Teratech, a service provider for Customer Relationship Management (CRM), is a leading player in their field of business. Its clientèles are in the pharmaceutical sector. CRM is a relatively new concept that evaluates customer relationships with products/services. Teratech not only offers technological solutions and facilities but also ensures that it delivers on the customer’s needs.
Even though the CRM service provider industry is relatively young, the competition is very competitive. Since the industry is technology-dependent, advances in application and software solutions might create an exponential growth to the service provider. The first provider to tap these excellent resources would gain a more significant share in the market, lead the CRM service industry, and have the first market entrant advantage.
In the first quarter of 2005, Teratech aimed to go beyond the essential CRM functions and venture into modeling and analytics. The growth opportunities in predictive modeling and analytical CRM software is vast for the five-year-old company. Grabbing this opportunity would give a strategic advantage to Teratech since the company is considered as a CRM expert for the pharmaceutical industry.
According to Teratech’s CEO, Jack Dwyer, developing a new analytical CRM product would assure the stakeholders continued sales and revenue growth as well as the market leader in the industry while compensating for the declining sales in the last quarter of the previous year. The new product is one of his corporate strategies for the continued success of the organization. He is looking forward to the exceptional business performance of the company for three years.
Jack Dwyer is a self-made man who, in his previous job before forming Teratech, worked his way up to become a successful CIO. He is a prosperous man with 20 years of experience in a leading service technology company, and a bright vision for the future of Teratech. His idea for Teratech is to become the preferred solutions provider for pharmaceutical companies and the forerunner in the industry. This is the ideal end-state goal of Teratech.
Teratech ‘s customers will detect patterns through the introduction of new analytical tools, understand consumer behavior, explore virtual scenarios, and forecast outcomes. This software would complete the company’s CRM package of product functionality and analytical capability. The bag is very marketable and salutary to existing customers as well as new hires, as the sales team members’ optimism shows. This would enhance the company’s competitiveness in the market.
The existing products and the development of new analytical application software would answer to the vision of the CEO and help the company achieve its goal.
However, the development of a new product does not end with the salespeople. New product development is a company-wide operation.
It also involves other teams such as marketing, finance, human resource, and technology development teams.
The marketing team is hopeful that the new product will lead to the concerns of the consumer about the current product and return on their investment. The relatively new concept of CRM in pharmaceuticals and pharmacy-related industries is still at its infancy stage, and the customers are still uncertain about its applicability.
Developing the new product would ensure its added value for the customers. The pharmaceutical companies would be able to maximize the value of their customer and market data as well as enhance their marketing strategy for optimum effectiveness. The new drug will tackle both the efficacy and efficiency of their marketing strategies within the pharmaceutical industry’s ultra-competitive climate.
The success of the new product in the market would boost Teratech’s expertise and market image, such that the marketing team is challenged to cater to new industries and access new technologies. Finding new markets or even creating a new one would be a blue ocean strategy for the team.
Furthermore, Christine DeFalco, Chief Marketing Officer, is concerned about how the product would be priced, promoted, and placed in the market. She is also concerned with meeting and exceeding the current needs of the pharmaceutical industries as well as the existing customers’ service issues.
With intensive market research and careful establishment of the marketing plan and framework, the team can figure out the problem and create solutions.
The finance team, on the other hand, is troubled on the resources needed to be allocated for the development of the new product. The estimated budget from conception to roll-out is at $100MM, and the time required for the development of the technology is about two years. The sizable expense of developing and launching a new product, as well as the high risk of failure, worries the team.
The human resource team is challenged to manage expenses for the year. Their VP of Human Resource, Chris Riggs, is concerned about staffing and is considering freeze hiring for new employees and replacements for the year; and even found on decreasing the headcount.
The technology development team is having problems with their talent pool, considering the company-wide plan of Riggs and his team. Wendy Martin, Chief Technology Development Officer, has reservations on how the new product is going to be supported and developed. Her team members are preoccupied with enhancements and upgrades of existing products. Her team members are also roughed up with technical support to customers. Her team might even be coping up with the beefed-up quotas for the year of the sales team.
The current skills assessment of the technology development team showed that the team is inadequate and weak to support the development of the new product. This is the biggest challenge of the group.
Although, according to Christine DeFalco, the current problem can be addressed through an additional budget for new talents and technology as well as internal changes once the Board of Directors approves and the project moves forward.
Fortunately, Teratech is fitted out with highly respected and successful top management brass. The knowledge, experiences, and strengths of the management team leveraged the company and equipped them to face the challenges in the industry and its competition. Since the company is still five-years of age, the workforce is even primed to handle internal and external changes. The entrepreneurship present in the young company is high, and the motivational spirit is eminent. The organization is ready to exploit new opportunities in the market and face the risks.
With the ample amount of resources, the right talent pool, and the timely release of the new product, Teratech would become the preferred CRM solutions provider for the pharmaceutical industry.
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