Introduction

This essay discusses about MedPlus organization as the case study. The key business challenges
faced by the organization are identified and solution to overcome the challenges is proposed.

Organizational Background

Medplus is the one of the largest pharmacy retail stores in India. MedPlus was founded in 2006 by
Dr. Madhukar Gangadi. The first MedPlus pharmacy store opened in February 2006 in Hyderabad
and over the last decade has grown into the second largest pharmacy retail chain in the country with
over 1500+ pharmacies throughout India. Medplus today serves over 3,50,000 customers daily and
employs over 10,000 people

The mission of the company is to revolutionize healthcare delivery in India. The vision is to be the
first choice of customers for their health and wellness needs by consistently understanding and
exceeding their expectations. The values of the company are customer centric, honest and fairness,
innovation, commitment to equality and team work.

The organization is into direct competition with the Apollo pharmacy and with the other rivals like
Netmeds, 1mg, pharmeasy. As per the 2017 financial reports of the company, the total revenues of
the company were around US $10 million. It provides services like MedPlusLens, MedPlusMart,
MedPlusLab. These services are guided by theme – quality, convenience, value.

The company, however, faces challenges and these challenges are addressed in the following
sections.

Reference links: https://www.medplusindia.com/

Business Challenges

Some of the key challenges identified in the business are listed below.

Each service like MedPlusLens, MedPlusMart, MedPluslab is provided by three different application.
Therefore, customer who wish to use multiple services need to use different applications to avail the
services. This creates lack of traceability of data among the applications and affects customer
experience and this in turn negatively impacts customer retention rate and customer satisfaction.

Secondly, business faces increased competition with the similar industry. Also, there is no key USP
which uniquely distinguishes it from the competitor. This makes the business difficult to penetrate
the market since it does have unique differentiator to gain traction in the market and customer has
more choices with similar value proposition.

In addition to this, their services like medpluslens, medplusmart, medpluslab rely primarily on their
brand stores or warehouses which are in the key cities to provide services to the customer.
Therefore, it becomes difficult to expand the market to new location or customer segment (new
geography/ demography) and incurs high logistic cost. Product availability, stock replenishment,
supply chain costs are some of the key concerns of the business as they depend on their own brand
stores.

Solution

The proposal for the above challenges is to make transition from product to platform which bundles
all the services in one platform. In addition to its own brand store, platform can include other third-
party service providers like pharmacy companies, pharmacy online and offline retailers, lab centres,
optical stores to list their product and services in the platform. Both Market place-based model
(aggregating near-by pharmacies) and inventory-based approaches (online service for offline
licensed pharmacy) can be followed. Apart from these, other service providers like dietician,
physiotherapist, doctors and nurses can participate in the platform as a producer where they can
provide their services to consumers at user’s location (home). In final phase, platform can be
extended to hospitals and clinics where they can list their services in the platform. Thereby, user can
book online appointment and other services in the platform. The platform providers are Android/
IOS/ API and last mile deliveries. Platform generates revenue by taking commission from all the
transactions that occurs in the platform and posting advertisements.

Product management spans across various phases like evaluation, definition, strategy, readiness,
development and maintenance phase.

Evaluation Phase

a. Competitor Analysis

One of the competitors of MedPlus business is NetMeds private limited. NetMeds is an Indian Online
pharmacy marketplace. It is a subsidiary company of Dadha & Company, one of India’s most trusted
pharmacies. NetMeds was founded in 2010 and headquartered at Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Distinctive
strengths are it allows other pharmacists to sell pharmacy in their platform and wide range of
products are listed in their online store. Distinctive weakness is increased competition of e-
pharmacy. Some of their services are health care awareness, online pharmacy, franchise, sell on
NetMeds.

b. Feature Comparison

Health care awareness, allowing reliable third-party pharmacy to sell on the platform, online
pharmacy are capabilities provided by both MedPlus and NetMeds business. In addition to health
care products, Medplus also provides general store products. Other services like home care is only
provided by Medplus by involving various participants like nurses, dietician, yoga trainer to the
platform. Optical e-store, lab services are provided by Medplus.

Definition Phase

a. Product Roadmap

The platform will be built in three phases. First phase will be developed in 4 months and the
second phase will be developed in 3 months
Phase 1: 
Consumers (general public or doctors) can order medicines online by uploading prescription. Doctors
can order medicines for their patients using this platform. Other users can also order medicine
through this platform. Doctors can also book other health related services using this platform. 
Phase 2 :
In Phase 2, improvements and bug fixing will be done. Platform will collaborate with hospitals
thereby, user can book online appointments, maintain health record using this platform.
Strategy Phase

a. Positioning Statement

For the general public (patients/ doctors/ public),

Who need to access health related services easily and conveniently,
 Our platform is a one stop shop which comprises of health care services at affordable rates
Some of important sales axioms with which the platform is build are aggregator platform, providing
health care services, user convenience, online store & services platform, quality service, home care.

The key unique selling point for the platform is offering wide range of health care services at
affordable rate and offering health services at home.

b. Marketing strategy

Product

Medplus is platform that provides online health care services for the consumers. User can use the
platform to book medicines online and get delivered to home. User can also book nurse, dietician,
trainer, doctors to have services at home.

Price

Both producer and consumer can register to this platform freely.

Promotion

Providing offer during the launch time, seasonal offers, reward points

Place

Platform is rendered online through web and mobile applications.

Platform Business Model Canvas

Key Partners: No key partners

Key Activities: online medicine order, online general store order, health care awareness, Home care
services, online appointments

Key Resources: platform team

Value propositions: In the supply side, value proposition is additional income opportunity. In the
demand side, value propositions are convenience, large amount choice, quality medicine and
service, affordability.

Channels: Mobile app, Web app

Customer Segments: General public (or patients), doctors

Cost structure: Development cost, Operation cost, Infrastructure cost

Revenue streams: Advertisements, Commission

Customer Relationship: feedback and rating system

Platform Idea Canvas

Core value: Convenience

Mission: Quality health care services

Addressable market: Doctors, General public

Partner & Needs: No key partners

Producer & Needs: Pharmacy, other service providers needs are Income and outreach

Consumer & Needs: User needs are trusted and quality service

Platform Value Canvas

Producer

Value proposition: Revenue& feedback data

Outbound Transaction: Customer base

Inbound Transaction: Service

Owner

Value proposition: Revenue

Outbound Transaction: Customer data

Inbound Transaction: Support

Consumer

Value proposition: Offers, affordable rate, convenience

Outbound Transaction: Information, health services

Inbound Transaction: feedback, purchase transaction

Execution Phase
a. Pricing Model: free for both producers and consumers.
b. Product monetization’s
Source of Income: existing investors, profit they earn from existing business
Revenue stream: Revenue streams for the platform are commission obtained from the transactions,
advertisements
Readiness Phase 
a. KPI
Some of the key performance indicators are set to measure the progress of the platform.
 Lead to customer ratio tracks number of leads converted to user through our campaigns like
email marketing, social media marketing and measures the effectiveness of the campaign. 
 No. of signups indicator tracks number of user signup in the application.
 Consumer to producer ratio measures the conversion rate of consumer to producer rate. 
 Customer or user retention rate measures the number of users who continue to use our
platform.
 Customer lifetime value is the average amount of revenue that a customer generates, over
their time with you as a customer.
 Referral rate measures number of users joined platform through referral program to the
total number of users. This helps to understand the effectiveness of the referral program.
  No. of transactions measures number of services used by the user and measures the
interaction between producers and consumers.
 Customer rating measures customer satisfaction for the services they purchase. This helps
producers to improve their service quality and ensures that quality services are provided in
the platform.
 No. of Bookings

b. Launch Plan
Launch plan has three phase – prelaunch, launch and post launch for each release. In pre-launch
phase, marketing team work on campaign planning, marketing communication channels, marketing
content and internal training is conducted for delivery partner and customer service teams. In the
launch phase, product is released on web and mobile platforms and promotional offers are sent
through push notifications to the users and having technical support to fix issue. In the post launch
phase, analyse the customer feedback and track key performance metrics like number of producers
and consumers, referral rate.

c. Risks and Mitigation

Risk can occur internally or externally. Some of the internal risk are delayed development,
technological risk, compliance risk.
Delayed development can be mitigated by continuous monitoring progress of the development and
following agile methodology.
Technological risk can be mitigated by following canvas and tools prior after the designing phase.
Compliance risk can be mitigated by abiding to the rules and regulations and framing set of rules and
guidelines to the users of the platform
External risks are chicken and egg problem, competitors, cannibalization.
Chicken and egg problem can be mitigated by attracting both side market equally through marketing
Competitor can be mitigated by being first to market and having customer retention rate high.

d. Growth and Exit plan

Growth strategies
Market penetration
Attract more customers in the existing market by providing discounts, seasonal offers, aggressive
marketing to reach market and continuous improvement of the platform based on the customer
feedback.
Market expansion/ development
Target new market (geography/ demography) after reaching tipping point in the current market.
Product development
Add new features to the existing application like e-consultation, personalized feeds and contents.
Exit strategies
The product might exit from the market due to following exit reasons like
Lack of network effect, low profitability, tough external market, market uncertainty, market failure,
business failure.
Exit strategy
Merge and acquisition, liquidation
Informing customers one month prior about the product exit through emails, messages.
Archive customer data and perform analysis
Governance Framework
1. Guidelines or standards for the participants in the platform
Frame rules on interaction between producer and consumer, set of rules to be followed by
service providers and consumers
2. Guidelines for customer support
Frame guidelines to handle customer issues and manage to resolve their issues.
3. Guidelines or standards for the producer to sell medicine in the platform
Set of standards pharmacist must abide in order to utilize the platform to sell their
medicines
Business Impact
Customer traction towards platform increases which results in increased customer retention rate.
Market share increases through market expansion and penetration. Delivery cost and delivery time
decreases which benefits both platform and customer. Increase in revenue by gaining commission
from the transactions.
Conclusion
This essay discusses about the case study of MedPlus that is facing challenges from business
perspective. Medplus need to overcome these challenges in order to grow its business. Instead of
maintaining different business lines, Medplus can integrate all its services into one platform and
involve outside participants in the ecosystem. Thereby, creating value for each, and every participant
contributing to the platform.