Opportunity: HeartBeat LLC
Who has the need:
Hospital systems with ER waiting rooms have the need to manage their flow of patients efficiently and be able to staff the shifts with the correct number of hospital workers in order to meet the demand of the day. Patients entering into the ER also have the need to know their estimated wait time. They also need to track their visit in the hospital and have all of their medical information housed in one location.
What is the nature of this need:
The need is constant at the majority of services within the desired market (hospital systems). All hospitals with ER waiting rooms have this need. The need is recurring throughout the calendar year, it is not confined to a particular season. However, the need is most present during peak times in the service. These times are between 10p and 3a, mostly on weekends. The need may also be more apparent in holiday seasons such as the month of December. This is because there is an influx of emergency categorized patients as well as a likelihood of medical staff being absent or having to take days off unexpectedly.
· What are the forces or changes in the environment creating this opportunity?
The forces at play in this environment include the unpredictable nature of patients coming into the ER in hospitals. There are also unpredictable forces including the amount of people available for certain shifts during peak times as well as when those peak times will be. Additionally, medical staff is busy in serving patients already admitted that they do not recognize the need to inform the waiting patients of their wait-time, nor do they have another way to notify them efficiently through other medical staff.
· How is this market defined geographically and demographically?
This market is not confined to particular geographic location, since all locations have hospitals that have difficulty managing their operations flow efficiently. Demographically, this market includes people of all ages and ethnicities, but would lean towards a younger generation that is more apt to use technology to solve their problems. It is also a class of people that are roughly middle and upper class, not too much would be included from lower class. This is because the service is an application and requires a smart phone. Although the accessibility of smart phones is growing. The market also includes an educated demographic since those who will be using the product in hospital systems are all educated with medical or business degrees.
· How are customers currently satisfying this need? And how loyal are they to whatever they use now?
Customers on the hospital admin end are making flow decisions based on their own calculations, without a computer or algorithm. They are also track medical records via their current database software from a third party, but are working without generated guidance from a computer on these decisions. On the patient end, patients are solving their need by asking the front desk assistant how long their wait is and making sure they are prepared to wait a while before they go to the ER. Neither groups are very loyal, although the hospital leadership customer segment is more loyal to their current system because they are used to it.
· How big is this opportunity?
This opportunity is somewhat big. It fulfills a need that people definitely have and one that affects their lives directly. But it has been made in the past and has a higher potential to be duplicated (at least for the patient waiting time service).
· How long will the “window of opportunity” be open?
The window of opportunity will stay open for a while most likely. This is because it is hard to create the service that provides a computer based solution to the management of staff and patients in a hospital. One that does it in real time. Also the opportunity will always exist with the unpredictability of the industries customers.
Innovation:
What it is:
The product is an application on your phone that allows healthcare professionals to track the flow of patients in their hospitals and manage the staffing for hospital shifts and for patients to receive an estimate on the wait time for being seen when coming to the ER.
What it does: It also provides real time data for how efficient the current staffing is and what the best decisions are to make in terms of room assignments and personnel adjustments - based on the current patient data inputted into the system upon them checking in. The app provides metrics to the healthcare staff for them to see where the health of their overall operation is at - such as statistics or ratings on room management, wait time, check ins, etc. The app also provides patients with an estimated wait time that updates in real time on their phone, when they check into that specific ER room.
How it works: The app uses systems engineering software to measure the efficiency of an operation based on standards inputted. These standards are based on the design and operation of each hospital specifically. Hospital management will be asked to input information about their hospital (its DNA) and the app will set ratings and metrics to be used for measure the productivity and efficiency of the hospital by division. It then takes this information and reports estimated wait times for customers based on the current flow of patients and the current capacity, using the rate of efficiency it calculates based on the inputted info.
What exactly am I selling and for how much?
I am selling an application subscription. It will be for $1000 a month.
Venture Concept:
- How my innovation will solve or address the opportunity identified:
- Why customers will buy my innovation:
The implementation of this product will separate it from competitors. It contains analytics that will be able to provide to a hospital information that will be easy for hospital management to interpret and understand. It will interpret and present this to them without them having to struggle to understand it.
· What are the reasons to think customers would switch to this new product? How hard will it be to get them to switch?
Customers will switch because it saves them time and money in the long run. They will have to pay more up front, but considering how much they profit from medical services, it is worth it to them if they can serve more patients while also improving patient experience.
There is currently nothing on the patient side that will give them the service that this product gives them. This improves the patient's experience by engaging them.
· Who are the competitors? What are their possible weaknesses or vulnerabilities?
Competitors are the hospital systems themselves who have software teams making their own systems capable of providing this solution. As well as third party companies. Their weaknesses are that they do not specialize in this product. Hospitals are willing to out source if it means they will get a better product at a cheaper cost. If their engineers in house do not have the capacity to create as effective of a product.
Hospitals can hire consultants but they are limited in that they do not own or produce a product similar to the one I am marketing.
· What role does packaging, my price points, distribution, customer support, the customer experience or the business location play (if any) in defining this business concept?
It plays a big role. It is a necessary component of keeping the hospital relationships over many years in order to continue providing them (the client) the service. It keeps the hospital systems from going to another third party. The presentation and the intuitive user experience is what will build their loyalty.
Business location does not play a role, because I do not have a storefront. Customer support is a huge component because I am marketing an electronic product. The customer experience is also vital considering the higher possibility that the client can switch to a competitor. So our customer service must be top-notch.
This venture will generate profit through licensing and subscriptions, not through ownership of the software.
· How do I organize a “business” to support the ongoing production of this new product, service, or process? How many employees? What roles are in the venture?
The business will have a few number of employees because there aren't as many positions needed. There will need to be a few business operations employees, a few software engineers, and a limited amount of representatives who go out and sell the product to local hospitals. They will have to consult with the engineers consistently or need to have engineering backgrounds to interpret the product design.
I would also need an advisory board that consists of specialized consultants for giving feedback on the product. There would need to be a healthcare consultant, a marketing consultant, and a finance consultant, amidst maybe a few others.
2) Provide a summary of the feedback you received from your previous venture concept description. You certainly want to include the student feedback, but you may also include the feedback you received from others during the "What's Next" exercise. You want to summarize all of the feedback, but be sure to place an emphasis on what people recommended you change about your idea. (In other words, don't just describe the positive feedback.)
Based on the What's Next general feedback, here are the changes I want to make about the venture concept:
- Develop an advisory board to develop the product idea and get it in the market (with emphasis on healthcare)
- Produce a pro forma statement giving a financial vision and strategy (part of a business plan), with a potential emphasis on marketing
- Secure adequate funding for the concept
- They also recommended I detail the price points and find out what role customer service and support will play in bringing this venture to market
3) Describe how you changed your venture concept, based on what you learned from the feedback.
- More specific detail when it comes to why customers will buy this innovation based on what their current solution is
- Included more detail about how my product will beat competitors and why the customer base will switch the this product solution.
- I implemented a step in my plans to develop an advisory board to guide the development of this product before I present it to investors.
- Their feedback also showed me that I need to develop a new name to identify this venture
- I further detailed the role of the advisory board in developing the venture concept
4) Include a picture (for illustration!)
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