Entry strategy for a Finnish IT start-up entering the German hospital market
Schmieder, Julia (2020)
Schmieder, Julia
2020
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020060216167
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020060216167
Tiivistelmä
The world economy has become one global marketplace and more and more companies decide to expand their operations internationally, including the commissioner of this thesis. In order to comply with confidentiality obligations, the commissioner was called Company X and confidential material has been removed from the public report.
Company X is a Finnish IT start-up that provides a customizable mobile device service. Since the commissioner plans to enter the healthcare market in Germany, the objective of this thesis was to determine how the start-up could enter this new market successfully. To make the results as targeted as possible, the study concentrated on the hospital market. Data was collected from books, articles, reports, and digital sources, which were enriched by personal interviews with medical professionals and experts in the German hospital sector.
Results of the research showed that the hospital sector is a large and complex part of the German healthcare system, that it is influenced by health insurance companies and the state, and that prevailing trends are the lack of qualified personnel, cost and efficiency pressure, and digitalization. In international comparisons, the German hospitals are still falling behind, especially the small, regional hospitals. The installation of new IT solutions is usually triggered by new legislations or the IT department and the final decision lays with the business management which is responsible for the hospital finances. For end-users such as nurses and doctors, it is crucial that new systems, devices, or applications support the clinical processes. Many companies are already providing hospitals in Germany with systems, software, digital devices, and applications that can be integrated into the existing infrastructure to improve processes. Distributors are not yet widely specialized in combinations of mobile devices and software, but many young IT companies are open to partnerships that could add value to their product portfolio.
The findings indicated that the commissioner should attend different events in Germany to meet potential customers, distributors, and partners. The service should first be introduced in pilot projects in small hospitals, and thereby it could be beneficial to partner with a company that already has a trusted reputation in the market. The main contact persons in German hospitals at an initial stage are the potential end-users of the solution, such as nurses.
Company X is a Finnish IT start-up that provides a customizable mobile device service. Since the commissioner plans to enter the healthcare market in Germany, the objective of this thesis was to determine how the start-up could enter this new market successfully. To make the results as targeted as possible, the study concentrated on the hospital market. Data was collected from books, articles, reports, and digital sources, which were enriched by personal interviews with medical professionals and experts in the German hospital sector.
Results of the research showed that the hospital sector is a large and complex part of the German healthcare system, that it is influenced by health insurance companies and the state, and that prevailing trends are the lack of qualified personnel, cost and efficiency pressure, and digitalization. In international comparisons, the German hospitals are still falling behind, especially the small, regional hospitals. The installation of new IT solutions is usually triggered by new legislations or the IT department and the final decision lays with the business management which is responsible for the hospital finances. For end-users such as nurses and doctors, it is crucial that new systems, devices, or applications support the clinical processes. Many companies are already providing hospitals in Germany with systems, software, digital devices, and applications that can be integrated into the existing infrastructure to improve processes. Distributors are not yet widely specialized in combinations of mobile devices and software, but many young IT companies are open to partnerships that could add value to their product portfolio.
The findings indicated that the commissioner should attend different events in Germany to meet potential customers, distributors, and partners. The service should first be introduced in pilot projects in small hospitals, and thereby it could be beneficial to partner with a company that already has a trusted reputation in the market. The main contact persons in German hospitals at an initial stage are the potential end-users of the solution, such as nurses.