Healthcare Industry: IT Systems

closelyness c be Industry IT Systems healthc ar work gain seen several potpourris by means ofout the days to respond to changing demands of the population. The present break drivers and issues that s dissipateholders ( perseverings, health cautiousness succeedrs, vendors and government activity) in the health wield firmament human face argon seasoning population, sum upd burden of chronic conditions, rising normal demand/expectation for timbre health c be, fragmented and uncoordinated health c ar aids and rapid advances in reading technology.At present, cultivation technology is considered a strategic necessity by world build organizations instead of vindicatory a supporting hammer. To obtain a competitive advantage in an environment with intense competition, it is vital for government activitys to occasion a good deal sophisticated information technology alsols to address the ch every last(predicate)enges of prep being and deploying remain s in the short limit and the identification, re seem and design of hereafter dodging. education technology (IT) is rapidly fit integrated with healthc be to rectify processes and communications, support determination making, reduce inaccuracies, and improve patient safety. The advancement of aesculapian exam science through the years has fake possible the use of much expensive equipment and the la interrogation technology. This pass on pass on healthcare contri howeverers and patients to gain access to health information easily and gum olibanum has the potential inequality to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of health care. As the healthcare intentness is information intensive and knowledge intensive, in that respect is overly a advise to publish health care information and knowledge.health care dusts vary from sylvan to country just now they all get a common aim that is to witness the healthcare ineluctably of target populations. In this re port, I testament be focal pointing on healthcare IT in capital of capital of capital of capital of capital of Singapore context.health care System in SingaporeSingapore has a dual health care form where individuals stern choose between universal and confidential providers. The government through Ministry of Health (MOH) manages the frequent healthcare system. MOH plays a major(ip) role in formulating national health policies, coordinating the improvement and mean of the cosmos and cliquish healthcare sectors and regulating health standards. MOHs mission is to get ahead equit fitting health and reduce illness, to acknowledge out Singaporeans cook access to good and affordable healthcare and to pursue checkup outdolence (Ministry of Health, 2007). MOHs vision is to produce the worlds most cost- legal healthcare system to hold on Singaporeans good health. tar coordinatehealth care function in Singapore are provided by dissimilar types of providers from primary ca re to tertiary care and to step-down care. first-string CarePrimary care includes primary health check treatment, preventive healthcare and health education (Info-communications Development Authority of Singapore, 2009). In Singapore, primary health care is provided through outpatient polyclinics and mystical medical checkup practitioners clinics. 80% of the dishs are provided by private practitioners while the re chief(prenominal)ing 20% by government polyclinics.Conveniently hardened in town centres all over the island, polyclinics are one stop health centres which moodyered dishs much(prenominal) as outpatient medical care, maternal and child care health.Secondary and Tertiary CareFor the supplemental and tertiary care, 80% of the infirmary care being provided by the frequent sector and the remaining 20% by the private sector.This public sector is organised into two vertically integrated delivery networks, National healthcare Group (NHG) and Singapore Health Services ( SingHealth) that operate as non-for-profit private companies. Having these two groups modify more integrated and come isolated quality healthcare work through greater cooperation and collaboration among public sector health care providers. Each cluster consists of both general hospitals that provide multi-disciplinary healthcare services and specialised hospitals in various disciplines e.g. obstetrics and gynaecology and ophthalmology.The private sector provides similar specialist disciplines and comparable facilities to the public clusters. The two main providers are Raffles health proof Group and driveway Group Healthcare (Info-communications Development Authority of Singapore, 2009).Step-Down CareVoluntary welfare organisations (VWOs) provide most of the step-down care services. They run nursing homes, inpatient hospices, family hospitals and chronic sick hospitals. quadruple of the public acute hospitals overly provide geriatric units (Info-communications Developm ent Authority of Singapore, 2009).Public Healthcare Delivery Structure unmatched of the objectives of forming the two clusters is to facilitate consolidation of healthcare services at the various levels. The clusters have begun introducing measures to integrate primary healthcare at the polyclinics and subaltern care at the hospitals.A Vision for 2 beginning(a) Century HealthcareIntelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015) is a 10-year masterplan to military service Singapore materialise the potential of infocomm. The vision of iN2015 is An Intelligent Nation, a Global City, powered by Infocomm. The stopping point for the Healthcare and Biomedical Sciences sectors is To accelerate sectoral transformation through an infocomm-enabled personalised healthcare delivery system to fall upon high quality clinical care, service excellence, cost-effectiveness and strong clinical research. (IDA, 2006) Refer to Figure 1 in appendage to see how it leaveing tone like. backbone drivers of change in Singapores healthcare sector were identified and a number of likely shifts and changes to the system were predicted (IDA, 2006).Key DriversShifts/ChangesAgeing population of chronic conditionsFocus on prevention, health onward motion and strongness careRising public expectations of healthcare services combine and patient-centred system of deliveryFragmented and relatively uncoordinated healthcare servicesConsistent widespread application of evidence-based medicineVery rapid advances in infocomm, medical science and technologies and biomedical researchGreater role of members of the public in managing their own healthGreater facilitation of information flows between healthcare sector and biomedical sciencesStrategies and Programmes(IDA, 2006)The targeted outcome is a well-integrated quality healthcare, cost effective healthcare services and greater ability of public to manage their health. To mystify about successful railway line change using IT, healthcare providers should ens ure that IT works in performance with meaningful changes in organisational functions and processes (Rothenberg, 1995).How IT tush be employ?In the healthcare industry, one suite ascendent is not common because certain user departments depart require to have more in-depth functionalities than others. A more common approach in the industry is better(p) of breed where it attempts to give full equal weight in wrong of functionalities and features to individual user departments. Some considerations for best of breed approach areIt deals with more than one vendorA sine qua non to connect or interface the opposite applications to provide a richly integrated solution approaching upgrades issues.Therefore, there is a need to strike a balance wheel between having too numerous application platforms and departmental requirements or functionalities (Online advisor Software).IT Infrastructure for the Healthcare IndustryFunctional interoperability is needed in ordain for calculator s to be able to share clinical entropy with one another. Computers mustiness have functions to be able to physically communicate, send and bring forth documents and entropy files, share selective information and information.Therefore, there is a need for integration, standards and interface engines to build the healthcare industry infrastructure.MediNetMediNet forms the backbone of medical system in Singapore (IDA, 2006). It is Singapores nationwide computer network for medical and health care residential area that focuses on five components (Lim, 1990)Central Claim Processing System(CCPS) processing of claims in hospital billsNational long-suffering Master Index (NPMI) consists of patients risk particularors, dose allergies and demographic dataProcurement electronic procurement of medical and functional suppliesNotification Transmission of notifications to government agencies selective information Services Access to topical anesthetic and foreign databasesMediNet l ink up up computer systems of all participants (MOH, Central prudent Fund Board (CPFB), Government Bodies, restructured hospitals, private hospitals, general practice clinics) in the healthcare delivery system so that they will be able to communicate, exchange data and access common applications on the network (ANNEX C FACTSHEET Infocomm Milestones, 2006).Health Level 7A group of healthcare computer systems users who founded the Health Level 7 organization in 1987 started start outing the HL7 protocol to create that common language that allows healthcare applications to share clinical data with each another. Over snip the HL7 interoperability protocol became a nationally, internationally and globally accredited standard (HL7 Singapore). Health Level Sevens domain is clinical and administrative data.Interface EngineInterface engine is a parcel program intended to simplify the creation and perplexity of interfaces between narrate applications and systems, either inside the orga nization or with other affiliated organisation (McLeod CG, Inc., 2006). It carries out messaging between systems and usually handles any mapping, translation and data modification required to ensure the effective exchange of data. Examples of common interface engines used in the healthcare industry are Cloverleaf, Datagate and Openlink (MDI Solutions, 2009). Imagine in a hospital where there are different departments needing different functionalities and features, different applications might be running. It would be very complex and technically nasty to maintain separate interfaces between them.Healthcare ApplicationsEnterprise Resource prep (ERP)The public healthcare sector uses SAP industry solution for hospital (IS-H) (SAP, 2008). It supports patient management, medical and nursing documentation, and patient accounting, and integrates these with financial accounting, autocratic and materials management. The information system contains evaluations of patient and hospital data t hat fucking be used both internally and externally. It also contains a communication component that enables data transfer both inside the hospital and to external parties.The picture below shows the SAP footprint in Singapore Healthcare Industry. Only Parkway Health (Private Sector) and Republic Polytechnic (for educational purpose) are not under(a) the public healthcare sector.Source (SAP, 2008)Case Study infirmary nurture System at St Andrews Community Hospital (InfoComm Singapore Portal, 2008)St Andrews Community Hospital was relocated in April 2005 to a larger premise in Simei. The change in hospital and care processes was the drive to upgrade the Hospital Information System (HIS) at St Andrews Community Hospital from its manual administrative system and disposition stock which require tedious work to a more effective way to process information by technology.The project team were focused on being user-centric rather than IT-centric in the choice of an HIS. user departments were pro-active and committed during the pre-selection brainstorming and consultancy and during the carrying into action stages of the modernistic system.The VESALIUS, a consummate HIS provided NovaHealth which overflys front-end modules such as Appointments, Registrations, ADT and billing and ancillary support modules such as Pharmacy, medical checkup Records, back-end Inventory and integration to the Financial System.The benefits of the system areAssisting management to interbreed costs down to the minute detailsIncreasing efficiency as manual and administrative work are being minimisedEnabling links to the MOHs Elderly and Continuing Care system for online submission of information to receive government subsidies and the CCPS for automated submission for Medisave claimsServing as a check and balance for inventory layaboutvass and reducing waste.As a resolvent, there is no need for Pharmacy staff to spend time physically checking stock levels when transferring items from the various stores in St Andrews Community Hospital. Having a lean and efficient team complemented by the HIS, paperwork is also minimised.An Integrated electronic medical examination DatabaseElectronic medical personality (EMR) stores patients medical information through IT to enable communion crossways healthcare institutions (MOH SingHealth NHG, 2004). It ignore be made more deposit through appropriate IT access and security safeguards.The MOH holds the vision of One Singaporean, One Family Physician, One Medical Record to improve long term care. EMR provides medical staff convoluted in patient treatment with quick and surgical access to patients essential medical information (Yong, 2007). The integrated patient database system was thus vital in Singapore as there is a need to get the right information to the right multitude in particular in an industry where a second could mean a difference between a life and death situation.EMR word meaning seatThe EMR Adoption Mod el is devised by HIMSS Analytics to track the progress of hospitals towards creating a paperless patient record system. It is based on an eight-stage scale which starts at zero (HIMSS Analytics). The EMR Adoption Model Structure ensures all application capabilities must be operational forrader that stage grass be achieved as it sets a foundation for incidental stages. Refer to Figure 2 in Appendix for the EMR Adoption Model.Electronic Medical Record Exchange (EMRX)EMRX is an initiative by MOH and the two public healthcare clusters (SingHealth NHG) to share electronic medical record across all public hospitals and polyclinics in Singapore.The EMRX will have the attach toing information (MOH SingHealth NHG, 2004) pass summary which summarises recent hospitalization records including the treatment received and clinical varietyOperation reports and laboratory results, including radiology images and scanned medical recordsMedicines prescribed with drug allergic reaction historyIt w as launched in April 2004 to focus on the improvement of patient care outcomes. It is a practical(a) and incremental implementation where SingHealth and NHG first developed the key systems at bottom selected institutions and then replicate in other institution within the cluster and eventually across clusters and where practical with the private sector.The benefits of EMRX are (MOH SingHealth NHG, 2004) discontinue coordinated care for patients moving across different providers and improved levels of healthcare delivery.Better clinical decisions, with access to complete and legible clinical histories, and updated test results at the providers fingertips. Reduce the risks of transcription errors and missing records.Save cost through the avoidance of unnecessary repeat tests and investigationsBetter distribution of careFacilitation and follow up of other IT based applications such electronic prescriptions and clinical decision support systemsPotential for 24 hour access to real-time data for up to date results reportingProvision for data security and audit features to be built into the system.Current EMRX ImplementationThe aim of the clusters is to implement the EMR in all institutions within each cluster incrementally. SingHealth and NHG manage their clusters EMR independently. SingHealth started using an EMR system in SGH in year 2000. The main application SingHealth has used to develop its EMR system is iSOFTs iClinical Manager Solution (E-HEALTH-MEDIA LTD, 2004). Similarly, the National Healthcare group has also started using EMR systems in Tan Tock Seng Hospital and National University Hospital. EMRX was developed to enable secure cross-cluster exchange of patient information. This is to ensure that a patients record can be retrieved regardless where he or she seeks treatment.EMRX was later extended to healthcare partners, providing a central capability for effortless flowment or records across the public healthcare clusters, residential district hospit als and Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), facilitating care delivery.SAF Electronic Medical RecordsThe SAF healthcare system is centred on the SAF EMR system which is known as Patient Care Enhancement System 2 (PACES 2). It has clinical data repository, administrative function for manpower and logistics and also has the feature for research or analytic thinking (Wong, 2009). The system connects all SAF medical centres across Singapore to allow for online and real time medical info retrieval and simultaneous enamoring. Figure 3 in Appendix shows how it is connected.NHG PolyclinicBukit Batok Polyclinic was the first to adopt the electronic medical records system. With paperless medical records, patients medical records can now be retrieved while diagnoses are entered into the system (Hoe, 2009). This trip is part of MOH vision of integrating services between the healthcare providers.Benefits to Patients intensify safety as there is a reduced patient risk through improved legibility of auberges.Reduced hold propagation due to the improved processBetter care coordination and disease management through sharing of medical recordsBenefits to the polyclinicQuality Continuous improvement of quality care and patient service through error monitoring and excreting of unnecessary proceduresProductivity Saving time and effort that would otherwise be spent on correcting lost and illegible rules of orders. Furthermore, there is no long-lasting need to go to the records office, retrieve the physical paper records and bring it up to either the doctors or nurses room which can take up to 20 minutes or half an hour.Access More readily useable information and data of patients for healthcare professionals to make high-velocity critical decisionsFuture Outlook National Electronic Health Record (NEHR)The next human body of electronic health record is moving towards creating a health record that is in fact personalised and accessible everywhere to be utilize by April 2011 (Ch annelNewsAsia, 2010). With NEHR, all key information such as a patients demographics, allergies, clinical diagnoses, medication history, X-rays, laboratory investigations and discharge summaries will be fully exchangeable between various healthcare providers.Due to the costly implementation, whole a number of primary and step-down care providers, including GPs, polyclinics and a community hospital will be linked up first (ChannelNewsAsia, 2010). The full implementation of NEHR will take many years as it has to cover the entire healthcare ecosystem and not just the public sector. The decision on whether to implement each phase will have to be warrant on cost-benefit analysis.Refer to Appendix for an attached article on What could healthcare in Singapore look like in 2020? (Ministry of Health, 2008).Medical Information ServicesIT is also widely used as an information tool by both medical professional and the public. Several government and privately initiated websites provide inform ation for health care services and databases for medical connect issues. Web portals provide the following servicesSearching for medical professionals within Singapore The MOH has a list of online resources to search for healthcare professionals in Singapore (MOH, 2007)Online pharmacies For precedent, Changi General Hospital myPharmacy is the first online hospital pharmacy in Singapore (Changi General Hospital, 2004).Medical publications One specimen of medical publications is PubMed (PubMed).Health link publications Some examples of health related publications from SingHealth (SingHealth Academy ).Health service reports aline watch provide patients with timely information to arrange their visit. The number of patients waiting for registration and consultation, live webcam images showing the waiting areas for registration, consultation and pharmacy/ retribution and peak non-peak periods are displayed online (Government of Singapore, 2007).Medical schemes such as Medifund, Medisave MediShield Information regarding these schemes can be found in CPF Board website (Central Provident Fund Board, 2009). warlike AdvantagesThe growth and survival in the healthcare industry depends on how well Singapore is able to compete in this highly and competitive market. With the integration of the healthcare infrastructure, the advanced medical technology and the highly skilled professionals, Singapore has managed to establish a reputation of being a world class healthcare hub, the ability to deliver innovative healthcare solutions, a complete range of services and quality healthcare providers (EDB, 2009). There will be a strong demand from the population for quality healthcare and appraise added services with rising economic affluence and longer lifespan. then, there is a need to ensure that healthcare research and discipline continues to be support so that Singapore healthcare services sector can excel and be a source of competitive advantage.To sustain the com petitive advantages, Singapore should be aware of their strengths and weaknesses and also of their competitors. The approach for the future must be one that focuses on possible improvements, supporting innovations and facilitating changes. The focus will have increasingly to be on openness to new influences, a willingness to confess different schools of thought and regularitys of training and a search for the best operational expertise from around the world (Desker, 1991). Innovation is needed to overcome the future challenges ahead to maximise Singapores competitive advantage. Healthcare providers should enhance their medical and service offerings, develop new healthcare products, and promote a pioneering spirit that will dish in dealing with evolving patients necessitate, and in creating holistic and flawless experiences for patients (Tan, 2009).Thomson Medical heart and soulThe telephone line Times reported that Thomson Medical is leading the healthcare sector (Ramchandani , 2010). Focusing on three core areas patient expectations, perceived quality and perceived value to improve patient bliss, Thomson Medical Centre has been continuously innovating to provide greater value-added services to its patients. Their redesigned patient-centric workflow had helped them gain a competitive advantage over their rivalsUse of technology and raise in service and product standards has improved patient care and satisfaction meliorate in-patient , out-patient and administrative processes by using touch screen billing in set out of a key-in method, which has halved the time spent on billing and has resulted in cost savings of $2000 a month.Reduce waiting time for gateway and discharges with express check outs, drive admissions and courtesy and in-room discharges.Act on service recovery. When there is an unhappy patient with service, they move sporting to resolve the problem. uprise front line staff to raise service standards which resulted in an increase in the number of compliments as compared to complaints (4.91 to 9.21).Create a positive patient experience by having a resort room ambience, offering concierge service, a welcome drink and, in the case of promethium rooms, luxurious dcor and relaxing spa music.Introduce value added services such as the interactive website ThomsonBaby.com to help new mothers prepare for the bloodline journey and save them time and money.The hospitals efforts in cultivating lasting relationships have also led to an increase in patient loyalty. 32.2% of its patients were repeat patients in 2009, compared to 26.8% in 2008. Besides that, there was an increase in the number of babies born.Thomson Medical Centres inscription in insureing patient call for and receiving feedback on their stay and their expectations at key hospital touch points has thus improved patient satisfaction level.ChallengesThe vision for an integrated and continued patient- centric healthcare system requires practical IT systems, act ive engagement of patients and suitably aligned financial framework. In the development of the Singapore healthcare system, there are some issues that hinder the implementation of healthcare integration due to unique preciseities.In general, the problems faced by the players involved can be classified into five categoriesClinical and medical practices Often built around specialization but could be better oriented towards integrated careFinancing framework GPs, Specialist Outpatient Clinics (SOCs) and patients does not see the incentive for integration of careEstablishment of a new idea mindset towards integration of care for players involvedOrganizational processes Enhanced by bridging communication and IT gaps, coordinating across sectors and defining workflows for the smooth move of patients between caregiversIT systems Better connected across sectors and allow for the transferability of patient records.As shown in Figure 4 in the Appendix, these challenges have over the years l ed to ingrained mindsets and behavioural practices of parties at multiple levels of the system, further clogging the integration of care (Ministry of Health, 2008). The various challenges and loophole that currently exist are the result of institution-centric and tertiary-centric system of healthcare.As EMRX becomes widely accessible, there are concerns over patient confidentiality and privacy. For instance, legal implications of providing EMRs beyond cluster boundaries were considerable and attaining consent from individual patients would have been burdensome and stalled widespread accessibility of EMRs (MOH SingHealth NHG, 2004). This shows that there are vital respectable concerns over the privacy of personal medical records.Furthermore, the infrastructure for data normalisation needed to achieve this integrated healthcare system is getting more intricate and costly due to the vast amount of data involved from different independent systems. Despite SingHealth and NHG adoption o f the HL7 v2.3, data exchange could not be easily achieved in spite of HL7 v2.3. This is because the standard was open to variations that hampered direct interoperability. Moreover, modification of systems to enable data interoperability would have been costly, without direct benefits to the clusters (Lee, Lim, Tan).ConclusionPreviously, healthcare sector has lagged behind other sectors in the adoption of IT for its key process. Healthcare providers need to canvass the way businesses are conducted. IT can be a powerful enabler for an information intensive industry like healthcare through automation, knowledge management, business process reengineering, and even artificial intelligence. A pragmatic approach should be adopted to consider the current status and to focus on implementing immediate goals that would bring about meaningful changes in organisational functions and processes within a reasonable time frame.The use of IT to create value in a patient-centric approach to care is likely to contribute significantly to the boilersuit level of care that patients can benefit from. Innovation can help healthcare providers to gain a competitive advantage. The success of some healthcare provider as mention above has shown that IT can help in the healthcare sector to improve healthcare quality, reduce costs and to meet some of todays trends in demographics and disease burden.This quote which is published in NHG annual review 2007-2008 shows the importance of IT,Technology is our enabler. We use technology to record and distribute information with higher precision, accuracy and safety. More importantly, it allows healthcare to be delivered safer, faster and better.(National Healthcare Group Polyclinics, 2008)In the enthusiasm to adopt and invest in IT, it is important to note that there are some barriers in the move toward an integrated healthcare system as stated in the abovementioned section. Addressing and overcoming these challenges will involve the collaborat ion and cooperation of players at all levels of the system, across both the public and private sectors.Learning points / OpinionsStrategyTechnology should be used as a supporting tool not to steer health care reform. To transform Singapores health care system into a modern and responsive 21st-century health care system, a practical IT system which is consumer-focused is needed. In particular, it needs to be competitive in terms of determine and quality because that is what consumers look for. A tripartite model of health care regulation, involving the active exponentiation of empowered consumers, is Singapores best hope for containing costs and ensuring quality of care.What is done well?A committee to plan for the future development in healthcareiN2015 Healthcare and Sub-Committee came out with strategies and programmes to help address todays challenge and support the developmental opportunities. It aims to achieve high quality clinical care, service excellence, cost-effectivene ss and strong clinical research.Improve business process with ITIT has played an important role in the delivery and development of healthcare services in this information age with applications ranging from finance and personnel administration to medical equipment operations. Healthcare service administrations have become more efficient and responsive, reducing patient waiting time and paper work. Medical equipments have become more accurate, laboratory results can be processed more quickly and effective communication among medical staff in Singapore and those overseas has become easier.What more can be doneUser InvolvementIT investment decisions must litigate the best interests of the key players involved. It is important to register the users and their work flow and requirements as a one size or solution may not fit all. Flexibility is needed as each department requires different functionalities.Express clearly the benefits and value for the changeUsers involved need to understan d the strategic goals of the organization and understand how IT, from technical and managerial perspectives, can help to achieve them. The success of IT investments is to ensure users see the benefit and value of IT so that they will be motivated to make the change.Limitations of ITHealthcare providers should be careful of the limitations of technology and have a deep understanding of the information search behaviours of their target audience. Health care is still a hi atomic number 18 Consumers Central to merchandise Activities?Are Consumers Central to merchandising Activities?In view of the dynamic temperament of the trade environment, to what extent do you consider consumers to be, in practice, central to trade activities?Words count 1621 words merchandise is the analyzing, organizing, planning, and controlling of the firms customer-impinging resources, policies, and activities with a view to settle withing the needs and wants of chosen customer groups at a profit. (Kotler and Keller, 1967) 1The main purpose of any business is to make profit. To do so, their customers are necessary. The role of merchandise is to anticipate and identify consumers needs and wants, in order to satisfy them efficiently and profitably.2In view of the dynamic nature of the merchandise environment, to what extent are consumers, in practice, central to marketing activities? setoff of all, it is necessary to define what characterizes the marketing environment, and in what way this environment is dynamic. Secondly, we will see how the consumer is central to marketing activities. Finally, we will discuss about the relative importance of the consumers in these activities and the other factors that can also influence them.The marketing environment consists of external factors that affect the companies and their ability to satisfy customers.2 There are two shots to this marketing environment the macro-environment, and the micro-environment.The PESTEL factors are the factors found in the macro-environment political, environmental, genial/cultural, scientific, economical and legal.3 They are societal factors, thus not controllable and the companies need to adapt to these factors. In the macro-environment is included the demographical factor. The study of the demographic environment can help predict the size of the market of a certain product. For example if the number of elderly people is going to rise, the potential market for solitude homes will grow. The same goes for a change in the number of children, which could adjoin the number of schools and teachers needed.4Companies need to adapt to changes in the micro-environment as well. The factors in the micro-environment are the ones close to the company, making them easier to control customers, competitors, distributors, suppliers, and other departments within the company.For example, if a company has competitors satisfying the same needs with a similar product but at a lower price, it wont be able to shell out its product and make profit out of it.Companies make use of marketing research and marketing intelligence to collect information about the marketing environment in order to adapt their marketing strategies. Marketing takes place in a dynamic environment these external factors change constantly, and companies need to be aware of these changes taking place in the marketing environment in order to adapt themselves efficiently and effectively, and be able to keep on answering consumers needs and wants.5To satisfy their target consumers, marketers need to understand them. They need to study the existing and potential markets. Resources need to be efficiently managed in order to meet the identified needs in these markets.2Marketing orientation is important because different customers have different needs. In order to meet the specific needs of each customer, firms have to adapt. Answering everyones needs is not a realistic thing, which is why segmentation is used. Segmentat ion is the method used to separate the population into specific segments, which contains customers with similar needs. Understanding the needs of these segments of population will allow the determination of the marketing strategy that will be used in a specific business plan.6The marketing strategy determines the actions that will be taken over time to achieve the objectives of the company. Marketing decisions are based on the 4Ps, also called marketing miscellanea Product, Price, Place and Promotion. The four components of this marketing mix are determined by the target consumers.7As said before, the purpose of any business is to make profit, and it needs to satisfy the consumers for that to happen. The product needs to fulfil the customers need of course, but not only. The product also has to be at an acceptable price in the eyes of the consumers for them to buy it. The price is what makes money for the company, it is determined by the production costs and the competition, as wel l as by how much the customers are willing to pay for the product. On the one hand, if the price is too high, consumers wont buy, which means the company wont achieve its sales target. On the other hand, if it is too low, the target will be achieved but there will be no profit made out of it. 4Price has to be chosen accordingly as well as place. Different types of consumers will need the product to be available at specific places. A very expensive product, such as a luxury item, will not necessarily be available at the local supermarket for example, but most certainly in a specific shop or place. Consumers also prefer to buy products when they are located close to their homes and workplaces.8In order to answer consumers needs profitably, marketers have to use segmentation to target their market, and match their marketing strategy to their target consumers needs.4 Thus making the consumers central to the companys marketing activities.Lets take Microsoft as an evolutionary example of changes in the marketing environment with the scientific factor (macro-environment) and the companys competition (micro-environment).9Recently, Microsoft has struggled to find its place in a fast changing digital and technological environment. Microsoft was and still is in consumers mind the leader in Personal Computers. They are now lagging behind competitors like Apple or Samsung, and are trying to develop other devices like tablets, smartphones, consoles, etc. They even acquired Nokias smartphone business in order to do so. They developed a new strain of their operating system that works on every platform, including their console Xbox which provides a cloud based connectivity that consumers are looking for. Their change in strategy to provide consumers what they need in this era of technological improvements has paid off Microsofts sales are trending upward since the past few years.9In order to keep his place in the market, Microsoft had to change its strategy to improve its solutions to satisfy todays consumers after being left behind by competitors and technological advances.To this point, we can affirm that consumers are therefore essential and central to marketing activities. Marketing is all about satisfying consumers profitably, and marketing research and marketing strategies are calculated around them. Despite their importance, consumers are only one of the forces in the marketing environment.Changes in the marketing landscape are so fast that it is now more and more difficult for companies to adapt.One of the most powerful factors of marketing activities is technology 40% of the worlds population now has access to the meshwork, compared to 1% in 1995.10 The vast majority owns a smartphone that also has access to the Internet. The Internet and social media are thus also used for marketing purposes as well11 websites, adverts, e-mails, videos, etc. Influencers on the Internet are also important for marketing research they can be people who have blogs and websites for example, and are recyclable to marketers for them to better understand current trends and interests.12 Companies can also sponsor people such as bloggers and video makers (YouTube in particular) by making them review products and/or services online.13Globalization is another factor that influences marketing activities. lashings of companies now face global competition. Also, when a company decides to sell its products abroad, it has to take into account the tastes and habits of the selected country. For example, for the French market, Nutella is manufactured to be more spreadable, due to the fact that French people mostly eat it on baguettes, making it more difficult to spread.14Nowadays, companies also need to take into account the environmental aspect for their marketing activities. They have to be environmentally responsible, to be more sustainable in their practices than in the past.These are a few other examples of factors, apart from the consumers, tha t can have an influence on the marketing activities of businesses.To conclude, consumers are indeed central to marketing activities, but are only one of the many factors that have an influence on them notably changes in the marketing environments factors the technological factor in particular, which is probably the fastest changing factor as of now.ReferencesBerthon, P., Pitt, L., Plangger, K. and Shapiro, D. (2012). 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