Cummins campaign c1555

OBJECTIVES PHASE ONE STEP ONE:

FastCat is a small to medium sized company that provides medical software to healthcare establishments to assist them with the ease of accessing information for the office staff as well as their patients. Since FastCat is competing with much larger companies and the industry is experiencing increased demand due to government regulations they must be aware and fulfill their objectives to ensure success. FastCat must improve the flow of information and data reporting to be certain patients are receiving the correct treatment.

The first objective is to improve the care of patients and make sure that doctors and patients have the information they need when they need it. To do this they will need to focus on the patient-physician interface, provide web and mobile services, ensure the ease of communication between physicians and patients, provide privacy to users, and make their systems error free.

Supporting this objective is the objective to make sure they keep cost down; not only to help them increase revenue but to make their software affordable to customers. To help increase revenue FastCat will try to shave off or better train customers who are requiring a lot of resources and making the company little to no profit. Implementing training programs for medical staff,physicians, and patients will be important to make sure they know how to properly use the products on their own. This is also related to the company objective of efficiency. FastCat will try to move some of their support and manufacturing offshore in hopes to lower cost, but not quality. FastCat wants to be cautious that lowering cost will never lower quality or efficiency; two things they believe the company is established off of.

Keeping cost down for the customers will be extremely important in retaining current customers and acquiring new customers because the demand is increasing.

This leads me to another major objective of creating a competitive advantage that is sustainable. FastCat wants to offer their customers customized packages while their competitors only offer standard packages. Right now the demand is at its peak but when everything settles down FastCat hopes to have created an advantage that they can sustain and drive out competitors who entered the industry during the growth.

The HITECH Act provides FastCat with an incredible opportunity to grow their customer base and increase profits in a short period of time. In order for FastCat to compete in the health information technology boom, they need to attract many more quality employees to their company. With the $30 billion dollars the government is investing into the HITECH incentive program, Fastcat will be able to spend more on human capital, in order to keep future employees from going to other competing companies.

Another staple objective is the goal to grow the company. FastCat wants to acquire new customers as well as retain old ones. They hope to create new features and products, take them nationwide, and explore international potential. The company also understands that without the talent of its employees, growth is not possible. FastCat wants to ensure that they have enough employees to allow them to take advantage of growth opportunities. They want to promote from within for upper level positions hoping this will help them retain talented and quality employees; another objective of the company. FastCat wants their employees to not only be satisfied but also engaged in the company. They know that this will also help support their objective of sustaining a competitive advantage. In addition to retaining employees FastCat wants to make sure that their compensation strategy will help differentiate them. They want to provide employees with a strategy that will attract, retain, motivate, and comply with company values. They know that in the upcoming time it will be especially important to retain and maintain quality software engineers and marketing people.

Although the company wants to fulfill all of their objectives, it is also extremely important to them that the values of the company, the environment, employees attitudes, and customer care is not jeopardized. It is a number one priority when making a decision to ensure that it is the best thing financially, meets or exceed customer expectations, and is up to their high quality standards. In order to be the best medical software available they must operate efficiently, be consistently reliable, and have high quality standards.

B.) How detailed/tailored? AND C.) Hierarchical versus flat?

*Based on Cases in Compensation book

We recommend a tailored structure along with hierarchical. One of Fastcat’s objectives is for current employees to feel engaged. One way to do that is by providing clear expectations through detailed job descriptions that specify the tasks of each job. A tailored structure would allow for stream lining policies and procedures in order for all employees to be aligned with the companies objectives and mission. This also encourages teamwork among various departments which will create stronger sense of commitment.