Client Success Story

From $0 to Hero: Professional Medical Association Digitizes Business to Disrupt Industry

A large medical supplies company generates millions in revenue working with leading digital advisory and solutions company to digitally transform.

An innovative large-scale organization worked with Zaelab to implement the first-ever healthcare marketplace for streamlined ordering of medical supplies by 27,000 medical professionals. The result: millions of dollars in online revenue. But that was just the beginning…

Continue reading to learn:
  • How this leading enterprise and Zaelab worked together to implement a revenuegenerating commerce platform
  • How digital advisory helped the enterprise stay in front of ever-evolving customer demands
  • What happens after launch: how this large medical supplies company continues to achieve growth objectives
A new business began with no ecommerce presence, and therefore were not generating any revenue online. Since working with Zaelab to digitally transform and launch a commerce platform, this organization has generated millions of dollars in online sales.

Qasim Latif, Business Consultant, Zaelab

Leading enterprise digitally transforms — now what?

When this leading enterprise came to Zaelab, they had a vision: to implement the first-ever online marketplace for a group of medical specialists. Zaelab quickly aligned a dedicated group of experts to the organization’s project in order to gain a complete understanding of the business and market opportunity. Armed with insights and delivery experience, Zaelab implemented the SAP Customer Experience Commerce platform, and recommended a minimum viable product (MVP) to get the marketplace live, as quickly as possible.

The MVP approach allowed key stakeholders to provide feedback, ensuring each piece of development post-MVP was demand-driven.

Using a continuous innovation delivery method to add more site features and functionality, Zaelab improved the platform incrementally with minimal risk. Over time, more features were rolled out to the growing marketplace, which included capabilities like pharmaceutical sales.
The medical supplies company saw bountiful results — and quickly. The company went from no online revenue to multi- millions in record time. But what comes next? What happens after a company recognizes its vision?

The medical supplies company saw bountiful results — and quickly. The company went from no online revenue to multi- millions in record time. But what comes next? What happens after a company recognizes its vision?

“Launch is just the beginning,” says Evan Klein, CEO, Zaelab. “But commerce success is marked by constant iterations, responding to demand, and constantly anticipating new needs. The success this company saw was immediate, but long-term it was important to leverage our partnership to build customer loyalty, drive repeat transactions and appeal to new markets.”

Zaelab helps large scale medical supply company stay in front of customer demands, expanding into new markets

Often, companies will put an MVP launch date on a pedestal and set their sights on a live, stable, and revenue-generating site. But a long-term plan for sustained growth falls by the wayside, causing reaction versus proactive planning.

This was not the case for this organization — in fact, their challenge was the opposite. Working with Zaelab, the vision always went beyond the MVP, and it was a matter of prioritizing long-term competing needs. Focusing on balancing operational efficiencies with business growth initiatives, Zaelab helped the company set a clear path to success. This was accomplished by asking questions, challenging ideas, and making data-driven changes and adjustments to overarching strategies and project plans. This approach allowed the company and Zaelab to agree on deadlines and deliver customer-centric enhancements on time.

Key Integrations

  • Staples
  • Supplier API
  • Redshift
  • UPS, FedEx, USPS
  • CBS Payment Gateway

Beyond the MVP: Where the medical supplies company is today…

Success at this organization today goes beyond its original vision and the launch of the MVP.

Digital transformation calls for more than a Systems Integrator or Continuous Integration & Deployment partner. Working with a Digital Advisory & Solutions partner, like Zaelab, businesses like this one get the strategic insights and solutions required to deliver exceptional experiences and sustained growth.

In an effort to build loyalty among existing customers and generate demand in new markets, many key milestones and wins were recognized:

  • Out of state expansion
    When Zaelab first started working with the company, the marketplace was created for a Californian market. Since then, Zaelab has helped the company expand in new markets in western states, and are equipped for national expansion in 2019.
  • Infrastructure upgrade
    In order to provide the company with a highly reliable, available and scalable configuration, Zaelab conducted an infrastructure upgrade.
  • SAP Commerce upgrade
    Digital transformation is ever-evolving. What the market demands from commerce experiences frequently changes, and that’s why Zaelab helped the company upgrade from v.6.2 to v.6.7.
  • UX redesign
    Zaelab enhanced the user experience, positively impacting growth objectives by redesigning the storefront

“For any company embarking on digital transformation, fast and continuous innovation is critical,” says Kim Fajardo, Project Manager, Zaelab, “and the expectations at this organization were no different. In order to increase delivery velocity, Zaelab dedicated more resources in development and QA, resulting in a number of milestones for this business.”

Latif elaborates, “Zaelab implemented a daily meeting cadence to give our client visibility into projects, supported by dashboards, analytics and reports. The result: we have successfully deployed nearly 40 agile development sprints that enhanced core business processes, user interface, product data integration and reporting.”

Businesses don’t have finish lines: What’s next for this medical supplies company?

As the innovative organization continues to digitally evolve, their growth objectives increase. Delivering to new markets, constantly staying ahead of customer demands and ultimately becoming the preferred national supplier of dental supplies are the company’s top priorities.

Given the long standing relationship between the medical supplies company and Zaelab, Zaelab has an in-depth understanding of the business and is uniquely positioned to support growth objectives at the organization. With a dedicated team assigned to the company, Zaelab will provide advisory services to flag business opportunities and specific tactics required to accomplish growth goals.

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Company Snapshot

Industry: Public Sector
Sector: Medical Supplies
Revenue: Midmarket
Overview: This large scale organization is one of the largest US medical associations. A collective of visionary healthcare professionals, the organization provides consistent access to competitive pricing on medical supplies that are needed to sustain a medical practice long term.
Challenge: After working with Zaelab to implement the firstever online marketplace for medical specialists, the organization needed to maintain growth and stay in front of market demands.

Further relevant reading

If you enjoyed this case study, you may also like to read our latest whitepaper, Transforming into a Customer Centric Organization. The content covers how leading companies are creating better customer experiences to drive revenue. Customer experience is at the heart of digital transformation. Learn how to differentiate your business and gain profitability by completely understanding your customers’ needs and guiding their journey at every stage in the customer lifecycle.

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