Updated status of the business idea
The implementation of the SME Instrument Phase-1 did not lead to any substantial difference of the basic business idea. More specifically, with respect to the originally planned business idea, we spotted a better vision of the potential market and, what matters most, a better quantification of the reachable market. This didn’t change to a significant extent the business idea, but addressed to a refinement of the product offer (unique platform with layered products/services) and customer’s approach policies.
Evolution of the strategic idea
As a result of the outcome of the business plan, the strong indication toward the continuation of the project emerges. The strategic idea has evolved, indicating:
- a better view of the potential customers, enlarging it from the originally addressed ones (defense, homeland security), to new groups (retail and indoor localisation);
- the convenience of including as business partners also System Integrators and Software vendors;
- the need of allocating a dedicated full-time resource to handle the marketing and the implementation of the business plan of PROTECT;
- a better view and quantification of the direct and variable costs to be faced for the implementation of the developed business plan, over a three-years’ time span;
- a substantial improvement of the offer: it was originally limited to the sale of a device and the relevant processing software, but the development of the business plan has clearly shown that this offer is not able to capture a part of the potential market and missed the possibility to cope with the need of customers in need of consultancy, but not needing devices and software; as a consequence, the product offer has been re-designed to be one unique platform, with layered products/services (pre-sell, devices, consultancy, maintenance, start-up);
- quantification of the targeted area price for PROTECT system: SaaS model (5 k€/year subscription); standalone (5 k€/user); start-up (5 k€ one-shoot); hardware (1.5 k€/unit), support (maintenance: 0.5 k€/year + HW 0.5 k€/year);
- quantification of the break-even, occurring between the last quarter of the 1st year and the 1st quarter of the 2nd year from the start of the implementation of the business plan;
- quantification of the revenues (€ 1.462.988 venture capital (€ 518.250) total earnings (€ 533.588) gross margins (36,47%) and overall effort (€ 929.400) needed to implement the business plan, over a three years’ time span.
Change of the objectives, concept, approach and impact
As a consequence of the activities carried out in the SME Inst. Phase-1, no changes of the objectives and concept have been identified. With respect to the original plan, the approach has been enlarged, including a broader ensemble of potential customers and, accordingly to this, adapting the offer, moving from the sale of devices and software to the offer of a platform, capable of meeting the need of devices, software, maintenance, consultancy, start-up.
