U-commerce: exploring the value and adoption strategies for medical scheme administrators in South Africa

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to assess the true value of u-commerce and to address the problem of adoption. The case research analysis the u-commerce implementations of Discovery Health, a leading South African medical scheme administrator, to uncover sources of value and lessons learnt which inform a proposed strategy framework. The findings suggest that strategies focusing on operational efficiencies alone yield marginal value. Strategies should instead focus on solutions that improve the quality of complex decisions by all actors in the value chain by focus attention on context-rich information while simultaneously conserving attention where interactions are mundane and trivial. U-commerce achieves this by matching the electronic channel, user-interface and information density to the space/time context of the process actor seamlessly and intuitively as they traverse their personal work.flow. Implementation threats are rooted in the technology and cultural readiness of the firm and the market. Appropriate leadership, culture and structure are shown to be critical success factors.