Case study Questions - Essay Example

TERRA FIRMA MEDICAL SYSTEMS Terra firma was said to have “enjoyed a decade of rapid and profitable growth” and its total medical imaging market size was approximated at fifty billion US dollars in 2009 by the Terra Firma medical systems (A) article of January 8th, 2011 titled case competition 2010, and it was expected to grow by 6% in five years’ time. The firm enjoyed vast supply of medical devices like the X-ray machines and computed tomography (CT) scanners which they supplied to large business vendors.

However, Terra Firma was faced with a number of challenges. This paper seeks to address the problems and come up with suggestions that would enable Terra Firma to curb its challenges in order to achieve excellenceChallenges facing Terra FirmaTerra Firma has recently been faced by several challenges such as poor infrastructure as a result of underinvestment, overstaffing and majorly the unpredictable markets for main products like the X-ray machines, CT scanners and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) due to advanced innovations in technology, pressure resulting from competition and regulations made by the government of the United States (US) and Europe.

The main problem faced by Terra Firma therefore is market for its major products. Most of these problems can be attributed to poor Information Technology (IT) infrastructure. The company was well grounded in IT until the system crashed and it encountered several problems and incurred so many losses. Terra Firma sought to improve its market for the products by employing several service strategies including investing heavily in IT operations. Due to technology, great innovations came by and other companies were able to outdo Terra Firma thereby giving it a stiff competition.

The challenges faced by the Terra company calls for remedies in order for the company to stand out among its competitors. Terra Firma’s market ranges from ‘large medical equipment vendors such as General Electric’s (GE), Siemens, Philips, Hitachi and Toshiba’ (Case competition 2010)Due to the increase in health care risks and costs may companies would go for equipments that are highly effective and are of lower cost. Terra Firma will also be required to look for more markets like single internal customers in addition to the multiple internal customers.

Apart from IT operations, Terra Firma could engage in other IT areas like IT security where the company could develop new communication policies and protocols within and without the Terra Company. IT security will also aid in recovery in case of a problem. The other IT area that the company could also create is a well vast web portal and participates in IT leadership. Terra Firma, if it combines all these factors it will automatically stand out from its competitors. Little will be incurred on these functions while the company will maximize on profits and thereby safeguarding the company’s profile.

Terra Firma provides a larger equipment share of 80% and services share of 20%. The company should plan to increase its service provision in order to merge the gap created by the presence of the equipments. Terra Firma should reconsider its marketing strategies in order to meet the market’s demands. In this case the company should monitor and evaluate their competitors. In so doing Terra Firma will be able to improve on its own strategies and service provision. Marvin Keats as the director of the IT services ought to acknowledge that there is a problem and has to come up with radical changes in order to salvage the company Reference Center for the Management of Information Systems (2010, April).

Case Competition 2010. Released 28th April, 2010 from http://cmis.tamu.edu/newsite/FileUpload/TerraFirmaMedicalSystems.pdf