The financial analysis of CVS Caremark Corporation - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 8 Words: 2467 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Business Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? CVS Caremark Corporation (CVS Caremark) is a health care provider in the United States. It is a pharmacy that provides health care options for its consumers through various outlets. CVS.com, mail orders, retail locations, Caremark Pharmacy Services and its clinic subsidiary are just a few ways that CVS keeps its name out there as one of the most leading pharmaceutical companies. According to Reuters website the Company competes with Medco Health Solutions, Inc., Express Scripts, Inc., United Healthcare, Aetna and CIGNA. CVS is a large pharmaceutical company that has about 7000 pharmacy retail stores in over 25 states. The purpose of this paper is to probe the companies financials and determine if I would in fact invest my financial capital in CVS as a shareholder and if I would invest myself as a whole in CVS as an employee. Researching the past financials of CVS will assist me in finding out this information and assessing the organization as a whole. Evaluatio n of Internal and external financial statements Company Overview Cvs Caremaker is one of the largest provider of health care services and offerings that impacts everything from pharmacy plan design to the ultimate delivery of products and services to customers. CVS Caremark (symbol: CVS) is the result of a merger between CVS pharmacy and Caremark in 2007. Filling over 1 billion prescriptions annually, it is the number 1 provider of prescriptions in the United States. It operates over 6900 retail outlets across the US and under CVS pharmacy. It is also into drug retail store, pharmacy benefit management, mail order and specialty pharmacy division. It is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island and employs about 200,000 people. The Company sells their products through CVS retail stores and through their online store. They also provide pharmacy benefit management services which include mail order pharmacy, plan design and administration, specialty pharmacy and other services .Th e Company operates in two business segments which are Pharmacy Services segment and Retail Pharmacy segment. Accordingly, the management of the company sees to it that they are able to handle their company through effective management. However the internal and external factors affect the functioning of the company. Business CVS Caremark has two primary business segments: Retail Pharmacy Segment CVS Pharmacy provides approximately 7,000 retail pharmacy locations around the United States. Medicines and other products can be conveniently purchased. Pharmacy Services Segment Caremark provides Pharmacy Benefits Management services to a variety of companies. A PBM works to reduce prices of drugs and increase the efficiency of distribution. Another aspect of the business worth mentioning here is Minute Clinic. Minute Clinic is a collection of 570 locations, many of which within CVS pharmacies, where patients can walk in without an appointment and receive basic medic al care. Staffed by nurse practitioners and physician assistants, Minute Clinic offers safe but fairly low-cost service for many simple health issues. Colds, allergies, sprains, infections, rashes, and so forth can be treated at these locations, and they also offer preventative care in the form of vaccinations and health screenings. Impact of Internal and External Factors The internal factors may be viewed as the strength or weaknesses depending upon their impact on the organizations objectives. Management, specifically strategic management has four functions . These include planning, organizing, leading and controlling. The functioning of these functions within the organisation upshots the operation of the business activities. The external factors which includes the competitors and factors like economic, social and political as well as technological change ,cultural changes, changes in market places or competitors position. Swot Analysis Internal analysis of CVS Stre ngths: 1) Significant investment in technology 2) Loyalty card program 3) Diversified retail stores 4) Strong brand equity Weakness: 1) Inconsistent store experience and execution 2) Sales mix focuses on lower margins 3) Leveraged from acquisitions 4) Real estate (when compared to Walgreens) External analysis of CVS Opportunities: 1) Turn around acquired stores 2) Beauty 360 3) New target markets with minute clinics 4) Private label expansion Threats: 1) Traditional stores like Walgreens and Non-Traditional stores like Walmarts as competitors 2) Pharmacists shortages 3) Further PBM market share loss. Financial Analysis and Evaluation Financial diagnostic categories Chosen company vs. Benchmark competitor 1.) Liquidity of short-term assets-Current ratio-1.5x -Cash ratio-.083x -Quick ratio-0.5x-Current ratio-1.60x -Cash ratio-0.25x -Quick ratio-0.58x 2.) Long-term debt-paying ability-Debt ratio-0.30 -Debt-eq uity ratio-30.4-Debt ratio-0.40 -Debt-equity ratio-41.2 3.) Profitability -Net income/sales (profit margin)-.013 -Net income/assets (ROA)-6.3% -Net income/shareholder equity (ROE)-9.59%-Net income/sales (profit margin)-.036 -Net income/assets (ROA)-10.3% -Net income/shareholder equity (ROE)-16.4% 4.) Asset utilization/ management efficiency-Total asset turnover-1.6x -Inventory turnover measures-7.5x -Accounts receivable turnover-18.0x-Total asset turnover-2.90 x -Inventory turnover measures-5.56x -Accounts receivable turnover-20.2x 5.) Market measures-Price/earnings ratio-12.6 -Earnings per common share-1.08 -Price/earnings ratio-14.2 -Earnings per common share-1.14 Results of Evaluation CVS Caremark is the result of the merger between CVS pharmacy and Caremark in 2007. Filling over 1 billion prescriptions annually, it is the number one provider of prescirptions in United States According to the statement of financials such as balance she et, statement of income and loss and cash flow statement, the following interpretations are drawn including 2005-06 prior merger 2007-10 post merger: 1) The gross profit dollars were increasing from last five years i.e from 2005 to 30th sept 2010 at the rate of 1.6%. however the gross profit were essentially flat in both the 3 and 9 months ended sept 30 2010 as compared to the prior years period.. Gross profit as a percentage of net revenue increased 70 basis point to 21.0 in the three months ended sept 30 2010. 2) The Net income for 5 years annual average is 32.60 exhibiting an increase in the amount of revenue on 3) Between 2007 and 2009, revenue grew by an average of 13% annually, during the same period the earning grew by an average of 18% annually. 4) In 2009, CVS experienced a multi billion dollar loss of contract for 2010, due to over- pricing and communication issues. Management for that segment since has changed 5) For 2010, CVS Caremark revenue and earning a re slightly down and CVS revenue and earnings were slightly up. 6) The uncertainity has resulted in a low stock valuation i.e. profit/earning less than 11. 7) The company has a currently dividend yield of about 1.25% with 15% annual dividend growth over past couple of years. 8) Before the merger, CVS 5 year EPS growth rate 71.26% has surpassed the industry average of 28.28% 9) From the period 2007-09, CVS Caremark has grown operating cash flow by an average of nearly 12% annually. 10) CVS has a very clean balance sheet with total debt-equity ratio of only 0.33% 11) Over the period 2007-09 i.e. after the merger, the net income has grown by an average of 18% annually. 12) However the sales for the year 2005-06 is equal to 28479.2 and 29476.0 respectively showing an increase of 3.5%. Result of ratio analysis 1) The Liquidity of short-term assets which includes Current ratio, Cash ratio and quick ratio shows that CVS Caremark is in a better position to meet th e firm s current obligations. The current ratio of CVS being greater than 1 shows the firm has more current assets than current claim against them. However, the Liquidity ratio of Wallgreen is slightly higher than CVS. 2) Long term debt paying ability is to determine the proportion of debt in total financing. The debt ratio of CVS is 0.30 which means that the lenders have financed 30% of CVS Caremark s net assets i.e. capital employed.The total debt equity ratio shows firms total debt in the relation to the total dollar amount owners have invested in the firms. 3) Profitability ratio indicate the firms ability to generate returns on its sales , assets and net profit margin. The net profit margin ratio is measured by dividing profit after tax by sales. Operating profit after tax to sales ratio is .013. Net profit margin ratio establishes a relationship between net profit and sales and management s efficiency in manufacturing, administering and selling the products. The return o n asset for CVS is 6.3% and for Wallgreen 10.3% which implies on the operating performance and ignores that how the firm is financed and taxed. The ROE for CVS and Wallgreen 9.59% and 16.3% respectively 4) The asset turnover ratio indicate how effeciently the fiem is utilising its assets to produce revenue and sales. CVS has a asset turnover of 1.6 times where Wallgreen has 2.9 times. Inventory turnover measure indicates whether the inventory is out of line in relation to the volume of sales when compare against industry norms. The CVS has 7.5 times and Walgreen has 5.56 times which shows that CVS has more inventories in respect to the volume of sales. 5) The price earning ratio is the market price of the firm s common stock divided by the annual earning per share.Comapring the P/E relative to that of the stock market as a whole or the firm s competitors indicates the market s perception of the true value of the company. The P/E for CVS and Wallgreen is 12.6 and 14.2 respectiv ely. Assessment of Financial activities and their effects on organisational performance CVS Caremark is an interesting company. The merger of CVS and Caremark resulted in a company that is complex, and many investors and lawmakers are uncertain about whether this merger was appropriate. Time will only tell, but due to the uncertainty, the stock valuation is quite low, and this could be a nice opportunity. With a P/E ratio of under 13, combined with large growth between 2007 and 2009, the investment looks easy. With these numbers, investment returns should be spectacular. The catch, however, is that in 2009, CVS Caremark announced that its Pharmacy Services segment (the Caremark aspect of the business) lost $4.8 billion in contracts, and the Medicare part D contracts also fell sharply as well due to overpricing. This combination resulted in a change of management of that business segment. The error is largely blamed on poor communication of the new business model to clients. The odd merger, and poor communication to clients of what that merger means to them, spooked clients into dropping contracts for 2010 during this period in 2009. What this means is that although 2009 revenue and earnings were excellent, the numbers for 2010 aren t as good because of a loss of contracts. This is the reason for the low stock valuation, as when this was announced, the stock price dropped 20-25% in a single day and hasn t recovered. For the first half of 2010, CVS has indeed experienced minor reductions in revenue and profits, but has kept EPS in a state of moderate growth. Full year estimates for 2010 EPS are very close to what EPS was in 2009, and 2011 EPS is expected to increase once again. The good news is that there is a silver lining. The company is focusing on having an effective pharmacy services bidding season for 2011 (unlike their disaster for the 2010 bidding season). The company indicates that the incident was isolated, and with new management this may very well be the case. In addition, CVS retail pharmacies are performing very well. Even while the pharmacy services segment reported decreased revenue and profits for 2010 (as predicted by the company last year), the retail segment continued to grow. CVS retail pharmacies had 6.3% same-store sales growth in 2005, 8.1% same-store sales growth in 2006, 5.3% same-store sales growth in 2007, 4.5% same-store sales growth in 2008, and 5.0% same-store sales growth in 2009. They are also constantly increasing their total number of CVS retail pharmacy locations. There were 6,301 locations in 2007, 6,981 locations in 2008, and 7,074 locations in 2009. What this means it that CVS is both increasing their number of retail pharmacy locations AND obtaining more revenue from each of their locations. This is consistently impressive, and great news for shareholders. The CVS pharmacy is a great business model. They primarily provide prescription drugs (and increasingly generic drugs to save cu stomers money) and over-the-counter medication, but also provide various things like toothpaste, birthday cards, toys, food, and beauty supplies, all in a very small store that is often located very close to where people work and live. The prices are pretty good even though they aren t quite as competitive as Wal-Mart, and they make up for this by providing their own brand of products at reduced prices compared to identical national brands. It s also a lot more convenient to stop in at a retail pharmacy to grab a few quick necessities on the way home from work than it is to go out of one s way to enter the lumbering parking lot of Wal-mart and deal with all of the hassle and lines there. So retail pharmacies do have their important niche. Minute Clinic is another great business, with simple and inexpensive medical treatment in convenient locations without the need to make appointments. Lastly, the company is growing its dividend and buying back shares, channeling a lot of its cash flow back to shareholders. Risks CVS Caremark is a fairly uncertain investment. The retail segment is fairly sturdy, with a solid name brand embedded in a growing industry, and faces primarily demand and commodity cost risks. The pharmacy services segment, however, is the riskier of the two, as the industry is intensely competitive and there are a variety of questions about whether this merger was a good idea or not. 2009 saw a large drop in stock price due to poor performance of this segment. It is said that there is a risk of the company being divided, but some may view that as an opportunity rather than a risk. Final decision and Conclusion CVS Caremark may be a moderately speculative investment. The retail pharmacy segment is rather clear-cut and healthy, while the pharmacy services segment is unstable and skittish. The last year s performance was poor, and the hope is intact that with new management and improved communication to clients, they vastly improve thi s year. The good news is that this stock is very cheap. With a P/E of under 13, CVS Caremark stock is at a reduced price compared to competitors like Walgreens (WAG) with a P/E of over 13 (which is still fairly low). The 20-25% drop in stock price that resulted from the announcement of lost contracts was an overreaction, as earnings are still strong. Most of the drop was due to uncertainty and the validation of long-term fears that the merger was not a good idea, rather than a massive 20-25% loss in company value. The uncertainties of the merger, along with the poor performance of 2009 have been factored in, and I expect the company to do quite well over the coming years. All segments of the company are great businesses, with the primary question being whether they are great together or better off as separate entities. I find the current stock price in the upper $20s to be very attractive as an investment. So I would like to make an investment in the share stock of CVS Caremak er as it is expected to yield higher returns as compared to previous years. Since the company has changed its management with new policies and improved communication with employee relation I would prefer to be an employee of the organization to the position eligible to me. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The financial analysis of CVS Caremark Corporation" essay for you Create order

Importance of Good Precedents for Sustaining Democracies...

There are many different reasons why the partition of India occurred. When Britain oppressed India, they had a divide-and-conquer policy that exacerbated the religious and cultural rifts that already existed in the society. The Muslim League, which believed in the ideology of â€Å"Pakistan†, actively campaigned to gain more support for the Muslims in India, especially under the guidance of dynamic leaders like Jinnah. Pakistani leader and founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah believed that this partition was inevitable since â€Å"‘[a] united India would never have worked’† (Komireddi 2009). He and others thought that a unified state would only lead to the relegation of Muslims to the fringe of society and, ultimately, to violence and civil war. The Indian†¦show more content†¦The east and west sides of Pakistan were not divided over religion (they were mostly all Muslim), rather the division was on the basis of culture and language. West Pakistan was Punja bi while East Pakistan was Bengali. In 1971, there was a major war between India and Pakistan and the east side of Pakistan split off into what is today called Bangladesh. For the purposes of this essay, we will be focusing on just Pakistan and India. The people in both countries have very common and even interlocked backgrounds, so how is it that these countries have very divergent political atmospheres since partition? India, adapting from the legacy of British rule and the Government of India Act 1935 for its constitution, kept the idea of federalism and was also successful in operating its political system within the formal democracy. Except for 18 months between 1975 and 1977 India maintained its democratic institutions. In the five decades since partition, there have been twelve legislative elections and many more state assembly elections. There have been seven peaceful transfers of power between rival political parties at the central (federal) level (Varshney 1998). 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Communication Between The Employees And The Managers - Samples

Question: Discuss about the Communication Between The Employees And The Managers. Answer: Communication issues to be addressed: Many times in the company many employees face some issue regarding the usage of any particular domain. By providing a training session, the employees can get aware of the domain and work efficiently. In an organization giving feedback is must if an employee does not give feedback to the superiors then miscommunication can occur. This situation can lead to less productivity. Misinterpretation is one issue that leads to a communication gap between the employees and the superiors of the company. Managers and Employees Communication Areas: Training Sessions In this study, the employees and the managers are given some training, and all have to be attentive in this training session to be aware of the training topic. It will improve the performance of all trainees. Feedback: For effective communication to be made feedback is required. Feedback helps the sender and the receiver both to establish effective communication. Effective communication can improve the performance management system (Boud, 2015). Conduct Meetings: A two-way process of communication between the employees and the managers is needed to clarify the job role and their expectations from the employees to avoid misinterpretation in future. Importance of Employees to Understand His or Her Role: It is very important for an employee to know his or her role in the company unless the employee cannot achieve his or her goal. Then the employees are not able to meet the expectation of the company. An employee is determined by his efficiency and effectiveness towards the company (Sykes et al., 2014). The job description is not enough for the employee to know his actual role in the company; it is the mindset of the employee that can produce more productivity form the employee. For that, they need to know their role in the company properly. Barriers to communication: The major barriers to communication in an organization are lack of listening skill, bias, and misinterpretation. To build a good communication, a proper listening skill is required to listen and understands the message to avoid miscommunication. Many employees are suffered due to various biases in the company. This biasness can affect the communication in case of sending and receiving messages. In many cases like over a phone call or e-mail mainly misinterpretation occurs. Lack of listening leads to misinterpretation in many cases. To establish good communication, these barriers need to be addressed. Proper listening skill is required, superiors of the organization must be none biased, and good understanding skill is required to reduce the barriers to communication. References: Boud, D. (2015). Feedback: ensuring that it leads to enhanced learning.The clinical teacher,12(1), 3-7. Sykes, T. A., Venkatesh, V., Johnson, J. L. (2014). Enterprise system implementation and employee job performance: Understanding the role of advice networks.MIS Quarterly,38(1).

The Content Marketing Glossary

As a marketer myself, I know there are no two things marketers love more than buzzwords and content. And seeing as how content marketing isn’t going away, it’s worth getting to know the jargon. If you need to get up to speed with some of the terminologies, here’s a quick glossary: Above the Fold Above the fold refers to the portion of a webpage that is visible (without scrolling) when the page is first loaded. It’s an important concept because the content that’s above the fold need to persuade users to further engage with the page. For example, a blog post might have the hero image, headline and first couple sentences above the fold. Analytics The collection, measurement, and analysis of Internet data for the purpose of improving future strategies. Analytics tools like Google Analytics help you discover which content is attracting more traffic or getting more shares. Algorithm Update Google uses a very complex algorithm to value and rank content. Changes to their formula are called â€Å"algorithm updates.† Google’s algorithm is what determines how valuable your content is, and where it should rank relative to similar articles. So, any updates to this core formula can have massive implications to your content marketing. Attribution The customer journey isn’t linear. Instead, people bounce back and forth between a company’s website, social pages, and blog. But how much business did each of those channels generate? That’s where attribution can help. â€Å"Attribution models assign a value to various touch points a lead had with your company before converting. For content marketing, this means understanding the blog posts, white papers, social content or another type of content that a person engaged with before becoming a lead or customer.† B2B Marketing B2B marketing simply refers to business-to-business marketing. The idea here is that a business is selling a product or service to other businesses. For example, MailChimp sells email marketing services to small businesses. Salesforce sells cloud-based CRM solutions to enterprise businesses. For content marketers, operating in a B2B industry is much different from a B2C role. B2C Marketing Short for â€Å"business to consumer marketing,† B2C marketing is when a business uses various marketing strategies to promote its products or services directly to consumers, rather than to other businesses. Buyer Journey The buyer journey identifies the different stages prospects move through, from first discovering a company to becoming a customer. From the â€Å"awareness† and â€Å"consideration† stage, through to the â€Å"decision† stage, prospects have different content needs. Blog Short for a web log, a blog is web page content that is updated frequently, featuring articles, opinions, discussions, and links to other useful pages. They strengthen brand personality and credibility, drive traffic, boost SEO, and build customer relationships. Buyer Journey The buyer journey identifies the different stages prospects move through, from first discovering a company to becoming a customer. From the â€Å"awareness† and â€Å"consideration† stage, through to the â€Å"decision† stage, prospects have different content needs. Call to Action (CTA) An image, a button, or a line of text meant to prompt the user to take the desired action. This could be to share your content, subscribe to your blog, or download an ebook. Case Study Aimed at building customer trust, a case study is a written account of a real customer’s experience with a business, showing how a product or service effectively helped a customer overcome a specific problem. Click-Through Rate (CTR) The percentage of users that click on a link, button, or ad. The data can help you see which content types and subjects engage your readers more. Content Curation Gathering, organizing, and presenting content that is relevant to your audience or is focused on a particular topic. A debatable concept used by some marketers to describe how content marketing may not be a sustainable strategy for some businesses. Similar to â€Å"information overload,† it’s the idea that we’ll be so flooded with content we’ll start to turn away from it. Content Marketing Creating, publishing, and promoting valuable free content to attract prospects and convert them into customers. It aims to inform, educate, and entertain prospects to increase brand trust and loyalty. Content Strategy The process of planning, developing and delivering content. It involves creating, distributing, and promoting content on appropriate channels to attract and engage prospects and support the buyer journey. Conversion Rate The measurement used to see how many visitors complete a specific action, such as sign up to your newsletter or make a purchase. Copywriting The production of written text for marketing or advertising purposes. The copy should highlight the benefits of a company and its products and services, and persuade readers to take a particular action. Customer Persona Also referred to as â€Å"buyer persona,† the customer persona is a description by a business of their ideal customer, based on existing customers’ demographics, behavior, and motivations. It helps businesses create appropriate, targeted content. Ebook Often used by marketers to generate leads, an Ebook is a downloadable piece of informational content that is longer than a whitepaper, from 20 to 100 pages long. Editorial Calendar Keeping you focused on your content marketing goals, an editorial calendar details what subjects your content should cover, the content format, and when and where to publish each piece. Evergreen Content Content that remains relevant to your audience in the long term. For this reason, it has more long-term marketing value. FAB FAB stands for features, advantages, and benefits. FAB statements are used in copywriting to help potential customers understand why a product or service is a better buy than competing offers. Ghostwriting Content produced by a writer, which is then credited to another person. The original writer agrees to forfeit the credit to get paid for writing the content. Hashtag Frequently used on social media platforms, a hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the hash symbol (#). Users can insert a hashtag to associate their posts with content on similar topics or search for content based around a hashtag. HTML Short for Hyper Text Markup Language, HTML is the universal language used to build every web page online. It gives web pages their structure and helps search engines crawl and index web content. Inbound Link A link on another website that points to a page on your website. Google often uses link data like this to rank your website. Links from â€Å"quality† websites can help you appear higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). Infographic These are graphic visual representations of data or other information that can be easier to consume than chunks of text. Keyword Keywords or keyword phrases are words that searchers type into search engines to find specific information. They are also included in the content to show search engines that your content is relevant. The overuse of keywords can now harm your search engine rankings. Landing Page A page on a website designed to receive visitors directly from organic or paid links on other online channels. The goal of the landing page copy and design is to encourage visitors to take a specific action. Lead A prospective customer that has shown an interest in a business, a product, or a service. Typically, leads are captured when they respond to an ad or a call to action within content. Newsjacking Creating content based around a news story to draw attention to your content. This type of content can rank well in SERPs. SEO techniques that are applied directly to a web page to improve visibility in search engines. On-page optimization strategies include keyword optimization and inserting HTML meta tags. Personalization This is tailoring your content to match specific segments of your audience. It can involve delivering content to different channels depending on your marketing goals. Promotion Any type of marketing communication that aims to inform or persuade a target audience of the merits of a company, product, or service. Promotion also refers to any act of drawing attention to existing content. Quality In terms of content, quality refers to any content that is original, well written, concise, and delivers value to the target audience. Quality content also addresses the needs of the target audience, increases user trust, and is highly shareable. Quantity The frequency a brand publishes content depends on the content needs of the audience and the brand’s ability to consistently create quality content. Content marketers should focus on creating high quality content, rather than publishing a high quantity of content. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) SEO covers all strategies that are aimed at making a website easier for search engines to index and rank. The purpose of writing SEO articles is to make content and websites rank higher in search engine results pages. SEM Short for search engine marketing, SEM is the practice of using paid advertising to increase the visibility of a business and its content in search engine results pages. Social Media Optimization (SMO) Using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ to increase brand awareness, promote content sharing, generate leads, and boost SEO. Snackable Content This is typically short-form and visual content such as infographics, images, videos, and short blog posts. It’s designed to quickly and clearly convey an idea or message. Storytelling Storytelling in content marketing is a powerful way of writing that includes a narrative to help readers identify with a brand and see the benefits of its products or services. Compelling stories engage consumers, elicit emotion, and foster brand loyalty. Technical Content Content that aims to communicate more complex information to readers that need help to accomplish a specific goal. Technical writers can transform complicated, jargon-heavy content – such as user guides – into accessible content. Templates A content template is a pre-made design that provides a framework for writers, covering all the information that should be included within a web page or article. Using templates improves content consistency and output. URL URL, short for Uniform Resource Locator, is the unique address assigned to a page on the World Wide Web. URLs, shown in the browser address bar, send users to a specific page or resource online. User-Generated Content User-generated content (UGC) is any content created by members of the public, rather than by employed professionals. UGC – such as a product review or customer photo – is more authentic than company-generated content, so it helps to build brand trust. Visual Content As opposed to text, visual content is used by marketers to make an instant impression. Videos, animations, slide presentations, and infographics are also highly shareable. Website Content Any content, including written copy, images, graphics, animations, audio, or video that is accessible to visitors when they visit a website. Whitepaper Used to generate leads and show industry expertise, a whitepaper is an extended article that is often offered to users as a download to build a marketing database.