Assignment 6
Business Plan for PcUpKeepLive.com
DCTE 790 Electronic Commerce on the Internet
Fall 2000
Dr. Anne Abate, Professor
Cassandra D.
PcUpKeepLive.com is a
business that provides its customers with the expertise necessary to develop
skills to maintain and safely explore their personal computers at a reasonable
cost. The success of this internet
business is based on the established relationships and demand for personalized
service from the founder. The talent and professionalism of the founder can be
multiplied and distributed over a greater number of customers through the
planned interactive Web computer show.
The founder will garner the
expertise of various computer professionals, hardware manufacturers, and
software publishers to provide the most informative and rewarding computer
experiences to viewers. In addition to learning to maintain and troubleshoot
their personal computers, viewers will have opportunities to see how software
and hardware work before making purchases and purchase such products at
tremendous discounts.
PcUpKeepLive.com will offer
live demonstrations of computer technology innovations, including live feeds of
computer conference and seminar segments. Links to tutorials such as the
PCUpKeep Maintenance program designed by the founder will be available
PcUpKeepLive.com users. Such tutorials and help centers will show users how to
perform regular maintenance, troubleshoot software and hardware errors, and prevent
system failures. The
PcUpKeepLive.com is
expected to serve non-technical professionals in academic, commercial, and
government sectors. Demonstrators and sponsers are expected to be other
e-businesses that provide computer hardware, software, and services. A large
percentage of business is expected to
come to PcUpKeepLive.com through word of mouth and repeat customers.
PcUpKeepLive.com will
function year round, 24 hours, 7 days each week. The site will be unavailable
during regular and emergency maintenance.
The purpose of this
business plan is to provide the reader with a comprehensive synopsis of
PcUpKeepLive.com and its plans for development.
While PcUpKeepLive.com is a new e-commerce venture, the founder
established a successful computer consulting firm in 1991 and another academic
consulting firm in 1996. Both of these businesses have been enjoying a
prosperous existence thus, providing access to computer hardware and software
manufacturers, other computer consulting firms needed as a basis for the
PcUpKeepLive.com e-business.
PCUpKeep’s unique features
are numerous. The professional reputation and notoriety of Cassandra Butler as
a patient and effective teacher is a great benefit to this business. Cassandra
Butler is an accomplished educator and consultant who has received numerous
professional recognition awards for computer training and troubleshooting. The
founder of PcUpKeepLive.com has also directed the computer and information
Science Depart at a college for several years. Ms. Butler has compiled an
extensive list of former clients and prospects for these much sought after
services. The reputation of Ms. Butler provides the customer with the knowledge
that he or she is receiving the expertise of Ms. Butler and other notable
professionals. The face of this well-known founder will be displayed
prominently on the website.
The unique benefit that
PcUpKeepLive.com offers its clientele is the personalized attention that the
PcUpKeepLive.com staff will develop with the customers by responding to
questions and requests immediately with documentation and examples.
PcUpKeepLive.com will uniquely provide customers an honest, unbiased view of
computer technology issues, hardware, software, and services. Siegel describes
truth as a “great equalizer” (Siegel, 1999 p. 50).
The primary marketing
objective of PcUpKeepLive.com is to attain a 20 percent market share of all
technology talk show audiences by 2002. The principal competitors are The
Computer Chronicles and Dave Chalk’s Computer Show (http://www.chalk.com/chalktv/show45/),
TV Show “Computer!” (http://stringer.ru/Authorised/playlist1_tv_computer.html),
and techtv (http://www.techtv.com/techtv/).
This will be achieved in two phases.
The first phase will be
adding a new segment to the target market called entertainment industry. An aggressive sales campaign will be under
way to add this segment to the customer base and decrease market share for
competitors.
The second phase will
concentrate sales efforts on corporations by offering employee access packages.
The business expects to capture an additional five percent of the market share
in its second year following this expansion and another five percent in the
following year.
In its quest for growth,
PcUpKeepLive.com has set its objectives on adding a new segment to its service
beginning January 2002 that caters exclusively to higher education. PcUpKeepLive.com will begin to aggressively
approach universities and colleges to provide online, video, and DVD material
to support courses and special programs. This strategy will be supported by a
personalized direct mail campaign aimed at local colleges and universities.
Because of the well-known disparity in accessibility to technology in such communities,
PcUpKeepLive.com will seek to encourage and support cooperative ventures that
will close decrease and potentially close the “digital divide”.
The management of
PcUpKeepLive.com will make available to any college computer curriculum
technical assistance and loan of professionals to augment the institutions
teaching staff and technical expertise. As a result of this expansion,
PcUpKeepLive.com will increase the use of local computer companies in the show
and live feeds.
Additionally, PcUpKeepLive.com
will create a demonstration disk of its PcUpKeep program to distribute with new
personal computers, printers, scanners, and digital cameras. The demonstration
CD-ROM will also be available at checkout counters in electronic department
stores such as CompUSA, BestBuy, Electronic Boutique, Office Depot, OfficeMax,
and Walmart. The PcUpKeep program is an interactive multimedia CD-ROM that
provides definitions to technology terms, maintenance tips, troubleshooting
videos, and industry expert views on many computer technology topics.
Another major marketing
strategy to be employed is the use of outdoor advertising in various forms.
There will be campaigns at outdoor stadiums, football and baseball billboards
as well as hockey arenas will display advertisements for PcUpKeepLive.com to
very large audiences. There will be an advertising campaign for major spectator
events such as the Super Bowl, National Basketball Association All Star Game,
League Championship Series, the Baseball World Series, major golfing events,
i.e., The Masters, and National Collegiate Athletic Association Basketball
tournaments.
PcUpKeepLive.com has
developed contingency plans to mitigate. Competition will be challenging. Though know competitors, as indicated in this
plan, have market recognition, they do not appear to have a dynamic sales team
to expand their target market and they appear somewhat complacent with their
market position. They rely mostly on
word of mouth advertising, whereas PcUpKeepLive.com has started its own aggressive
sales and networking campaign.
Additionally, PcUpKeepLive.com will expand its sales efforts to increase
the number of corporate accounts in its core business to offset the time
required to enter this market and generate revenue.
In order for PcUpKeepLive.com
to successfully complete its startup plans, an investment of $200,000 will be
required. The owner expects to raise
$50,000 through negotiation of a futures contract by securitizing PcUpKeepLive.com,
as described by Davis and Meyer (2000). This business venture will allow the
owner to obtain capital against future earnings of the e-commerce business
using the services of a reputable company that handles such bond issues.
The owner is seeking financing
of $150,000 from a lender. The business
requires a five year loan that will be repaid in monthly installments and is
seeking Small Business Administration assistance for reduced interest
financing. In 1994, Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, acquired a major stake
in C/Net (The Computer Network), which claimed 1.2 million viewers at that time
(Edupage, 1994), indicating the potential success of such a venture.
To reduce the cost of starting
PcUpKeepLive.com, PC TV Productions (http://www.pctv.com/info.htm)
will be consulted to setup and produce the show. Likewise, to prevent an
initial major capital purchase, BellSouth e-Business Center Services (http://www.bellsouth.com/ebiz/virtualtour.html)
will be used.
In today's technology
market, individuals do not have the expertise to troubleshoot each personal
computer problem or the time to read manuals and go to training classes.
Corporations and institutions tend to reduce training costs and expect internal
personnel to determine to solve technology problems. In either case,
individuals see the benefit of having an expert demonstrate problem-solving
techniques and how various hardware and software products actually perform.
Siegel (1999) demonstrates that attempting to be everything for everyone
results in the company not going anything meaningful for anyone. Thus, the
target audience for PcUpKeepLive.com includes fast moving corporate, academic,
and government executives who must use computer technology 24 hours, 7 days
each week, but do not actually perceive themselves as technology experts.
PcUpKeepLive.com will met
the emerging market need for current information about the latest technological
developments and more efficient methods of completing computer activities. By
finding its competitive advantage servicing both ends of this spectrum,
PcUpKeepLive.com expects to capitalize immediately on the demand for one-touch
information available from the World Wide Web.
As supported by Siegel
(1999), PcUpKeepLive.com will seek to get participants to participate as
beginners, intermediates, and experts through website activities specifically
designed to target each group. For example, a section of the home page will be
designed to make beginners feel comfortable, so that they will feel free to
explore and return again. In addition, all level of participants will be
encouraged to form and participate in horizontal and vertical communities, as
defined by Siegel. The horizontal community, states Siegel, is made of visitors
who have similar circumstances or attributes, such as age, socioeconomic group,
or profession. Siegel further states that the vertical community members
includes those who have like interests, shared activities, or shared values.
Such communities will allow users to form a bond with the site as well as each
other.
The PcUpKeepLive.com Website
will offer memberships to organizations and individuals at a fee of $70 per
person per year. Organizations enrolling more than three employees are eligible
for discounts. This membership fee will allow the user to access all
information including live feeds and videoconferences. Technical seminars will
be offered in various centers across the country. These seminars will serve to
present hands-on training for select audiences where they will be requested.
Present plans are to conduct them on weekends or as requested by large groups,
i.e., corporate seminars. These seminars will be given in cities where there is
proven interest in the product or where there has been high utilization. When
the seminar is in response to high demand from membership, admission will be
discounted for members. Membership sales are expected to generate $1.7 million
in revenue the first year of operation.
The site will also allow
approved computer technology merchants to sell products, paying a commission to
PcUpKeepLive.com. Commissions for product sales during the first year are
projected to be $200 thousand based on the software and hardware retail
affiliations currently held by Ms. Butler.
The objective of leasing the
syndicated television show will also bring additional revenue. A similar
concept is used at the TVRadio.com site (http://www.tvradio.com/mainframe.asp)
where Computer & Technology TV is hosted. While there will be no direct
advertising by other companies on the home page, various modules may be open to
advertising based on industry fees. Advertising rates, as listed in Table 1,
will generate approximately $10,000 per month in revenue.
|
Table 1. PcUpKeepLive.com Advertising Rates (All rates are per month and are subject to
availability. Includes one link and one graphic.) |
|||
|
TYPE ADVERTISING |
|
MEMBER |
NONMEMBER |
|
Sponsor and Banner AAMT
index (main) page |
|
$750 |
$1000 |
|
Any other page |
|
$250 |
$400 |
|
URL Link, Listing without
graphic |
|
$75 |
$100 |
|
URL Link, Listing with
graphic |
|
$100 |
$150 |
|
Display Advertising, Full
page without links |
6 times |
$900 |
$1400 |
|
Display Advertising, Full
page with links |
6 times |
$1200 |
$2000 |
|
Classified Advertising |
|
|
|
|
|
$50 |
$75 |
|
|
101-200 words |
|
$75 |
$100 |
|
201-300 words |
|
$100 |
$150 |
|
301-500 words |
|
$150 |
$200 |
|
Resume Posting (up to two
pages, first month) |
|
$25 |
$50 |
Abate (2000) states that with
electronic business, content is the business. Therefore, content is reveals the
business. Content, according to Abate, must be continually changing and
engaging. Content may be created or purchased, as in the case of purchasing
feeds, according to Abate. All such possibilities will be explored and
carefully considered by the PcUpKeepLive.com team. Dr. Ann Abate, Ph.D. Nova
Southeastern University will be asked to provide consulting services for the
e-business development to assist in creating effective content.
Establishing a trusting
relationship with customers and vendors is essential to the success of
PcUpKeekLive.com. Schoder and Yin (2000) express that the greatest barriers to
the success of e-commerce business are the lack of security and organizational
and legal issues. Therefore, legal counsel on e-commerce issues will be
contracted to prevent and counter intellectual property issues, user
identification issues, copyright and trademark, and contracts as delineated by
Abate (2000). Jones, Wilikens, Morris, and Masera (2000) show that developing
new concepts for establishing trust between businesses, customers, and other
stakeholders must be a major aspect of e-business development and culture.
The PcUpKeepLive.com Website
will reflect a customer-led model, which according to Siegel (1999), is aligned
with internal and external customer groups and encourages conversation between
customers and employees, as well as among customers. Pages linked to the home
page will give visitors an opportunity to express what they want and need from
PcUpKeepLive.com through questionnaires and testimonials. Furthermore, visitors
and other e-business concerns will be rewarded for sending customers to the
PcUpKeepLive.com site. A mock-up of the PcUpKeepLive.com home page is shown in
Figure 1.
Portions of the Website such
as the “Today’s Video” section will change each day. One day, for instance,
LANovation (http://www.appdeploy.com/pressreleases/lanovation-2-1-2000.shtml)
may be features in a video clip talking about it newly released PictureTaker®
Enterprise Edition Version 3.0 software distribution solution. Another day
maranGraphics™ may be featured discussing its award-winning step-by-step
computer repair and maintenance books.
Figure 1.
PcUpKeepLive.com Website Mock-up
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