HOWTOGET.HR KAROLINA URBANIAK
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Essay Scope and Purpose The purpose of this essay is to introduce an innovative e-business model. I will present the main concept of this service, potential users, the strategic background, marketing and financial aspects. The main purpose is to provide all the necessary information for potential investors and convince them to choose this specific, innovative service. 1.2. Data Sources and Collection Methods As the nature of this project is strictly virtual, internet will be the tool to collect all the necessary data. I will use and analyse some information about similar services to show that there is gap and the example of another countries will show that there is a big demand for such a web page. 1.3. Essay Content and Structure The essay will be divided in few parts- I will introduce the reader to all the aspects of this innovative business model. The first part will be strategic background, after that I will show the detailed description of the model. The next parts will be innovations, finances, clients and partners, associates and competitions, then the technical aspects and marketing. Finally I will describe the mobile and web technologies, show the SWOT analysis, project starting costs and website prototype. 1.4. E-business Model – Short Description Howtoget.hr is a tool for planning travel within the city of Zagreb from point to point using public transport. Service answers the question posed in its title- how to reach the indicated address. It is a source of complete passenger information containing the timetables for all bus and trams stops and information about various types of obstacles in the cities.
2. STRATEGIC BACKGROUND 2.1. Mission The most important is user and its needs- therefore, we take care of the fastest, most convenient access to information that are desired by the consumer. We are constantly
searching for innovation of our service, we update the data in the shortest possible time to provide the best service. In co-operation with the cities and public transport authorities we are building a platform which every modern city in the twenty-first century should provide for their citizens or tourists. 2.2. Vision In the next 5 years our web page and service will be recognised as the most useful tool to calculate the most convenient journey through biggest cities not only in Croatia but in the whole Balkan area. 2.3. Project Goals The main goals of howtoget.hr is to enter into the use of tools that already exist in modern cities in the western countries. A big, capital city like Zagreb should provide their citizens a quick access to information that they can choose in everyday life- how to get to their work/school/home in the most convenient way. In the twenty first century, century of technology and event faster development of virtual services it is necessary to combine information which can be found via different tools in one, specific service. On the other hand the trend of healthy lifestyle and preserving our planet will increase and if Croatia would like to decrease pollution and convince their citizen to use more ecological, public transportationhowtoget.hr is the first step. 3. Business Model 3.1. E-business Model – Detailed Description
As I have mentioned before- howtoget.hr is a tool for planning travel within the city of Zagreb from point to point using public transport. Additionally, it will prompt, at what hour should we leave the house, where is the closest stop and calculate the average time of the journey. The service enables you to plan a trip in the "door - to - door" from any point A to any point B, showing episodes of walking, stops: the initial and final, it calculates if (and when) the user should change mean of transport and how much time it takes. The service is available as a web-based service and application on smartphones.
Users interested in traveling urban buses or trams can select different rout options - fast, optimal or convenient. Depending on which option was chosen, the system will show the route that takes the least time (fast) or balanced way, where sometimes you will have to walk (optimal). There is one option (comfortable), which can be useful for older people or those, who does not depend on time, because in this case the system does not care for the duration of the journey, but to get around on foot as little as possible. Additionally, you can check the timetable for the various stops. The service will be available in two languages- Croatian and English. At the moment howtoget.hr operates only in Zagreb but there are advanced plans of widening the market to other big cities in Croatia – Split, Rijeka, Osijek and Zadar. 3.2. E-business Model Values Values of this e-business model are important to all the units of society- people who live in Zagreb and also other Croatian citizens and foreign students and tourists. Zagreb today is not an easy city to travel in for people who did not live here for years. There are no timetables on trams and tram stops, in Tourist Information can not be found any map with buses connection. Howtoget.hr can solve all of this problems- you should simply put the address that you are at and search for the connections. The biggest value of the service is it usefulness in everyday life. On the other hand in can convince people to use alternative methods of transportations and resign from cars that cause severe pollution. 3.3. Project Organization This project could not exist without cooperation with authorities of public transportation. The changes in schedules will be sent to howtoget.hr and provide the most actual data. One team will consist only informatics who will work on technical aspects of creating and maintain the web page. The other one will work on marketing and cooperation with our partners. We will use outsourcing companies for services like accounting. 4. INNOVATIONS 4.1. Innovation List - obstacle detection - accurate line route
- option to prefer a specific mean of transport 4.2. Project Innovations – Detailed Description 4.2.1. Innovation 1- OBSTACLE DETECTION In order to provide the most accurate measure of time the service should detect different obstacles, such as water(lakes, rivers) , railroad tracks and most of all- traffic jams. Choosing an option where we would avoid the most intensive traffic will provide the fastest journey routes for people who are in hurry. In the nearest future all the trams and buses should have installed GPS devices and then the signal could automatically transfer the data to the howtoget.hr’s database. 4.2.2. Innovation 2- ACCURATE LINE ROUTE The real line route is now a little bit different from the proposed ones- now we measure the distance in a straight line, from stop to stop. It can cause some differences in the real time of the journey and time provided for changing the mean of transport, walk to the place of destination etc. 4.2.3. Innovation 3- OPTION TO PREFER A SPECIFIC MEAN OF TRANSPORT The last proposed innovation is type option "Prefer trams" or "avoid buses" so he user could have the best connection in tram + bus journey. Some people prefer a specific mean of transport and in order to provide them the possibility of choosing the most conviniet way of travel for them we will enable this option in the future.
5. REVENUE MODELS 5.1. Revenue Model List - subscription for the service - income from advertisements on the web page - funding from the city - after joining UE- from Operational Programme (structural funds)
5.2. Revenue Models – Detailed Description
5.2.1. Revenue Model 1- SUBSRIPTION Subscription will be the great way for financing our project. Generally users with internet connection could access the web page for free, but as application for smartphones it would cost a small, yearly fee. Additionally- people who want to use a version without any advertisements could have such an option for a similar, small yearly subscription. 5.2.2. Revenue Model 2- ADVERTISEMENTS The most common and efficient way of funding the service- the free access to the web page is related with the necessity of add’s existence. It will be a very attractive web page for promotion as it will be used for a big amount of citizens of the city. 5.2.3. Revenue Model 3- CITY FUNDING We will be working in cooperation with the City Hall and ZET (Zagrebački Električni Tramvaj) therefore we can apply for additional money because the service will be in use for all the citizens. 5.2.4. Revenue Model 4- UE STRUCTURAL FUNDING The problem with UE funding is the fact that services that wish to obtain it should have at the beginning their own funds to finance the investment, as the Union gives back the money that is already spent. Any company can get funding for new e-services that will serve the public through its innovation. Our project meets all the coditions.
6. CLIENTS 6.1. Main Clients - permanent and temporary city residents - tourists 6.2. Main Clients – Detailed Description 6.2.1. Client 1- CITY RESIDENTS
At the moment only people who are constantly using public transportation do not have any problem with choosing the most convenient mean of transport. Those who use it only from time to time (for example- normally are using a car o bicycle) or people who have just arrived to town (in search for jobs or just begun their studies) will encounter many difficulties. 6.2.2. Client 2- TOURISTS Tourist – especially from abroad, who do not speak Croatian language at all- will get a great tool which will help them ride around the city without such big troubles as nowadays. Howtoget.hr will be also available in English in order to help them to get from one indicated address to another. 6.3. Markets and Website Language At beginning the target market is only Croatia, but in the future it will be the whole Balkan area. The service will be available in two languages- Croatian and English. 6.4. Client Registration There is no need for any registration- free access to the database is one of the key features of the service. 6.5. Registered Client Benefits OR Direct and Indirect Benefits of Free Content For those users who had applied for the subscription – the service free of advertisements.
7. PARTNERS 7.1. Main Suppliers and Associates The main supplier for the service will be Zagrebački Električni Tramvaj (ZET) 7.2. Supplier and Associate Description 7.2.1. Supplier and Associate 1- ZET ZET is a branch of the Zagreb Holding specialized for passenger transportation in the city of Zagreb and one part of the Zagreb County. Zagreb. It will provide the web page with all the necessary data about the transportation.
8. COMPETITION 8.1. Main Competitors There do not exist right now any competitors- the schedule can be found only on ZET web page and since we will be working in cooperation with Zagreb Holding we could not consider them as a competitor. 8.2. Similarities and Differences with Existing Projects in the Market There is no threat for us in the Croatian market but there already exist similar projects around the world which we can consider as competition. London's very informative website could serve as a model- even the reduced version in 16 languages features a fully translated timetable and tariff information with searching options. Another examples of good functioning are Prague and Vienna. All the companies that provide information for these cities have expansion plans which means they can become a threat to our projects. 8.3. Project Competitive Advantage According to the report Testing local public transport systems in major European cities published by http://www.eurotestmobility.com Zagreb is on the last place in rank (considering transparent transportation information). Apart from Ljubljana in Slovenia these are the only two cities in the test that failed to provide timetable information on the Internet with a route search function. The fact that there does not exist such a service yet is a big advantage for our project. 9. WEB HOSTING AND DOMAIN 9.1. Project Web Hosting As there are some limitations in free Web Hosting. The best option for our service seems to be VPS hosting (Virtual Private Server) which is- according to definition- specifically designed for business oriented webmasters in need of a more comprehensive solution for multiple websites that are constantly expanding. VPS comes in all shapes and sizes that are perfect for an online business owner with a large number of web sites or a single site that is experiencing lots of daily traffic. http://webhostinggeeks.com/ offers such a possibility. 9.2. Project Web Domain
Because at the moment there expansion on foreign markets is only in plan, for our purpose the domain .hr seems to be enough. Nonetheless we are taking into consideration changing the domain’s name for howtoget.com.
10. CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM 10.1. Possible CMS for Project 1. Joomla is considered to be a more advanced system, but it can be handled after a short training. The model is a little bit similar to working in Microsoft Word. Systems s still being developed and fully free. 2.MODx like TYPO3 the system not suitable for novice webmasters. Its operation requires an extensive knowledge of programming. The system allows free editing if you have the experience 3. Drupal is an interesting hybrid, including it is also extended by a system of blogs, forums, newsletters and photo gallery. Although valued for its functionality, is also criticized by expert webmasters for having too poor functionality, and for beginners- too difficult. Also, this system is free and is still being developed. 10.2. Best CMS for Project - Description
After creating the web page it would not be that difficult to manage it- the only task (apart from implementing some innovations) is to put in the database the newest data- it can be done also by the less expirenced workers which lower the costs of salaries. That is why we will use a simple CMS - Joomla. It is a second popular one in the whole word (11% of users). It allows to publish any type of content (text, images, graphics, documents, multimedia). It is also a free software , so we do not have to incur expenditure on expensive commercial software.
11. MARKETING PLAN 11.1. Project Marketing Plan Because howtoget.hr will be used only by those who have access to internet we will definitely concentrate only on promotion via internet. It is a big opportunity for our company that we are working in cooperation with ZET and the Mayor because on these two big webpages (www.zet.hr and www.zagreb.hr there will be information and link to our page. 11.2. Project Key words how to get is the name of web page which also includes the key words. The others are public communication, trams and buses and Zagreb. 11.3. Social Networks Advertising We will actively use facebook fanpage and Twitter to promote our web page. 11.4. Marketing Plan Table 01.05.2013- start of marketing campain: information on zet.hr and zagreb.hr about introducing the howtoget.hr on June 1st 01.06.2012 - start of howtoget.hr, informations on Twitter and Facebook, articles about webpage on news in all the portals that have connection to the City Hall
13. WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGIES 13.1. Project Facebook Profile
13.2. Project Author LinkedIn Profile
13.3. Project Tweeter Profile
14. PROJECT SWOT ANALYSIS
15. PROJECT STARTING COSTS
16. WEBSITE PROTOTYPE 16.1. Project Website Structure
16.2. Project Website Structure Description The user can use markon the map the destinotions or put the adress/name of a place he wants to get (for example a museum or a pub) and where does he start the journey. He/She can also choose the specific date,hour , various ways (fast one, the one that allows you not to walk too much etc), means of transport (buses, trams, trains) or prefered number of line. The website can be find under link http://karolina-urbaniak.wix.com/howtoget.
17. CONCLUSION Howtoget.hr will be a tool for planning travel within the city of Zagreb from point to point using public transport. Service answers the question posed in its title- how to reach the indicated address. Because there is right now no real competition for our company we belive in our success. Such tools already exist in all big european cities and are very popular so we are sure that it will also be popular in Zagreb and all the region in the next few years.