DECIDING TO EXPAND from a brick-and-mortar company to a "click and mortar" firm was a smart business decision for Ultra Care Home Medical in Chicago. After all, there are sales to be had on the ever-evolving Internet.

"We recognized that it could open up our business to the world," says Bruce Callahan, company president. Of course, it also opened up a whole new world of management issues for the home medical equipment provider.

>From the beginning, the greatest ever-present challenge has been coping >with the day-to-day demands of operating a busy 9-year-old company while >also finding the time and resources to devote to the fledgling start-up, >says Catherine Rison, marketing director for the company's Web site >(www.homemedicalstore.com).

"You've got this gorilla of a company that you are running, while your Internet sales are potentially a year down the road," Callahan says. "So you have to remind yourself on a daily basis that the investment is going to be worthwhile in the long run."

Honing the right sales strategies has been another challenge for the company. Although the same products are sold through both channels, Ultra Care's Internet expansion is not necessarily a natural extension of its original business operations. The Chicago company, for example, relies on referrals from hospitals and health maintenance organizations. Its Web site, on the other hand, generates retail sales with individual patients. What's more, since launching its site, Ultra Care has made sales in about 15 different countries.

The company also faces another, self-imposed challenge: It wants to use its Internet presence as a better way to manage its current core customers. Eventually, the firm plans to have its Internet site serve as a full-fledged customer service department. HMOs would be able to log on and read feedback from clients on products that Ultra Care provided or on how long it took to process the claim.

"We feel it would be invaluable to be able to package feedback into an outcomes service," Callahan says. "The Internet is also a management tool. And physicians' groups, hospitals, HMOs--they all have to manage their patients."

But for now, Ultra Care is busy dealing with the more pressing issue of learning how to provide quality customer service in cyberspace. The 110-person firm used to have its customer service reps pull double-duty by working with the medical-based referrals and with Internet sales. But it wasn't the right approach, Callahan reports.

Because the Web site is a retail environment, two employees with customer-friendly skills were dedicated to serving just that arena. "These reps have more product knowledge and are much better with one-on-one evaluations with customers," Callahan says. "Consumers have no idea what they want. They know they need a wheelchair, but they need a lot of help figuring out which one is the right one." To help customers understand the available products and services, more pictures were added to the Web site.

In effect, Ultra Care sees the Internet as a constantly evolving cyberspace brochure that can pull in customers of all kinds.

"It's really another marketing piece," says Callahan. "And you need to develop it based on what you think your strengths are as a company."