Periodic Reporting for period 1 - WayLink (One Way , Your Link!)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2018-06-01 al 2018-11-30
"Abitat SIT has 20 years of experience on Geographic Information System (GIS) and geo-coding services (geo-coding converts addresses into geographic coordinates to be placed on a map): with a turnover of more than 2 million Euros is one of the leader in the Italian market and has created the product Way!Link, addressed in the current project.
The project “One Way , Your Link!"" answers to one main issue: according to international statistics 30% of the on-line addresses referring to physical places are wrong, thus provoking confusion for postal and delivery services, people, customers, etc. Furthermore, it considers other societal challenges, which currently affect our everyday life:
- Brugmann Hospital, Brussels (BE): > 250,000 sqm , around 20 buildings ; it is difficult for the patients identifying the correct venue without asking to hospital personnel ;
- Capanna Margherita (Italy): the highest hotel in Europe (4554 m. above the level of the sea) ; according to the new National Regulation it needs to exactly specify its GPS coordination to receive a better support in case of natural catastrophes ;
- Mr. X (independent professional with a VAT number) and the company XYZ recently changed the address of their own businesses from a city centre to a technological park, with several buildings inside and with a unique civic number. As a consequence, they are not able to properly receive their posts and clients have difficulties in finding them ;
- Islands: in Karpathos, a remote Greek island, there are no street names, therefore it is difficult to find the correct places, either bar or hotel, unless they are properly registered on-line.
In the past internet had the same problems too: websites had IP coordinates which they turn to be domain name (e.g. 74.125.53.100 = google.com). Way!Link is a similar solution for physical location: a short, unique, address tag links with the users wherever they are, like a domain name for the WWW. Our tag is called GeoLink: the users put it into the system the way they want (they create the GeoLink) and the system associates the coordinates to the venue they want to reach.
The overall objective of the project are the following ones:
Patent
Through the project we want to trademark our product at EUIPO Office as well as patent our technology (EPO)
Market Study
Delivery a market research to identify the best sales strategy for the new product, with particular focus in the European Union. The aim is to identify the most effective channels to reach our clients in different countries, starting with the EU. In particular, we plan to identify which of our already existing partners are willing to support us through their network and/or direct investment.
Risk Analysis
We need to investigate different risks associated with the business plan, e.g. a)Failure to encourage the consumers to invest in the technology, b) Dissatisfaction among users and switch to competitor products, c) Higher market penetration by the major competitors.
All the technical risks are considered low to medium risk and can be managed due to the expertise of the company. Although there are currently no major competitors, this may change as success in this project will inevitably generate further interest.
Business Plan
By integrating the above-mentioned objectives in the phase 1 study, we will develop a solid business plan for the commercial exploitation of our new technology. This will include market opportunity (size, growth, needs), value proposition, commercialization strategy, IP strategy description, financial projections and further impact.
"
The project “One Way , Your Link!"" answers to one main issue: according to international statistics 30% of the on-line addresses referring to physical places are wrong, thus provoking confusion for postal and delivery services, people, customers, etc. Furthermore, it considers other societal challenges, which currently affect our everyday life:
- Brugmann Hospital, Brussels (BE): > 250,000 sqm , around 20 buildings ; it is difficult for the patients identifying the correct venue without asking to hospital personnel ;
- Capanna Margherita (Italy): the highest hotel in Europe (4554 m. above the level of the sea) ; according to the new National Regulation it needs to exactly specify its GPS coordination to receive a better support in case of natural catastrophes ;
- Mr. X (independent professional with a VAT number) and the company XYZ recently changed the address of their own businesses from a city centre to a technological park, with several buildings inside and with a unique civic number. As a consequence, they are not able to properly receive their posts and clients have difficulties in finding them ;
- Islands: in Karpathos, a remote Greek island, there are no street names, therefore it is difficult to find the correct places, either bar or hotel, unless they are properly registered on-line.
In the past internet had the same problems too: websites had IP coordinates which they turn to be domain name (e.g. 74.125.53.100 = google.com). Way!Link is a similar solution for physical location: a short, unique, address tag links with the users wherever they are, like a domain name for the WWW. Our tag is called GeoLink: the users put it into the system the way they want (they create the GeoLink) and the system associates the coordinates to the venue they want to reach.
The overall objective of the project are the following ones:
Patent
Through the project we want to trademark our product at EUIPO Office as well as patent our technology (EPO)
Market Study
Delivery a market research to identify the best sales strategy for the new product, with particular focus in the European Union. The aim is to identify the most effective channels to reach our clients in different countries, starting with the EU. In particular, we plan to identify which of our already existing partners are willing to support us through their network and/or direct investment.
Risk Analysis
We need to investigate different risks associated with the business plan, e.g. a)Failure to encourage the consumers to invest in the technology, b) Dissatisfaction among users and switch to competitor products, c) Higher market penetration by the major competitors.
All the technical risks are considered low to medium risk and can be managed due to the expertise of the company. Although there are currently no major competitors, this may change as success in this project will inevitably generate further interest.
Business Plan
By integrating the above-mentioned objectives in the phase 1 study, we will develop a solid business plan for the commercial exploitation of our new technology. This will include market opportunity (size, growth, needs), value proposition, commercialization strategy, IP strategy description, financial projections and further impact.
"
Phase 1 Proposal included a specific introduction to the forecasted Work Package that comprises several activities that we have carried out in our 6-month feasibility study.
A research on the existing patents has been carried out between June and July 2018, and the submission to the European patent has been done in November 2018. In the meantime, a preliminary risk analysis has been conducted to ensure that no issues have been left aside and thus that future developments will be with a low and controlled risk. Our team has prepared a preliminary Execution Plan for the development and exploitation of the Way!Link technology, developing a market study. Financial scenarios have been analysed and detailed, leading to consolidated financial projections for the 2019-2023 period with highly positive turnover increase, explained towards a complete business plan, which will be described in detail in the application for the Phase II of the SME Instrument.
A research on the existing patents has been carried out between June and July 2018, and the submission to the European patent has been done in November 2018. In the meantime, a preliminary risk analysis has been conducted to ensure that no issues have been left aside and thus that future developments will be with a low and controlled risk. Our team has prepared a preliminary Execution Plan for the development and exploitation of the Way!Link technology, developing a market study. Financial scenarios have been analysed and detailed, leading to consolidated financial projections for the 2019-2023 period with highly positive turnover increase, explained towards a complete business plan, which will be described in detail in the application for the Phase II of the SME Instrument.
By launching Way!Link, an innovative geolocalization system that allows everyone to save the place of preference with high precision as well as to B2B entities to register their address everywhere they want. We will revolutionize the geo-localization market thanks to an efficient, higher performance and cost-effective solution. In particular: our goal is to reduce by 20% the mistakes in published on-line address, being a useful tool from European citizens as well as postal services and deliver companies. Through Way!Link we aim to become partner of major multinational companies, and we are targeting the 0,01% (1,8 M Euro) of the market by 2024 and the 0,1% by 2030 (18 M Euro).