HealthContentAdvisors

Project Snaps Shots

From board room to back office, here is a sampling of recent assignments that illustrate our expertise.

New Product Development

Client Situation: Life Science Publisher, preparing to launch new database product in a space long dominated by several large players, needed to confirm a gap in market for a product with their planned feature set and pricing.

HCA Results: Relying on knowledge of the top products, the companies that produce them, and interviews with target buyers, HCA delivered an in-depth product comparison matrix, along with graphic illustrations of publisher’s relative position on multiple features, including price. This, supplemented with HCA’s commentary, guided the client toward clearly articulating the new product’s value in their marketing collateral and sales channels.

Strategic Planning

Client Situation: Medical and Life Science Publisher, facing the need to implement new publishing technologies and provide added-value to their core products in an environment with downward pricing pressure, required expert assessment of market conditions and evaluation of the new product investment allocations.

HCA Results: After evaluating the displacement risk from new technology and search engines for key players in the segment and assessing key competitive products; feature set review, differentiators and likely near-term evolution, HCA developed product evolution recommendations to guide clients’ ongoing planning efforts.

Competitive Intelligence

Client Situation: Maintaining a finger on the pulse of key competitors and key trends is essential to all of our clients in the rapidly evolving healthcare publishing sector.

HCA Results: HCA prepares in-depth profiles of a primary competitor or a group of competitors. Our profiles rely on a solid foundation of financial analysis, product and technology assessments, and executive evaluations. We put competitor information in the context of our clients’ situational need, supplementing secondary sources with customer interviews or surveys, and add insight we have honed over decades of experience analyzing and forecasting the future of electronic publishing.

Due Diligence

Client Situation: For a leading Private Equity Firm, HCA provided confirmatory due diligence on a proposed investment in a healthcare information provider.

HCA Results: HCA conducted a comprehensive review of the target company’s primary products, including interviews with major customers, analysis of competitive environment, review of product features and formats, and an assessment of the company’s likelihood of achieving its five-year forecast.

Acquisition Integration

Client Situation: A major Healthcare Publisher required post-acquisition assistance in rationalizing and integrating the online and data publishing division of the acquired company.

HCA Results: HCA provided interim management of the division during the course of the engagement, while simultaneously reviewing the division’s product line, organizational structure, systems and procedures. Process changes were implemented on a real-time basis as products were reviewed to develop full product plans based on a complete competitive review and customer interviews.