Med-Connect
A Brief Introduction:
Covid-19, a virus whose name was never thought to become this prominent in our day to day lives, now has found a place in our day-to-day conversations.
A virus that has not just found its way in our conversations, but now also plays a major influence in our livelihood.
Stopping all day-to-day outdoor activities, it has created a new form of lifestyle where in every basic necessity is achieved through an online medium.
This new approach to life has made it very difficult for people of categories adults and senior citizens, who would have grown up with a very conventional lifestyle with less technology and would prefer physically going out to perform day-to-day activities.
Modern technology has made it possible to create amazing solutions to such everyday issues.
Here we will be discussing one such issue…
Relevance of the Product:
There a total of 422 Million diabetic patients in the world, 77 Million being the residents of India alone, making India the second highest diabetic population in the world. People of age groups from 30–79 years of age are affected by diabetes alone.
Considering the mass of just one medical condition, the targeted clients who suffer from other disabilities that require medications are boundless.
Our product aims to assist these clients by delivering the ordered medicines from nearest pharmacy where the medications can be found available.
The Business Model:
Focusing on a B2C (Business-to-Consumer) model, this idea tries to connect the victims of the lockdown to the appropriate sellers of the required medications through an online portal. It tries to minimize consumer expenditure to the best of its abilities by procuring minimal costs for delivery and maintenance.
The cost price for the consumer would be along the following lines:
1) For every purchase below Rs.149, the delivery charges could be Rs.15.
2) For every purchase over Rs.149, the delivery charges would be Rs.21.
3) An 8 rupee increase for every Rs. 100 from the 149 Rupee benchmark.
4) For every purchase over Rs.1000, the delivery charges drop down to Rs.80 per delivery.
5) Only during rain, the delivery charges increases by Rs.10 from the above-mentioned rates.
Considering the pharmaceutical market has generated Rs. 1.4 Lakh Crore in 2019 alone and the population of India is 130 Crores as compared to the revenue generated, the profit margins can shoot up off the roof.
Working of the Platform:
The General Overview: The common man looks up on the Med-Connect portal for the required medicines, purchases the medicines from registered pharmacies, pays through net banking or cash on delivery ( based on the customer preference ) and finally waits for a Med-Connect delivery agent to deliver it at their doorstep.
The Customer’s Perspective: The customer would have to register by submitting a soft copy of his Aadhar card.
In the portal, after selecting the medicines required, if it is not classified as an OTC drug from the Indian Medical Council, the customer would have to send a photo of the prescription to the pharmacist. He/She then waits for the medicines to be delivered home.
The Pharmacist’s Perspective: In order to make a pharmacist’s account, a pharmacist must register by submitting a soft copy of the pharmacy’s license and an Aadhar card copy of the person who’s name the shop has been registered with. The pharmacy’s account will get a notification that an order has been placed and along with it a photo of the prescription provided by the customer. The pharmacy shall keep the medicines ready for a delivery agent to come and collect it.
Technical Factors:
UI/UX (app): The UI/UX of the shall be designed with flutter, since it is a low cost easy to use beginner friendly app.
Front-End: The front end shall be developed by JavaScript which is one of the most prominent front end based languages. It will be supported by reliable frameworks like AngularJS.
Back-End: The back end of the platform will be designed with python 3, which will also be supported with reliable frameworks such as flask.
DBMS: All the data input will be stored on cloud, preferably on Microsoft Azure or AWS depending on the costs through MySQL.
Initially there won’t be any ML models will not be deployed, but later it shall be added in order to enhance the recommendations which will in turn enhance the user experience.
Estimated Budget:
The estimated budget can be approximated to about Rs. 12–15,000 as creating a domain name costs at a minimum of 600 rupees and hosting can cost up to 12,000 rupees in wordpress.
The annual budget may increase along with the growth of the company and standard of maintenance required.
Product Pricing:
The platform shall be made freely available online and no charges shall be procured there except for the delivery charges mentioned on the business model.
Marketing Plan:
The product shall be marketed simultaneously on famous websites like youtube and spotify for the news to be spread to the public and also word shall be spread to pharmacies to get them registered.
Our corporate sponsors will also be helping us network with pharmaceutical companies. Upon their will they will be helping us market our logo on their portals and websites.
Risk Analysis:
The biggest risk would be not accumulating the number of registered users targeted for one fiscal quarter which would be a gamble with the market conditions and user convenience, since this is during the pandemic, there are good hopes on this aspect.
The second biggest risk would be the sponsors backing out. But if we are able to provide good results with a healthy and good mode of communication then understandings can be created.
Growth and Timeline:
Considering the numbers from the pharma market in India alone and the population of India, with the proper skill set this idea can see a growth rate like never before.
Market Competitions:
Some of the biggest competitions in the market would be 1mg or NetMeds.
The only USP against these to corporate entities would be in terms of what the consumer has to pay, since NetMeds and 1mg prioritize more on the sale of their medications rather than the delivery costs, due to which Med-Connects costs will be much lesser, proving to be a worthy competition.
Thank you
Regards,
Prasaanth Vallabhan
E-Mail ID: E20CSE046@bennett.edu.in