Don't neglect tried and true marketing strategies while pursuing e-catalog, Internet sales results - Brief Article

Health Industry Today, May, 2001 by Lynda Brooks

From today's marketing perspective, manufacturers and distributors of medical equipment are in a strong, strategic position to take advantage of e-commerce technology. That's because for decades medical manufacturers and distributors have done an excellent job of doing what the Internet now does in a new way: providing customers with useful product information and taking product orders.

But now more than ever, meeting e-commerce criteria can mean the difference between success and failure.

"A key determinant of success in the Internet economy will be the ability to digitize, manage and distribute information in the form of an electronic catalog that meets end-users' unique and varied requirements," is the warning sounded by the Boston-based Aberdeen Group in a report issued last year.

One of the keys to successfully launching a companye-catalog is understanding that it goes hand-in-hand with printed catalogues.

Today, traditional printed documents, the Internet and CD-ROMs are all just alternative ways to publish the same information.

With proper planning, a company can publish in all of these media simultaneously and synergistically, without wasted efforts. But serious problems can arise when a company manages and updates its e-catalog separately from its traditional print catalog.

Knowing how to manage an e-catalog can help ensure that the system put into place will be successful.

Your database: it's all about information

Traditionally, the heart and soul of sales is the product catalog. These days, the information in that catalog, including product descriptions, photographs and price information, can be stored, organized and updated in a single computer database. From that database, a company can print traditional catalogs, launch a Web site or publish its catalog as a CD-ROM.

The first step to any company's successful e-commerce venture is getting its database in order. That means choosing the right database strategy, and then organizing the information in a manner that makes it most useful.

Choosing the right database strategy--All databases are not created equal. A poorly designed database can be slow, hard to handle and difficult to expand as new products are added. Databases must work with the computers and programs already in use at a company and with systems found on the Internet, particularly those of industry portal Web sites such as GEMedicalSystems.com and BizSpaceHealthcare.com.

Those Web sites can act as a gateway for product information to reach other industry-specific sites.

Standardizing data--Companies need to analyze and standardize product information. Three kinds of data analyses should be conducted:

* Review existing product information--Determine what information is available through existing databases, images, technical drawings and pricing spreadsheets.

* Check for missing information--After collecting existing information, check for missing elements that can enhance product information. In many instances detailed product descriptions, graphics or technical specifications have been overlooked.

* Organize product lines--Follow up with the individuals responsible for contributing information to the database--such as product managers and marketing staff--to define product families and determine the features and attributes helpful in marketing those families.

Authoring and data management tools

After selecting a database format and assessing, collecting and organizing information currently available in-house, the time comes to actually build a database. A number of tools are necessary to create and manage database information.

Editorial interface--Information is entered and updated in a database using an editorial interface. This is nothing more than a computer program that allows individuals to input their information in a standardized format.

Work-flow program--Because many departments and individuals will enter and update product information into each database, it is important to build a work-flow program into the system. Such a program ensures that an organization's approval requirements are met and that there is proper oversight by supervisors of the work that is being done.

In the end, content authoring and management tools should be intuitive and easy to use. Proper manipulation of the database can help companies drastically reduce costs by streamlining the content management process.

Publishing your information

At this point, a company probably has its database program in place, connected with authoring and workflow management programs, information can now flow into the database from "content authors" with proper oversight and approvals.

That standardized information can be disseminated in a number of different ways--on the Web, in print, and on CD-ROM.

Web publishing--Web authoring software is used to create a Web-based e-catalog. The Web catalog will need dynamic search and data presentation to meet the needs of all users.

Different people--customer service representatives, salespeople, prospective customers and channel partners--need various types of information, and they often prefer to access it in different ways. They must be able to easily find the products they need, as well as view all of the supporting information so they can buy or recommend products.