Marketing Plan IT Incubation

7/31/2019 Marketing Plan IT Incubation

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Chennai Consulting Group

MARKETING PLAN

FOR


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Table of Contents

Executive Summary ............................................................. 3

Business Description ......................................................... 5

Market Analysis .............................................................. 8Operations & Marketing Strategy .................................. 14

Financials .......................................................................... 18

Risk Factors and Contingency Plans ......................... 25


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Marketing Plan for an IT INITIATIVE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This Marketing Plan is a result of our efforts to identify an activity that will

leverage the capability that the Company has generated in the past and tomatch it with the opportunities that the business environment wouldpresent in the near future. We strongly believe that we nee

d to startup abusiness activity, which will provide gainful employment to our Companysgraduates, as well as result in additional revenues to the Company. Thepresent seems to be the most opportune moment and the IT sector offersthe most feasible business proposition for such an activity, given therevival wave that is starting to happen in the IT sector.

The IT Company will generate large professional and well payingemployment possibilities for the graduates of our country. The followingrevenue and employment projections are arrived at:

ACTIVITY Yr I Yr II Yr III Yr IV Yr V

REVENUE (Rs in Lacs) 1105 2054 2477 3576 4546


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activity is also large but untapped, as there are few players specializing inthis niche market.

Marketing will be the mainstay for succeeding with this businessproposition. Our Marketing strategy hinges on our value proposition ofproviding IT solutions to our clients at a cost that will deliver value that willfar exceed the clients investments. We will establish profitable businessalliances with clients, vendors and individual users to educate, promoteand sell our product offers. One of our major selling tactics will be the useof product champions and evangelists from among the user groups. Ourmarketing plan involves the usage of promotional methods specially suitedto market IT products and services.

We will enter the domestic market through Software Development, and later

shift gear towards Software Exports, to provide a differentiated valueproposition to the client. The IT Enabled Services division will start withproviding basic financial services and then graduate to high-end BPOactivities, thus serving to generate large employment potential for theCompanys graduating Finance professionals. The IT Marketing Researchactivity will start as a field research activity and slowly move up the valuechain to become a full-fledged IT marketing consulting firm.

The financials for the b siness proposal ha e been orked o t for the base


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1. BUSINESS DESCRIPTION

The proposed company will operate in the IT area and Software Development & SystemsIntegration will be its main area of activity. Simultaneously starting from the first year, we willincubate the Software Exports Business, which will be the mainstay activity from the fourth yearonwards. In addition to the flagship activity of Software Development and Maintenance, the ITEnabled Services and IT Marketing Research activities will be the two revenue and employmentgenerating activities, where the IT Company will be entering.

1.1 THE IDEAS

A. Software Development and Systems Integration:

The Software Development division of the IT Company will start with the development of SoftwareSolutions for a Vertical Business Sector, and will develop the activities that in turn will developinto Software Exports. Over time, expertise in two types of projects will be developed - in System

Integration, which will include Applications Development, both offshore and onsite, and SystemsConversions from the existing Legacy Systems to Web-enabled systems. The other activity isSoftware Maintenance that has become a specialized activity and now becoming a candidate foroffshore setups, yielding high margins and large employability. As the Company will becomespecialized in IT area, this activity can draw specially trained students for meeting its manpowerrequirements.

B. IT Enabled Services:

IT Enabled Services is a component of the Business Process Outsourcing Industry whichtit t t t f t k b th t th l d f th t f th I f ti


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1.2 DIVISIONS & PRODUCTS ENVISAGED

A. Software Development & Systems Integration:

We plan to concentrate our Software Development Activities in the Vertical Business Sector ofthe HealthCare & Pharmaceuticals Market, primarily because of the availability of an expertise inthis sector and the untapped Market Potential in this area. Recent Nasscom-McKinseys findings

suggest that the only vertical sector that promises a potential for growth in the IT Sector as ondate is the HealthCare & Pharma Sector.

Our proposed product idea for the Software Development Division is called the HealthExchange, which is essentially a knowledge base of Health care & Pharmaceutical Industries, asystem which enables players of Health care and Pharmaceutical Industries to share orcomplement their knowledge among themselves for better health care.

The Health Exchange is essentially an integration of all the players in both thepharmaceutical and healthcare industries. This integration provides shared knowledge acrossthese two industries thereby leading to a symbiotic relationship.

The exchange would connect the Healthcare players whereby treatments are made moreefficient and faster cure is available.

Through the Application Service Provider (ASP) model, branded e-health solutions can bedeployed with minimal investment of capital or resources, since all Health Exchange solutionswill be hosted in the Hub our technology solution center.

The Health Exchange Solution will consist of the following applications:

For Healthcare Services: The e Health E change is a comprehensi e soft are application that


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Field Force Services/ Medical community/ Training/ Symposia System Doctors / Chemists calls management system.


IT Enabled Services are ever increasing in their variety and traditional activities of those, whichhave found their presence in India, are as follows:

Data Entry Services

Transcription Medical, Legal,Business and Seminar

GIS CADD Call Centers and CRM activities Pre Press and Digitization Human Resource Services

Health Sector Activities like billing,

insurance claims, etc. Captioning and Entertainment

Sector Activities Accounting and Financial Services Training and Distance Education

Activities

Though there are many kinds of activities in ITES, this report selects Accounting and Financial

Services, as a Strategic Business Unit. The Activities in this segment are four; InvestmentAnalysis, Reconciliation of Accounts, Tax and Related Services, Corporate and ManagementReports. The marketing strategy is to procure orders from the large, global companies, whichhave outsourced these activities. Dow Jones, Reuters, Bloomberg, Emerging Money,International Market Manager (IDD) and Business Decisions (Australia) are few of the leadingcompanies around the globe seeking services of Facilities in India. The Company with itsacademic accreditation and referrals in Finance and Accounting is probably very accomplished topursue this business.

The revenue projection is made on very plausible assumptions and the growth is commensurateith th j ti d b NASSCOM th l di hi thi b i t


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Commerce can be leveraged to grow their business, as well as reduce costs and improvecustomer satisfaction.

The results of a sampling study done with IT developers, providers and users, as well as asecondary search show that the following product offers are possible.

1. Research Reports on I.T. TechnologiesMarket Size

2. Research Reports on I.T. effectiveness3. Research Reports on Sector wise I.T.Spending.

4. Research Reports on State I.T. Policies5. I.T MR for Specific Business Groups6. Evaluation of Vertical segments from

I.T. Spending Perspectives7. IT industry analysis8. IT competitive analysis9. Market data and Insight10. Product wise Research Reports11. Worldwide IT market Forecasting

12. Technology trends Forecasting13. IT product Research

14. Web Surveys15. Web Audience Measurement &Research

16. Online research17. Indian demographic research18. Consumer Research19. IT industry analysis20. I.T. Company reports21. Technology Trend Reports22. Customer Satisfaction Research23. Market Sizing Research24. Price Sensitivity Measurement

1.3 REVENUE & EMPLOYMENT GENERATION:

The Company can be a good employer of its IT students who have a flair for SoftwareDevelopment. There are many current employees in the Company who can also be utilized forthe projects. The ITES sector offers opportunity for employment to a large number of our own

t d t f th C i th f f t l t d i t t hi Th


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REVENUE GENERATIONACTIVITIES Yr I Yr II Yr III Yr IV Yr V

Software Development &Systems Integration

875 1714 1907 2576 3296

IT Enabled Services 115 200 400 800 1000IT Marketing Research 115 140 170 200 250Total 1105 2054 2477 3576 4546

2. MARKET ANALYSISA. Software Development & Systems Integration:Market

The Total market for the Health Exchange System comprises the Pharmaceutical Companies andthe Healthcare Services markets i.e. the customers that the Pharma companies serve. TheHealth Exchange Product in India is in its early stages of development and hence there is noreliable source of ascertaining the Total Market Size for the product. Being pioneers in the field ofHealth Exchange Systems Development, we were convinced of the market existing for theproduct by way of primary research and the various depth interviews we had held with the opinion

leaders and thought leaders in the Pharmaceuticals industry as well as the Healthcare Services.SegmentsThe market for the Health Exchange system can be segmented based on the type of users andthe type of benefits derived. Two major buyer segments have been identified

The Pharmaceutical companies segment and Health care services segment.The Pharmaceutical companies segment is one of the major knowledge based industries, whichwill derive the maximum value by use of the Health Exchange product. The system will result inbenefits like huge cost reductions and market share increase through better PrescriptionA l i P d t P tf li M t d Fi ld F M t Th th k t


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According to research published by CMIE, the Indian Pharmaceutical Companies account for atotal turnover of Rs 27,750 crores for year ___. Published sources have put the proportion of ITspend to the sales turnover in Pharma companies to be in the area of 1.5 - 2 % for the year __.This translates to a whopping Rs 555 crores of IT expenditure by the Pharma companies. Basedon BCG estimates of share of the e-solutions in the total Indian IT spend to be 10% during 2002,we have arrived at a market size of Rs 55.5 crores for the E-solutions Product Market. The E-solutions Consulting and Implementation & Training Market will be estimated to be 80% of thetotal value of the Product offered, and hence this Market will total up to Rs 45.5 crores. Adding

the E-solutions Product and the E-solutions Consulting and Implementation & Training Market,the Total Market Size for the Health Exchange System is derived to be Rs 100 crores.


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Revenue Projections

Customer Target Software Consulting Implementation Maintenance Total

Group Sales Training & Enhancement

Rs in lacs Rs in lacs Rs in lacs Rs in lacs Rs in lacs

YEAR I PHARMA COMPANIES 10.00 15.00 10.00 5.00 nil 300.00

Product Management

Doctors

Chemists

Field Force Sales

HOSPITALS 10.00 10.00 5.00 3.00 nil 180.00

DOCTORS 1000.00 0.05 0.03 nil 80.00

CHEMISTS 500.00 0.05 0.03 nil 40.00

INSTITUTIONS & 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 nil 75.00

DISPENSARIES Total 675.00

YEAR II PHARMA COMPANIES 20.00 15.00 10.00 5.00 90.00 690.00

Product Management

Doctors

Chemists

Field Force Sales

HOSPITALS 15.00 10.00 5.00 3.00 45.00 315.00

DOCTORS 1000.00 0.04 0.02 0.03 12.00 102.00

CHEMISTS 750.00 0.04 0.02 0.02 9.00 65.25

INSTITUTIONS & 10.00 4.00 4.00 5.00 12.00 142.00


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Market Size

The market for IT Enabled Services has been projected to grow to about US $ 25 billion by theyear __. The kinds of services included in this projection are ever growing and the estimates arerevised upwards with each new opportunity arising. The annual growth rate expected is about 30

percent and this is projected as a very modest rate. The composition of the market in terms ofvalue and employment is given in the table below:

Many institutions have done the market size projection for IT Enabled Services. The Electronicsand Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) its report on IT Enabled Servicesforecasts that the growth will be phenomenal from about US $ 264 millions in ___ to about US $4072 to US alone in ___. The business segments identified are as follows:

IT Enabled Services Projections for year___

Business Segments Revenuein Y1In US $Million

RevenueIn Y5 000US $Million

1.Customer Interaction Centers 60 22502. Medical Transcription 30 8003. Financial and Accounting Services 50 3754. Pre Press pre-media 45 2005. Distance Learning 50

6 GIS 60 150


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The Countries which offer ITES Support globally are Ireland, Netherlands, Australia, UnitedKingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines, Mexico and China. The following table bestexplains the competitive advantage that India has over the other ITES support facilities from othercountries:

Country WorkForce

MarketAccess

Development oflocal

market

Infrastructure

WorkCulture

Costbase

Confidentiality

Qualityconsciousness

Singapore 1 3 2 3 3 1 3 3

Ireland 2 2 2 3 3 2 3 3Philippines 2 2 1 1 1 3 2 2India 3 3 2 2 1 3 1 1

1=Below Average, 2= Average, 3= Good. Adapted from Business Magazine, some additionsmade by extrapolation

Revenue Projections

Yr1 Yr2 Yr 3 Yr 4 Yr 51. Reconciliation of Accounts and Analysis 30 60 90 200 2502. Tax Services 25 40 90 240 300

3. Investment Analysis Reports 25 40 80 140 1804. Corporate Dossiers 20 40 80 120 140

5. Management Financial Reports 15 20 60 100 130

TOTAL 115 200 400 800 1000


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Demand

An initial dipstick survey conducted in India revealed a strong orientation in the IT companiestowards market research activities. The study showed that there is a huge potential for marketresearch activities in IT companies. The sampling study probed into the research savviness of thecompanies and their orientation towards conducting external or internal research. Marketresearch is generally done for identifying the Needs of the customers, Product requirements,

emerging markets etc. Their business development managers help them to get the requiredinformation about the customers needs and the current trends in the market. Companies alsobuy reports from MR agencies such as IDC, NASSCOM etc.

Competition

Almost all the top MNC Market Research Companies have their presence in India either throughtheir branch, subsidiary or a joint venture partnership. Most of the Indian MR companies too, haveat least a small division devoted to I.T. Marketing Research.

Some of the existing players in the IT MR market are:

IDC (India) Gartner India Frost & Sullivan I.T. group IMRB- E-technology Group, Bangalore. Group Pacific Technology India. Delhi. Research Pacific India, Delhi. Scope Marketing & Information Solutions, India.

I I f t h S i D lhi


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3. OPERATIONS

3.1 TECHNOLOGY

Technical platform for Development and Deployment of Health Exchange System

Health Exchange System is a very complex system and among the key factors that would go intomaking the project successful is the infrastructure that includes hardware/software used for thedevelopment and deployment. Any platform that is selected must provide for Global Support forthe product: that would ensure greater acceptability by the customer. This would also result inwidest Access to skilled support/technical/development resources for using the technology.The Selected Platform must be stable and provide consistent performance. As the scope of theapplication expands and new features are added to the applications the software must performconsistently without any errors thereby enabling them to combine existing informationservices with new business functions. The solution must be deployable across host ofhardware platforms thereby providing greater choice to the users and leverage existinginfrastructure investments.

The selected solution must provide for Cross Platform Integration (i.e. enable transfer ofinformation between the various players) resulting in greater collaborative efforts in the healthsector. The solution must have readily available and easy to use tools for development and easyto deploy. This would enable the application to be delivered very quickly to the market. Inaddition the solution must extend support to emerging technologies such as XML standards forinsulating the application from non-compatibility to new technologies. The solution must have lowTCO both for developers and the users of the software.

The end result would be delivery of the solution that is hosted across Unified platform thatsimplifies multi tier High Scalar application and enables seamless integration of information

b t i l d bl b i t t t d l i ti i f t t


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3.2 MARKETING STRATEGY


Value Proposition: Our Marketing plank will be based on our value proposition of developingSuperior IT solutions for our Healthcare and Pharma clients, at a cost that will deliver value that

will far exceed the client costs involved. We will harp on our commitment to provide ourcustomers with a distinct competitive advantage, in terms of lower promotional costs, improvedmarketing efficiency and enhanced profitability.

Alliance Partners: The major strategy we will adopt to market the Health Exchange will be thatof Alliance formations with users Pharma Companies, Hospitals and ISPs. These alliancepartners would help in defining market needs, testing the software used for/during development,act as demo sites for the Health Exchange and also act as product champions who will acceleratemarket penetration.

Foot in the Door: We will identify and maintain presence in leading organizations establishingProject Pilots through a foot in the door policy.

Product Evangelists: We will appoint Doctors as our Product evangelists who will spread theword in the medical community, and the scheme will be backed by strong incentives.

Symposia: We will get the various stakeholders in the Healthcare & Pharma markets together fordiscussions and product experience, through Symposia and seminars.

Packaging Strategy: We will market an integrated system to the Pharma segment while a


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Direct Solicitation for orders

The constant question asked by project evaluators is the consistency of markets or marketingarrangements. The permanency or validation of a market is necessary. In such an attempt thefacility being set up as a start up project, should endeavor to make its own marketing solicitationand procure its direct orders from the client. This gives a strong relationship being developed and

a continuity of orders if the deliverables by the facility meet the requirements of the client.

Presence in Europe or USA

The major market for the ITES outsourcing is the US and UK. Germany and Japan are a few newentrants. These countries work normally in their own foreign languages, which makes it for Indianworkmen to be familiar. There are some companies in India, working for the German Engineeringcompanies, but the specialization is in language and methodology, so the prospect is limited.

Increase quality assurance

One of the success factors in getting continuous orders is the delivery level both in quality and intimeliness. The Quality Assurance Program, and the faster returns of work accomplished is thekey factors to develop a relationship. This is the only way to be supported by the overseas clientin outsourcing work to Indian contractors.

Develop Domestic Markets

A factor, which is serious but presently not attractive, is to develop domestic markets. The


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C. IT-Marketing Research:

Our USPs

We believe that the IT-MR business idea as a product offer possesses the following UniqueSelling Points:

Pioneering the concept of IT-MRIn India, though there are several companies that do market research for IT companies, noneof them are totally dedicated to IT-MR. We are the first organization that is totally dedicated toIT-Market Research. The objective of such narrow casting is to provide a professionalapproach towards the assignments we carry out.

IT-MR Portal

We will be the first Indian organization to provide a specialized portal for Market Research.The portal will contain the regular login facilities. In addition to that we will also provide

continuous online polls, Competitor intelligence services etc. through it.

Synergy benefits

The organization obtains significant synergy benefits by virtue of being a part of a large groupthat comprises academic institutions, consulting group and IT Company. Academic institutionsfundamentally act as repository of knowledge and information. The various reports generatedas apart of the academic exercises act as storehouse of knowledge and can give significantbenefits to the IT-MR organization. Besides it also acts as a platform to prove the adagepractice what you preach.


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Besides a constant updating of significant deals struck can also be made public. A constant touchwith the media will act as a enabler to enhance the brand visibility.

3.3 OPERATIONS PLAN


We have chosen a clear strategy to enter the IT services and ITES market space with the idea ofgenerating sufficient placements to our students as also surplus funds for augmenting out IT

activities. We have chosen the niche vertical area of Health services and Pharmaceuticals asthey are at this juncture the most underpenetrated as also the most willing users of IT systems forimproving their operational performance in India. The time is ripe as in the next couple of yearsthe GATT IPO regime will be operational and the Pharma industry is gearing itself for ametamorphosis through mergers and acquisitions and resultant reorganizations of their activities,especially in the medico-marketing areas.

The main thrust of our proposal is to start as an entrant into Software Development and buildpluggable and reusable software routines in this application area of Health exchange, taking intoconsideration the required technical necessities of having to work in multi-vendor, cross platform

environment as the users are diverse from pharmaceutical companies to individual doctors,hospitals, nursing homes and medical representatives as also a wide assortment of patient-users.

During the first nine months we will develop software suite covering the various segments toinclude Healthcare and Pharma. Simultaneously we expect to form alliance partnerships with 3-5alliance partners from each of the major segments of Pharma and Healthcare who will laterbecome our beta sites as also demonstration partners. Our marketing efforts will enlist 3-5prospective clients from each of the above segments within this period. The Software Exportactivities will start during this phase through marketing alliances with the incumbent players inthe USA.


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During the second year more local projects will be executed to deepen the roots in the domesticmarket. We will also be executing larger onsite export projects to create a good presenceabroad. Closer to 40 people will be working on onsite projects during this tenure. In addition wemust create lighthouse accounts that will act as service-product evangelists. This will benefitthe organization to get more clients and have better visibility in the foreign markets. In the EastCoast of the USA we will try and penetrate leading MNCs in Pharma and Healthcare using ourcontacts.

During the third year still more local projects will be executed that will enable us to developspecific vertical market context for EAI. We will also execute more export-oriented projects, asit will enhance our revenues. About 60 people will be working on onsite projects during thistenure. We will also have a better understanding of our clients at that time and will developtailored value proposition for each of them. We will also demonstrate our offshore capabilitiesat this juncture.

From the fourth year onwards the organization will shift gear towards an offshore model.However care will be taken to make sure that the offshore model will provide differentiated valueproposition to the client. During this tenure, 90-120 people will be working offshore for export

projects. Transition from the entry stage to the stage of maturity and self-sustaining growth isshown in the above diagram adapted from the NASSCOM McKinsey Report.

B. IT Enabled Services :

Order Procurement

The back office operations for the Financial and Accounting Services are dependent on the orderprocurement. The global companies, which seek this kind of work, are as follows:

1. Dow Jones require company, industry and stock market reports


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to the facility which has to be processed and returned within a given period. The processing is alldone without much of intervention, as the individual is expected to check and send information ata 1.5 percent error rate. Work with a higher error rate is rejected and not paid for.

The workflow for Investment Analysis, Company Dossiers and Management Reports, expects thecollection of data, structuring, massaging and representing the data and report within a givenperiod. The work is very time sensitive, and therefore the work ethic plays a bigger role, in clientsatisfaction. This is true in the case of Domestic Clients also.

Brilliant I.T. Services

We are currently getting into an arrangement with M/s Brilliant I.T. Enabled Services for providingthem with technical manpower who will edit financial reports from overseas customers. Thisarrangement is expected to fetch the Company Rs 2.5 million in revenues and generate about 20

jobs during this financial year. This association with this project will enable us to understand theUS stock markets and help us develop an expertise in financial analysis of various UScompanies, later allowing us to develop ourselves into Analysts with industry specialization viz.Telecom, Pharma, Financial, etc., at which time the revenue generation can become manifolddue to the enhanced nature of the work and the volume of business.

C. IT-Marketing Research:

The business operations of the Market Research division will be upgraded in terms of scale andvalue addition over time, and three stages of development are envisaged. During the first stage,we will concentrate on effective manpower utilization rather than company/brand enhancement.During the next two stages, we will emphasize on brand development and value enhancement bydiversifying into related functional areas within the IT sector.

R h & Fi ld k


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executives who will be meeting with clients and respondent companies for the execution ofprojects. Project execution will be carried out by executives, Consultants with the help ofassistantships and external field force agencies.

4. FINANCIALS & EXPLANATIONS OF FINANCIALS

4.1 BASIC ASSUMPTIONS & WORKING

1. The revenue plan and details of operational, marketing, export development and riskmitigation expenses are furnished separately under Business Assumptions. These havebeen arrived taking into account the three major business segments of the organization, viz.Software Development and Systems Integration, IT Enabled Services and IT MarketingResearch.

2. The base case scenario refers to the organization taking up all the three segments of activity.The other scenarios are analyzed separately.

3. The business is expected to go into commercial operations with effect from year__. The

period from __to __, is assumed to be the pre-operative stage, when the requisiteinfrastructure both hardware and software would be installed. This would also be the periodfor software research and development, including trial operations etc.

4. The year __would also see considerable developmental activities concurrent with commercialoperations. Expenditure during this period as well as the pre-operative period (nine months of

__) to the extent attributable to development has been included as part of the non recurringproject cost.

5. The overall project cost under the base case scenario is estimated at Rs.670.00 lakhs:


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9. The lease rentals have been appropriated towards implied interest and principal repayments(in line with the suggestions of IAS). The implied interest rate has been chosen so as toreduce the residual lease outstanding value to NIL at the end of 5 years.

10. Depreciation on the leased assets has been reckoned at 40% on WDV basis. Theoutstanding lease value at the beginning of a year is the basis for computing depreciation.Suitable adjustments for addition of fixed assets wherever considered has been made.

11. The preliminary expenses are assumed to be written off in 10 years @ 10% each year.

12. The amount of pre-operative expenditure and development expenditures not charged torevenue account aggregating to Rs. 660.00 lakhs (termed software expenditure in theprofitability statement) have been written off @ 20% annually. In practice however subjectto adequacy of profits, the write off may be accelerated or may be varied to derive optimumtax shield within the permissible rules.

13. Working capital requirement has been assessed reckoning 60 days for receivables and 30days for expense cushion. Permissible bank finance thereof is taken at 80% of receivables.

Interest rate on receivables financing has been reckoned at 15% p.a.

14. Income tax including surcharge has been computed at 35% of the profit before tax.

15. IRR has been computed after taking into considerations lease rentals as outflows. Salvagevalue is assumed at 5% of investment in fixed and intangible assets and full value ofreceivables.

Business Assumptions


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4.2 FINANCIAL STATEMENTS CONSISTS OF

Profit & Loss Statement

Statement of Cash FlowAssessment of Working Capital StatementLease Interest Computation StatementDepreciation StatementProject IRR StatementBalance SheetDivisional Revenue / Expenditure

Refer Annexure for tables


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5. RISK FACTORS AND CONTINGENCY PLANS

Any technical project of this complexity and size is fraught with many risks and imponderables. Assuch IT projects have almost always run into major vagaries of time and cost overruns. Manyhave completely failed at various stages. One significant problem that compounds the problem ofassessment of risks is the break neck technological shifts that regularly take place at routineintervals, while many projects have large development life cycles. Above all, the major problem isin not being in a position to assess the chance of succeeding or failing until the project has

already advanced to the implementation stage, when it becomes difficult to exit the projectventure. We have shown our assessment of various risks. The project entails together with thecontingency plan for mitigating them in the following table. At the end we suggest exit conditionsand options:

Risk Factors InThe Project

Eventuality Contingency Plan

1. Over OptimisticTargets

a. Orders not obtainedb. Orders obtained but not executable

c. Price cutd. Volumes curtailed in ITES

a. Various regular channels, Regularly assessb. Strict contracts Standards in domestic marketsc. Operations at high levels through work contract

e.g.Brilliantsd. Scale down operations and delay pick upe. Space fresh employment and slice costs

2. ScheduleOverruns

a. Labor productivityb. Cost considerations like

compensation not attractivec. Availability of manpowerd. Poor effort Estimation.

a. Select well, manage wellb. Skills developmentc. Make incentives attractive for manpower to put

additional effortd. Use process maturity model methods for effort

& schedule estimation and project management3. Technical And

Technologya. Wrong choice of technology and

partnersa. Evaluate/select /contract


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Exiting this above venture, should such a contingency arise, can be effected at different stageson continuous assessment. Since the bulk of the initial investment is in computingequipment/software, all of them are immediately usable in our training activities. Even in worstcase situations, the consultancy revenue generated (IBS India has a parallel activity that willgenerate over Rs.50 lakhs during this academic year), though we have not shown any for the firstnine month period through the IT company project, will offset to that extent, in the eventuality ofthe closing down this venture. The software ideas generated, by the company name established,the business volumes generated, software components developed, all will be highly saleable to

other interested parties as many organizations have started focusing in this area of specialization.Parts of the risks are already shared by our alliance partners. In fact alliance partners mostlymultinational Pharma companies and established hospitals will have a greater stake in makingthe project successful. Thus the risks of the first nine months can be entirely mitigated and theexiting done without much loss.

Revenues are planned for the second year on the domestic projects and exports. Viabilityassessment can be done at quarterly intervals (create a quarterly iceberg!) and exit during thefollowing quarters with minimal loss. Since the further growth of the business is planned only with

the operating surplus, exiting is simple if the need arises.


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An example of Secure Computing in the .Net Environment

The example of information exchange on adverse drug reaction between medical practitioner andthe Pharma Company has been taken up to explain the working of Internet Technology. Theexample involves the scenario wherein the medical practitioner has identified certain adversedrug effects of the drug prescribed by him. The practitioner wants to exchange his findings on thedrug with the Pharma Company. The company after evaluating the report decides to publish the

same for use by other medical practitioners.

In such a scenario the practitioner would have to log on to the application and post theinformation on to the site. The concerned personnel from the pharma company can then gothrough this report and post his response to the physician. Up to this point whatevercommunication goes on between the physician and the Pharma Company is totally confidentialand can be accessed only by either of the party. Once the Pharma Company decides to makethe information public then it can post the information in the bulletin board, which is accessibleglobally.

To implement this and ensure that the application performs optimally when it is evaluatedagainst the following parameters of Security, Performance, Scalability, Integration,Confidentiality and DisasterRecovery, we have taken the implementation of the solution inMicrosofts .Net Framework. The following section explains the functionality of each of thecomponent.

For each of this activity proper user authentications and verification of access rights is performedbefore letting the user to complete the operation. The user authentication is taken care at threelevels. At the first level the firewall filters for unwanted/unauthorized access to the site. This will


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storage location and thereby provide for optimal usage of disk space resulting in betterperformance.The details relating to adverse drug effect can be hosted onto the health exchange system inform of data. The user might have the details relating to adverse drug effects stored in his internalsystems (Legacy or ERP) and might wish to post the data into health exchange system. Thisrequires Information mapping between users system and health exchange system, facility toconvert data from one format to other format, facility to transfer the data between the usersystem and health exchange system effectively with minimum of additional programming efforts.

Biztalk Server offers all the above features. The information transfer can be one time feature,request basis or regular intervals. It is also possible that this information can originate from morethan one source. (Pharma, Pharmacist, doctors). BizTalk server confirms the integrity ofinformation among the various users and achieves uniformity of data.

The information once posted can be accessed by the users with the help of search engineprovided by the application. The search engine is a common utility and hence developed as acomponent and hosted onto COM+ Services of Advanced Windows 2000 server. The user cansearch for information based on certain criteria. The user (a patient in this case) can also requestfor any specific information relating to any of the drugs using Messaging services (implementedthrough Microsoft Exchange server). Any communication between the patient and the medicalcommunity is totally confidential. The Exchange server stores the message user wise in thedatabase and nobody other than the sender and recipient of the message can access themessage thus ensuring high degree of confidentiality.

Disaster Recovery is a parameter that needs to be considered during the deployment phase.During the development stage disaster recovery can be achieved by effective backup strategy.During the deployment phase data redundancy has to be implemented for effective disaster


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29 | P a g e

Left Blank Intentionally


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30 | P a g e

Example of Information Exchange on Adverse Drug EffectsBetween

Medical Practitioner and Pharma Company

Advance Windows2000 Server

Mobile InformationServer

Content ManagementServer

PDAs

Browser

Legacy Applications

BizTalk ServerUploads data

UpdatesDatabase

XML

UpdatesDatabase

User Authentication (ISAS)Data content

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Exchange Server

Doctor

Specialist / Pharma

Messaging

User Authentication (ISAS)

SQL Server

Documents

Marketing Plan IT Incubation