Automation of un-organized retail pharma sector

Abstract

Indian software companies have always been blamed to concentrate on foreign markets without treating Indian customers as a possible source of revenue. In the recent times the big software companies have realized that their current revenue model cannot sustain the unprecedented growth they have enjoyed in the last 20 years. They are in a search of different revenue models that can yield them nonlinear revenue. This project is to outline an business idea that could address both of the above problems of serving Indian customers and achieving non-linear revenue. As a part of this project, a survey was conducted among 30 Pharmacies in 3 different cities of Karnataka. The objective of the survey was to get the pain points of the un-organized retailers and get the willingness of the retailers to adopt the proposed business idea. In the process I also understood their current usage of the computerised automation and also the risks involved in such a venture. Apart from the retailer s survey, a few of the wholesale distributors were also surveyed and the information was also gathered from All India Association of Druggists and Chemists, Karnataka Chemists and Druggist Association, Karnataka State Pharmacy Council. With all their help, I was able to develop a primitive business plan that explain the viability of this business as well as the resources needed for the venture and the most suited marketing approach for such a venture. Retailers across the 3 cities showed an overwhelming response to the new business idea. I also had a couple of other solutions that the retailers might be interested in but unfortunately the retailers didn t show much interest towards these solutions. These solutions any way will be by-products of the main business idea and can be presented to the retailers when the idea is in demo able state. The main business idea is to have a hosted solution that manages the complete Inventory management of the retail store without adding any overhead to his operations. This option provides a low entry/exit barrier for the retailer to try out the option. A centralized team will manage the inventory for the chemists without the retailer having to re-order or manually enter the invoice data which are the current pain points in the business process. Also the retailer will be relieved from the hassles of maintaining the computer, printer and software needed to run his business.