically challenged people. To overcome these issues and mitigate these risks, the company will need to send expatriate teams to the countries where it is expanding to set up the business at the initial stages. The company should also develop goals for the whole project of going global and develop metrics to measure those goals. To measure the success of the website and the promotional campaign, web analytics will be used to find out the number of hits daily, the pages visited the most and the rush hours. The key recommendations for the business expansion are that the website should be redeveloped and redesigned, to provide the customer with additional functions where he can place orders online, interact with the CSRs and find out details about the products. The business processes must be changed in order to streamline them with the business objectives. All the system should be integrated and all the data should be recorded in a single repository. This assignment is about a company PharmQuip which is a wholesaler of mobility healthcare products. The assignment consists of an analysis of the environment that the company will be operating in, and a business plan for expanding the business to e-commerce. An implementation plan for the e-business and its information system is also included in the assignment which is followed by strategies for assessing progress and recommendations for the company. The plan is developed for gaining the support of the top management for the new strategy. ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS Company Analysis and Value Proposition PharmQuip is a company which provides mobility healthcare products of a high quality. These products are manufactured specially for the physically challenged people. The company currently is operating in the local market with its catalogue based website. This website only offers an online brochure currently (Freedom Healthcare, 2009). The company started from a small wholesaling warehouse in Brisbane which quickly expanded into several shops in Queensland (Freedom Healthcare, 2009). PharmQuip has a great demand for its products in Brisbane and the surrounding areas. Chemist retailers and Healthcare shops around the world are demanding these products as marked by PharmQuip’s researchers. The company’s innovative products have caught everyone’s eyes at Pharmacy Expo. The products soon became popular as the e-mail inbox of the company was flooded with e-mails of potential buyers showing interest in the products. The IT department of PharmQuip lacks the skill set and the level of knowledge required to go global and operate on an e-commerce website. The processes and the technologies present at PharmQuip are also not sufficient to run an e-commerce business is a global arena. The value proposition of company is its innovative and durable products which standout from the rest of the industry. Although these products are overpriced but the company offers complete warranty most of the products for 3 years. The products are developed and designed with the person taking care as well as the user in mind (Freedom Healthcare, 2009). The products are equally helpful for the caretaker and as well as the patient. Core Competencies One of the core competencies of PharmQuip is development of strong relationship with its customer (Alcon, 2009). The company seeks to develop and maintain long-term relationships with its customer; whether they are the retailers or the individual consumers. The company is deeply committed to providing best quality products for catering the needs of the users and hence developing a bond with them (Alcon 2009). The company places its success in the hands of the healthcare retailers and chemists. These healthcare retailers and chemists are responsible for making sales of the home care and rehabilitation equipment that PharmQuip sells. With the help of this core competency, the company is able to make breakthroughs in the market even in the time of economic crisis. Another core competency of the company is to distribute the healthcare equipments which contain smart patented technology (Medical Devices and Surgical Technology Week, 2009). The specific technology gaps are targeted by PharmQuip in the healthcare equipment industry. The products sold by the company set-up the pace for better and new standard of patient care. These products are not easy to be imitated by the competitors that are present locally because the company has exclusive distributing rights from the manufacturer in Australia. These rights will be amended to distribute the products internationally when the company starts its operations globally. The company invests in innovation and new technology, and this is one of the main core competencies. This provides great benefits for the consumers and the person who is taking care of the patient. The products are a great value for money as the products are very innovative and trendy. All the products sold are checked by quality professionals for any problems and then delivered to the customers. The company also offers a warranty of up to three years depending on the value of product. Market Analysis and Trends Healthcare industry is a large developed market in the Middle East. The industries in Middle East and Arab countries have a strong demand and one of the highest per capita expenditure in the world (Business Monitor International Ltd, 2009). There are a large number tax free trade zones and ports which are offering full foreign ownership. Asia and Arab countries have relaxed rules on the employment of expatriates in comparison to Australia (Business Monitor International Ltd, 2009). The demand for health products and healthcare equipment is quite price inelastic and the demand is independent of the economic conditions of the world. In the US, the demand is perhaps the largest in the world, because a large segment of the population is aged. Healthcare equipments are demanded especially by the old age people who get physically challenged as a result of diseases such as neural infarction, diabetes, Parkinson etc. The health care equipment industry of the world demonstrated an increase of 4.5% in 2007 and was valued at US$ 230 billion (Datamonitor, 2008). In 2012, the industry is expected to reach a value of 285 billion US$ and the United States account for almost 45% of the total industry demand (Datamonitor, 2008). Evaluation of the Business: Porter’s Competitive Forces Model The power of suppliers in the industry is not much because the number of suppliers in the healthcare equipment industry is high (Ehmke 2009). The equipments that PharmQuip require are unique and innovative and PharmQuip is the sole distributor of the supplier. The supplier is heavily dependent upon the business of PharmaQuip, therefore the supplier will not have a high power of negotiation. The supplier does not have an ability to sell directly to the customers because PharmQuip has developed strong relationships with the customers. Hence, PharmQuip has power over its supplier. PharmQuip is selling unique and innovative products, which has contributed to higher power over the customers (Ehmke, 2009). There are a very few companies which provide innovative products such as PharmQuip in the industry which causes the power of buyers to be reduced. The buyers are mostly the healthcare retailers and chemists. The customers can easily switch to another product but they will not get the innovation that PharmQuip provides (Ehmke 2009). The barriers to entry are not so high but the existing businesses in the healthcare equipment industry are very well established with differentiated products and strong distribution network. A very expensive marketing campaign would be required to introduce the products (Ehmke 2009). Therefore the threat of new entrants in the industry is there but it does not represent any large threat to PharmQuip because most of the products are protected by patents and the customers are brand loyal (Ehmke 2009). The threat of substitute is very high in the healthcare industry because new innovations hit the market every day. All the innovations are not successful, but the probability of achieving success is not zero. The substitutes do not offer a great threat to the products offered by PharmQuip because the company’s products offer real benefit to the consumers and it is not easy for the customers to switch. Rivalry among the industry competitors is not very intense and hence the individual companies are able to change process according to the product quality and needs of the consumers. ICT Challenges for PharmQuip As the PharmQuip business enters the global arena, it will require more ICT resources and streamlining of the current processes to meet the demand of international healthcare retailers and chemists. The company will need a perfect inventory management system when targeting large number of retail stores. A customer relationship management (CRM) system does not exist at PharmQuip which will cause difficulties in maintaining relationships with the customers. Absence of a supply chain management (SCM) system will cause the cost of holding, inventory ordering and procuring to rise. The company will need to employ more security measures to enhance the current payment system for its B2B customers. Security of customer data and supplier information will also be needed and will require significant expenditure when the company goes global. BUSINESS PLAN Opportunities and Objectives In 2010, the healthcare equipment and supplies industry of Asia-Pacific region is anticipated to grow by almost 30% since the year 2005 (Datamonitor, 2006). Asia-Pacific region generates 18% of the world’s revenues for the industry (Datamonitor ,2006). The demand, particularly in the developing economies, is rising because of the rise in living standard. These markets offer opportunities for investment because they have relaxed policies and investment rules than the developed countries. NGOs in the developing countries of Asia in particular are working for the well being of the physically disabled. These NGOs are pretty successful in convincing the government and the prosperous citizens to take part in their campaigns by making donations. Therefore these NGOs are able to collect enough amounts to purchase healthcare equipment for the physically disabled. 1,560 jobs for the physically disabled (Hindustan Times 2005) have been made available in India according to Karmayog, a leading NGO in India. All these initiative by the government and NGOs for the physically disabled require healthcare equipment which has to be imported. The objective of PharmQuip is to target these countries where development has hit and there is less concentration of healthcare products. Innovative healthcare products are not available in these countries easily. Once the company steps in these countries, it will increase its sales exponentially. Critical Success Factors One of the critical success factors in the industry in the availability of information about the equipment to the customers. At the point of sale, internet and in advertisements, the customer needs total equipment information. Users should be able to track their orders and get the status of equipment (Awarepoint, 2008). The availability of manuals for the guidance, care and operation (Awarepoint, 2008) of the equipment is another critical success factor. Without the availability of manuals, the equipment is not useful. The sellers and retailers who sell the products to customers need to be trained to provide the benefits of the equipment and answer any possible queries to the prospective buyers. The ease of use of the equipment and non-complex nature of equipment is another critical factor for the success of the company in the industry. Free maintenance (Awarepoint, 2008) and warranties healthcare equipment are two factors which are very important for the success of a company in the industry. Most of these healthcare equipments are pretty expensive, therefore, it the company is not able to provide warranty and maintenance contract for the equipment to the consumers, the company is not likely to survive. Offering alternative payment facilities to the customers for credit card payment is another factor which leads to success of a company. The use of credit card is not very high in the developing countries, therefore, accepting cash and other forms of payment such as checks will lead to higher sales and revenue. Costs and Benefits (ROI) The benefits of the international expansion include exposure to a larger market higher revenues reduced costs from economies of scale global brand; a better brand image more return on invested capital variable costs and fixed costs will decrease smaller competitors will be driven out of the industry the market share of the local companies can easily be taken over greater reach of business higher sales and lower case of credit cards frauds in the developing countries The costs of entering the global arena include catering to the needs of a diversified class of customers expanding the work force and expenditure risk of failure will be higher in the international market fierce steps by the competitive rivalry risk of entering into lawsuits and dealing with patent issues and copyrights pressure of performing better than before The company can expect the ROI to rise after it enters the global market place for healthcare equipment. The benefits for the company are higher and the costs are lower, therefore the business will witness rise in ROI. Risks The single greatest risk that the company faces is from the changes in technologies and introduction of lower cost healthcare equipment. This can tarnish the reputation of the company and reduce the demand of its products heavily. Research and development by competitors in state-of-the-art technologies (PNC, 2009) can cause huge drop in the demand of products distributed by PharmQuip. New regulatory requirements can be introduced in the countries (PNC, 2009) the company will be operating which can require changes in the way the company operates. New regulatory requirements can also cause the company to pay unbearable taxes or duties. This can result in losses for the company and the company will have to exit from that country. Other risks are changes in the market dynamics, introduction of alternatives to healthcare equipments and breakthroughs of new biotechnologies which can cure the physical disabilities of the physically challenged people. Implementation Plan Project Planning and Change Management The project will be initiated with the meeting of the executive board and top level management of PharmQuip. From this stage, the project inception phase will start and will include the setting up of the major objectives for the project, selecting the regions/countries where the company will expand and setting aside a budget for the whole project. This will also consist of identification of the major risks and the ways to mitigate them. In the planning or development phase, the resources required will be identified, training programs will be developed, expatriates from the current employees will be selected, the legal documentation will be done and analysis of the expansion will be done. The planning phase will also include the identification of the tasks required in the project, their durations and their inter-dependencies. The possible target market will be analyzed and the possible customers will be identified. The advertising campaign and promotional strategy will be developed. In the execution phase, the planned set of activities will be executed. The operations will be initiated in the countries planned. The expatriates will be sent to setup the businesses in the foreign market. The healthcare retailers, hospitals and chemists will be contacted at the initial stages of this phase and then they will be supplied the healthcare equipment. This stage will also include partnering with small and medium firms (eHow, 2009) in the foreign market. Change will be carried out in a structured way, taking into account the suggestions and consulting the people (Businessballs.com, 2009) who are likely to get affected by the global expansion. The employees who will be sent abroad will be asked first if they want to go to another country for some time and work there or not. All the new developments will be communicated to the workers and employees on a daily basis. Aims will be set which are easy to achieve for the employees. Resource Allocation A new line of top management will be needed for the countries where PharmQuip is deciding to expand. Country manager for the operations, marketing manager, finance manager and warehouse supervisor (at each warehouse location) are required for each country (Bower and Gilbert, 2005). In the beginning, these human resources will be sent from the home country and these will be professionals who are already working with PharmQuip and willing to work in other country (Bower and Gilbert, 2005). These expatriates will be paid a higher salary when they will be working as expatriates. All other resources will be employed from the country where the business will be expanding. The IT department will be located in the headquarters of PharmQuip in Brisbane. It will be outsourced and the IT employees will be trained for a certain period of time to achieve a required skill set to run the e-commerce website. Only a few IT employees will be present in each location of different countries. These IT employees will be hired locally and then trained. ASSESSING E-COMMERCE INITIATIVES Balanced Scorecard Financial Dimension: 1. Reduce the current debt, account receivable in particular, by reducing the time to collect the revenues from sales made – this will ensure that the bad debts are reduced to minimal levels. The cash collected will be reinvested in the business to expand in the global market. The measure for this dimension is Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) which is the average number of days that the company takes to collect payment after a sale (Investopedia, 2009). 2. Satisfying the shareholders – the shareholders will be satisfied when they get a good dividend rate at the yearend, that is ROI will be high, or the share price increases. The measure for this dimension will be 10% increase in the share price by the year end. Customer: 1. Delighting the customer by providing an excellent customer care – the customers are the key to success and profits for the company. These customers will be kept happy by reducing the complaints and responding to the complaints as soon as possible. A metric to measure customer care will be the rate of positive feedbacks. 2. Creating loyalties among the existing and new customers – this would be a great boost in the sales of PharmQuip as the loyal consumers are most likely to make sales again (BizHelp24, 2005). Business Processes: 1. Lower the inventory holding cost by 20% – by reducing the inventory holding time in the warehouse, the inventory holding cost can be reduced. The company will be able to make more operating profits by reducing the inventory holding cost. The metric that will be used to measure this is the average inventory holding time. 2. Reduce back orders with the objective to eliminate them at all – by reducing managing the inventory correctly and ordering the items to avoid shortfall, the back log can be eliminated. Learning and Growth 1. To train the IT department personnel – this would allow the IT department to learn the skill set required to operate an e-commerce website in a global arena. The company will be able to reduce its costs as the outsourcing costs will be eliminated. The metric will be the number of training sessions attended by each IT personnel. 2. To expand the operations to 40 cities of the world – by expanding the operations in the global market place, the company will gain more market share and will be able to make more revenues. The metric that will be used is the number of cities in which the companies is currently selling more than 20 units per month. Web Analytics Web traffic reports will be used to analyze the website and the business generated through the website. Web server log file analysis will be used to count the number of hits on the website and the number of unique visitors. The types of pages most viewed will also be available through which the company can deduce which product is more popular. Rush hours can also be viewed, the days when the number of hits is the most. The geographic location of the visitors can also be deduced through their IP address. Therefore the performance of the website can be measured and analyzed using the web analytics. RECOMMENDATIONS Website redevelopment, Business process redesign and System Integration The website will be needed to be redeveloped and redesigned from scratch. Currently it just provides an online catalog and contact information about the company. The site will be redesigned to make it capable of taking orders. The customers will be able to order the items online from the website and they can not only view the pictures of the products but also full specification and information about the products. An additional functionality will be added to the website through which the customers will be able to login. This will make the company able to collect individual customers’ data for future analysis and use. Before purchasing or making orders online, the customers will have to register themselves or login with their username and password. The users will also be able to check the availability of the items in the inventory and find out the nearest warehouse to their location. The look and feel of the website should also be changed and the current static look of the site will have to be changed. Business Processes will be redesigned to meet the new global arena and the international standards. The business process will be aligned to the strategic goals of the business. The inventory levels will be maintained and managed proficiently. This will ensure no back orders or lost sales. The customers will be provided services to the best of the levels to win their hearts and loyalty. Deliveries will be made to homes and hospitals free of cost. The system should be integrated with the customer relationship management system, the supply chain management system and knowledge management system. This will enable the company to save costs and get better results. All the data should be made available in a single data warehouse for better analysis. The interface for retrieving this data will also be the same, i.e. the company website. Outsourcing The IT department will not be able to handle the e-commerce website as it does not have a lot of knowledge and the skill set. Therefore the IT department will be outsourced for a particular period of time in which the existing IT personnel will be trained to acquire the skill set and knowledge required to operate the e-commerce website on an international level. The outsourcing will take place once the e-commerce business is operational and the existing IT staff is sent for training. The logistics department will also be outsourced in the countries PharmQuip is stepping into. This is because the logistics operation if managed by the company itself will require a lot of capital expenditure and time. The company will have to purchase vans and trucks, hire drivers and the management staff to look over the logistics. But on the other hand, it the company outsources logistics, it will be able to concentrate more on its core activities. Staffing Staffing will be required once the company decides to expand globally and it has purchased/rented offices in the new countries of operations. The best option for the company will be to set up expatriate teams to initiate the businesses in the new countries and do hiring there for the middle management and the staff lower in the organizational hierarchy. The top management in the new countries of operations should be the existing employees of PharmQuip. This is because they know the business well and they can transfer the business culture and values to the new countries’ operations. A country manager, marketing director, operations manager and a warehouse supervisor (for each warehouse location) should be trained and sent from the headquarters to the new counties in order to set up and run the business for at least an year. The technical staff, accountants, warehouse staff and the marketing personnel should be hired domestically from the country which the company is operating in. This is because the locals have a better idea about the environment and the market. One more reason for hiring the locals is that they can be hired at a very low price in comparison to the salaries and insurance policies of the employees in Australia. Hardware, Software, Advertising and Security Hardware that needs to be purchased is servers, Wi-Fi routers, computers and laptops. The servers will be placed at different locations and each country will have its own set of servers. But the data will be copied to the head quarter’s servers where the central repository of data is. Software requirements will be mostly fulfilled by the outsourced IT department but the additional software required will be Windows Vista Business 32-bit, McAfee Security software, Apache Web Server and SQL server. Software and hardware will be required once the expatriates reach the countries and are ready to set up PhrmQuip offices. The company will have to contract with the local advertising companies for promotional campaigns and this will take place once the office has been setup, staffing completed and the products are ready to be sold to the businesses. For the security, the company will have to install RFIDs system. This will ensure that inventory is not stolen and help in inventory management. Cameras will also be installed for surveillance of the employees and other security reasons. Support Services The support services such as warranty claims and maintenance will be provided to the final customers. The support services for the business include internet service providers. We will need a dedicated link of 20 mbps so that the website remains uplink most of the times. Market research will need to be done and for that a company will have to be contacted which I perform primary research for PharmQuip. All these services will need to be purchased before starting the business in other countries. International Legal and Ethical Issues The company will have to deal with certain legal issues such as patents, copyrights, credit card frauds and PayPal fraud. The company can also be caught in the situations of lawsuits when the final consumers or the customers file a lawsuit against PharmQuip. The company will require dealing with multiple legal issues with each country having separate policies and rules. In some countries, the storing and reusing the customer data is not considered unethical whereas in some developing countries such as India, the recording of customer data is strongly opposed by the public although no laws are present to disallow the recording of customer data. BIBLIOGRAPHY Alcon. Mission and Core Competencies. 2009. www.alcon.com (accessed December 25, 2009). Awarepoint. Reminder - Awarepoint Presents Five Critical Success Factors for RTLS in Healthcare at AAMI Conference. May 5, 2008. http://dmnnewswire.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=407943 (accessed December 25, 2009). AWStats. Waht is AWStats. 2006. awstats.sourceforge.net (accessed December 26, 2009). BizHelp24. How & Why to Keep Customers Loyal. October 19, 2005. www.bizhelp24.com (accessed December 26, 2009). Bower, J, and C Gilbert. From resource allocation to strategy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Business Monitor International Ltd. "United Arab Emirates Pharmaceuticals And Healthcare Industry SWOT." United Arab Emirates Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare Report Q4 2009, September 2009: 8. Businessballs.com. change management. 2009. http://www.businessballs.com/changemanagement.htm (accessed December 25, 2009). Chatrand, D. "Healthcare meets e-commerce: buying healthcare equipment and supplies online promises to save money and time." Nursing Homes, 1999. Datamonitor. Health Care Equipment & Supplies in Asia-Pacific. Market Report, Ochre Media, 2006. Datamonitor. Health Care Equipment & Supplies: Global Industry Guide. Analysis Report, FierceMarkets, 2008. Ehmke, C. Et al. "Industry Analysis: The Five Forces." Puedue Extention. Purdue University, 2009. eHow. How to Plan for the Global Expansion of a Small Business. 2009. www.ehow.com (accessed December 25, 2009). Freedom Healthcare. About US: Freedom Healthcare. 2009. www.freedonhc.com.au (accessed December 25, 2009). Hindustan Times. "1560 Jobs available for physically challenged." Hindustan Times, October 20, 2005: 5. Investopedia. Dictionary: Investopedia. 2009. www.investopedia.com (accessed December 26, 2009). Kim, S, A Asllani, and E Lawrence. "THE ROLE OF INTERNET-BASED TRANSACTIONS IN EXTERNAL COLLABORATION BETWEEN HEALTHCARE TRADING PARTNERS." Journal of Strategic E-commerce, 2006: 19-35. Life Science Weekly. "Research and Markets; The US Home Healthcare Equipment & Services Market - Increasing Hospitalization Costs Has Increased Demand for Low-Cost Alternatives." Life Science Weekly, December 29, 2009: 1743. Medical Devices and Surgical Technology Week. "RF Surgical Systems, Inc.; RF Care Systems Has Maintained Exclusive Distribution Rights to Market the RF Surgical Detection System in Puerto Rico." Medical Devices and Surgical Technology Week, June 14, 2009: 578. PNC. Healthcare Finance. 2009. www.pnc.com (accessed December 25, 2009). PR Newswire. "E-Commerce Leader, medpool.com Names June Fallon Vice President of Trade Operations." PR Newswire, February 1, 2000: 1. Annotated Bibliography Businessballs.com. change management. 2009. http://www.businessballs.com/changemanagement.htm (accessed December 25, 2009). The website Businessballs.com is a website that gives tips and techniques for change management for businesses. First, the web page describes the modern principles that underpin successful change and then it discusses the change and how should it be handled. The intended audiences are the businesses which are considering expanding their business or the international businesses which are deciding to robust their organizations through a great change in the culture and technological implementations. The points mentioned in the website are to the point and exactly what a business is looking for to get quick guidance and free advice. Incorporating change in the organization is one of the most important activities when going global. PharmQuip’s project of going global has been assesses in this assignment therefore I got a great help from this source. Life Science Weekly. "Research and Markets; The US Home Healthcare Equipment & Services Market - Increasing Hospitalization Costs Has Increased Demand for Low-Cost Alternatives." Life Science Weekly, December 29, 2009: 1743. This article has been taken from the publication named Life Science Weekly from the latest issue. This article presents an analysis of the healthcare equipment and service market. The article is more focused on the USA only, but it was a great help and contributed a lot to the article. The intended audience are the companies operating in the industry such as PharmQuip and the general public also. The article was a concise one but it included every aspect of the healthcare equipment and service market which gave a good idea of the market and industry outlook. The article helped me in writing the industry analysis part and deducing the future trends of the healthcare equipment industry. PR Newswire. "E-Commerce Leader, medpool.com Names June Fallon Vice President of Trade Operations." PR Newswire, February 1, 2000: 1. This news article is taken from a newspaper PR Newswire which is 10 year old. This is about the project management of a trade operation vice president of a healthcare equipment company name medpool.com. The article describes some of the project management initiatives taken by the vice president and what are the best practices in the industry. The article also gives brief description of the company which was helpful in generating ideas about PharmQuip’s operations and management. Kim, S, A Asllani, and E Lawrence. "THE ROLE OF INTERNET-BASED TRANSACTIONS IN EXTERNAL COLLABORATION BETWEEN HEALTHCARE TRADING PARTNERS." Journal of Strategic E-commerce, 2006: 19-35. The article is written by three students and was published in the journal of Strategic E-commerce in 2006. This article is about the trading partners (B2B) and the conditions that are responsible for a successful performance of supply chain. This article was helpful in identifying the prospective end users of the healthcare equipment as this article investigates whether the internet technology is able to improve collaboration levels between trading firms or not. The article helped in assignment as I was able to use ideas such as the significant increase in information sharing and collaborative forecasting are the factors which contribute to success in the healthcare equipment industry using e-commerce. Read More