THE COMPANION APP

THE BOOKING SYSTEM FOR HEALTH CARE NEEDS

B-PLAN (BASED ON THE COMPETITION QUESTIONS)



BY,
BALAVIGNESH.V
MANOJ KUMAR.K
GOWTHAM CHAKRAVARTHY.S
SUDHARSANA.V.S
SUKANYA.P
MANJU.M

















Buying Intentions Survey:


Client's Organization
Name Client's Organization Type
How likely would you
be willing to buy the
product or service, if it
was available?
At what price ()
would you be willing to
purchase the product or
service?

KG Hospital Healthcare Probably would buy 50000
Kalpana Medical Centre Healthcare Probably would buy 20000
Madurai Eye Hospital Healthcare Might or might not buy 15000
RS Hospital Healthcare Definitely would buy 30000
KMCH Healthcare Probably would buy 40000
Eye Foundation Healthcare Probably would buy 20000
Prabhu Dental Clinic Healthcare Probably would buy 20000
REX Hospital Healthcare Definitely would buy 25000
Vasan Dental Care Healthcare Definitely would buy 30000
Vasan Eye Care Healthcare Definitely would buy 35000
About the product and what it does:

The COMPANION APP is the app which is specially created to schedule meetings and to make
reservations in the day to day life. At initial stages the Hospitals are included in this app. In the
US market there are certain apps which are similar (35%) to that of the companion app, but then
the services and functionalities provided by the companion app are totally unique and this makes
it stand apart from all other similar apps globally. This app will be the first of its kind in the
Indian market, there are many apps in the Indian market for booking Hotels, Travel Tickets etc.
But at present there are no apps for fixing an appointment with a Doctor. This app can be further
developed after its success and more services can be incorporated to this app which can help the
people further more to schedule themselves even more efficiently and effectively. This app will
consist of a database of all the medical care centers which are present in and around the city. The
Customer can search for the required service form their preferred area through using GPS or
Internet services. If the hosts i.e. the Hospitals have also subscribed for the premium service,
they will be given with special software which is used to publish their details regarding the
availability, preferred timings, etc which is connected to the server that contains the global
database. So, if this is the case, user can directly schedule an appointment with the service
provider. If not the customer can get the contact details from the app and can manually schedule
their appointments. These are the major features and functionalities of the app at the initial stage.
Once when the app is successful in the market so many other new features can be incorporated to
the app by providing updates.

Uniqueness and Innovation:
The COMPANION APP is a totally new product to India, and also some of the other value added
features included in this app are one of a kind and they are globally new. Digitalization and
Internet has brought so many changes to life style of the people, but still some areas are not
completely covered by the digitalization services. So by using this app, digitalization can be
brought in for the left out areas. With the help of this app clients as well as users can directly
have all their data easily stored in the online database regarding their previous meetings (medical
prescriptions in the case of Hospitals). The future appointments can also be scheduled by using
this app (The app will provide a remainder and it automatically fixes the appointment for the
users with the clients). In case of Hospitals, doctors may leave suddenly to attend emergency
cases or other life saving cases, at these situations these apps helps the users to reschedule the
appointments or by redirecting the users with alternate solutions. This app also has payment
options where users can directly pay to the clients through online banking services. Apart from
Hospitals, this apps scope can further be extended like linking Hospitals with Pharmacies, Scan
Centers, etc. By doing so the user saves time and also the entire medical history of the user can
be saved in the online database including the expenses. Apart from the Health Care field, so
many other new day to day services can also be incorporated to this app, which make life simpler
for the app users.
Apart from the booking & appointment services, the app comes up with an innovation by
providing alerts for blood donors from hospitals via push notifications. This is easily possible
through the COMPANION APP because the blood groups of all the users are saved in the app as
a part of their medical records. This functionality of the app will be very useful during the
emergency situations. The location service makes this function even more effective by sending
the alerts to blood donors of a particular place where the requirement is.

The current state of the technology:
The app is created for Android compatible devices and ios compatible devices, this can be done
only with the help of the developer tools provided by Google & Apple Inc. The web based
services such as creating the webpage and the online database can be done with the existing
technologies i.e. the LAMP (Linux, Apache, My SQL and PHP). All these software packages
and technologies are available in the market, so technology wont be a problem for developing
this app in real-time. This app is not in developing phase yet, but once when the project is
started, the app can be developed with complete ease and the chances of the app getting failed is
very less. The prototype of the app can be developed with complete ease, with the availability of
the tailor made technologies. The prototype can be created within a month and can also be tested
for its reliability. The cost involved for developing the prototype will be around .100000 at the
maximum.
Intellectual property (IP) protection for the product/service idea:
Intellectual property for the product: Copyrights
Status of IP: Copyrights yet to be filed
Copyrights owner: Balavignesh Venugopal
Discussion under copyrights:
o Copyright ownership by students
o No copyright infringements
The type of work:
o Smartphone based application (under computer generated work)
o Trademark will be used for logo of the application
Needs addressed by the product/service in the market:
The product addresses the patients visiting the hospitals facing time constraints in booking
appointments.


The problems being faced by customers that will be solved by the product/service:
In this fast paced society time being considered more valuable, people quickly tend to shift to
products and services which satisfy their needs as quickly as possible.
These people will be our target customers and we are designing this application to make the
services reach the potential customer more quickly and effectively.

How the technology is being uniquely applied to solve the needs of the target
market:
The application will provide them with a facility of online transaction happening through
gateways (eg.Net banking). After completion of the transaction a barcode shall be generated in
the app in the customers mobile and in the computers of the service providers, further exchange
of service is done by matching of these barcodes after the arrival of the customer in the service
centre.

Entry Barriers:
The mode of entry of our app is through Google play store and so we do not have any entry
barrier since it is an open group but while launching it in App store we need to get the
Distribution Certificate and Private Key from the Apple Development Centre. One-One
marketing for the app is required to convince the client since this app is new of its kind.
Developing the trust among the customers for this app will be one of the barriers which will be
faced while promoting the app.

Market Segmentation, Entry Mode and Growth Strategy:
The Market is segmented on the age group which covers 15 and above, People using smart
phones with Android as their OS installed in it and mainly our targeted segment is Professionals,
Businessman etc., for whom time is a major constraint , so that by using our app they can save
time.
The Entry into the market will be through the Google Play Store in Android by the Product
Development Entry Strategy. Here our app is a pioneer in its kind and so the app is developed
considering the various features and attributes required by the customer across various segments
through market and competitive research.
The growth strategy of our app is done by creating High Impact Value Propositions. By
underpinning this strategy, needs of different customers on sub segments can be viewed. We
have also planned to expand our market in various markets such as Drug Stores etc., we will be
constantly looking our organization capabilities by implementing a management-performance
system.
This app is specially designed for customers who do not want to wait for a longer time for
availing a service and in case of emergency situations where the availability should be known
before the particular healthcare centers. This is useful for clients who wanted to run their
organization in an effective manner thereby reducing the customer traffic.

Estimated total size of the initial customer group:
We are first focusing only on the Coimbatore city and then we will expand
globally. We will be basically targeting the youths and the elite groups. In the case of hospitals
the working people and old age people are targeted. In the present trend, the middle aged people
are moving towards various technologies. The application can be largely focused on the
consideration of these people.

Key partners and what are they like:
Key partners:
Hospitals in Coimbatore are our key suppliers & Partners (at the initial stages).
Key resources which are being acquired from the partners/suppliers:
Since we are doing an appointment service to the customers we get information from the
hospitals like name of the hospitals and departments they have and name of the doctors and their
specialization, working hours and all the other data which the hospital wants to display.
Key activities which has to be performed by the partners/suppliers:
We need our partners to continuously update their status about the vacancies and any
changes in the services they provide like including new departments or new doctors and increase
in the seating capacity.






Competitor Analysis:
The COMPANION APP is unique and new to the Indian market. The current relevant competitor
in the market is justdial.
JustDial is an Indian company providing local search services over the Phone, Web, Mobile and
SMS. It is headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Users are required to call a common number
and simply tell the human operator what service they are looking for. Text and email alerts are
then sent to users listing the best options around them.
Android and iPhone Application:
Justdial Android and iPhone applications were introduced by the company which enabled the
users to search for latest movies, restaurants and more by using this application. It also pinpoints
the current location of the user through the phones in built GPS, which in turn provides the users
with mapping and navigation features. Businessmen can also add their listings into the Justdial
database through this application.

The companion app that we are developing is way better than Justdials service,
In case of health care centres, the app allows the users to check for the availability
of doctors, store and retrieve the health history of the user, to describe their health
problems in brief or detail, make appointments and to reschedule/redirect
appointments (in case of an emergency call for the doctor).
Whereas, Justdial provides only the contact numbers and addresses of the destination.

Fund Raising:
As general partnership is our organizational structure, six partners are investing 10% of
the capital each, which sums 60% of the investment. The remaining 40% of the capital is
borrowed from banks and financial institutions in the form of loans.
We are initially creating the app exclusively for healthcare centers. One of our milestones is, by
6 months from the launch of first version, to expand the market segment to Diagnostic Centre
and Drug Stores.
Another milestone is to double the number of customers, which requires vigorous marketing
techniques. The timeframe required to achieve this milestone is from 8 to 12 months of the
applications launch.


Total Funds Involved
Building Infrastructure Requirements 20,000 (Per Month)
Laptops & Gadgets 1,00,000 (One Time Investment)
Internet Charges 8,000 (Per Month)
App Development - 50,000 (One Time Investment)
Patents & Copyrights 20,000 (One Time Investment)
Server + Server Maintenance 25,000 (Every 3 Months)
Operations & Management 15,000 (Per Month)
Marketing 30,000 + allowances (Per Month)
Helpline/Customer Care 25,000 (Per Month)
Miscellaneous Expenses 10,000 (Per Month)
Total Capital 2,76,000