encounter tight capital expenditures to
launch such applications.
Technological Analysis. MedTrack’s RFID
solutions straddle the technology of semicon-
ductors, communication equipment, com-
puters, and software industries commonly
known as the high-tech industry. The high-
tech industry’s growth has been quantified
by Moore’s law, which has become a self-ful-
filling prophecy of a rapid drop in prices
along with a rapid increase in capacity. Rapid
advances in the high-tech industry have led
to rapid growth and increase in productivity.
However, such growth has also led to short-
er life cycles, shorter boom-bust cycles,
increase in burnout, and rapid consolidation.
Although consumers eventually benefit from
rapidly changing technology, start-up compa-
nies in nascent markets are often vulnerable
to unpredictable forces.
Sociocultural Analysis. The high-tech
industry’s main challenge seems to be in
maintaining a competent workforce in the
face of rapid change, competition, develop-
ment, and globalization. Globalization has
not only shifted production of hardware to
low-cost countries, but has also shifted value-
added services like software development to
countries such as India, Ireland, and Israel.
Such a shift has caused strain on the availabil-
ity of local skills for implementation and
deployment of software solutions. Shifting of
vital jobs and opportunities from the United
States to off shore sites has the potential to
produce a political backlash that might result
in stifling software developmental efforts.
The software industry also faces the chal-
lenge of decreasing the digital divide (divide
between developed nations and developing
nations).
DEVELOPMENT AND
PRODUCTION
Manufacturing and Production
The offering will consist of a combination of
hardware devices, software platform and sup-
port, maintenance, and training. The manu-
facturing model will consist of outsourcing
or contracting hardware components while
developing the value-added software and
application expertise in-house. MedTrack will
broadly design the application/software plat-
form and database, but they will be out-
sourced for development. In addition to cus-
tomization and implementation of the solu-
tion, MedTrack will deliver customer train-
ing, support, and maintenance.
MedTrack’s strategy toward successful
start-up and launch of operations will heavi-
ly depend on applying the “Design for Six
Sigma” methodology, which advocates
prelaunch application of the six-sigma
approach to designing a product that results
in high quality standards, as opposed to
quickly launching the product followed by
user identification of glitches.Advantages of Outsourcing. There are sev-
eral advantages to contract manufacture of
hardware components. MedTrack’s hardware
requirements are mainly semiconductor
products such as computer servers, user
workstations, and RFID transponders and
receivers. The semiconductor industry
undergoes rapid changes, as the life span of
high-tech products averages around two
years. This high-paced growth demands
heavy capital investments, which MedTrack
can circumvent by outsourcing. However,
MedTrack will form strong and sustainable
partnerships with suppliers of hardware com-
ponents.
Design and development of software plat-
form and applications were formerly done
mostly by the firms launching such applica-
tions. However, the recent trend in the
industry is toward outsourcing the develop-
ment of these applications. The main advan-
tage in outsourcing development of software
is that MedTrack will be in a position to
engage professional software programmers
while keeping its head count low during its
early growth.Selection Criteria.MedTrack will aim at
long-term partnerships with well-established430 ENTREPRENEURSHIP CASE