JAZD Markets, Inc.

The days of the unreadable doctor’s prescription could soon be over. Did you notice the last time you went to your doctor’s office, your doctor carried around a laptop or a handheld PC to document your symptoms and send a prescription to your local pharmacy. Being at the HIMSS show really gave me a sense of how technology is starting to integrate into healthcare. Exhibitors were displaying innovative tools to use in the hospitals like special beds with digital readouts and alarms, ambulatory EHR and e-prescribing, imaging, electronic health record software, e-healthcare identity solutions and so much more. It’s not long until we start using tricorders, like the ones they use in Star Trek.

The HIMSS 2009 conference, at the McCormick Center in Chicago, was jammed packed with over 900 exhibitors including big players like; Philips, AT&T, Hill-ROM, LG Electonics, MedQuist, intel Health and OnBase. It was obvious that the big technology companies knew that healthcare was a growing and thriving marketplace. It was evident that this industry needed a marketplace that was more interactive, static ads or just a product description in an ordinary directory could not possibly do these companies justice.

JAZD and FierceMarkets has joined forces to solve this problem. The FierceMarketplace: HealthTech directory incorporates JAZD’s industry leading directory platform, where suppliers can bring their products to life and add dimension with multi-media, product specs and images and get instant buyer interaction with ratings and reviews. FierceMarkets adds an important layer of content that provides industry critical news, that will keep buyers coming back again and again.

During the show, I wanted to get the word out to Health Technology companies and alert them that the new HealthTech directory will be open for business this summer. Most importantly, the HealthTech directory’s supplier portal will be opening on May 15^th, allowing these companies to begin to get their company listed in the directory and start to upload videos, podcast, whitepapers, product specs and fully populate their company Micro-site for free (for a limited time) before the buyers arrive this summer allowing them to start getting leads on opening day. There is nothing else quite like the HealthTech Supplier portal. It is an easy to use, self service portal where companies can take control of their company’s brand by mapping specific categories to their products and services. The HealthTech directory’s taxonomy is 3 levels deep, making sure that buyers can find specific products like, hospital information management software, quickly and easily.

We expect by HIMSS 2010 the HealthTech directory will be the hub for conducting real business in real time for both buyers and suppliers.

Online B2B directories have a poor reputation.  They are typically littered with ads, include only the most basic information about each listed company, have limited search features, and provide no feedback on how often potential buyers have seen or used your listing.

What does all this remind you of?: A printed, paper directory of course!

Most online directories are nothing more than an electronic version of their printed predecessors.  In the rush to get existing print directories online, implementors simply carried the bath water with the baby: bringing all the limitations of print into the online world:

• Ads were the primary way to generate money from printed directories
• The pages had to limit space per listing to keep book size and shipping costs low.
• Search in a printed directories meant thumbing through or using the index.
• Feedback could only be tracked with great effort through promotional codes, coupons or other costly and error-prone methods.

Any platform that wishes to change the business-to-business market perception of online directories must optimize to the online environment by providing industry-sensitive search functionality, deep listings that include product-level information, and constant real-time feedback on tasteful advertising and lead-generation programs.

In other words, we’d all like to see a true online directory, rather than a printed directory online.

JAZD Supplier’s Space: Information and News Addressing the Supplier’s Point of View.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a real buzz word right now. Are you trying to navigate your way through this confusing maze of finding the right mix of online exposure and web advertising to make your marketing dollars return a better than average ROI?  How do you measure your success? It is increased traffic? Or does get down to certain number of qualified leads to make this investment worthwhile?

Most companies in the life sciences and healthcare industries are using online product catalogs to drive traffic to their website. Some companies find this to be an insufficient way to get to the desired goal of getting real buyers to purchase product. Marketers are now tasked with providing metrics to prove the value of listing their company in an industry directory.

JAZD markets’ team of SEO professionals have spent the last year researching this problem and how it directly affects these markets. Based on their findings, they have begun to build a comprehensive program that will extend the value of the online product catalog. Using cutting edge technology, they will be able to attract qualified buyers in both the JAZD life sciences and healthcare product catalogs by fall 2009.

JAZD Supplier’s Space: Information and News Addressing the Supplier’s Point of View.

Life Sciences companies are frustrated with uploading their products. This leads to a non-viable, out-of-date on-line product catalog.

Many life sciences companies, like Thermo Scientific and Bio-Rad have several thousand products available to sell in their catalog. The task of transferring all those products into an on-line directory could be daunting, to say the least. The process is extremely time-consuming and at a minimum, it may take one employee a whole day, each month to keep up with this necessary evil. Is there an alternative or are they stuck with the cumbersome task of organizing their data to fit into a non-intuitive, industry-specific product catalog?

To add fuel to the fire, not only is it difficult to add or update products, but one well-known directory only recommends quarterly updates. Both of these factors quickly translate to an out-of-date product directory. The key to being successful in this space is updating and editing often to keep the offerings fresh and viable. If buyers enter the directory and take the time to search for products to purchase, and find that most of the products are no longer available or they can’t find the latest and greatest, they will go somewhere else. It only takes one bad experience to cause this potential buyer to leave and find an alternative. This could mean a lost sale for the supplier.

Is there a solution or an alternative? JAZD Markets has conducted significant research and is making great progress in developing a user -friendly tool, with the supplier’s needs in mind. Specifically designed to cut down the amount of time it takes to upload or edit products going into a product directory.

This will give the Life Sciences’ companies and their employees access to real-time product adds and updates. The ultimate goal is to give the buyer a great experience. If they are finding all the best choices and are finding the most current offerings, it makes purchasing fast and easy. The buyers will quickly come to rely on this resource and come back again and again.