Business challenges of SMEs providing ICT-solutions for wellness and healthcare domains

Thanks to improved nutrition, healthcare and sanitation average life expectancy of humans has raised from 47 years in 1900 into more than 80 years today. The global population over 65 years of age is expected to more than double between 1990 and 2025. ICT (Information and Communication Technology) solutions are increasingly needed in order to guarantee better life quality and possibility for elderly people to stay at home longer. This is important for both elderly people themselves and the society. Clever business modelling (i.e. providing right products, to right customers with right partners) is a way for SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) to guarantee success in the complex and fragmented wellness market. As the way how SMEs in the wellness sector deal with their business models and challenges is not well known, this paper aims to increase understanding of the business challenges by focusing on SMEs having less than 250 employees. In this paper twelve Finnish SMEs and one funding organization functioning in wellness domain present the challenges they have encountered.