Published by Computachem Services

P.O Box 297.
Alstonville. 2477
NSW Australia

Phone:
61 2 66285138

Not many pharmacists have commenced the journey to integrate their basic operations online.
The investment in the required technology is considerable, and the time taken to develop a single, apparently simple project, is way out of proportion to the perceived end result.
When you actually finish the integration of a single function into some form of centralised control, the sense of quiet achievement however, is immense.
Everyone, it seems, is waiting for someone else to do something.
Well, the quiet achievers are not going to trumpet their success, or divulge what might be their own proprietary technology.
The cost in time and money is too high to share with someone who may simply turn out to be a freeloader.
This is why competitors often turn to each other and form alliances, because they have the same objectives.
By combining their resources, they are able to develop a generic system that will handle the same basic process in both environments. The end result is simply that either business still gives no quarter to the other in giving away market share.
The reduction in overheads and development costs means that both the original businesses have done it at half the cost and probably half the time, and they are streets ahead of the rest of their competition.

Before starting on your online journey you should form a cadre of trusted advisers, which would include traditional people such as your accountant and your solicitor i.e. provided they have had experience in Internet ventures previously and are equipped to handle venture.
Add to this list of advisers a management/marketing business coach and some IT specialists. You will have to decide early whether you are going to develop your project in-house or farm it out to a contracting company or a mix of both.
Whatever you decide , it will be difficult to proceed unless you have a team.
No single person, no matter how capable they seem, is accomplished enough to tackle all the issues that may evolve.

So, the first step in your journey is defining the risk.

Here you must realistically look at problems (strategic and operational) that may occur when you combine new business methods with the old. Look at both sides of the coin and decide what the risk is if you proceed down a chosen pathway, and what they would be if you went an alternate pathway compared to what would happen if you did nothing at all (Plan A, Plan B or Head in the Sand).

One of the first risks to consider is that of business discontinuity when resources are transferred from your old business structure, to develop the new. This risk can affect both the current operations and the future of the Internet operation.
The unique problems of purchasing goods and services over the Internet, as well as reselling those same goods or value-added services can disrupt the traditional sales and service activities.

Internet sales processes tend to exhibit more dynamic qualities, may involve additional sales or service partners, or even involve a competitor in a cooperative selling venture.
A possible example of this may be where a group of pharmacists in a clearly defined market region, may decide to establish a new business in partnership, to handle all National Health Dispensing. In doing so, they decide to install an automated vending machine in the new project to handle the high predicted volumes. At the same time, they may decide to form an Intranet among themselves to combine everyday information resources, such as Micromedex, Mims etc., and which may have links to the local GPs for the transmission of e-prescriptions to all the pharmacies. The GPs may even utilise the same Micromedex/Mims etc. reference sources to reduce overall costs.
With the original pharmacies stripped of volume dispensing, it would allow time to develop cognitive services and perhaps provide specialised compounding services.
Imagine the initial complexity in handling this project without some form of facilitator who could coordinate all the personalities involved, and at the same time, be sufficiently IT literate to handle the diversity of problems thrown up in these new activities.
Yes, there is a high risk.
But there is also a great benefit when you come through to the other side.
The process would probably spawn a rash of amalgamations, because the new processes bind the parties to a common cause.
A traditional alliance in pharmacy is the buying group.
Many such groups form, disband and re-form again, with logistics being the main difficulty. With an automated online buying group, many of these problems disappear, the only requirements being for regular website maintenance to update purchase information, and the selection of a fulfillment provider, to eliminate the need for a warehouse.
This all could be facilitated further with the ability to incorporate- a process yet to become available to pharmacists.
With the development of an online sales presence there comes a sense of immediacy. The demands made by Internet customers tend to be more voluminous with a higher degree of expectation in the fulfillment of orders than has been experienced in the "bricks and mortar" environment.
Because the geographic "reach" is extended by the Internet, a diversity of delivery systems has to be developed.
The scale of transactions have to be considered. Nominally, an Internet sale is cheaper to process than a "bricks and mortar" sale, but there is a low end cut off point.
Imagine having contracted to deliver one container of say, iron supplement, a distance of 20 kilometres, competitive to a pharmacy located one kilometre from the same customer.
You may do it once for goodwill, but if you are trapped into repeating the process many times, disaster will overtake.
These are the risks that have to be translated into sensible policies and clearly defined work procedures.

I recently was asked to accept an assignment with a Human Resource Consultant colleague as a client.
He asked me to design an online system where he might be able to warehouse his client reports, so that he could access them from a variety of locations, and not have to transport a carload of hard copy reports and other references along to a client conference.
He also wanted the facility where the client could access their own reports through a password protected, and fully secured site.
He wanted his database fully searchable so that he could locate references for his clients easily.
This has proven to be an interesting assignment.
In entering the new Internet business stakes he has virtually eliminated all hard copies of his reports. Thus he does not have to employ an assistant to print, photocopy duplicate copies, collate or post to clients.
All it now requires is an e-mail to a client with a link embedded, advising a client that their new report is ready and a suggested date for the next visit is advised, when an analysis of that report can occur.
In the interim, the client accesses the database, enters a password, downloads their report to the desktop and stores appropriately.
Hard copy is generated by the client at their expense.
The lead time in delivering reports has reduced dramatically, allowing more free time for paid consultancy hours. He operates with no secretarial staff, and he can go home at night and work on an assignment wherever he left off.
The search facility allows him to extract generic words from one client report, to form a new report for a new client, thus saving consulting time and producing a more economical result for the client.

He is now working towards getting his weekends back once more.

This has application for pharmacy, particularly as consultant pharmacists begin to specialise as they develop their private practices. There are probably many other areas within the workplace where reports can be archived e.g. Taxation Returns, Trading, Profit and Loss Accounts just to note a few. Another logical Internet venture could be the online processing of books of account, such as cash books and ledgers. If these are archived in a format where you can create input from a remote point and have your accountant download from another remote point, speed of important financial reportage may be able to be achieved. Online processing of GST transactions and the preparation of the Business Activity Statement may also be a liberating process.
The trick is to get them online first, and then develop a "gateway" to be able to pass information from one system to another. And it is at this point that it becomes extremely complex for a web programmer.
Initial design has to be carefully planned, and alliance partners can help defray the development costs of such systems.
You are definitely in high risk territory here, but if you win through, you are well ahead of the pack.

When looking at any Internet application, the 24 hour/seven days access by customers can be satisfying to them, but at some stage may be overwhelming to you, because of the sheer volume of requests. Operators involved in this rapid type of expansion may be unable to service new Internet clients, and may risk losing them permanently.
Conversely, demands of the Internet can upset traditional customers if they are not experiencing your normally high level of service.

The disenfranchisement that occurs with customers can, under pressure, rapidly spread to partners, suppliers, employees and severely strain any external business alliances.
The Internet may become too intrusive for some of these parties e.g. you may develop the ability to compete against suppliers or alliance partners.
So an Internet marketing strategy has to be clearly defined, and restraint may need to be applied. Even employees can feel threatened if they think a proposed Internet venture is designed to reduce the body count.

Perhaps the biggest risk in developing Internet business is whether your total investment is under or over the actual requirement.
Many businesses commission systems they do not actually need, and as a result they find they are underutilising their investment. A good business coach can save large amounts of money by prescribing technology to match actual need, without going too far into future need, which may never be realised.
Always try to capture existing systems totally before trying to extend the possibilities.
Mitigate the risks by ensuring that there are clear procedures covering technology delivery practices, technology support and policy management.

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