智慧型跑者商業企劃書 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學商學院國際經營管理英語碩士學位學程 International MBA Program College of Commerce National Chengchi University. 碩士論文政治. 大. 立Master’s Thesis. ‧. ‧ 國. 學 sit. y. Nat. 智慧型跑者商業企劃書 n. al. er. io. A BUSINESS PLAN FOR SMART RUNNERS. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Student: Prakash Karmegam Advisor: Dr. Shari Shiaw-Chun Shang. 中華民國一 0 四年十二月 December 2015.

(2) 智慧型跑者商業企劃書 A BUSINESS PLAN FOR SMART RUNNERS. ：車培凱. Student: Prakash Karmegam. 指導教授：尚孝純. Advisor: Dr. Shari Shiaw-Chun Shang. 國立政治大學. 學. ‧ 國. 立. 政治大. ‧. 商學院國際經營管理英語碩士學位學程碩士論文. io. sit. y. Nat. A Thesis. er. 研究生. n. a to International MBA Program Submitted iv l C n U NationalhChengchi University engchi. in partial fulfilment of the Requirements for the degree of Master in Business Administration. 中華民國一0四年十二月 December 2015.

(3) Acknowledgements. I want to thank my advisor Professor Shang Shiaw-Chun, who helped me to come up with an innovative business model and provided complete guidance through her valuable feedbacks. I appreciate her willingness to work on a tight schedule and helped me to graduate in a timely manner while pursuing a meaningful topic of my choosing.. 治政 I would like to thank all the IMBA Faculty members for大 taking sincere interest in making our 立 education meaningful and productive. Special thanks to department staffs esp. Ms. Lichi Ho, ‧ 國. 學. who cares and support all our administrative needs in university.. ‧. Thanks to Mr. Rajakumar Subramanian, Marathon Runner from South Korea in providing. Nat. er. io. sit. y. detail insights about the industry and helped me to understand the needs effectively.. Many thanks to all my family members for their love, care and support!!. n. al. -Prakash Karmegam. Ch. engchi. 1. i n U. v.

(4) Executive Summary In the modern world, marathon running is taking over the fitness world and studies show that regular running will make people healthier, happier and fit. In India the yearly growth rate of marathon event is more than 150%. As more people gets boarded, the whole running industry is seeing boom and demand arises in all the services associated with these events.. The evolution of technology and social media makes all the products and services migrate. 政治大. towards digital platform. Services associated with marathon events include race event. 立. management, getting connected with runners and clubs, reliable guidance and training. ‧ 國. 學. techniques for preparing to run 42+ km, expert feedback on running gadgets like GSM watches, shoes, apparels etc. In current market, all these services served through different. ‧. channels like runners club, Facebook, health magazines, websites for events and many more.. sit. y. Nat. Effective way to serve this group is to come up with “SMART Runners” which is exclusive. n. al. er. io. for runners and serve all the needs associated with running events in single platform.. Ch. i n U. v. This digital platform will use the crowd sourcing concepts to create contents that fits the. engchi. Indian market needs with reliable information. For the event organizers, this platform will also act as a cloud service through which they can reach the runners, communicate and manage their race events effectively. As an investor, the proposal for creating a basic SMART Runners portal has positive NPV of INR 3,940,623 with CAGR of 20%. Though it may not be highly attractive however in short span it will become the leading “Running Portal” in India with approximately two million subscriptions. In the future this customer base can help the company to expand into various running related services and has bright prospects.. Keywords: Marathon Event, Runners network, Cloud Service, ePlatform & Crowd Sourcing 2.

(5) TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 7 1.1. Running Events ............................................................................................................................................ 8 1.2. Reasons to Run ............................................................................................................................................ 9 1.3. Existing Channels ....................................................................................................................................... 11. 政治大. 2. Market Opportunity ........................................................................................................... 12 2.1. Runner’s Needs .......................................................................................................................................... 12. 立. ‧ 國. 學. 2.2. Organizer’s Needs ...................................................................................................................................... 14 2.3. Opportunities ............................................................................................................................................. 15. ‧. 3. SMART RUNNERS............................................................................................................ 16. y. Nat. er. io. sit. 3.1. Event Management .................................................................................................................................... 17 3.2. Make New Buddy ....................................................................................................................................... 17. al. n. v i n Ch 3.3. Exclusive Membership ............................................................................................................................... 18 engchi U 3.4. Diet Doctor................................................................................................................................................. 19 3.5. Running Techniques ................................................................................................................................... 19. 3.6. Personal Dashboard ................................................................................................................................... 19. 4. Marketing Strategy ............................................................................................................ 21 4.1. Target Segment .......................................................................................................................................... 22 4.2. Empathy Map ............................................................................................................................................. 23. 3.

(6) 4.3. Onboarding Strategy .................................................................................................................................. 24 4.4. Customer Retention Strategy ..................................................................................................................... 26 4.5. Content Creation Strategy ......................................................................................................................... 27. 5. Operations ........................................................................................................................... 28 5.1. Demography .............................................................................................................................................. 28 5.2. Structure .................................................................................................................................................... 29. 政治大. 5.3. Operational Process ................................................................................................................................... 32. 立. 5.4. Pricing Process ........................................................................................................................................... 34. ‧ 國. 學. 6. SWOT Analysis ................................................................................................................... 35. ‧. 6.1. Strengths .................................................................................................................................................... 35. y. Nat. io. sit. 6.2. Opportunity ............................................................................................................................................... 35. er. 6.3. Weakness ................................................................................................................................................... 36. al. n. v i n 6.4. Threats ....................................................................................................................................................... 36 Ch engchi U 7. Competitor Analysis ........................................................................................................... 37 7.1. Current Players........................................................................................................................................... 37 7.2. Product Position ......................................................................................................................................... 39 7.3. Functional Analysis .................................................................................................................................... 40. 8. Business Partners ................................................................................................................ 41 8.1. I.T Vendor ................................................................................................................................................... 41 8.2. RFID Timing Service ................................................................................................................................... 41. 4.

(7) 8.3. Digital Solutions ......................................................................................................................................... 42 8.4. Photographer ............................................................................................................................................. 42 8.5. Payment Provider ...................................................................................................................................... 42 8.6. Tour Operators ........................................................................................................................................... 43. 9. Project Timeline .................................................................................................................. 44 10. Financials........................................................................................................................... 46. 政治大. 10.1. Fixed Cost ................................................................................................................................................. 46. 立. 10.2. Variable Cost ............................................................................................................................................ 47. ‧ 國. 學. 10.3. Pro-formo Income Statement .................................................................................................................. 48. ‧. 10.4. Cash Flow Statement ............................................................................................................................... 50. y. Nat. io. sit. 10.5. Sensitivity Analysis ................................................................................................................................... 50. n. al. er. 11. Risk Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 52. Ch. i n U. v. 12. Future Road Map ............................................................................................................. 53. engchi. 13. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 56 Reference ................................................................................................................................. 57 Appendix ................................................................................................................................. 58. 5.

(8) List of Figures and Tables Figure 1: Marathon Growth by Nations...................................................................................... 8 Figure 2: India Marathon Statistics ............................................................................................. 9 Figure 3: Smart Runners ePlatform .......................................................................................... 16 Figure 4: Marketing Strategy .................................................................................................... 21 Figure 5: Content Creation Process .......................................................................................... 27 Figure 6: Office Locations ......................................................................................................... 28. 治政 Figure 7: Organizational Structure ............................................................................................ 29 大立 Figure 8: “Click Me” Process ..................................................................................................... 33 ‧ 國. 學. Figure 9: Product Position ........................................................................................................ 39. ‧. Figure 10: Competitor Functional Analysis ............................................................................... 40 Figure 11: Implementation Timeline ........................................................................................ 44. y. Nat. io. sit. Figure 12: Road Map................................................................................................................. 54. n. al. er. Figure 13: Business Model Canvas............................................................................................ 56. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Table 1: Marathon Class Breakup ............................................................................................. 11 Table 2: Fixed Cost .................................................................................................................... 46 Table 3: Monthly Variable Cost ................................................................................................. 47 Table 4: Event Cost .................................................................................................................... 48 Table 5: Revenue Forecast ........................................................................................................ 48 Table 6: Pro-formo Income Statement ..................................................................................... 49 Table 7: Cash Flow Analysis ...................................................................................................... 50 Table 8: Sensitivity Analysis ...................................................................................................... 51 Table 9: Risk Factor Analysis ..................................................................................................... 52 6.

(9) 1. Introduction India is a developing country with economic growth of 7.5% (Conference, 2015) and a population of 1.2 billion (Government of India, 2011). In olden days, very few people in India thinks about participating in a running event of 5 km, 10 km, 21 km or 42.2 km and during those period people primarily focused on fitness activities like walking, yoga and gymnastics. But today amateur running is seeing a great boom and almost every cities hosting a running event for promotions with local running groups growing up exponentially all over the geography. The. 治政 first major running event was “The Standard Chartered Mumbai 大 Marathon” held in 2004 and it 立 is now more than ten years old, drawing international athletes as well. Fund generated from this ‧ 國. 學. single event towards charity alone reached 1.3 billion rupees (SC Marathon, 2015) till date.. ‧. While city marathon continues to grow, another breed of running events have begun to emerge in the country and runners seems to be lapping up all the actions. Today, the calendar for. y. Nat. io. sit. running events includes various type of fields like the Run of Kutch, Himalayan Crossing -. n. al. er. Terrain Running, Mizoram Ultra and “The High – Ladakh” etc. Young, adventure and fitness. Ch. i n U. v. enthusiasts from various cities have been looking for these kind of opportunities to run on. engchi. difficult terrains and enjoy the scenic beauty at the same time.. Running industry is really huge and it consists of various products and services to complement the entire eco-system. Though it looks like the runner just need a pair of shoes to start running, once they get in ends up with spending a lot for this. Primary expenses were associated with shoes, apparels , watches GPS enabled like Garmin, water bottle, hat, sun glasses, gels/ointments, music, nutrional supplements, race entry fees, souvenir race t-shirt, running event fees and many more.. 7.

(10) 1.1. Running Events The worldwide growth in the running events from 2009 to 2014 was 13.25%. If we take a closer look by demographics, the developing countries in Asia has an accelerating growth. Refer to the figure 1. Marathon growth by nations for detail breakup. India has a promising growth of 154% (Research: Marathon Performance Across Nations, 2015) with increase in participation from women runners as well.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. Source: (RunRepeat, 2015). engchi. i n U. v. Figure 1: Marathon Growth by Nations The recent increase in participation is primarily associated with India’s economic growth and the major participants are from the comfortable economic means. They tend to primarily work in the information technology industry attributed with high stress work environment and hence looking for ways to keep them healthy and more productive. People are getting more awareness about their physical fitness, obesity and want to reduce the extra fat in natural way. Increase in running events leads to new born of running clubs in every locality to help, mentor and train the newcomers to put themselves into the race events.. 8.

(11) In India, more than half of the running events were happening in major metro cities like Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad etc. The year on year increase in metro cities were around 65% as shown in the figure.2 and that explains the upper middle class people’s interest towards marathon race participation. From the figure 2. India Marathon Statistics, it is obvious that southern part of India is dominating and the primary reason associated with that is major I.T companies were operating from southern part of the country.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. io. y. sit. Figure 2: India Marathon Statistics. n. al. er. Nat. Source: Organized by this study. 1.2. Reasons to Run. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. It is more evident that the importance of running has been realized from the increase in number of people signing up for Marathons events. There are various other reasons to participate and start running on daily basis. Some of the key factors (Ravi, 2014) are mentioned below. 1.2.1. Healthier Life Style Running is the start of healthier life style. It helps you to get more exercise, stay fit and lose weight. People who care more about their fitness seeks natural way to burn the fat and running is the ideal choice for them to start with. Training to run a Marathon can help to keep. 9.

(12) the promise of healthier living style.. 1.2.2. Challenge Oneself There are several moments when people doubt on their own capabilities. Hence when they get into marathon events, it is more likely to compete themselves to run the next one by beating their own time. This will make runners to stay forever in marathon and keeps participating in more events by improving individual’s scorecard.. 1.2.3. Make Friends. 政治大. Joining a running club is the best way to connect with people from different background who. 立. shares the same goals and provides an excellent opportunity to network with localities. ‧ 國. 學. effectively. They will stay connected forever and become a buddy for life as there is a common orientation between the members of the club.. ‧. 1.2.4. Marathon Medals. y. Nat. sit. People gets sense of achievement when they cross the finish line at the marathon race and. n. al. er. io. secure medal for completion. Since participation requires tremendous training effort,. i n U. v. completion will give a satisfaction for all the hard work and keep up the spirits.. 1.2.5. Give Back Society. Ch. engchi. Most of the marathon events are primarily associated with a cause, hence participating in any such event will give the runners a pride feeling and a sense of satisfaction. The satisfaction arises from the fact that they are giving back to the society in one way or another. Recent events are associated with promoting health awareness, protecting natural resources etc.. 1.2.6. Time of Oneself During the practice runners start devoting more time for themselves. Their attitude or habit towards personal fitness and hygiene improves a lot. It also helps to relieve the daily routine stress and to lead an active lifestyle. 10.

(13) 1.3. Existing Channels Around 380 Marathon events per year happening in India (Calendar , 2015) as explained in Figure 2. Out of which there are ten world class events that attract even international athletes and the total participation in single race event may reach up to 40,000+. Table 1. Marathon Class Breakup gives the categorized view of the yearly event and the participants it attracts. Table 1: Marathon Class Breakup Source: Organized by this study, Based on (Calendar , 2015). 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 10 50 130 190. Participants Range 25,000 - 45,000 10,000-25000 5,000-10,000 1000-5000. 學. Category World Class Events Premium Events Standard Event Local Event. 政治大 Approx. Count. Event Promotion is a key challenge for any of these major events. While organizing an event,. sit. y. Nat. 25% (Be Money Aware Blog, 2015) of the cost goes towards registration and market. io. er. promotion. There are too many channels associated with event promotion to achieve a broad. al. reach of participants and Facebook/FM Radio are primarily used. Almost all the running clubs. n. v i n have a profile page in FacebookC and this page helps for he n g c h i U effective digital marketing to reach the right audience with very minimal effort. FM Radio helps to create the awareness and brand for the events in the society and add value for the corporate sponsors. Apart from this, traditional media like newspaper, TV, Email were also used for maximum penetration. Each event organizers have their own website for online registration and work with multiple vendors. Local running clubs are another key partner for success criteria, since it has the target customer base and helps them to encourage in participating such events. In the digital world, local running clubs are getting replaced by virtual running groups that are created through Facebook.. 11.

(14) 2. Market Opportunity Everything in today’s world is getting digital and e-commerce is playing critical role across all the industry segments. In the marathon industry, most of the digital players are primarily into apparel business or blogging websites that contains the training tips. There are very few portals where all the marathon events are listed out and it primarily contains the detail composed in the flyers such as date, time, venue, eligibility criteria and contact details. Registration for such events has to happen through the exclusive website or through manual process. Considering the. 治政 current landscape of Indian market, this study plans to do大 detail study to understand the needs of 立 the runners and then map it against the available resources to find the gap. ‧ 國. 學. 2.1. Runner’s Needs. ‧. To get a better understanding of the runner’s need, personal interview was done with two. Nat. sit. y. candidates who started running accidentally for some reasons and now excelling as a great. n. al. er. io. marathon runner as well as an influencer for lot of newcomers. Refer to the Appendix A.1. v. Runner’s Interview for more details. Based on that strong networking with other runners is a. Ch. engchi. i n U. basic requirement for beginners to start with. It is very difficult to get trained for completing 40+ km all by themselves. They need to acquire the required knowledge and right techniques for effective participation. Though there are lot of articles online, finding the reliable information is not an easy one. To overcome this, most of the people enroll themselves with a running club or groups. Running club is the only way before a decade to get connected, but now social media like Facebook makes forming a virtual group and communicating among themselves an easy process and save all their time and money. Considering this migration factor, all the running clubs are already listed in Facebook pages with huge fans and followers.. 12.

(15) Another underlying reason behind all the runners is fitness and healthy lifestyle. They have a strong urge to know more about “how to improve their lifestyle in a natural and healthy way” and tends to search for new relevant information. However, these information scattered across the internet and segregating the right one that is reliable among the commercial articles were really hard. Most of these runners follow the directions or guidance provided by the local mentors or influencers from the running group whom they see as an expert runner.. 政治大 for marathon to keep the practice going on. In the digital world, most of these information were 立. Since the energy burnt will be very huge on a daily basis, Nutrional fueling is very important. ‧ 國. 學. on international standard and it’s really hard to find localized data based on the Indian diet and food style. (Indian food is diversified across all the states). Again the mentor or influencer will. ‧. be key to provide valuable suggestions which urges the runner to join some local running club. sit. y. Nat. to begin with. The same reason applies for getting better understanding on the tools, training. io. n. al. er. techniques etc. to prepare themselves.. i n U. v. As far as the event registration considered, most of these runners would like to go through their. Ch. engchi. running clubs as a group for easy processing. Recent days, almost all the events provide online registration facility however some offline procedures are required to collect the running kit before the race starts and hence they still prefer to go through their clubs. If they do it through the local running clubs, they will have a known company before landing up in a massive ground with 10,000+ runners on the event day. Runners would like to get exclusive updates on event communications like newsletter, alerts, and remainders to their personal email id.. One of the basic need which is not yet addressed by any digital platform is that, up on race completion these runners can see their timing and achievement details from the respective. 13.

(16) timing provider websites. However they can’t store all their achievements and timing details in a single place. Some runners personally keep a track and save it in their own way and tends to hold this information for some period or download it from their GSM watches like Garmin which provide this feature.. From the above information, it is obvious that the runners tend to gather information from various sources through different channel for the current needs and actively use social media as. 政治大. an alternative to fill the gaps whenever needed.. 立. 2.2. Organizer’s Needs. ‧ 國. 學. On the other hand, being a marathon event organizers they need tremendous effort in promoting the event to get the maximum reach so that the corporates associated with them will feel the. ‧. value of being part of it. Almost all the events are non-profitable, the fund generated out of. y. Nat. sit. these events will be diverted to social trust, charity or for noble cause to create some awareness. n. al. er. io. in society for example pink marathon event was conducted to spread awareness about breast. i n U. v. cancer. Hence promoting these events are really challenging and attracting the large participants. Ch. is the key goal for an organizers.. engchi. Though these events last only six hours at the maximum, it needs huge manpower for event preparation. Key challenges associated with this preparation were legal procedure in getting the required permit, event promotion, social media communication, registration, time management, gather volunteers to support, medical facility arrangement, vendor management like t-shirts, RFID provider for timing, food service, janitor service and many more. World class event’s organizers have enough resources capable of executing the entire stream, however for local or standard events they really find it hard to execute this with limited available resources and. 14.

(17) hence end up in spending too much of cost and contribute only very little to the charity or society. These organizers looking for effective solutions to optimize the cost with single stop service so that they can execute events effectively and reach their goal of maximum contribution to society.. 2.3. Opportunities The current state of market has too many scattered information on various websites in different. 政治大 e-application without any physical visit. Current channel strongly rely on Facebook now and 立. formats. Each event has its own registration process and there is no standard defined process or. ‧. ‧ 國. in a better way.. 學. market is looking for an exclusive place to effectively reach the right audience and serve them. It’s time for a niche portal to dominate the running industry that can exclusively target the. Nat. sit. y. segment needs and serve the runners more effectively. Even in retail industry, it’s proven that. n. al. er. io. global player like Amazon was easily overtook by FlipKart, Snapdeal, Yatra so on. Hence a. i n U. v. portal with localized information such as Indian nutrional diet, running gadgets review by. Ch. engchi. reliable runners from nearby locality, tips based on the local weather conditions etc. were strongly preferred rather than global information.. All the runners dream about having a single platform where all their running related needs can be addressed effectively that includes training information, diet, marathon events, registration, timing details, marathon gadgets review, store all their achievement and timing records etc. They seeks virtual place to network effectively with co-runners and prefer to have a runner’s book, an exclusive place for runners rather depending entirely on social media.. 15.

(18) 3. SMART RUNNERS “SMART Runners” is an innovative portal that can serve all the runners needs related to Marathon. It will act as a single stop solution for all the requirements associated with running. As shown in the figure 3. Smart Runners ePlatform, the webpage can be accessed both from the desktop as well as the mobile browsers like Safari, Chrome, Internet etc. User interface will be designed in such a way that is compatible with commonly used browsers.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. Source: (Smart Runners HomePage). engchi. i n U. v. Figure 3: Smart Runners ePlatform This portal will be linked with search engine optimization tools to attract the traffic who are associated with marathon events. At the initial stage, there is no strong need or value for creating a mobile application, however later it may be considered once the desired audiences are. on. boarded. to. this. platform.. Refer. to. the. Prototype:. http://prakashrec.wix.com/smartrunners to get a better feel and idea about this solution, though it’s not an exact user interface it can give you a better feel of the concept and the ideas that will be discussed here.. 16.

(19) 3.1. Event Management “SMART Runners” portal will serve the information about all the running events that is happening across the India. It covers runs that are categorized as 5 km, 10 km, half marathon, full marathon, ultra, decathlon, hill running or any other form of running events. It also provides the required detail information about the events and associated contact numbers. It will have a provision to apply online through easy registration process using the member profile data. If event organizers are not partnered with smart runners, then their website will be linked and routed from this home page.. 立. 政治大. Crowd content creation strategy will be used to list out all the events happening across the. ‧ 國. 學. corners. People who reports running event with respective flyer will earn points that can be used to redeem through eStore and hence it is possible to list all the events immediately.. ‧. 3.2. Make New Buddy. y. Nat. sit. Basic demography details will be used to make the search easy and provide recommendations. n. al. er. io. of the running events close to their geography. It also helps to show the profile of the person. i n U. v. whom you already know is participating in that event and simulates you for enrollment. System. Ch. engchi. recommends travel package to simulate the runners and have fun experience by running in other states. Package includes the registration kit, hotel accommodation, transportation to the event spot and a tour planner that covers key nearby attractions after the event. It also display who else is availing similar package from nearby area. System let the runners to post their running plan for the weekend and notify all the circle members to check who else is interested to accompany them. This place is not only for race events, it can help runners to have virtual networks, effective practice session and get new buddy. It even helps them to form a virtual running club with different interest group for effective gathering. 17.

(20) 3.3. Exclusive Membership Runners who register as a member with smart runners has exclusive benefits under this membership program. They can create their own profile and set their preferences, later it will be used to network with another similar profiles. Data intelligence will be used to map the people from similar runners club, locality or event participated. Forming a virtual runners club is possible through the membership zone. It helps to from a group with similar desire, communicate effectively and share ideas that helps among them. It. 政治大. encourages member to be part of various groups and get more exposure and experience rather. 立. than just being only member to the nearby physical running club.. ‧ 國. 學. Using the membership profile data, applying for any new event will be easy click process and they can earn miles for the events that is registered through the portal. Miles accumulated can. ‧. be redeem to get exciting marathon soveniours using digital printing technology. Registration. Nat. sit. y. for any event in this platform doesn’t cost any extra fee but it gives two key benefits, first one is. n. al. er. io. earn extra miles that can be helped to redeem as favorite gifts and secondly get a free. i n U. v. photograph of the individuals in action captured by professional photographers during the event.. Ch. engchi. More benefits of being a member is that to get the latest, reliable and accurate information about the technology gadgets that are coming up in the market. Monthly newsletter will be emailed to the members that has all the highlights going around in the running world. Exciting tips and techniques, along with the achiever interview or emerging runner will be at individual’s inbox. For the events registered through the system, there will be an exclusive alerts and remainder facility, which helps to know the progress and any last minute changes. Recurring remainders will help the runners to prepare well for the race.. 18.

(21) 3.4. Diet Doctor Diet calculator based on Indian food style available with this portal to know more about the calories and diet associated with each portion of Indian food. Members can subscribe for diet letter that provides expert advice for the right intake considering the season and BMI (Body Mass Index) to be reached. Each runner physic differs and their need to know about the diet program basically differs, and here they can find more specific information based on BMI. Members can post all their questions regarding diets under this blog. It will be accumulated and. 政治大. answered by professional nutrional expert during the interview on a periodic basis. Most of the. 立. questions can be immediately responded by expert runners who had similar queries when they. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. start running.. 3.5. Running Techniques. y. Nat. sit. In the internet world, runners can find 1000+ article related to various training tips and. n. al. er. io. techniques. But this platform is full of expert runners, information posted here will be purely. i n U. v. reliable and no placeholders for spam or false commercial promotions. Pros and cons of all the. Ch. engchi. training techniques and gadgets will be openly discussed and it helps to get the 360 degree view for the new comer to have better understanding rather trying to collect the similar information from various portal sources.. 3.6. Personal Dashboard Most of the runners don’t keep the accurate information about their running history. They can mostly give an approximate number and the recent event timings or their personal best. Few people has the habit of storing their detail information in excel and spends extensive effort manually to manage it. This portal can help them to solve this problem through the personal 19.

(22) dashboard features. Once they become a member in this portal, their entire running history will be accumulated and stored as a cloud service which includes the event participated, BIP number, timing details, completed rank and all relevant statistics about the race. Refer to the Appendix A.3 Personal Dashboard to know about the proposed layout. It primarily composes of all the races accomplished history, upcoming race details that are planned or preferred, target miles to achieve, target weight to gain or lose (BMI). It also have the details about the running clubs that the member was associated and the virtual clubs they were actively participating.. 立. 政治大. Key highlights in the personal dashboard is the recommendations section, where the. ‧ 國. 學. recommendations for friends, running clubs and travel package will be displayed. Coming up with the recommendations purely uses the internal intelligence algorithm based on our master. ‧. database of all the events and member’s profile. Data sensitivity will be key factor and up on. Nat. sit. y. member’s agreement, the data will be protected and used in the right way. It will not be misused. n. al. er. io. or sold for commercial purposes like market research, marketing needs etc.. i n U. v. Photos sections display the pictures captured by professional photographers during the race. Ch. engchi. events registered through us. From there, members have provision to check out this digital image by visiting the digital store to print the pictures as a frame, calendar, t-shirt and many more. Refer to the Appendix A.4 for the variety of digital product ranges available in the eStore.. 20.

(23) 4. Marketing Strategy Any product success depends on its marketing strategy and positioning in the market. SMART Runners portal success entirely depends on the number of active runners registered. Steps involved in the marketing strategy is shown in figure 4. Marketing Strategy. There are plenty of websites with similar information, however if members are engaged actively and feel the value then chances for success were relatively high and helps to expand in future.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Source: Organized by this study. Figure 4: Marketing Strategy Following sections will elaborate the needs of the consumer in detail, the segment that will be targeted and the ways to attract and retain them. However this is an iterating process, it will be monitored continuously and necessary changes will be made based on the result.. 21.

(24) 4.1. Target Segment People participating in marathon events can be broadly classified in to three major categories. First one is professional runners, these guys know very well about running and do it for living and earns from them. They hold lot of records and 100% time spent towards running and have access to lot of channels and keep them updated. Second one is Aspiring runners, these group wants to participate in running events for different reasons i.e.) lose weight, relieve stress, stay healthy, be a part of society that run for a noble cause etc. Last category is. 政治大. casual runners, these people primarily involve in different sports activity like cricket, soccer,. 立. hockey etc. For them, it’s just participation and don’t feel any value in continuous running. ‧ 國. 學. forever and they keep their focus in their own core game. This platform targets only the segment “Aspiring Runners”.. ‧. Aspiring runners segment generally fall into the age category of 23 to 50 and will have both. y. Nat. sit. male and female runners. They normally signed up with some running clubs or groups to. n. al. er. io. improve their running skills. Most of the people are new into running and they value this as a. i n U. v. natural way to keep their body in healthy conditions, burn their work stress and stay healthy. Ch. engchi. forever. Major audience in this segment are people who works in information technology sector, a booming industry that pays really higher than most of the industry but associated with heavy stress work environment. Hence they badly look for ways to keep them healthy and don’t mind on spending approximately 500 USD a year (Average monthly salary: 1000 USD) towards running expenses. They all care about society and always feel proud about contributing to their society in whichever possible ways. The entire segment has access to digital world and actively uses Facebook to keep them updated on the events happening all around them.. 22.

(25) 4.2. Empathy Map Good system design is grounded in a deep understanding of the person for whom it is meant for. An empathy map is one tool to help synthesize the observations and draw out unexpected insights. The entire marketing strategy is formulated based on the runner’s empathy. Based on the interviews and discussion with runners as shown in Appendix A.1, the basic components of the empathy map was listed in below sections. 4.2.1. See. 政治大. Aspiring runners will commonly see the below environment.. 學. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. 4.2.2. Say / Do. ‧. • •. 立. Friends with similar interest from the local running clubs. Social Media advertisement through Facebook or FM Advertisement about upcoming marathon events and success story of few people. Co-workers enrolling themselves in the marathon events Too many information on internet about running and very hard to sort out reliable and try like kind of trial and error method.. ‧ 國. • •. v. n. This section describes about the common attitude and their behavioral response. • • •. Ch. i n U. They can’t live without running Encourage others to participate in one of the events and ready to mentor them for all the required training. Talks proudly about the participation in running events associated with noble cause.. engchi. 4.2.3. Think & Feel Items that are really important to this segment is listed below • • • •. Diet control and intake of more protein foods. Health is mostly important of all. Status update in Facebook with today’s running log. My running habits make me feels more confident and productive.. 23.

(26) 4.2.4. Hear It is important to understand the items they hear from their regular environment as listed below. • • • •. Compliments on their fitness and active lifestyle. Surprises about the running completion of 42 KM and seeks healthy tips from them. Congratulations on recent Marathon participation. Facebook updates from friends on their running accomplishments. 4.2.5. Pain The biggest obstructions and the daily challenges they faces can be summarized as. 政治大. •. Too many articles or review about running tips & gadgets. It is really hard to make decision on the gadgets to be purchased.. •. Complex running event registration process and they need to keep following up on too many items for the races. Not all the event promotions are reaching the members. It is a must to join some running club to improve and sustain my running skills.. sit. y. Nat. 4.2.6. Gain. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. • •. 立. al. n. • • •. er. io. Runners truly want to achieve below and it will be their key success measures.. i n U. v. Stay healthy with effective BMI Recognition as “Stay Fit Person” in work place & Friends. Sense of satisfaction by contributing back to the society.. Ch. engchi. 4.3. Onboarding Strategy Customers no need to pay any fee for becoming a member and not necessary to sign up a contract for using the service. It’s entirely free and all they need to do is just agree for “Term & Conditions” on the usage of their data and rights to store it. On the other hand, the portal pledges to secure the information provided and will not be misused for any commercial reasons. Once the product is launched, marketing team will reach the influencers at the door step of running clubs. Since almost all the runners were associated with the clubs, it’s really easy to. 24.

(27) identify the influencers and explain the benefits to board them quickly in to our portal. It is easy to reach all the target audiences at the same time in the Marathon event race ground, however people will be really busy with their own preparation, celebration and may not be really showing any interest to hear about the product. Since it’s a good place to reach all the right segment, Photo Kiosk with big banner will be launched about “SmartRunners.com”. Pictures taken in the photo kiosk will be emailed to the consumer and they can download this by signing up freely and become a member of the portal. People tends to just signup quickly first. 政治大. time without even bothering about the product much just to download their photos. Hence after. 立. they boarded, it all depends on what the portal offers to keep them active and have a nice. ‧ 國. 學. experience. Interesting themes will be used in the Photo Kiosk, i.e.) creative background like running with a celebrity, adventure running, the event banner and many more from which. ‧. runners can pick one. Cost of setting up the kiosk is really very minimal considering the. y. Nat. sit. potential target audience reach in such huge events.. n. al. er. io. Along with Photo Kiosk, there will be a stall where the runners can enroll themselves to take. i n U. v. pictures of them while they race by professional photographers. It’s totally free of charge for. Ch. engchi. them. All they need to do is just provide their contact details, get a flag and then put it on their BIP and start running. Deployed photographers will capture nice memories of the people who wears the tag on the BIP and then later it will be processed and the details will be sent to their email address. Consumers may need to sign up to download the picture for free. Nowadays making digital content is not an expensive one and it helps to attract the audience for product trial with minimal promotion cost. Another major highlight in the membership program is the Reward points, when members signup they will be instantly credited with 50 points. Hence people try to understand more about the way to use it and stay with the portal for some more time, this will give an opportunity 25.

(28) to showcase the core offerings. Members can earn more points by participating in the survey and writing blogs. Influencers will get additional bonus points for referral of new members from their networks and special annual gifts may be provided as well based on the contribution in publishing articles. System provides a free cloud service for all the runners to keep their personal records and timing details of entire history of races participated by becoming a member in this portal. Annual certificate of excellence that consists of all the details about their running. 政治大. accomplishment in the current year will be issued, which people can post it in social media and. 立. share their achievements through our portal.. ‧ 國. 學. 4.4. Customer Retention Strategy. Customer experience is critical to retain the customer for longer time. Once they sign up, event. ‧. registration process will be simplified and the profile data will be used to quickly register for. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. with runners clubs or other runners to expand their network.. sit. any race events with few clicks. They can create their own profile page and start connecting. i n U. v. Reward points program will try to keep the customers active. They start getting points for the. Ch. engchi. event they register through the system and get additional points for referral, blogs or taking survey etc. By accumulating these points, they can redeem it in the online store with a great souvenir of their lifetime which they can cherish forever. Diet Planner program can help to retain customers by providing information that are truly reliable, created by local experts, customized for Indian diet style, demography and body conditions. Proposed diet recommendation will not be expensive one and it will be purely based on the day to day diet style but with right combinations. Normally, people when they go online they need to change their food style entirely, whereas with this portal they don’t see any drastic change in their food habits and will be able to achieve their goal easily. 26.

(29) Exclusive newsletter will be generated with customized contents based on the member’s preference. They will get the major highlights going around them in their locality to keep them more updated rather than just getting standard global news which customers can easily find from various media channels.. 4.5. Content Creation Strategy Contents of the portal speak a lot to the customer and hence pushing the right content will be the key success factor to attract more visitors and keep them engaged. Crowd sourcing strategy will. 政治大. be used to create contents, however once anyone posted the data it will go through in-house. 立. curation process to filter and make it more attractive before it reaches the mass consumers.. ‧ 國. 學. Figure.5 Content creation process explains the various steps and stakeholders involved in the curation process.. ‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Source: Organized by this study. Figure 5: Content Creation Process. 27.

(30) 5. Operations 5.1. Demography Location is one of the key success factor for countries like India and it has a huge impact on any business model. Each state speaks different language, own culture, food and diversified a lot. Hence, a better understanding about the local market is critical for penetration. The registered head office of smartrunners.com will be based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. There are two primary reasons for picking up Chennai. First one is the C.E.O & Founder came from this locality, his. 治政 extensive networking skill around this location can be 大 leveraged to pilot the business model 立 quickly and later expand it to other geography. Second reason that supports and add value to ‧ 國. 學. this location, Chennai being one of the major information technology hub and lot of running. ‧. events and clubs popping out day by day.. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Source: Organized by this study. Figure 6: Office Locations Chennai will be the only physical office for the entire operations. All the Key people and department resides in this location.. 28.

(31) To cover the rest of the geography, there will be seven liaison officers deployed to represent the company for covering up the entire market. Figure 6. Office locations explains the proposed city for the head office and liaison officers. The count is based on the fact and the market needs to cover the regions that are partitioned with different language, culture and food habits. These liaison officers can work from home and doesn’t need to have any physical office. People who primarily came from sports / running background and have a strong networking with local running clubs, prior experience in coordinating or contributing to marathon races will be preferred as a liaison officer.. 立. 5.2. Structure. 政治大. ‧ 國. 學. Organization structure will be a simple and pretty flat model. Creative and friendly environment will be provided to all the employees. Figure 7 will show the organization. ‧. structure of the company. Team composes of three senior managers and six field staffs to cover. y. Nat. sit. up all the department operations. Maintenance of the I.T System will be outsourced but the. n. al. er. io. architecture and the core knowledge will be retained within internal I.T department.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Source: Organized by this study. Figure 7: Organizational Structure. 29.

(32) Free lancers or part time workers will be hired for the content creation process. For this nature of work, creativity is critical and hence moving the team and keeping it fresh all the time helps significantly to attract the customers. Below sections will describe the detail roles & responsibility of each department in our structure. Items mentioned below are only the critical planned items and will be elaborated as needed for the future execution.. 5.2.1. Information Technology Following activities are expected to be performed by the I.T Department.. 政治大. Mange the entire IT Product Life Cycle. . Take care of infrastructure & IT operation needs. . Provide 24x7 support for the portal. . Search engine optimization. . Attract more traffics through social media marketing. . Prepare BI Report and analytics Study. . R&D for possible enhancement to product. . Monitor automation process : diet planner, newsletter, alerts & remainder. . Create customized page for runners club. n. engchi. er. io. Ch. sit. y. Nat. al. ‧. ‧ 國. 立. 學. . i n U. v. 5.2.2. Operations Following activities are expected to be performed by the Operations Department. . Facilitate the event management process. . Work with various partners to integrate the timing services records.. . Actively pursue the volunteer gathering program. . Co-ordinate travel team for creating package for runners during the event program. . Setup photo Kiosk in the event bay. . Actively engage the photographers to create memorable events & tag it 30.

(33) 5.2.3. Admin & Finance Following activities are expected to be performed by the Admin & Finance department. . Provide overall co-ordination. . Track finance : receivable / payable. . Maintain the public relations with the media. . Provide HR support, payroll , tax etc. and work with the local regulators. 政治大. 5.2.4. Marketing. 立. Following activities are expected to be performed by the marketing department. Establish brand of Smart Runners. . Create lead from major event organizers. . Manage relations with runner’s club. . Act as a catalyst to create more events and attract the runners to our portal. . Work with the RFID timing management system to integrate effectively. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. . n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. 5.2.5. Liaison office. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Following activities are expected to be performed by the Liaison officers. . Identify major influencers. . Capture success story. . Act as a representative for local geography. . Maintain relations with runner’s club and local organizations. 5.2.6. Content Writers Following activities are expected to be performed by the content writers. . Understand runners need & identify trending Content. . Curate the content posted by crowd sourcing 31.

(34) . Create survey on the needy topic and review for latest running gadgets. . Generate newsletter customizable for various segments. . Setup alert /reminder for major events. . Publish interview with local ambassadors / influencers. . Success story publish. 5.3. Operational Process 5.3.1. Content Creation. 政治大. Content writing team put all their efforts in finding out the trending contents and items that has. 立. high value and worth for the runners from the internet world. They will be picking up the. ‧ 國. 學. contents that suits the Indian audiences and market conditions. Additional focus will be done on presenting the item in an elite way to make it meaningful and interesting. Apart from this, they. ‧. Nat. sit. industry that simulate a healthy discussion among the members.. y. will create survey topic on recent events or products that are associated with the running. n. al. er. io. Content creation team also helps to publish the profile page of runner’s club and influencers in. i n U. v. the portal to board the key people as quickly as possible. It is critical to board the running club. Ch. engchi. first, so that the people associated with them can be tagged and invited to become a member for increasing the customer base in a short span with less promotional efforts.. 5.3.2. I.T Process The entire I.T System will be architect with frameworks that are scalable, high performing, secured and sustainable. Reliable I.T Business partner will be identified and all the application development and maintenance work of the I.T System will be outsourced, however all the core knowledge and confidential information will be retained with internal in-house I.T team. They prepare regular reports and analyze data to identify potential business opportunities and performance statistics. 32.

(35) Search engine optimization, social media promotion, managing registration process & transaction management were the key day to day task for this team. They focus on optimizing and automating the diet planner, newsletter, alerts, dashboard etc.. 5.3.3. Event Management The marketing team will contact and negotiate with the event organizers for possible partnership on potential areas to achieve a win-win situation. Free photo kiosk will be provided as part of onboarding strategy and RFID timing system will be integrated to get the timing. 政治大. records of the runners registered through the portal.. 立. Team works with tour operators to create a nice package that can encourage people from other. ‧ 國. 學. states to participate and increase the cross selling capability. For the event organizers, who partnered with smart runners an exclusive online registration page will be created and. ‧. additional support will be provided for digital promotion through social media.. y. Nat. sit. Professional photographers will capture the memorable moments during the race and later it. er. io. will be available for the customer to check out with provisions to print that through digital store. n. al. i n U. v. as souvenior like t-shirts, cups, calendar, frame etc. Figure 8. “Click Me” Process will give the. Ch. end to end flow of eStore operations.. engchi. Source: Organized by this study. Figure 8: “Click Me” Process 33.

(36) 5.4. Pricing Process It is critical to keep monitoring the mileage program, there will be an inbuilt rule that allows to redeem only 25% of the product price by customer and rest needs to be paid from their pocket. For example, if a T-shirt cost 345, they can redeem 86 points only and remaining needs to pay. Transactions will be monitored on regular basis to make sure the program doesn’t have any loop holes or getting misused. All the products in the online store (Digital Souvenior) will be marked up by 25% on the market. 政治大. price. Hence this will be positioned as premium and customer feels the value for paying that. 立. extra fee as it has their captured images from the race events. As far as the travel package. ‧ 國. 學. considered, 20% Markup will be added to the tour operator quote. Standard advertisements will be charged at par with the market price, however sports or running related advertisement will be. ‧. charged 30% more as this portal is an exclusive place of runners. It is more likely to attract the. y. Nat. sit. sports industry advertisement and related sponsors.. n. al. er. io. Apart from that, nominal fee will be charged for the website development of online event. i n U. v. registration process. For the entire online web package, total charge will be INR 50,000 which. Ch. engchi. is 50% low compared to the market price. Primary reason for charging very low compare to market price is to keep the competitors out and provide incentives for the organizers to use the integrated platform.. 34.

(37) 6. SWOT Analysis SWOT stands for: Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat. A SWOT analysis guides to identify organization’s strengths and weaknesses (S-W), as well as broader opportunities and threats (O-T). Developing a fuller awareness of the situation helps with both strategic planning and decision-making.. 6.1. Strengths The key strengths of the organization are listed below. . Exclusive membership program which no one currently offers in the market. . Act as a “Virtual world” with only runners. . Customized personal recommendations on events and known runners. ‧. ‧ 國. . 學. . 治政 It provide single stop service for all the runners need 大 in one single platform 立 Business model based on focus differentiation strategy. y. Nat. er. io. sit. 6.2. Opportunity. Spending rate on sports related accessories like running apparels, shoes, GSM watches, Phone. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. holders, nutrional supplements by this segment of people were exceptionally high. Since this. engchi. portal does target marketing on them, it is more likely to expand this potential into other buying behavior products associated with them. For example, all these runners may tend to buy carbon bicycle for practice as well. Apart from Marathon, more events related to decathlon, hiking, cycling, surfing etc. emerging in the same market. The empathy of these consumers sync up with the runners and hence new opportunities exists to expand horizontally. There is a new market for promoting running events associated with spreading awareness related to tourism, creating health social awareness like breast cancer, Knee pain, HIV etc. It’s. 35.

(38) not only about charity funds all the time, providing an end to end solutions as an event partner in conducting these races on behalf of the organizers will leads to win-win situation.. 6.3. Weakness Though this market is emerging and increasing year on year, consolidated market size of this segment will be relatively small. In another ten years from now, the market will be saturated. As far as portal alone considered technically, the replication is easy and no barriers for anyone to do the same.. 政治大. Mobile application component that can help to interact with consumer on daily basis is missing. 立. in this model. For example an app for practice run that can even help them to manage their. ‧ 國. 學. preparatory goals by integrating with their GSM enabled watches or shoes, then this portal will be really very attractive. Few runners may participate less than two races per year and for. ‧. them it doesn’t have significant benefits.. sit. y. Nat. 6.4. Threats. n. al. er. io. Data privacy and security is a threat, people who needs these kind of information for marketing. i n U. v. purposes may misuse or hack the information that disrupts the brand image. Crowd sourcing. Ch. engchi. platforms are not easy to manage, as it may be flooded with spam messages (sometimes intentionally done by competitors) to make the customers quit out of this. Event organizers may look at this as a platform that tries to control the running industry as monopoly and may not be ready to be associated as a partner, hence negotiations and managing relations will be tougher.. 36.

(39) 7. Competitor Analysis 7.1. Current Players “SMART Runners.com” business model covers a wide range of running related services and trying to merge it as a consolidated platform. To understand more about the competitors, comparison was done with few best players in the market who offer similar services for the same target segment. Though the way they serve may slightly vary, but the current need of the consumers are getting fulfilled by their service. More details about the companies and. 治政 competitive analysis can be found in the following sections. 大立 7.1.1. Runnersworld.com ‧ 國. 學. The online home of runner’s world and running times magazines. It includes running news,. ‧. gears tips, training advice, running shoe reviews and many more. They do have blogs, training forums, and nutrition or weight loss program along with membership details. They primarily. y. Nat. io. sit. come from magazine background and focus more on spreading the information. They are not. n. al. er. transactional based portal and doesn’t associate themselves with any event management activities.. 7.1.2. IndiaRunning.com. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. It is the India’s leading online community (Calendar , 2015) for sports enthusiasts who want to discover, learn about, share and ultimately participate in running races and related activities. Thousands of individuals visit IndiaRunning.com each month to search and register online for races and team sports; interact with others who have similar interests; and access nutrition, fitness and training tips. This portal holds the India’s largest directory of running races and related activities, facilities, groups and venues. From 2K runs, marathons to cycling races, finding activities to do is easy and online registration makes participation fast and convenient.. 37.

(40) 7.1.3. Procam Running "procamrunning.in" is a new website (About US, 2015) created by Procam International, the event organizers of Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon, Airtel Delhi Half Marathon and Tata Consultancy Services World 10K Bangalore. Procam International, the country's leading sports and leisure Management Company, has always stayed away from the trodden path, opting instead for events that would challenge the limits of marketing and organizational excellence. Having successfully promoted events like the Mahindra Squash Challenge, ATP. 政治大. Challenger Tennis, the Squash World Open, WWE, Asian Beach Volleyball, World Body. 立. Building, besides National level events in tennis, soccer, horse racing and golf – distance. ‧ 國. 學. running proved to be their biggest test yet before the 1st edition of the Standard Chartered Mumbai International Marathon was flagged off on 15th February 2004.. ‧. They have product features like runner's profile page, polls, communities, forums, ask the. y. Nat. sit. coach, ask the doctor, trivia, running calendar etc. and their mission is recently changed and. al. n. 7.1.4. Facebook. er. io. started focusing more on the running part exclusively nowadays.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Everybody knows about Facebook and it serves a lot of consumer needs especially in terms of communication. It brings everybody closer and no matter how much miles far away they are. It serves across all the industry because of which all the business feels the need to get into this and keep them connected with the customers as much as possible. However, this platform don’t specifically provide any customized features for running industry or event specific functions. You do it for a group of 5 people or 1 million people, they don’t really care and offer standard features for any type of the users. Most business segment may have a fear about their monopoly in future and looking for alternatives.. 38.

(41) 7.2. Product Position Smart runners will be positioned across and spread widely that covers various verticals like event management, Training or blogs portal, member management (CRM) and eStore. As shown in below figure 9. Product position, it is more evident that this single platform will try to act as a central repository to serve various needs.. 政治大. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. Source: Organized by this study. engchi. i n U. v. Figure 9: Product Position It’s really challenging and complex to stay in center and try to provide products that suits the market. However in service industry it makes sense to serve all the needs of the consumer in single platform, so that the value addition for customers will be high and keeps them engaged rather looking for multiple products. Hence the operation process will be complex and challenging till all the members boarded and it is really important to respond to the competitor actions in quicker phase to stay live.. 39.

(42) 7.3. Functional Analysis Functional areas in the running industry can be broadly categorized into Marathon event management, running clubs, training, blogs, eStore and membership program.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學 y. Nat. sit. Source: Organized by this study. io. er. Figure 10: Competitor Functional Analysis. al. n. v i n C h focus on anyUone of the specific category and may As shown in the figure 10, each competitor engchi slightly serve other areas which doesn’t have much barriers to enter with minimal complex.. Printland.com (India's online printing superstore, 2013)is providing digital solutions platform but they focus on all consumers and don’t help them to capture their pictures during the event. Membership program to board the runners in one platform was not yet practiced by any portals. Since this portal gives an options to redeem gifts and adds value for customers to sign up, it will be relatively easy to board the runners first and then better understand more about them.. 40.

(43) 8. Business Partners 8.1. I.T Vendor The impact of information technology on the business is very critical and it entirely depends on the in-house I.T team. India is a place with skilled I.T Talents and even small size companies can work extensively to build the entire system at optimal cost, hence finding a right vendor to partner with is not a challenging task. However issues may arise once the product is built, the technical team involved in the development work will become a key asset and holds all the. 治政 knowledge and it’s not easy to be replaceable. 大立 I.T team will follow the well-defined software development life cycle process while building ‧ 國. 學. the system and all the system knowledge, documents, manuals, design specs etc. will be. ‧. retained by the in-house I.T team. Technical coding and testing work only will be outsourced. Multiple vendors will be used right from day one to make sure there are no hidden. y. Nat. io. sit. dependencies built on outsourced vendors.. n. al. er. 8.2. RFID Timing Service. Ch. i n U. v. Exclusive RFID system will be built that can be easily integrated with any external timing. engchi. service vendors. This module act as a cloud service to keep track of all the running related history of the members. An easy integration plug in will be developed to process and upload all the data from various RFID vendors, no matter in which data format they provided. The tool developed will help in cleaning the data and upload it quickly in to the cloud database. Team will tie up with potential partners who can provide only the hardware RFID service so that it is easy to pitch before the organizers with an attractive bundle package.. 41.

(44) 8.3. Digital Solutions Nowadays digital printing is getting cheaper and lot of suppliers in nearby localities can help to make quality products. Operation team will find out the product ranges that suits the runners taste and make the necessary negotiations to provide the printing services. Multiple vendors will be involved to serve the printing orders and all the eStore transactions will be managed through admin portal. Digital vendors can login to the admin system using their own credentials to view the orders. 政治大. assigned for them to process. They can download the photograph along with customer details,. 立. print the preferred product and then ship to customer. Payments to vendor will be handled on a. ‧ 國. 學. weekly basis and monthly consolidation of finance will happen to close the book records. Liaison officer will be involved in negotiating to find the right partners from their geography so. ‧. that orders can be printed locally and shipped with in each states, which in turn will bring the. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. 8.4. Photographer. sit. delivery time within a day and the logistics cost will be optimized.. i n U. v. Event photographers will be hired on demand basis and they are mainly free lancers or people. Ch. engchi. who are passionate about photography. Additional incentives will be provided for pictures that are getting checked out in the eStore transactions. Best pictures captured during the event will be posted in the home page with the details about the photographer. Images will be captured only in secured internal data cards, so that the information will not be leaked out and watermark will be added once the image copied to the servers for copyright protections.. 8.5. Payment Provider Today’s era is all about digital platforms and there are multiple payment providers to support. Payment vendor has to be reliable, secured gateway, support trending payment models like wallet, paytm etc. and no history of frauds in the past to be eligible for providing the required 42.

(45) services. All the required compliance factors imposed by financial board and regulators will be implemented with top priority.. 8.6. Tour Operators Key focus and objective is to propose attractive tourist package based on the running events rather than the regular daily tour or attractions nearby. Customized experiences like home stay rather than hotel package deals were highly preferred by these kind of audiences and would. 政治大. love to stay far away from the crowd rather than a busy street in a downtown.. 立. Operation team works more closely with tour operators to come up with package that can attract. ‧ 國. 學. various type of members and their profile data, interest and preferences provided during the sign up will be used by the engine for effective recommendations.. ‧. Liaison officers will work closely with running clubs from that locality to propose a package. Nat. sit. y. that can attract runners from other state. Main reason is that “they know well about each other”. n. al. er. io. and this gives a huge opportunity to stay connected. The cost of these packages will be optimal as profit is not only the key factors.. Ch. engchi. 43. i n U. v.