Commercial feasibility:
Estimation of potential demand, analysis of consumer needs & expectations - discussions with potential distributors, pilot presentations of the device & software. Feedback was collected from the distributors on how to improve the product to make it a more commercially feasible product. Interest on distributing the devices was confirmed by the distributors with letters of intent. The distributors defined the potential demand in their respective markets.
Estimation of potential risks - discussion with professional investors and entrepreneurs, who provided insights as to how to enter foreign markets with innovative products. The discussions allowed to determine three main risks and potential mitigation methods for the risks that will be consistently applied in the further development.
Technical feasibility:
Overall strategy for the tool development has been reviewed - the team decided to outsource production of the device to a third party, based on detailed technical specifications and create the software in-house, that would be implemented into the tool. A market ready prototype concept has been developed and is planned to be validated in phase II, with initial production and dissemination to tests users.
Analysis of competing products and tools - a detailed overview was performed of competing products in the market - NDVI measurement tools, agricultural drones, sap meters and N-Testers / N-Sensors. Advantages and disadvantages of each of the product were outlined. The team confirms, that the currently available technical tools do not provide an in-depth overview of a plant's nutrition and therefore a niche for our product exists in the market, that is not already taken over by competition.
Analysis of customer feedback - 10 pilot farms were selected to use the tool and software in the summer season of 2018. Their use was supervised by the company's experienced agronomists. The pilot tests were a success, with a majority of tests users indicating that they would be highly interested in a commercialized version of the tool. Feedback on the device and software has been selected, in order to improve the tool based on customer feedback.
Business plan development:
A business plan has been prepared, covering the following points:
Market overview - based on demand estimations from our distributors ad well as market reports
Product development strategy - based on discussions with experts, the team constructed a detailed timeline for r&d, manufacturing, software development and product release (planned on Q1 of 2020).
Overview of competition - based on the detailed analysis of competing products in the market.
Marketing and sales strategy - sales through agricultural tool distributors & direct online sales models were selected as the most commercially feasible, mitigating the risks that one sales model might be inefficient.
Financial analysis - preliminary financial forecasts have been prepared by the team, based on the estimated demand and production outputs gathered during the feasibility stage.
The overall outcome of the project is that the company decided to further pursue financing opportunities in SMEI Phase II in order to develop a commercial product that would provide the market with agricultural sustainability from lower soil pollution, higher output yields and lower fertilization costs.
