Rationale for the new product or service
The impact that the coronavirus has been producing on a global scale does not seem to subside, causing multiple businesses and organizations to manage severe disruptions in their performance and general efficacy. The outlined impact has been especially negative for entrepreneurs and those starting their company for the first time within a competitive industry (Huynh et al., 2017). Although entrepreneurs have managed to transfer their key activities to the online setting quite seamlessly, the challenges of managing the daily academic routine and adjusting various processes and tasks to the digital setting remain in place (Sheiko, 2017). Therefore, creating an application that will provide teachers and students with a platform for effective management of key processes is likely to be quite helpful and, will enjoy rapidly growing success.
The importance of supporting start-ups as some of the most vulnerable entities in the global economic context has been emphasized multiple times in numerous studies. For example, a recent case of Husk Power Systems shows the importance of creating a framework for a start-up to be propelled to the top of the industry and be immediately noticed by potential partners, suppliers, and customers. Specifically, the case indicates that a company must seize the opportunity to expand rapidly and create a strong and efficient supply chain that will keep the process within the firm connected. In turn, the application in question will allow the participants to remain in touch while also scheduling the key tasks, introducing changes to the established plan based on extraneous factors, and ensuring that the crucial goalposts are reached within the set deadline.
Problem or Opportunity
The challenges of remaining connected with all parties involved when entering a specific economic environment and expanding within it is one of the vital factors that have defined the need for this project to be developed. Namely, the app in question will allow connecting the key process within the supply chain and signal about the emerging incongruences in the performance of the supply chain, in general, and its specific parts, in particular. The specified application will help to identify threats to the success of entrepreneurship in the target market and minimize the risk.
The specified service will address the problem of having to spend a significant portion of the company’s resources on addressing problems occurring as a result of miscommunication and disruptions in the performance of the supply chain. Although the latter is likely to be comparatively small at the first stage of the company’s development, it will affect the firm’s chances to advance to the top of the target economic setting.
Specifically, the application will show the key part of the supply chain and track down their performance based on the input supplied by the parties involved. In case of disruption, missing data, or any other kind of interruption, the application will inform all those participating in the SCM process, calling for immediate action and providing a detailed report concerning the nature of the problem. Moreover, the application will allow promoting connectivity within the target setting and creating strong corporate culture even in the context of the current business setting, where most of the processes have been transferred to the digital environment.
Company
The product in question will fit the company’s corporate culture perfectly. Since the organization promotes the idea of connectivity and interactions between participants to ensure a seamless transition from one task to another, as well as enhancement of the corporate culture, the application will factor into the target context perfectly. Produced by the people who value the very principles on the premise of which the app will be developed, namely, those of corporate dialogue, collaboration, and responsibility, the app described above will help increase the quality of the product and the efficacy of communication. Furthermore, the integration of the app into the corporate environment will help promote the concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and employee engagement.
Furthermore, the application will allow addressing the challenges that organizations typically face in the competitive global marketplace. Namely, in the context where information is becoming the most valuable product that companies may possess, the application that will allow managing the specified resource productively is likely to fit the corporate marketplace perfectly. Specifically, the application will help a company boost its competitive advantage by reinforcing the communication and cohesion within it, thus raising its value within the target market. Consequently, by introducing the application into the target marketplace, the company will gain the opportunity to attract the attention of multiple partners, as well as potential customers. Thus, the chances to update and expand the current supply chain and offer clients more diversified services and products.
Approach
Considering the project at hand at a higher level, one should embrace the technological opportunities and tools that can make the application as useful to the target demographic as possible. Namely, the framework for developing the application will include several stages. These will be the analysis of specific needs of the target population, the assessment of the available technologies that can assist in implementing the set tasks, process monitoring, and assessment of the implementation results.
At the preparation stage, a survey inviting the target customers to share their experiences and the fears associated with launching businesses will need to be conducted. Alongside the specified process, the assessment of the present-day business setting will need to be implemented. Specifically, the analysis will have to embrace the political, economic, sociocultural, technological, environmental, and legal (PESTLE) issues that a company may face in the modern economic environment. The specified stage will demand profound analysis of the current economic and financial factors contributing to the success of startups, which, in turn, will imply the s of the latest analytical tools.
In turn, the next stage, which will suggest conducting the assessment of the target audience’s needs, will have to be based on the use of innovative tools for data collection and processing. Survey tools and the opportunities to engage as many target customers as possible into the participation will need to be incorporated into the specified steep. Likewise, the analysis of the obtained data will require the application of technological advances that will lead to high-precision outcomes.
Finally, the implementation stage, as well as the process of collecting feedback will need to be based on the technologies such as CSS3, HTML5, and JavaScript, which are currently seen as the most popular and effective tools for digital app development. The specified technological advances will allow building a tool with a high usability level and introduce multiple features into it. Given the necessity to incorporate elements for efficient control over a multitude of processes occurring at the stage of startup development and the creation of a supply chain, the application is likely to be quite large. Therefore, it is also vital to introduce tools that will minimize the amount of resources that the application will require when running on a specific device. Finally, the efficacy of the application in question will be assessed based on the feedback received from customers, as well as the general performance of the app in the target market and the rate of its downloads and active use.
Methodology and Planning
In order to implement the project, one will need to ensure that the key steps are followed closely. The implementation will involve four major stages: data collection, app development, its launch, and further assessment of results. As Figure 1 below indicates, the process will take approximately six months and require around $100,000. Although the project is likely to take a significant amount of time and effort, it is bound to be highly requested by a range of customers willing to create a start-up.
References
Huynh, M., Ghimire, P., & Truong, D. (2017). Hybrid app approach: Could it mark the end of native app domination? Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology, 14, pp. 049-065.
Sheiko, D. (2017). Cross-platform desktop application development: Electron, node, NW. js, and react. Packt Publishing Ltd.