Software business idea

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RiaX
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Software business idea

Post by RiaX »

hmmm whether or not its stupid to post this doesnt matter since im doing it anyways.

For those of you who are not aware, im in the pharmaceutical industry. The software used across the nation is annoying. Its old, text based program and feels like its made in turbo pascal. Almost every pharmacy across the country uses it. Working as a locum and being familiar with computers I find this software to be a disgrace, and slows down the processing of prescriptions. Pharmacies are still using old dot matrix printers ect. The bigger guys like clicks, dischem and alpha-pharm use a more modern version of the same software that allows printing of labels with a laser label printing machine (or a thermal ribbon printer).

This is an amazing oppotunity for a software developer to make a ton of money by improving this reduntant outdated system. So why am I sharing this? Simple, being in the medicial field I do not have the expertise nor the time to do anything with this information but some of you on the forum are in the field and have the capabilities to make this happen. So keeping this information to myself is simply a waste and thats why im sharing it here for a brave soul willing to take on a task.

If you were to create a programme that is acceptable in terms of requirements and is superior to the current software (which by face value doesnt seem hard, I mean its got no mouse support), you would instantly gain sales for your software in almost ALL pharmacies with in the private sector of practice. This would include click, dischem, alpha-pharm, sparksport, netcare hospitals, life hospitals ect ect (companies that must have software licenses), hell you might even get a government tender for the new ARV project. Provided you are able to market a switch, currently no school of pharmacy in all the universities provide training for use of the basic software so if you can some how implement the software at an academic level this will translate into use at a professional level, I dont know how one would do this.

So just a thought if anyone is looking for ideas for a promotion or project to present to their company... this information is wasted staying with me however I can tell you there is a need for it. Ever wonder why your pharmacist takes forever to process your prescription, because it takes 7 steps to dispense a single item.

Just a thought :D
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hamin_aus
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Re: Software business idea

Post by hamin_aus »

I'm sure people have looked at upgrading the system already and if they haven't made a start there's likely a good reason.
Most probably because the back end where all the data and logic lives is too old to support newer languages. Especially if it's running off a mainframe.

I was involved in a similar project back in SA. A client had a text-based mainframe system that they wanted updated.
After exhaustive amounts of time and effort spent on redesigning the system from scratch the project was almost scrapped.
All that saved it was the amount of money that was already invested.
In the end it was decided that the 'new system' would be a web-based front end. It was just a shell that looked good, but everything you did was translated into the legacy code and parsed back to the legacy system to be handled exactly the same way it always was.

The end result was a frontend that looked new but performed the same, if not slightly slower than the old one. And a backend that was mostly unchanged and still legacy.

Since you aren't a programmer I wont tell you all the reasons why most legacy systems are never upgraded, but believe me it's harder to do that you know.
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RiaX
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Joined: 23 Jun 2006, 02:00
Location: Durban

Re: Software business idea

Post by RiaX »

hmmm awww okay :)
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Japster
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Re: Software business idea

Post by Japster »

It is funny, but I have spoken to someone else before about this. I do software development, and someone told me that the pharmacy where he buys his meds uses an old computer system, and he saw another POS type of program I developed for someone else. So I do think it is a good idea, did not say it would be easy, but still a good idea.
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